To Rule In Shadow

"Alright, this is starting to get tiresome." Adrian complained as he rounded another corner, ending up right back at the destroyed guard station.

"I believe we have entered the enemy's trap, my lord." Pavuk whispered from his shadow.

"Obviously. What I am struggling to determine is how to break through said trap. Perhaps you'd like to add in some meaningful advice?"

"My lord, I am no expert in these sorts of things, but my meagre experience suggests that we are trapped within a pocket of coiled space, most likely brought in existence by a powerful practitioner or artifact. Assuming that it was crafted with the intention of containing us, it would ordinarily be difficult to escape. However, such barriers are of little concern to the Ruler."

Adrian took a moment to ponder this, before summoning the Door on a nearby wall. It appeared without any issue, creaking open to reveal the gloom-shrouded throne room beyond.

[So, despite being trapped, my connection to the Hall allows me to subvert a portion of my cage...that gives me an idea.]

"Tell me Pavuk, how much do you think our enemies know about my abilities?"

"That is difficult to say, my lord. Many of your predecessors have left their mark on the pages of history, but did so by manipulating events from the shadows. If I may be so bold as to proffer my humble opinion, I believe they only have a vague idea of what you are capable of based purely on ancient, half-forgotten legends and the actions you have taken personally up to this point."

Adrian felt certain that any organization capable of coming up with this kidnapping strategy in the first place would have been gathering any information they could on him. Since he hadn't really been trying to hide his abilities, it seemed safe to assume that they were at least partially aware of them. Pavuk's analysis merely confirmed it.

"Then this whole trap is merely meant to be a distraction." He muttered under his breath.

"My lord?"

"This pocket of space, it's similar to the Hall in nature?"

His shadow seemed to quiver for a second, and then answered in a slightly affronted voice. "You could say as much, albeit in the sense that an ant and an elephant are both creatures that walk on the earth."

[Then it should respond in a similar manner.]

Adrian had been practicing his control of the Hall, and by extension the realm that it was composed of. While he still had much to learn, he'd gradually become able to influence the realm's structure with his will alone, allowing him to reshape and restructure it to a minor degree.

[The problem is that I have no Authority over this space. So, if I want to change that fact, it should simply be a matter of replacing it with something I can control.]

Closing his eyes, he called forth the shadow that dwelled at the back of his mind. With the Door left open, it took little effort to bring forth the entity that hid itself within it. Like an eager pet, it surged forward as his beckoning, swirling around him in an icy embrace. For a moment he felt smothered, buried in an impenetrable sea of darkness and bereft of any sight or sound or sensation save the biting, all-encompassing chill.

"Conquer."

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With a roar of rage, Gilbert threw the radio against the wall of the security office, smashing it into pieces.

"That bastard!" He growled, ready to scream and curse to vent his anger, but he stopped himself when he realized that his men were watching him with trepidation on their faces.

Instincts honed on the battlefield told him that if he broke down now, his men would give in to panic. His best chance of getting them out of this mess was to maintain the illusion of calm, no matter how furious he was on the inside.

"What are you looking at?" He grumbled, causing the other mercenaries to look away quickly.

He briefly glanced over at the security camera monitors in the vain hope that they were back in operation. Unfortunately, they were still showing the strange and slightly unnerving static. As he watched, one of them seemed to flicker between grainy black and white pixels and the image of a vaguely human-looking face, mouth stretched open as if in the middle of a scream. Thankfully, the change was quick enough that he didn't make out any details, but something about the background was disturbing enough for his mind to refuse to comprehend it.

The strange occurrences had started shortly after the puzzle box started to glow suddenly. As soon as the large cube began to shine with a sickly blue light, all of their electronics began to malfunction. Initially, Gilbert had thought that it must be emitting some kind of electromagnetic field, but it had quickly become apparent that something else entirely was going on.

His men began hearing strange noises on their radios. Some even claimed to have heard voices whispering too quietly for them to be understood. While he was in the middle of convincing the outlying guards that there was nothing to worry about, the security cameras went dead for a few seconds, before switching to the current grainy static.

Concerned that someone was interfering with the feed, Gilbert had sent two of his men to investigate the nearest camera. They eventually came back saying that no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't find it. To make matters worse, they couldn't even find the way to the exit, instead inevitably ending up back at the security office, regardless of which path they took.

Mercenaries being, as a general rule, slightly superstitious, this revelation had caused them to begin speculating on the nature of the problem, leading to a number of theories. These ranged from hallucinations caused by a gas leak, to all of them being dead and trapped in some kind of Purgatory dimension. Needless to say, he quickly moved to quash this kind of talk, as it accomplished little besides spooking the already uneasy members of the group.

Of course this became more difficult when they realized that the guard outposts had stopped reporting in, and would not respond to any hails.

Beginning to feel overwhelmed and uneasy, Gilbert tried to get a hold of his employers using the radio they'd provided. When he finally got a hold of them, he'd learned the true nature of their mission. Rather than seizing control of a section of the convention center while other teams infiltrated and secured a package, they were meant to be decoys to distract something called the Ruler.

He'd been on enough missions to recognize when he was being abandoned to his fate. While it was infuriating to be treated as disposable, this did mean that his employers had broken the unnecessary hazards section of their contract, meaning that the mercenaries were now free to abandon this job without consequence.

"Alright boys, we're leaving. Alpha team, start packing up. We're initiating an emergency evacuation. Beta team, maintain security on that door and prepare to pull out." He ordered, glad to be finally moving again. Staying still for too long always had him feeling a bit edgy.

His men looked a bit uncertain, but they'd long ago learned to avoid questioning his orders. Without any word of protest, they began getting ready to leave.

One of the members of alpha team turned and asked. "What about this thing, Sarge? Should we take it with us?"

He was indicating the weird glowing box.

"No, leave it. If our supposed employers want it so badly, they can come get it themselves."

"Roger that...hey, has it always been doing this?"

Gilbert glanced over and noticed that box had changed. One corner of the cube was covered in a strange black substance that seemed to be slowly crawling over its surface. As he watched, the glowing symbols that decorated its surface began to flicker and die as the darkness approached.

For some reason, he was filled with a creeping dread. His instincts were screaming that something bad was happening.

"Get the lead out, men! We need to move." He roared, suddenly certain that flight was their best option, and that they only had a little time left to escape.

"Alright. We're clear." Alpha team's leader announced soon afterwards. Obviously they'd cut a few corners on their cleanup, but Gilbert was passed caring at this point.

He opened his mouth to order the evacuation when he was interrupted by evidence that they were already far too late.

"What the f.u.c.k?! What's going on with the wall?!" One of the mercenaries screamed.

The southern wall of the room was warping and discoloring, almost as if it was melting under intense heat. Despite that, however, the air was cold enough for Gilbert to see his breath, and it seemed to be rapidly getting colder.

Within seconds the wall had turned into an amorphous mass of writhing darkness. To his horror, he realized that this darkness was beginning to creep across the floor and ceiling in their direction.

He didn't know what this shit was, but he knew that it wasn't something he wanted to touch, so after stepping back he commanded. "Get moving, idiots!"

Panic beginning to take control of him, he started pushing on the man in front of him, roaring, "What's the hold up?! Let's get the f.u.c.k out of here!"

"We can't Sarge! The hallway...the hallway isn't there anymore!" 

"What?!" He shoved aside the mercenaries until he had a clear view, and felt his heart sink at the sight of the writhing tendrils of darkness that were already encroaching on their position from the corridor, forcing the leading member of Alpha team to desperately scramble backwards.

There was a screech, like a sharp piece of metal grinding against stone from within the opening southern wall, causing him to whip his gaze in that direction. He caught sight of...something moving within darkness, and his fragile nerves could no longer take it.

"Light it up! Fire! Fire!" He roared, pointing his own handgun towards the entity.

That was when the screaming began.

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"Perhaps I need to work on my entrances." Adrian muttered while looking over the corpses of the mercenaries. "This happens far too often."

He'd been f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y making a path towards the center of the warped space when he'd stumbled across the group of armed men, who promptly started shooting him. In the confusion of the moment, he'd unintentionally killed them all, not even sparing one for future interrogation.

"My lord, I believe this is the source of the trap." Pavuk commented.

His follower was observing a strange cube-like object that was partially covered in glowing symbols. The rest of it was coated in a layer of darkness that seemed to be slowly creeping over its surface. It only took a moment for him to understand the implications.

"I guess I can speed the process up with this." Adrian said while placing one hand on the cube and pouring his power into it. In a matter of seconds the box was completely shrouded, becoming an object of pure and impenetrable darkness.

As he completed the takeover, knowledge of the puzzle box flowed into his mind, telling him what it's capabilities were, and how to control them.

[Interesting. It seems there is more to this box than simply acting as a dimensional trap. I'll have to explore it more in the future. For now, I think it's time to put an end to this game.]

With a thought, he turned the box off, causing the space around him to groan and complain as normal reality began to reassert its place. After a few seconds, he found himself standing in a small office lined with computer monitors showing various parts of the building from different angles. 

He quickly caught sight of a familiar figure on one of them.

"Looks like she managed to escape on her own after all." Adrian commented while watching Miranda tentatively peek around another corner. She was carrying some kind of rod-like device at the ready, her posture indicating that it was some kind of weapon.

"Indeed." Pavuk replied while slipping back into his shadow.

Chuckling, he started walking to her location. "She's always been pretty resourceful when she needs to be. When she was pursuing me, she would often succeed in attacking from an unexpected direction. Another man would have long ago fallen for her. It would be interesting to see her put that ability to different uses...Anyway, let's go pick up our damsel in distress."