"Duty over Death. Duty after Death. Death, we mock you. We disdain you! Men fear you not, for I shall hold Death at bay. The sickle of Death shall never follow you in pursuit of Divine Duty. I will hold your pain. I will shoulder all your fears."
Bang!
"My men, my dear men, you have followed me long. For five decades you have been my true servants, now serve my son in his rule, in these unfortunate times. Bring death to his enemies."
Bang!
Silence again. Hot tears wet the marble. An era is coming to a close. Yet none of the royal retainers could protest. None would step forwards to dissuade Him from marching off into the utter and bitter unknown. None could, because they knew. They knew that the sacrifice had to be made. Hence, only tears, only tears fell.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Only this time, it was not majestic. It was not the scepter and the crowd has long not dared to make a sound. It was a grotesque sound that felt jarring and painful to the ears, the grace that they had felt before had long vanished. The darkness that finally taken over.
The King lifted his scepter, twisted the top and unsheated a blue sword. The Demon Bane. He held it at ready as the shadows unfurled and reality bended infront of him. Snow had begun falling outside, alongside a howling insanity that no animal can imitate.
Yet all of these sounds drowned out, one after another, as a heinous, evil presence stepped out of the shadows infront of the King. This unholy being, whose mere presence quaked souls, stretched its wings and stepped onward. It stepped on the air till it was a whole head above their mighty ruler. This being devoid of warmth, devoid of color, made only of darkness had no face. It had no features that would resemble it of humans. Yet it opened its maw and spoke!
"Have ye decided, O Forlorn King of Forgotten Lands?"
A voice creaking like old wooden doors presented itself in the midst of men. A misshapen being of horrors. Not one dared to raise his eyes, none except the Monarch himself. The weilder of the Demon Bane. A slithering protusion came out of the maw, wrapped its way across the blue light, not touching it and a dark, tar like substance dripped from its maw.
"An unyeilding man you are. King, my mortal King, I wonder how beautiful your soul is?"