With questions buzzing in his head, he followed his grandmother who now seemingly had supernatural powers at least in the ability to teleport further into the cave.

"H-how did you do that?" He stammered.

All he got in terms of a reply, was a smile and a sad chuckle, Which of course, confused him even more.

Stepping around a corner with some vines and leafs covering the entrance, Matheus found himself staring a yet another pool.

Except this one wasn't really a "pool" per se.

It was surrounded by rocks with two massive and very leafy trees on either end of the pool.

In the center of the pool, was a pillar of smoke and steam that slowly rose upwards to the ceiling where it vanished from sight.

"What is this place?" He asked his grandmother. 

"A place that will test you of your strength, your heart, and your will," she stated

"Oh, I should also tell you. that for each artifact, there exists a guardian that will test you. In order to pass the tests, you must defeat the guardians by showing the strength of heart, a test of physical might, and the test of your will," she repeated.

"And what will happen to the guardians once I defeat them...I mean if I defeat them," asked Matheus.

"No-one knows as no-one has ever been given this opportunity to become the Huntsman, ” Replied his grandmother.

"Fantastic...." he muttered.

"Don't worry, the only one that possesses an actual threat to your life is the test of physical might," She said with a smile.

"Oh, well, that's bloody fantastic as well," he huffed.

"Yes...now we must wait for nighttime when the magic is strongest," she started.

"Why is it strongest at night?" he asked.

"The creator made it so, as during the night is when imagination is most alive. Things that cannot be unseen come out and..you get the picture?." She asked.

Matheus thought for a moment it still confused him, but he imagined that overall he had started to get the picture.

"Uhh...I think so, " He stated after a few seconds.

The Shaman chuckled and then said, "That's good enough then."

Matheus glanced up at the sun and squinted his eyes against the brightness as he asked, "So how long till sunset?" 

"A few hours. It would be best to rest..you'll need all the strength that you can muster for your tests." ordered the Shaman.

"But I'm not tired-" he started.

"Trust me you need rest," she repeated.

There was a sudden wave of drowsiness and he   felt his eyelids crash down. He seemingly forcibly fell asleep.

_________________________

Ahex smiled at his collection.

While he was a mere mortal man, he had mastered magic and was close to gaining enough souls to transfer true immortality to his own soul and thus he would rain over the world and all other worlds for all eternity!

He talked to his two companions, a pair of transparent purple wolves-they had no name-not that they really needed one, to begin with.

Over the decades, he had managed to unlock the secret of transferring souls into a reliable power source.

Souls could transfer into an extremely powerful source of energy that could power entire ships or rather entire fleet and armies alone.

There were only two drawbacks to the usage of souls as energy.

No scratch that three.

The first reason was you needed actual people, preferably, innocent people to actually have souls to transfer from and people weren't always within reach.

The second reason was that it was at times unpredictable to use the wrong incantation, even slightly wrong and you no longer have a reliable energy source. You have a failed energy source that probably just exploded in your face and killed you along with everyone within thirty feet of you.

The third reason was that everyone hated you for it, not that Ahex cared.

That and it was highly frowned upon even by other gods of death.

He had gained this magic through a bargain with a God, he never did catch his name, a god that supposedly was the god of Chaos and ruin.

He would have patted his two wolf companions, but his hands would go straight through them as they gnarled on a bone together.

He then looked out of the window from the ship that he was on.

He had been born here but had been cast out years ago, before returning here with these slave traders.

"Inquisitors" they referred to themselves as.

Seeing this as a way to gain his revenge, he had silently taken control of this army by assassinating the former commander.

He had assured him that it wasn't personal.

And now, with the addition of magic, he had enough firepower and strength to get rid of anyone who opposed him.

And currently, his main target was that blasted tribe Forća.

He had killed their leaders years ago during the ritual of bones to further the gods rule.

And in return, he would gain immortality becoming a god himself.

His main target however was that boy.

He had been the only survivor and he was the only one who knew of what happened.

He must fix that.

Another form of spells he had mastered were partial resurrection spells.

Partial resurrection spells allowed him to animate the dead body of an individual but at the cost of most of its humanity.

They would gain several features such as grey skin and lower intelligence.

Not to mention, it was a half-living Hell for the victim as they were fully aware of the ordeal.

Only once their body was destroyed entirely, or their heart as destroyed, would they be freed from the control of the spell users.

If they could after all.

They had increased capabilities such as enhanced strength, enhanced resilience, and enhanced speed.

Which made them powerful shock troops.

He had spared the children, but had still captured them and had them grow up as slaves while the rest of the able-bodied individuals would become his servants.

Especially that former Chieftain of theirs.

He smiled to himself as he finished writing his letter that he had been working on.

It wrote back to an organization across the ocean that employed Ahex's magical skills.

He had been telling them the coordinates of his current location as they would be arriving here shortly.

To determine the slave's values.

He found himself chuckling as he said, "Come, boy..come with your little clan and face the realities of your past. Come, boy."

As he finished speaking, one of his generals "Micheal" his name was knocked on the door which opened after Ahex waved his hand.

"What is it?" He asked the general

Michael swallowed then spoke up, "The council is nearly here they should arrive within three days..then in fifty years when we return again they will do the same.” 

Ahex smiled, excellent this was the news he had been hoping for.

Every fifty years,  they would return here to feed off the new types of blood that had been formed here.

And roughly, a week at most, after that, the council would arrive to score the prices.

"Excellent..you did good..and tell the others to prepare a welcome party for the council..they are royalty after all," he stated to Michael.

Michael nodded but said nothing as he turned around and left, closing the door behind him.

He cast his energy out across the beach where his forces had set up their base of operations.

He smiled has he planned not only to absorb the souls of this clan.

But eventually all clans.

And even the council itself.