Feet pounding, heart racing, thoughts swimming in deep darkness.

Pugnum ran from the Slànacus house. He was angry that he even saw fit to step foot in that place. The betrayal he felt deep, deep down was unfathomable. He could hear a faint voice calling his name in the distance, but there was no way that he was going to turn back. He just let his feet fly.

Suddenly the scorching pain in his calves and the nausea that punched his stomach caused him to slow down and collapse onto his knees. He fought his fighting body to get the breath back into his overworked lungs. Anger seethed through his veins and he struck the sharp, stony ground with a knuckle breaking fist. Fury's venom seeped through the gaps of his clenched teeth in every rasping breath.

"Pugnum," a deep growl uttered his name. The sound rumbled through his head like an avalanche of heavy boulders.

Still crouched on the jagged rocky earth, Pugnum saw the edge of a black cloak sweeping the ground before him. The darkness of the rippling material clawed at Pugnum's mind. It seemed to be the embodiment of fear itself. He curled into a ball and hid his face - scared for his life.

"Look at me!"

Pugnum was frozen, he dared not move, he dared not speak.

"LOOK AT ME!" The already booming voice, increased in volume and Pugnum could feel his whole world tremble.

He lifted his heavy head and let his eyes scan the mysterious cloaked figure that towered over him. His gaze rested on where there should've been a head, but what he saw instead was a crumbling porcelain mask, suspended impossibly over deep darkness. The permanent expression etched into this ancient face was one of utter disdain.

Black smoke twisted out of the eye holes of the mask and slithered down towards Pugnum like two coiling snakes. Pugnum, petrified, sat still and received the smoke- letting it enter his brain through his nostrils, eyes and ears. The excruciating pain he felt made his mouth stretch wide in a choked, inaudible scream.

Pugnum fell like a ragdoll into a black, unworldly prison. Landing onto an unforgiving surface. He lifted his aching body, using the strength of his good hand, and took a glance at his surroundings. He was not able to see any walls through the shadows and purple smoke. Vertigo plagued his senses and he couldn't work out which way was up or down.

He felt around the cold surface that caught him and shakily got to his feet. He turned this way and that and he could see no way out. The purple smoke surrounded him in blinding clouds and he felt that he may suffocate.

"Where am I?" he choked out, fear making what little sound he could make tremble.

"Pugnum Draoicis-Lus, " a rumbling voice took over the air. Out stepped the cloaked figure, but this time he looked like a solid man, the porcelain face was whole again, no longer crumbling and flaking away. It also was no longer a mask, Pugnum discovered, but a face of flesh and bone.

"You are my chosen one," that man with shadowed eyes announced, his face pulling into an intimidating sneer. "Together we will accomplish great things."

"Who are you?" Pugnum of course did not really need to ask him this, for in his heart he knew the answer.

"I am Noir-Astra, and you, my lad, you will be my vessel."

"What does that mean? Where am I?" Pugnum glanced around again.

"Don't you recognise your own mind?" Noir-Astra laughed at Pugnum's confused face.

"Your hatred invited me in, and now we'll destroy the light, together!"

"No..." Pugnum wanted to sound braver than he did. He wanted to scream his objection straight into Noir-Astra's sharp face. But all he could manage was a timid whisper as his body cowered back.

"No?" Noir-Astra's voice sounded gentle however his demeanour made Pugnum fear for his very existence.

"I-I c-can't I m-must go. Let me go!" Pugnum struck out trying to find a door or some way out of the cage he was forced into. But he came up with nothing but emptiness and smoke. Noir-Astra's screeching laughter tore at his ears.

"Let you go where? We are inside your head."

"Why are you doing this? How are you doing this?" Pugnum yelled in terror.

"The question that should be asked is, why are you fighting this?" Noir-Astra took a few steps towards Pugnum's shaking body and grabbed his arm that displayed his prosthetic hand. "Look at this! You allowed your own hand to be crushed and severed for the sake of Natanstrelle and what did you get in return?"

Pugnum ripped his arm out of the man's grasp and turned his back. "Stop..."

"What did you get in return?" Hearing him ask that again sparked a fire that longed to be set free from Pugnum's feeble self-control. He could not handle hearing it a third time.

"What did you get in return?"

"NOTHING!" Pugnum bellowed in fury. "I got nothing!"

"Instead of commending you, they cast you out of the Emeralds, they sent you back home under a cloud of shame. They shame you now the same way they shame your poor, innocent mother!" Noir-Astra took great delight in stoking the fire of hate that burned away at Pugnum's insides.

However, a thought crept into Pugnum's mind.

"Wasn't that your doing?" Pugnum accused, as his mind explored the stories his mother told him when he was a boy. "Noir-Astra, you." Pugnum pointed his finger to emphasise his words. "You possessed my father to commit the crime against the Sprèintis family, and made my mother into an outcast." Pugnum stared into the empty eye sockets of the unchanging expression on Noir-Astra's face.

"Natanstrelleans love to spin a good tale, don't they? But the truth is that your father was a traitor. He saw fit to leave you and your mother in the wreckage of his stupidity!"

Pugnum's hand fell to his side, his determination cracked and his heart broke.

"Join me, Pugnum." Noir-Astra held out his pale bony hand towards the broken lad, who stood defeated and silent. "Join me and become greater than all men, greater than your idiotic father, greater than Natanstrelle itself! With my power you can rule this place and stomp upon all those who have wronged you."

Pugnum was sold. He reached out and took Noir-Astra's offered hand.

"What's the first thing we must do?" Pugnum asked through a devilish smirk.

"First, you must become my body."

Numerous snake-like wisps of black, exploded out from under the shadowy cloak, in all directions. They surrounded Pugnum, pierced through his clothes and cut into his skin. He was then lifted in agony, straight up, into the air. His arms stretched out wide and his legs hung limply. The black shadow, lying beneath the crumbling porcelain mask, formed into a claw and placed the mask over Pugnum's strained face.

Thrown to the ground, Pugnum landed with a bone cracking crunch; yet he was unharmed. He rose to his feet and let the cloak, that magically found itself draped around his shoulders, wave in ripples down his back, and stroke the jagged floor at his feet. His new porcelain mouth cracked into a crooked grin and his eyes resembled the shadows that filled his entire body.

He reached for his light orb pouch and drew out the small sphere that lay there. He held, in his ink stained hand, an infected orb. The bright light that used to radiate from it was taken over by darker than black swirling smoke and deep purple stars danced in and out of the small encased cloud.

"Time to find my servants," Noir-Astra announced with wicked delight from Pugnum's possessed lips.

Using the growing shadows between buildings and the covering of darkened mist, Pugnum made his way through the streets of Natanstrelle.

Noir-Astra's low growl of a whisper filled his mind and guided his every movement. The dark power told him what would become of his "servants" and once he was aware of the cruel agony they would endure he knew exactly who he wanted to grab first.

He stalked his victims in the dark of night.

Three Sprèintis lads were hanging out together in Central City's nature park. They held their light orbs in their hands and took it in turns to show off their skills in light magic. Killian Sprèintis formed great, holographic dragons out of green, red and yellow beams. Drake Sprèintis tried to match his older brother's dragons but they looked like lizards in comparison. However, they both were doing better than their cousin Greig Sprèintis - who only managed to create small bursts of fizzling green light.

The porcelain mask that covered Pugnum's face moulded back into the look of disdain that it originally had. Using the shadows of the trees to cloak him from their sight, he watched the three Sprèintis family members. The very three who caused him the most pain when he returned to his mother's house.

"These fools," Noir-Astra's voice grumbled inside Pugnum's mind. "They will regret everything they have ever dared to do to you!"

A dangerous laugh left Pugnum's chest as he raised his darkened orb above his head. He watched the cloud of black smoke filter out in a curling rope. It squirmed its way towards the Sprèintis lads' light creations.

Greig Sprèintis was the one to notice it first.

"Killian! Drake! What is that?" he asked shakily pointing his finger above his head at the ominous shadow hovering by their, now shrinking, holographic dragons.

The brothers barely had time to respond before they witnessed the dark rope expand out and form a large, terrifying, demon's jaw, full of long pointed, black teeth. Their panic-stricken screams split the air as the jaw snapped down onto their light magic- causing them to get plunged into blinding darkness.

They called and reached out to each other, as Pugnum took menacing strides towards their huddled, cowering bodies.

Three coiling snakes of dark power left his ink stained hands and his open mouth. He controlled them and made them fly through the air before him. Each bit down onto the face of a Sprèintis lad. Long, sharp teeth, like needles, pierced into their eyes and filled their soul with pure evil.

Their screams could only be heard by Pugnum and he relished in his delight of hearing their pain.

The shadow snakes then snapped back and the screams diminished into an eerie silence. All three knelt before Pugnum as if frozen in a bow.

"Rise," Pugnum commanded them.

All three got to their feet in a perfect synchronisation. It was as if they were puppets on a string. They lifted their heads and looked at Pugnum, their eyes matching the deep, dark shadows of those belonging to their new master.