CAIUS: Crown of Threads and Shadows

The trembling stone courtyard fell deathly silent.From deep within the throat of the dark volcano keep, heavy, thunderous footfalls echoed outward. Each step rattled the iron chains hanging from the fortress walls, vibrating through the blood-soaked gravel.The surviving Orcs scrambled frantically to the perimeters, pressing themselves against the stone in terrified reverence.”Out of my way, cowards!” a voice bellowed, a deep, gravelly roar that sounded like crushing boulders.A massive figure emerged from the inner archway.Warlord Krag’gath stepped into the grey sunlight. Standing almost 15 feet tall, his gargantuan, green-skinned frame was wrapped in notched, spiked plate forged from melted siege engines. In his two massive hands, he casually swung an enormous, broad-headed waraxe, a weapon so heavy its iron pommel dragged through the stone, carving a deep groove into the ground.But it was his face that arrested the entire courtyard.Where his right eye should have been, a terrifying, jagged cavern of ruined flesh pulsed with a sickly, dark purple aura. For two and a half years, the spatial arrow Caius had fired as a fourteen-year-old boy had refused to heal, constantly corrupting the tissue with agonizing, microscopic spatial tears. The pain had etched deep, permanent fury into Krag’gath’s features.His single, remaining yellow eye swept over the smoldering ash, the severed limbs, and the three towering summons standing before the gate.Finally, his yellow eye locked onto Caius.The warlord froze. He stared at the pale skin, the dark hair, and the familiar, cold obsidian eyes.”You...” Krag’gath whispered, his voice rising into a raspy, disbelieving growl. The ruined socket on the right side of his face throbbed violently, dark mana sparking wildly across his scar. ”The Macrae brat...”Caius stood thirty paces away, his hands resting naturally at his sides. He didn’t order his summons to attack. With a silent flick of his fingers, the Black Flame Demon, the Arachne Princess, and the Sabre-Lightning Tiger dissolved into black mist, flowing back into his spatial core.This was not a battle for summons.”Two and a half years, Krag’gath,” Caius said, his voice terrifyingly calm against the mountain wind. ”You’ve been searching for me.” Love what you’re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Krag’gath let out a booming, guttural laugh that shook the dust from the iron battlements, though his single eye burned with pure, murderous hatred. He hoisted his massive waraxe onto his shoulder with one hand.”I hunted you to finish what I started at Castle Precipice!” Krag’gath roared, slamming the butt of his axe onto the ground. A shockwave tore through the paving stones. ”Your father died pleading for his castle, and you left me with this cursed, rotting eye! I swore I would pop your other eye out and drink your blood from your father’s skull!”Caius slowly reached behind his shoulders.With two soft clicks, he unsheathed the Sabre-Twin Fangs. The dual ivory short swords gleamed brilliantly under the ash-heavy sky, their embedded lightning runes humming with a high-pitched, deadly static. The Crown Core in Caius’s chest pulsed, flooding his veins with cold, refined spatial mana.”My father didn’t die pleading,” Caius said, his tone dropping into a vile, venomous register that cut sharper than steel. ”He died doing his duty. And as for skulls...”Caius tilted his head, his pale eyes flashing with cold, savage malice as he locked eyes with the warlord.”I vowed I will make your skull my pissing pot,” Caius sneered, his voice ringing clearly across every corner of the courtyard. ”I will shit on it every day.”A collective gasp sucked the air right out of the courtyard.The surviving Orcs froze, their eyes wide with absolute horror. A human, a mere boy, had just spoken the ultimate, unforgivable blasphemy against a Grand Chieftain right in front of his entire clan. In Orc culture, desecrating a chief’s head in such a foul way was a fate worse than eternal damnation. Even the veteran guards along the battlements turned pale green, stunned into utter speechlessness by the sheer, unbridled disrespect.Krag’gath’s yellow eye bulged out of its socket, veins bursting across his forehead as his jaw trembled in sheer, apoplectic rage. The spatial curse in his ruined eye flared out of control, spraying droplets of dark blood down his cheek.”I WILL TEAR YOUR LIMBS OFF AND FEED YOU YOUR OWN GUTS!” Krag’gath shrieked, his voice breaking into an unhinged roar.The One-Eyed Butcher lunged.