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**Doctor Louis D'Ville** · (01-05-2017)

000

CANNON FODDER

- Eastern Europe - 15th Century -

I'm unsure, it doesn't matter now, but I believe it's the third day, of the second month, 1499. I'm writing this to record what I've seen and the discoveries I've made, that I fear for not just my own life, but my very soul. Maybe even the existence of our entire world. As the space around me becomes darker, I feel my mind growing darker along with it. Barely able to think as I begin to lose myself, I write, and I can only hope that someday my chronicles will be discovered and warn those of the dangers I've witnessed and the evil that prowls in the shadows of this very world.

In the eternity that I've ruled my beloved kingdom, there has not been a single foe that has come close to taking a thing from me. Not a single army has treaded across my land with aggressive motives. No stranger has ever entered my presence with any shady intentions. I was invincible.

The king runs through the dark catacombs in the deep bowels of his castle. He has to keep catching himself because he trips over his two feet or the uneven placed bricks in the floor. He keeps looking back over his shoulder as if he was being chased by something.

For the first time, I now felt unsafe within my own walls. As if my very own shadow is now out to get me. It made no sense, perhaps I was going mad, but the feeling was overwhelming.

His heart beat against his chest like it was trying to escape. His hands trembled against his sweaty forehead as he rest against the wall and faced down the final hallway in this maze. What seems like miles away, a nearly closed door reveals a brightly lit room behind it. The king barely catches his breath before he begins stumbling again through the darkness towards it.

I was visited by a strange man several seasons back. As I said, there was never an ill-hand that approached my throne in all of the time I sat upon it. The man approached me with the greatest gestures, wonderful treasures, and some of the most miraculous miracles I have ever witnessed. He told me he was a doctor from many lands and lakes away. He hid most of his face and features under a cloak, he seemed very old. His travels have involved furthering his studies and increasing his knowledge of our own and all species. I thought it was a bit far fetched at first and a bit crazy for someone out of my own jurisdiction to be this intellectual, and me not know about it.... He stands before me as more of a wizard rather than a doctor, someone only spoken of in legend...

My own wizard, I thought.

I allowed his stay, which it was also odd where he chose to do so. I suppose he enjoyed his serenity, as any wizard would, but most I thought enjoyed their towers? He chose the dampest, darkest recesses of my castle... Beyond all doors, below the dungeon, and through the catacombs where my ancestors lay in their eternal sleep. I spoke against it at first, but he insisted it was best for his research. I suppose in exchange for the knowledge and medicine he spoke of, and other perks of having your own wizard, it was worth the little trouble. He even refused my servants, only requiring a single meal a day and two pales of water, which was left for him outside the dungeon gates where the rats usually got to it first anyway.

I grew curious of his research one day. Not just that, but it had been weeks since I had seen my guest.

The king slowly pushed the door open and the light from inside nearly blinded him. How could a candle, or even one million candles give off this kind of illumination, he thought to himself. He stepped through the doorway and was surprised at what he had seen. Papers stacked over his head and several tables were covered with human bones and remains from different cadavers that have been removed from the coffins and tombs you would pass on your way through the tunnels.

The sight sickened me. I felt my stomach turn and I grew faint unable to fathom what I'm witnessing. I continued through the room, around the corner where I heard murmuring and a steady, consistent pounding on wood. I held my nose because the smell was also unbearable, it isn't the most pleasant places in the castle to begin with, adding what ungodly experiments or research this man was performing.

"Where are you?!"

I shouted, coughing through each breath.

"Where are you? You... Monster!"

The king stepped lightly past the horrors and peered around another corner to see his wizard sitting at a desk scribbling at an incredibly high rate of speed, filling each paper before flipping to another.... Drawing pictures and writing in captions for each.

"You! What have you done?!"

I continued shouting at the beast, but he continued paying no mind to me. I wouldn't stand for this, should I return and retrieve the guards? Nay, I can handle this myself. I am a warrior. I am KING. No simple warlock as this is going to pose any type of threat to me. I've traveled distances and heights that no other man could imagine, I've brought giants to their knees, slayed the mightiest of beasts. This weary traveler will hold no power of me.

"I said, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! Face me! Face me and pay for what you've done!"

The king reached to his side for his sword. He unsheathes it and it hisses as it's brought out into the light. It sings as it gleams, pointed at the back of the stranger's head.

"Face me."

After hundreds of battles in my lifetime, I never trembled as much as I was trembling now. It has been many winters since I've wielded my blade, my mind and body has grown old, but the killer instinct doesn't leave you over night. I demanded answers from him, and I was getting them one way or another before I removed the creatures head.

The cloak stood up from the chair, he was much taller than the king recalled.... Standing taller than a giant from the north and wider than the natives from the east... The king stepped back and looked down to this sword which isn't the blood shedding instrument of death that he's carried on his side for fifty years. Instead, he held a black snake which also hissed, like his sword, in his palm and whipped about burying it's venomous fangs into the king's throat. He drops it to the ground and it slithers away and disappears under the cloak. The king fell back and held his throat where he was bitten and crawls away. The effects began to work quickly enough as his sight was a bit shaky and he became very sweaty.

"What? What have you done?!"

The cloak returned to it's original size when the wizard doctor arrived and the king continued to hold his neck and managed to pull himself to his feet. He fled from the room and hurried through the halls that he was just sneaking through moments ago. It's a long trek through the catacombs and dungeon, the king's fate is becoming clearer every weak step he took. He fell to his knees and the sweat poured off his brow onto the ground. His eyes burn from it as he wipes the salty sweat from them. He feels a cold breeze behind him as the man under the cloak now stands over him.

"A lifetime of which you've sat upon a throne atop the highest status of hierarchy that you created... It appears the mighty have fallen."

The king continued crawling away, as the cloak behind him appeared to levitate above the ground as it followed him... Continuing to speak.

"This world of yours... It intrigues me."

The king stopped and faced the beast.

"It's been an eternity since I've managed to claw myself back here. It seemed an eternity itself to do so. You, my friend, are my key. YOU, your majesty, will make it all possible."

The sickness from the serpent was flowing deep within my veins at that point. I swore I was done for. My vision became weak as well as my body. The mightiest of kings has fallen and no one would ever find me or an answer why. With no heirs, my kingdom will surely fall to my surrounding enemies that have grown to not only fear but respect the order of things. Without my iron fist, the respect and loyalty will surely crumble and the world as we know it, will end in a fiery blaze.

I awoke what had to of been hours later in the dark. Cold and alone, but feeling fine. It was as if the serpents poison had somehow worn off. Unless, had I already passed? Am I in the afterlife? Nay. The dank halls which I lost consciousness is where I remained. The creature was no longer haunting me, as far as I could see. The tiny torches placed evenly apart from one another just provided enough light to find your way. I gathered some papers scattered about and is where I sit now.... Recording my apparent imprisonment in my own castle...

As time expires within another week, I twiddle my thumbs in anticipation. For months, Havoc, Bad Attitude, Ronnie Cage.... You've been on the hunt for ONE thing, the tag team titles, of course. Every contest you've participated in thus far has not only been a mark in the 'W' column, but a mark that stacked like a box that has helped you hurdle over the rest of the competition and land you in our laps. After I'm finished mopping the floor with you as simple cannon fodder tomorrow night, it will simply prove that the tag team competition around here IS in true peril. When I single-handedly rip your heart from your chest and show you it's last beat, what point will it be to involve your friend? Do you really think it's going to make your odds any greater once you bring David Stone in the equation?

Hardly. You already look like a fool. You'll especially look like one when I dispose of you within your twenty minute deadline. That will put all of this to rest then. You can keep your undefeated, unscathed tag team records and continue thinking your the biggest thing. The tag titles are simply out of your reach along with everyone else in this FINE federation. I appreciate your efforts, though, Mister Cage. Unfortunately, you missed when Unknown Soldier and I won the titles through a one night tournament a few months back, my friends. The world you know shifted that night. Everyone in the federation came to an understanding that from that day forth Doctor SATAN! will forever hold these straps until the XWF is no more.

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