"There is nothing left to be saved. He was lost when the ritual took place. You must not look upon him with pity, for he has accepted his place among the darkness." The voice echoed once more among the hallway as the events inside the meeting chamber started to come to a head.<br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: white;background:white;"/></div><br/><br/>Dardanos, now completely under the control of the darkness, smirked viciously as the snow queen attempted to imprison him within walls of unforgiving ice that took over the room they both stood in, feeling Eira leaving the tower and riding towards the edges of his kingdom. He laughed coldly as he looked upon Neiva, "Your attempts to keep Eira away from me are quite entertaining," the figure spoke but the voice was echoed as if many men were speaking in unison, "This darkness that was bound to my body is much different from the other elements that exist within the universe. For centuries, your ancestor harbored this darkness within her, making her the cold and cynical snow queen that the world had been used to. She searched for ages to find a way to dispel this darkness, having discovered the ritual that would do just that, but at the price of creating the very thing you see before you now."<br/><br/>The dark, tendril-covered figure approached the queen slowly as the mist around it's body became thicker with each step, "She found a family seeking power, willing to sacrifice their child in order to gain it. She understood that dispelling the darkness within her onto the child would create a powerful force that would devour everything within its grasp, yet she selfishly proceeded in order to bring her own relief. Once the ritual was over and the darkness within her transferred to the young child, however, she soon regretted her action, but it was too late. She contemplated killing the child, but knew doing so would just release the darkness onto some other unfortunate vessel within the world, so she let the child go, forever connected to him, forever watching the death and destruction he would go on to cause under the guidance of the darkness and now she will watch as both you and your daughter are slain by her own essence." He came within a few feet of the snow queen that was ready to do whatever it took to keep him away from her daughter, "So now you must understand that we, the masters of ice and darkness, are one with each other. The power that courses through you is the same power that gave the darkness it's life...and now you will become part of the darkness, along with your daughter!"<br/><br/>He raised both his hands into the air apart from each other and chanted quietly as the mist spread throughout the room and clung to the walls that were now covered in ice. The mist pierced through both the ice and walls of darkness that had made up the tower, eventually covering the entire structure. In what seemed like an instant the entire construct that was the tower was condensed by the mist that had come from Dardanos' body, crushing everything within before being absorbed into him, including the body of the snow queen. A surge of power coursed through his veins as the darkness settled within his frame before he disappeared from where he had been standing.<br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: white;background:white;"/></div><br/><br/>Seconds later a wall of darkness appeared before the princess that was attempting to flee the kingdom of Ciarduh, knocking the young girl off the horse as Dardanos walked out from the wall, "Princess Eira," the same cold smirk from earlier crept across his decayed face as he hovered over the heir to the ice kingdom's throne, "You were to be the one to bring an end to the might of Dardanos the Devourer, master of darkness. How fitting it is that your destiny should come to a halt so quickly. Do not worry, though, you are just becoming part of something much greater."<br/><br/>A sadistic laugh came from him as he bent down and grasped Eira by the crown of her head. As his hand lay upon her, dark ink seeped from his hand and began to move towards her, making its way into her eyes to devour her soul. Right when the darkness had entered her mind, however, something went wrong. Instead of piercing her mind and turning her into a lifeless husk, the darkness began to leave his body, as if the mind of the young girl was somehow absorbing his essence. He cried out in agony as great pain swept throughout his entire body, forcing him to fall to his knees while the hand was still placed upon Eira's head, "Sto....stop this," he yelled out in demand, "What is going on?"<br/><br/>This lasted for several minutes as every last bit of power that was inside his body was sucked from him, leaving him laying motionless on the ground, weakened beyond anything he had ever experienced. He could only handle the feeling for seconds before blacking out from lack of energy, the broken body laying face down on the ground, darkness crawling over the skin as it slept.