Chapter 2: RAIDS!
Everything Sire Sekiya described was there, cut throat, empty left eye socket, strange symbol carved into the chest, all present and accounted for. Rikimaru rolled this over in his mind a little just to see if he knew anything, then suddenly Lord Gohda's voice cut threw his thoughts. "Come into the castle and talk to the scholars in the library, they have done some research and came up with a few interesting things that may help you," he said to the warriors. Lord Gohda led them into the castle, up six floors of the castle, down three hallways and finally stopped at a large stone door at the end of a hallway covered in paintings of past lords of this land before Lord Gohda took the throne. "This is my castle library," he said as he opened the door. The three entered and saw a long line of tables filled with people pouring over books. "These are my kingdom's top researches, they are looking for anything that relates to the weird symbol carved in my nephew or the method to which he was murdered," he told them as he led them over to one of the tables nearest the back wall where three researchers poured themselves over books. "So far these three are the only ones that have found anything, I'll get them to explain it to you," he said turning to the table. "Arise from you book Scholar Balaclava and inform our young soldiers as to what you have found," he said to a tall thin researcher with a thick brown mustache, hard eyes and a scar running over his left eyebrow.
"As you wish My Lord," he said in a deep, rich voice. He turned to the two ninjas and began. "We have found out from doing extensive research that the mark belongs to an organization that has not been active for centuries. The legend of the shadow organization who called themselves Rage From The Darkness goes back about twelve centuries ago when a Shogun from the most powerful Japanese army housed in Edo vanished one day after claiming he was having reoccurring dreams about demons carrying him away to a lair beneath the Earth where he would be contacted by their ruler and gifted with immense power beyond what he could describe. Twenty years later the Shogun returned to Edo and began spreading word of an organization that was never heard of to the human ear before, he began to teach of its ways and brainwashed people into following its beliefs and worshiping its gods. It is said that every twenty years a new leader was picked for this organization, he would then earn the title as Ruler Of The Shadows. The followers of this society ranged all the way from bloodthirsty demons to rogue ninjas and all believed that the pagan god they worship in which they call Sumatacratsu handpicked the Ruler of the Shadows. This god then told the Ruler Of The Shadows that on the night of every full moon he demanded a sacrifice in which he chose. Each sacrifice was to be killed by a cut throat, Sumatacratsu symbol would then be carved into the chest of the victim and its left eye would be removed as a trophy to put on in the lair of the organization to prove to the followers of the Rage From The Darkness the sacrifice was indeed a success. These sacrifices were carried out by soldiers hand picked from the ranks of the organization by The Ruler Of The Shadows himself. When the end of the twenty years came and it was time for a new ruler the ones who had made almost ever single sacrifice ordered by Sumatacratsu was granted great power and made a younger god under him, however if anymore then four sacrifices were missed then The Ruler Of The Shadows himself was sacrificed to his god the exact same was the ones Sumatacratsu ordered. The new leader was picked by they god and was judged on many things. Ruthlessness, leadership skills, strategics, and commitment were looked upon in favor of all else, a lot of the time the ruler is one of the members of the organization who has been there for quite a while, but some, like the Shogun I told you about, are outsiders who had no knowledge of the RFTD until they have the dreams and then get swept away by Sumatacratsu's warriors. Six hundred years ago however, and outsider would lead to undoing of the organization." He paused for a second to regain his thoughts then continued. "One day a lone soldier by the name of Kenji Balaclava from a small army in the inlands of Japan heard about the organization and how you could be accepted into it as a leader."
"Wait a second, didn't Lord Gohda say your name was Galaklava?" Rikimaru interrupted.
"Rikimaru shut up and let him continue," Ayame snapped at him.
The scholar smiled, "Very observant you are young warrior, Kenji Galaklava was my ancestor " he told the ninjas. "Now where was I?" he asked them.
"You were telling us about Kenji's background," Ayame answered.
"Ah yesm" he remembered. "Tirelessly Kenji Galaklava worked for sixty years to become what the Rage From The Darkness wanted. He read up on it, studied the organization as closely as possible and finally he began to have the dreqams, then without warning he was amushed by an outfit of demons and ninjas and taken to their lair far benarth the crust of the Earth. He was shocked at what he saw when he reached the lair, the great god Sumatacratsu spoke its wisdom through a mere glass orb placed on an alter in the middle of their hideout. It was then that the aging Kenji had an idea to put an end to this evil organization that has killed so many in six hundred years, he was going to destroy their means of existence, he was going to smash the orb, but first he was gonna lead them on while he thought of a method on how to do it. For many months Kenji sent his soldiers to carry out their sacrifices. Ten years past and Kenji had fulfilled every single sacrifice ordered upon him. As a gift for his extremely faithful services Sumatacratsu presented Kenji with a powerful sword and finally Kenji had a method in which to break the orb. Kenji thanked Sumatacratsu and without another word or thought raised the sword and brought down on the orb, smashing it into trillions of pieces then with the high pitched scream of Sumatacratsu fading away and disappearing a motive for The Rage From The Darkness disappeared and Kenji knew he was about to be killed by the followers so he quickly turned the sword on himself and pierced his own heart, heroically putting an end to the dark age of the cult that had slain so many in six hundred years." He paused again, a proud smile on his face and once again continued. "Legend has it that after the orb was destroyed a lot of the member had no reason to live and went the same way as Kenji but others traveled the world looking for their fallen god while others searched for another religion to turn to. Legend also has it that the only way Sumatacratsu can be resummened and the organization reformed is if an orb is created in the same image and likens and out of the same mysterious material that the original was made out of, this replic must contain at least one piece of the orginal orb, something I thought to be impossible to do but somehow someone has done it," finished the scholar.
"The only question is, who?" said Rikimaru.
Right at the moment these words left the young ninja's mouth the door of the library burst open and a stream of guards burst into the room and ran to their king.
"Lord Gohda," the obviously frightened commander bowed and stood up again as did the rest of the guards. "Demons have launched raids on the Azuma village as well as other smaller villages outside of it, we've sent in troops but for every one we take down five more take its place its no use, we're outnumber badly," the guard said his eyes fixed on his feet.
Ayame and Rikimar made eye contact. Ayame spoke first. "Well," she said, "whoever this son of a bitch is who resurrected that god is now fucking with my home, so I guess we're about to find out who he is." With these words Rikimaru and Ayame turned and sprinted out of the library down to the battlefield, the guards following closely behind.