Season of Darkness

**Season of Darkness** is the first installment of Horrorjago.

## Excerpt

### Prologue

There once was a team of elemental masters called the Coalition of Creation, that fought to prevent the Realm of Steelalot from falling into the hands of a kingdom known as the Chroniclers of Time. They failed to annihilate the Chroniclers army and the realm fell to the Chroniclers leader. They discovered a tomb inhabited by a coven of witches called the Coven of the Salvatar. The witches had left a way to travel to another realm, a form of tea that makes a one-way passage to another realm. But little did the Elemental Masters know that the witches never intended to return to the dark realm the passageway leads to. The realm is Gothjago, a realm where time passes much slower then Steelalot and Ninjago. But time dilation is the least of worries for humans in the dark realm. The balance between good and evil is tipped to evil. The realm had an odd day-night cycle. The days would last 12 hours while the nights would last 40. Once every year there would be a season of darkness where the sun wouldn’t rise. No two years would have the same length. The shortest was a month while the longest was 11 months. In this time, the forces of darkness would kill every living thing. For many years there was nothing but plants and animals adjusted to the long nights. But over the years lifeforms from other realms invaded the Gothic Realm. Surface-Folk known as human beings built temples in the realm. Years in the other realms passed in just days. The realm felt cheated by such lively creatures as demons rose to keep the other races in check. A race of demon-folk made the realm there own by eating the invasive races and using their own dead against them. And so the Vampire evolved. The Vampires carved there place in the realm taking over most of it. Any humans who didn’t leave we’re either wiped out or enslaved creating a dark realm ruled by Vampires. There was one island the vampires couldn’t take over due to a ritual suicide by na elemental master of light who practiced magic. It was called the Isle of Hope. Vampires couldn’t stay on the island for more then one cycle of the sun or they would desiccate and go dormant until moved away from the island. Refuges stayed on the island and fought for their lives to protect their loved ones. But once a year on the months of Darkness the islanders would face the worst.

### Part 1: The First Shadow

#### Chapter 1: Banje

We waited in the tomb for our master of Dark Magic to figure out the magic tea. Whatever exists in the other realm can’t be worse then the army we’re facing. We had been banished from every town in the realm. Our enemy had taken over and crushed everyone in their way. We had no hope of surviving if we stayed in this realm. Even the Realm of Madness would be better than this. I entertained my teammates Shiya and Khan with smoke puppets at the fireplace. I used my Element; Smoke to warp the smoke coming out of the fire. I put on a show based on an underrated novel I love. It’s called the House of Demons and Form. I used my fingers to bend the smoke to show a colossal demon flailing his staff in a duel against an elemental master of shadow. My teammates looked at me amazed by what I had created with my power alone. Shiya is the Elemental Master of Poison and Khan is the Elemental Master of Shadow. There are six of us left. The others are Niklaus the Elemental Master of Dark Magic, Zora the Master of Sound and Rohan the Master of Form. We were about to travel to this other realm, perhaps we could build up our forces and eventually come back or we could start a new civilization in this realm. Niklaus walked in and says, “Ready to go.”
“Yes,” said Shiya. I said, “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
We stopped up to a fireplace where Niklaus had started to turn the tea to steam. He began to speak a dark magic incantation and a portal appeared. It was night time in the realm and it led to the woods. The trees appeared black but they looked like they were still alive. I was the first to walk though. The portal felt like wind and water mixed together. When I stepped through the air felt different. I waited for my teammates to walk through the portal. They stepped through about an hour apart from each other. I asked Shiya, “Why are they taking so long.”
“Time most be slower here,” said Shiya. Eventually, everyone steps through including Niklaus.
“Time to set out,” said Niklaus. “We have a world to explore and we need to map out all the doors to other worlds.”
I walked with my teammates as the sun started to rise, it was a lot dimmer then the sun I was used to.

#### Chapter 2: Niklaus

I didn’t have the same tea, so I couldn’t get us back to our realm, but sooner or later I would find a way back. We went through the woods of this this world. The animals all scurried into hiding spots. It’s as if everything in this world had grown used to the night and became nocturnal. Pretty soon we found a small village of wooden houses. Some of the people may have adjusted to darkness. People we’re standing in the shadows of hangovers, but a few stayed in the open. One family looks fearful at one rich man. The Man had dreadful reddish skin and scars on his arms. We went looking around at the town. They didn’t have many stores and it was an agricultural society. Most of the people lived on farms. Many of the plants had black pigments. There were sales of foods on the street such as garlic and corn, there were cheaper fruits that had darker pigments. The town had a clinic, library and a brothel, All of the necessities. We split up as a team and I went to the library to research the realm. In the library, I looked at maps of the world. This town is named Fallor after a man who founded it. It was to the south of a large landmass called Ravenor. It was a province ruled by the kingdom in the mountains to the north. North of Ravenor was many islands covered in ice. To the South there’s more islands and one island called the Isle of Hope to the southwest. Beyond it there’s nothing but endless sea. I went up to the librarian and said, “I’m new here, what’s your relation to the kingdom of Ravenor.”
The woman says, “It’s the Empire of the Bloodmongers, we don’t speak their name. The only reason we’re still alive is because we’ve stayed on their good side. Most of our race have perished.”
“What race is the empire?”
“Bloodmongers; demonic parasites, this is their realm. We just live here.”
“Are you at war?”
“No, they never let us form armies.”
I realized that this would end badly, we were in a dark realm. We had to get on the move, perhaps the islands to the south are the safest.