Rakken was walking through one of the many dark corridors of the manor which he had claimed as his home just a little while ago. He was holding a candle in his hand, even though he could see well in darkness since he was a creature of the night. He just enjoyed its feeble illumination and how it formed different kinds of shades wherever he would go carrying that light. It created a solemn atmosphere which was fit for him, no matter that there wasn't really anyone else to witness it. Only shadows were there with him, but they weren't quite living. He hadn't lived in this manor for a long time yet, but he was aware that this space was also a home to a few ghosts. But for a reason he didn't know, that night they remained concealed, their distant cries and screams would be heard only a couple of times. Maybe they just didn't like the storm that was raging outside? But Rakken didn't give them much more attention.

Paintings of people of the past were hanging from the walls of the corridor and their stern stares were judging Rakken as he walked past them. Perhaps they didn't like that their glorious manor was taken over by a monster like him. But was he truly the only monster here? Rakken had originally found this building because he had sensed a strong sinister energy radiating from it; it had been like a twisted beacon, guiding him to it. The manor had been in such a sorry state, clearly it had been a magnificent building once, but had succumbed to neglect, possibly because something bad had happened here which had caused people to stay away from it. But what events exactly led to the fall of this place? That was something Rakken was still trying to find out.

But first he had rejuvenated the manor so it would stand gorgeous again, just like in the past. After all, he couldn't possibly make a home of a place that was dilapidated. It had been an easy task thanks to his magical abilities and now the building looked grandeur from the outside and inside. He was admiring his own work as he walked through the corridor, the candle's light creating a dance of light and shadows to the tidy surroundings. Occasionally a lightning strike would shine through the windows and envelop everything in a blinding light for a blink of an eye. But it would fade as fast as it had appeared and leave the feeble light of the candle pale in comparison.

Eventually Rakken's journey through the corridor ended. He entered one of the many rooms that could be accessed from the passage. He had left the door open since the last time he had visited this specific room. Previously he had come across something interesting when he had investigated this place and was now back to continue his research.

The room appeared to be simply furnished study. The space was surrounded by bookshelves where rather interesting books were stored, their subjects were about curses, witchcraft, dark ceremonies, analysis on ghost activities and folklore. But their contents weren't the thing Rakken was most interested in. He made his way to the desk that was placed in front of the huge window. The rain was whipping the window harshly while Rakken immersed himself in examining the contents on the table. He placed his candle on the desk and it gave illumination to the mess of papers that were scattered all over the table. It seemed like whoever was last working here with them had left suddenly, leaving the papers spread out. And from what Rakken could tell, the reason for abruptly leaving this desk in such disarray was because of the material written on these papers actually happened.

Due to the mess, it took a while to piece together the information these papers held. But Rakken could tell after a little while that they were revealing the secret to opening a gate to another realm: to the world of demons. This intrigued Rakken quite a lot and he spent a long time investigating this matter. The thunder roaring outside and the rain pounding violently against the window accompanied the rustling of the papers as Rakken absorbed the contents from them. He found a piece of information that really piqued his interest. Apparently the gate to the demon realm lied somewhere in this manor. He shuffled through the papers, but there was no information about its exact location. The only hint was that it was underground. It seemed like this was something he had to find out by himself. Although there were still fascinating texts left in the papers, Rakken decided that he wanted to search for the gate right at that moment. He picked up his candle from the desk and left the room, going back to the dark corridor.

Hastily Rakken moved through his manor. He had already memorized the layout of the manor so he knew exactly where he could start looking for the gate. He had been on the upper floor and from there he hurried to the stairs that were leading down to the bottom floor. An ominous wind had started to howl outside and it seemed like the storm was getting worse – but in Rakken's mind, it was like the dark heaven itself was getting excited about him discovering the gate to the demon realm. As soon as he stepped on the ground floor, he began to walk behind the grand stairs, because there was a hidden door that offered an entrance to a wine cellar. Soon he was devoured by the darkness it held within and at the same time the sounds of the storm got muffled.

A common man would have probably thought that there was something wrong with the wine cellar's atmosphere. The darkness felt oppressive and a weird humming noise could be heard, although it was questionable was that sound even really audible and it was more like a creation of your own mind. Rakken had visited this place before and even though he had sensed a sinister ambience, he hadn't investigated what secrets this place was hiding. Gracefully Rakken descended the creaky wooden stairs and soon found himself walking through the many shelves where wine was stored. It was a fine collection, but now remained covered up by a thick layer of dust. Rakken looked around, trying to spot a hint of the whereabouts of the gate. Carefully he checked every nook, he could sense that something wicked was concealed here. And eventually, his efforts paid off.

From one of the farthest corners of the wine cellar, Rakken found something strange from a wall. It looked like a metal plate, but a layer of dust was coating it. Rakken wiped it off with his hand and an insignia of some kind was revealed. It looked like the face of a demonic being, made from black and red swirls. For a reason Rakken didn't understand, it felt familiar somehow. After staring at it for a brief moment, he pressed his hand against it and let a tiny amount of magical energy surge to it. Small red sparks were visible for a second, then the insignia sucked them in and it began to glow in crimson color. Rakken took a step back and looked at the scene he had set in motion. A glow in a color of crimson engulfed the whole plate and then spread beyond its frames, creating a large rectangle around it and illuminated the whole cellar. Then the glow faded away, uncovering a passage that was leading further down underground. Rakken smiled to himself, being rather excited by this finding, and without hesitation, he began to descend into the depths. 

The passage was a very narrow one, only one person at a time could move through it. The walls were completely black, like void, and they were draining the light of Rakken's candle, its flame fluttering weakly. It was like it would die at any moment. But although feeble, the flame helped Rakken to notice something. There was something weird sticking out of the ceiling, it was glowing white and it looked like a spine, stretching all the way down to the dark abyss. It was an ominous sign, but of course, it just intrigued Rakken. He kept descending deeper into the darkness, until finally, he made it to the end.

He found himself in a dark chamber. It was very spacious, the ceiling was high above and it looked like a huge crowd of people could fit in this place. At the same time, it was very empty. However there was one, an enormous thing that captured Rakken's gaze.

It was the grand gate he had been looking for. It was black, somehow even darker than its surroundings. White pieces of bones, fangs and horns were sticking out from various parts of it. There were nine massive chains with locks that were preventing it from opening. It was clear that they couldn't be removed by brute force. Rakken walked slowly closer to the gate, fascinated by it. And as he was getting near it, he noticed that there was something embedded into the gate. It was an object that mostly consisted of a wicked-looking eye, which had dark wings sticking out of it. Rakken reached out for it as it looked like something that could be detached, and indeed, he managed to remove it. As soon as he did so, a dark energy began to flow around it and he stared at it for a while.

There was no doubt about it, this object was harboring dismal power. Perhaps it was the key to this gate. But something was missing… this thing alone wouldn't be enough to open the gate. Rakken could recall that he had seen a drawing of this object in the papers back in the study. He decided to investigate it more. And for some reason, the dark flow ceased circling around the object and it closed its eye and the wings got wrapped around it. It seemed like it was resting, waiting for the moment when its powers would be needed. Rakken put it in one of his pockets and began his journey back to the manor. He ascended through the passage and as soon as he got out of it, the wall of the wine cellar emerged and concealed it once more. Only the metal plate was giving a hint about the passage's whereabouts.

He left the cellar, headed to the stairs to get back to the upper floor and was soon walking along the dark corridor again, the portraits staring at him as judgingly as ever. Swiftly Rakken managed to make his way to the study and once he got back there, he placed his candle on the desk again and started to inspect the contents of the scattered papers.

He stayed in the room for a couple of hours, reading what was left behind by the previous residents of this manor. And bit by bit he was able to piece together what had happened in here. It seems like they had hidden malice in their souls, so much that they had wanted to open the gate to the demon realm and unleash its horrors onto the world. But something had gone wrong, they had made a huge mistake. To open the gate, a matter that was simply referred as shadow energy was needed. It was something that only a specific kind of people possessed, those whose minds were rotten by madness and people with exceptionally strong souls. The winged object was an amulet, used to harvest this energy and its bearer would be able to see which individuals had it. Rakken kept digging out the information and found out that if somebody would attempt to open the gate with insufficient amount of shadow energy, it would indeed open, but only for a very short moment. This would turn out to be lethal to the one who tried to unleash the demons as the few demonic beings that would manage to slip into this world would hunt down the first people they would come across: the ones who opened the gate. They would take their souls and retreat back to the demon realm since they were still attached to it, unable to stay in this world of mortals. Although it wasn't mentioned in the documents, Rakken knew that those who tried to open the gate would suffer a gruesome death, he had seen the remains of the previous owners of the manor and it had been a nasty sight. He couldn't really understand why they had ignored the warning that insufficient energy would lead to horrific consequences. For now, that would remain as a mystery.

Eventually Rakken was done with reading the papers. He took the amulet out of his pocket and eyed it for a moment with great interest. What a peculiar little object it was. He was very curious about the power it held and he started to have an urge to try it out himself. He pocketed it again, killed the candle's light by blowing it and then he left the study. He wandered in the dark corridor once more, seeking out double doors made from glass. He got to them in no time and opened them, stepping outside to a gorgeous balcony. The storm had lost a significant amount of its power during these few hours and was now reduced to a gentle rain. Rakken looked at the dark sky, the raindrops falling on his beautiful face. It was a good night for a kill. And soon he changed his form into a hideous bat-like monster, spreading his dark wings and took off, soaring to the black sky, his destination set to a nearby town, Morkynia.

Cold winds began to blow again, but it didn't really hinder Rakken's flight at all. His wings were strong and capable of defying even the strongest storms. Swiftly he was approaching the town, the black sky concealing his figure. Mortals had no idea that a monster was getting close. He wasn't on his usual hunt trip, but someone would possibly die tonight. Rakken didn't know how exactly the amulet worked or would he even find someone who carried shadow energy, but he was eager to try. He was gliding above the settlement which was resting peacefully, few street lights here and there dotting the otherwise dark town. He decided to land somewhere near the center of the town for he had a feeling that someone suitable could most likely be found around that area. Slowly he was lowering his altitude until he was almost at the same level with the roofs of the buildings, then he made a last swerve and landed behind one of the taller buildings. A black mist engulfed his whole body and soon the bat-like creature was gone and the figure of a beautiful man had taken its place. Rakken snuck around the corner, leaving the shadows and stepped to a wide street, beginning his little mission for finding an individual who possessed shadow energy.

He had a strong sensation that nobody in this puny town had the energy he was seeking. A suitable person had to come from somewhere else. This is why Rakken focused completely on checking the foreigners and luckily there were plenty of them since Morkynia was a coastal town. Though the bad weather was keeping all the people inside, making his search more challenging. He wondered if he had to resort to changing his form again. Usually he enjoyed his nightly strolls in the streets and encountering people outside. But he had a way that he could use infiltrating the buildings. No one was safe from him and people would stay unharmed only because he wanted it that way. Fear was something he savored and the more people there were, the more dread the town could hold.

Soon Rakken came upon an inn. He stopped for a moment and listened to the voices coming inside. Loud chattering and drunken singing could be heard and in Rakken's ears, it sounded disgusting. Usually he would stay away from filthy places like this one, but he decided to give the people in the inn a little scare. His form began to change, he basically faded away and he disappeared into a black mist. However, he didn't turn into a bat-like creature, he stayed as a dark haze. And from the threshold, he invaded the inn and his black mist spread around the hall where the people had been having a good time. In a matter of seconds their cheerfulness turned into terror as Rakken's dark cloud scattered all around, extinguishing candles and oil lamps and creating terrifying shadows on the walls. People were in panic and clumsily tried to get away, some running to the stairs leading to the upper floor and some barging out of the inn. Once all the people had fled the scene, all the black mist gathered to one spot and Rakken took his regular form of a man again. Being amused by his deed, he left the inn behind and continued to stroll around Morkynia.

This had reminded him of the existence of another inn. It was a better place, usually reserved for rich people. As he realized that he should check it out, he became overly excited and although he usually moved with grace, he now hurried through the nightly streets of Morkynia, shadows on his trail.

It didn't take him long to reach his destination. He was soon standing by the inn that was well kept unlike the previous one. They had the image to maintain. The customers of this place weren't just typical drunkards, so Rakken wasn't surprised when he couldn't hear any obnoxious commotion from the inside. He decided to do his little black mist trick again, but being a little bit more subtle with it this time. He turned into a dark haze once more and infiltrated the building through the doorstep.

He let his hazy form gather around the ceiling. It was black so he blended in pretty well. He noted that a few people were spending their time in the dim hall. Rakken examined them for a very brief moment, but it seemed that none of these people possessed shadow energy. So he silently floated towards a set of stairs and went upstairs. He could sense the pulse of the individuals behind the doors of their rooms and so he knew which rooms were occupied. Most people were asleep at such a late hour, so Rakken was able to sneak in without being noticed and take a look at them, checking whether they had shadow energy. And when it turned out that they didn't have it, he would leave the room without a sound, sparing their lives. They probably would never know how close they were to death.

Rakken visited all the rooms where he sensed the presence of someone. He hadn't had any luck finding what he was seeking, until he got to the fourth floor. He invaded yet another room in the form of a black mist and once he had fully emerged to the other side of the door, he noticed that there was something odd about the man who was sleeping in the bed of this small room. He could see some sort of strange black fluttering phenomenon right by his head. Rakken changed his form and turned into a human again. He took out the amulet from his pocket and looked at it. The eye was open again and it had spread its wings, the flow of dark matter now circling around it just like it had done back in the gate. Then Rakken glanced back at the sleeping man and now he could see more clearly the energy that this man was holding. There was a small white sphere floating right above his head. Some sort of visible vigor was streaming down from it, in colors of black and white and they were intertwined.

This had to be the shadow energy. With silent steps Rakken walked across the room to the man's bed. And for a short while, he stared at the sleeping man. Could the energy be harvested without killing the person in the process? Rakken wasn't sure and didn't really care, either. He was feeling a little bit thirsty. He revealed his fangs and gently caressed the man's neck. Such soft skin… And he had quite handsome features. Rakken would gladly take his blood. Violently he struck his fangs at the man's neck, which did wake him up, but Rakken was holding him pinned to the bed. But he succumbed to his fate soon and Rakken savored every drop of his blood. In a short moment, only a dry corpse remained.

Once Rakken was done drinking the blood, he looked at the amulet again. It looked the same. Then he shifted his gaze at the energy that he had seen by the man. And just when he was eyeing it, something started to happen. The white sphere got sucked into the amulet, the rest of the energy following behind. It joined the dark circling matter that was flowing around the amulet. It seemed he had successfully harvested shadow energy. He could already tell that he needed a lot more of it before he would attempt to open the gate.

Feeling satisfied with his experiment on shadow energy, Rakken decided to leave. His figure faded away and he became black mist one more time that night and left the room, leaving behind the corpse of the man. His fate would surely be the next morning's topic of discussion after his body would be found. And perhaps, it would stir a little bit of fear within the hearts of people. This pleased Rakken greatly.

As soon as Rakken had managed to get back outside, his form changed yet again and turned into the bat-like creature. Flapping his mighty wings, he rose from the ground and was soon up in the air, continuing to take more height. His dark figure blended in with the black sky and he took the direction to where his manor lied.

This had been a small step in his plan to open the gate to the demon realm, but that is how everything begins. For now, the people of Morkynia could sleep in peace, but one day, the great calamity would fall upon their town.