I really lack motivation to write during the week.
Not even time, just the will to do it (well actually time a bit too, but not as much).
On top of that I read some fanfiction in free time and see how much better they are at writing.
I might have lofty ideas (not to confuse with ideas), but not the ability to make them come to life.
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A shabbily dressed man sat in the corner of dirty prison cell.
The young man was unlucky enough to be placed next to the worst prisoner quarters, which caused him to be exposed to maniacal shouts and often visits by dementors.
Because of that, even though his stay did not exceed a year, his mind was like a tense thread in danger of snapping at all times.
Suddenly the temperature in the cell seemed to drop, as two figures phased through the wall with a small barred window.
The taller one looking like a dementor floated behind the shorter silver haired boy. Seeing both of them look at him, the young man shrunk into the corner trying his best to appear smaller.
~BOOM~
A loud rumble resounded, as the wall got smashed down by a three-eyed monster.
"You're threatening the success of our infiltration!" yelled the dementor looking creature, pointing at the smashed wall "With this much noise the aurors will come here instantly!"
The boy raised his hand, stopping the scolding "It's fine Boo. This will probably make it more fun. Besides, your yell probably garnered almost as much attention from our hosts."
He grinned as shadow spread from his back, quickly covering the surrounding area in pitch black darkness.
--------- Azkaban Guard Pov ---------
I can finally leave this hellhole in a few months! I thought to myself while swinging idly on the chair.
Although Azkaban duty was exceptionally easy, but there was after all a reason why nobody liked having it assigned.
Out of all things that were horrible about this place, the dementors weren't even in top three. After all, those soulsuckers at least kept away from the guards quarters very dutifully.
He smirked to himself at the thought of dementors disobeying.
No, the worst things were food, weather and prisoners.
First of all, the bastards locked in those cells couldn't keep their mouth shut even for an hour. Their shouts echoed thanks to the weird ambience of the fortress, making them very clear in every corner even without any magic.
Whether they cooperated was a mystery, but even midnight was filled with violent howling, led by none other than Bellatrix 'lestrange-ly annoying'.
We couldn't even use spells to mute it, because as per the rules 'Wands must be kept locked up in emergency case, as to guard against escaped convicts'.
As if. Nobody escapes from Azkaban. This is clearly just a way of oppressing us a bit more.
Wonder how she can still muster up any voice after doing it for 12 hours a day in this environment. I thought about Bella with interest, before shrugging my arms.
"Magic" a mutter full of irony escaped my lips, mocking the pureblood's lack of curiosity about how their own power worked.
Another thing was the food. Because of 'safety' reasons, transporting things through portkeys or apparition happened rarely, usually only when an important guest came.
This fact caused all the food to be brought by sea, usually leaving it soggy, or at best really moist.
On top of that the leadership had the oh-so great decision to show us the wonders of the British magical cuisine. Instead of choosing simple but delicious food, we had the honor to taste things like Plimpy Stargazy Pie.
Because of that, sometimes my sympathy for prisoners was actually stirred. Never because of the dementors though, but more stemming from the feeling of disgust I felt looking at the mush fed to them.
The worst thing, although sometimes losing in the horribility ranking to food, was the weather.
A perpetual dusk-night cycle made everybody and everything (excluding dementors) incredibly depressed, also causing often sleep disorders.
I never wanted to work in this position, however being a muggle-born meant that no talent level is going to help you get a high ministry position.
Even if I was a top student, and one of the best graduates in the last decade, they still sent me for guard duty in this godforsaken place.
Long term stay on the island, together with the presence of dementors and horrible weather, caused various health problems, especially to older aurors.
I wonder if they are just trying to weed out the talented people through this? I thought about another conspiracy theory that could be probably found in Quibbler.
When I was younger I wanted to have a more interesting job, however most of them did not offer high salaries, or could only be joined in by those with connections, so I decided to work at the ministry for a few years before enjoying life.
Unfortunately I will probably never be able to really enjoy it with the rheumatism I'll get from working on this post.
I leaned back slightly further with my chair, trying to think of something else to kill time.
~Boom~
A rumble sounded somewhere in the distance making me jump up slightly, which caused the back legs of my chair to slip.
~Thud~
I fell heavily on the ground, sliding a dozen centimeters backwards.
Quickly scrambling to my feet I started unlocking the emergency box while cursing the ministry.
I can't believe some madman is actually attacking Azkaban. I thought to myself while struggling with the second code that was supposed to be an 'additional safety measure'.
Even the storage with prisoners' wands is probably less protected. I was getting really annoyed with the thing.
Finally unlocking the box I grabbed my wand and ran out of the door.
Although I didn't believe I have enough ability to fight against somebody, or possibly a group of people that are crazy enough to rob people from the strongest wizarding prison, but I would rather die while fighting than from starvation after they deny my paycheck, or possible arrest and execution.
"They always shift the blame, don't they?" I muttered to myself while moving quickly towards the wing from which I heard the noise.
Suddenly I saw a wave of darkness covering the corridor in front of me, quickly spreading in my direction.
Too late to do anything more substantial I cast three layers of Protego and braced myself for impact.
Surprisingly, the wave of shadows went straight through my shield, and covering me turned my clothes black while slowly sleeping into my skin.
"Well, shit..."
--------- Boo Pov ---------
Following my new master as he spread darkness through my old home was an incredible experience.
I floated slowly behind his sacred figure, sucking out the souls of food that could not adapt to darkness and break free from being just a mere prey.
I did not completely spare the ones that weren't adapting fast enough either, as I ate as many of their emotions as possible, making them fall into temporary apathetic state.
After obtaining new powers I could absorb all emotions, and they were also absorbed from a larger area.
Originally, me and my brothers could only affect living beings from larger distances when we gathered, and the further away the weaker the influence was.
Now, thanks to the incredible gift from my lord, I could affect all little sheep equally as long as my ability could reach them.
Truly, we should all praise the great master!!!
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As the darkness spread, Blake slowly floated through, observing the transformation of humans in the prison.
His ability could assimilate all life in a way similar to what was given by the system, which he felt when the Headquarters transformation was happening.
Although it had a very low chance of granting evolution, and wasn't a hundred percent successful either, but he could achieve it through just spreading his shadow into the material world.
Observing some prisoners, he noticed that although it seemed similar to previously used servant transformation, but the strength increase and his control over them was much worse.
He could still forcibly order them, but their minds would not be as drastically altered, as it was with system-given opportunities.
He decided that only those that survive and adapt will be allowed to participate in the future full of fun.
Right now, all the ones that screamed in pain as the shadows corroded them, quickly went quiet as their soul moved from their useless bodies into a much more glorious place, Boo's stomach.
Flying through a long corridor, suddenly he noticed a human figure standing in the middle of the darkness, seemingly unaffected.
The man, dressed in black robes clearly covered by Blake's power, was examining his arms with a hint of disbelief.
"Oh?" said the silver-haired boy to himself, while a smile appeared on his face "Interesting..."
He slowly descended, in front of the man still oblivious to his presence.
"Hi, my name is Blake and you were transformed by me" he extended his hand, getting a confused look from the man "Would you like to follow me?"
The man looked at him, feeling weird compulsion to listen to the boy.
Although not controlled, but seeing the floating being in front of him and understanding that the power now flowing through his body came from him, he understood that he basically only had one choice.
"Do you include food and housing" he asked nervously after gathering his courage, earning himself a short chuckle from Blake.
"Think bigger" the boy spread his hands in a dramatic gesture "Infinite and unrestrained fun!"
The theatrics caused the man to laugh slightly as well, his personality after transformation clearly almost as fun-loving as the source of his newfound power.
"Then I will take you up in that offer" he extended his hand, while slightly kneeling "My name is David, and I'm an auror assigned with protecting this beautifully dark fortress."
His new boss shook his hand, while lifting him up.
"Are there more ones like you?"
"The other one is in that corner" David pointed at the slowly dissolving humanoid mass of flesh at the entrance to the corridor, clearly indifferent towards the other person's sorry fate.
"Shame, I thought they would have similar level of talent" Blake sighed while mentally calling Boo, in order to quickly absorb the soul from the dying man.
After all a well rested auror must produce much more emotions than the weary prisoners.
"Thank you for the compliment my lord" David bowed slightly, a happy smile plastered across his face.
Boo finally arrived, holding a struggling unfortunate prisoner, while slowly sucking out the soul with enjoyment clearly visible on his face.
"Come here" Blake waved his hand. As the tall dementor came closer, he grabbed shoulders of both of his 'employees'.
"Boo, this is David. David, this is Boo" he let go of them and clasped his hands together and smiled.
"Hope you will become friends.Our team will need a bit of brainpower for the future." the boy added while looking with disappointment at the minion that came last "Clearly Abaddon cannot be trusted to be the intelligent part of the group, at least usually."
'Usually?' thought David to himself 'Does that mean he is smart unusually? That sounds interesting.'
"There is some food in the corner" Blake pointed at the corner, where Boo went while completely sucking out the soul of the man held in his hand and casually discarding his body.
"Now then, let's conquer the rest of this beautiful citadel!" shouted their lord, breaking David out of his thoughts and making Boo take the last long breath of the fresh soul, before floating back towards its master "Onward my vassals!"
He pointed his hand towards the part the worst criminal were housed in, making the three 'people' behind him scream with joy and start moving quickly in that direction.
---6 hours later---
"I'm pretty sure that it would be better to just blow this part up" said a scrawny man while looking critically at moldy part of a huge tower "Anyway it's really easy to build with darkness."
"This is indeed a perfect power for us architects" nodded another man, causing a burst of agreeing voices all around, surprisingly including a few dementors "We don't need any workers and can build whatever we want."
"Indeed, I don't think anything can salvage this" said a blonde woman, clearly more interested in the previous topic "We should just raze this whole part to the ground."
She pointed at the part of the ex-prison underneath the damage, that had multiple visible holes left in it "We could just ask deputy Abaddon for help."
"Can he help?" asked the first man, pushing up glasses without lenses that he salvaged from somewhere, and clearly didn't need, or at least not anymore.
Some of the surrounding people looked at him with glare for despising the superior.
Although the orders weren't really strict, as the main one was just 'As long as it's fun you can do whatever you want', but many people that did normal jobs like fixing the fortress regarded their superiors with incredible politeness.
Well, any respect was surprising in the group that did everything for fun, but for most part people whose transformation took longer were thought of as worse unless granted a rank by their lord.
Well, Blake was clearly not interested in doing that, as for now the only actually ranked people were the three deputies: Abaddon, Boo and David.
"Don't get me wrong" the man quickly waved his hands in defensive manner "I know that all higher-ups are powerful, but we need a long-term solution. We can't just call them every time we need to blow something magically resistant up, especially considering we want to fix the whole world's architecture."
The man raised his hands in a theatrical gesture, which was met with some laugh and nods of approval.
"I don't think we will have to worry about that" said the blond woman "I heard the lord mention that deputy Abaddon is well versed in muggle chemistry, and asking him to procure some bombs for 'fun'"
"Those are for playing dodgeball" said a passing young man dressed only in swimming trunks made of shadows "But you can probably get some from the pile to blow this up" he added, causing most of the group to follow him inside.
Through the last few hours, the whole castle changed drastically. Originally already gloomy, was now a combination of stone and pure darkness.
After surviving prisoners completed their transformation, they quickly decided they want to follow Blake, with the few exceptions locked up in strengthened cells until that changed their minds.
After enjoying the freedom for a while, they decided boredom is too strong and created multiple groups, mostly named 'Azkaban [...] Enthusiasts'.
This caused multiple interesting small associations like 'Azkaban Carpentry Enthusiasts' to be formed, with many ex-convicts joining multiple at the same time.
The 'Azkaban Architecture Enthusiasts' quickly discovered the use of their new ability in remodeling things they didn't like.
Quickly, the great architectural talents planed in Azkaban decided that their goal was to change the world's architecture, starting from the prison they were placed in.
Unfortunately, although their personal ability was really strong, but they couldn't work together in the slightest.
That fact, combined with the fact the transformed people couldn't care less what others thought, led to the previously intimidating fortress now looking like Frankenstein's monster made up of multiple architectural styles and various brilliant ideas.
This did not bother anyone, as they cared much more about various spontaneous events organised by their leader.
Thanks to the fact that beings introduced with his power were infinitely more resilient, and could quickly regenerate even from near-death state when placed in his shadow, Blake started to put his various ideas of fun to life, with things like 'Azkaban cliff jumping competition' and 'Quick explosive making course for beginning pyromaniacs' not even getting into top ten on the danger list.
The previously gloomy prison now became dark and gloomy with everybody welcoming this change as they much preferred the darkness.
It was also bursting with activity, the dementors, slowly evolving thanks to Boo, happily having fun with other humanoids.
Of course not everybody like physical fun, some preferred the enjoyment brought by working with their brain.
This led the scholars locked in prison for various reasons to creation of their own society.
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I noticed long ago that even when I try to write comedy it just comes out really dark.
I only noticed some parts came worse than expected while proofreading, and I don't have enough energy to make changes.
The main character is still not a villain, he just disregards lives of 'weaker' species.
It's like you couldn't really call some god a villain just because he accidentally destroyed a planet or two while playing. They aren't even the same race.
And I feel like most of the transformed people wouldn't look at normal humans like at the same race.
If you have other opinions, then write it here in the comments.
I hope Webnovel did not suddenly welcome an influx of kind-hearted people that will hate this plot development while I wasn't here for a year.
Goodbye, and I hope you liked this chapter.
P.S. I checked it again and I think I'm good. Nobody was tortured to death yet, so it should be fine.
P.P.S. I changed one of Boo's abilities to level two, as it's easier to calculate area of 10² m² than of just 10 m², not to mention that√10| is awfully small.