A KNIGHT'S TALE
Red . Blood Red .
A color brewed with anger and hatred .
The light blue distant horizon fades away into the rolling hills that were once so green .
It was only appropriate that the color of the sky be tainted and twisted by the tormented spirits of both my enemies and fellow countrymen .
How could they forever rest , dying with the knowledge that they were filled with so much hatred ?
After much contemplation , I've come to realize that their violent deaths will prevent them to acknowledge their own deaths and this will keep them anchored down on this desecrated place , preventing them from spiritual rest . Forever engaged in spiritual battle against themselves .
Now , the air seems to echo the clashing of steel and the screams of both the blood thirsty and dying .
The battlefield was littered with mangled , bloodied bodies forever frozen in suffering and torment . One who has survived could not help feel that he had witnessed a mass desecration .
Now I stand on the edge of losing my sanity and my soul . My bloodied sword , is gripped by my gauntlets out of fear and loss . I thought that this would be yet another battle that we could come out of the same person that we were before .
It was a very harsh revelation for me and for those who had survived the battle that took place .
I had never felt so vulnerable in my whole life , I did not prepare myself to see the twisted horrors that was evident during the fighting and killing . And the flashbacks of these memories haunted and plagued me like vengeful wraiths .
All of those memories began to play their unforgiving images of the past once again . Scenes of blood spilled and steel contested began to appear , most of what seemed to be blurred imagery of the horrors of the battle that took place before . It seemed that from that horrors that I remembered , the scenes where I witnessed my comrades being massacred were the most significant ones . As hard as I tried to resist to not allow my demons from exploiting my fear , I succumbed to my very weakness and I felt being overwhelmed by the darkness that the demons were harbingers of . I shook my head violently in desperation to deliberately lose my concentration in the nightmare that I could not wake up from .
I was left with a neck pained with a twisted neck muscle sprain and in a dizzy , mind unsettling trance of a blurry sight of the light red skies . I was ironically thankful that I was able to see through my eyes and catch the sight of the twisted battlefield that laid out in front of me .
As I thought that I was free from the nightmares of the battle ... The battlefield seem to manifest itself into a diary of its own horrors .
And then in a flash of a moment , the bloodied plains seem to turn into a darker hue of red . Dark silhouettes of armor and bodies littered all over the battlefield seem to twitch and move slightly . The solemn silence abundant throughout the battlefield is eventually broken with the moaning of death , suffering and the blasphemy of forbiddened life .
The dark silhouettes of fallen men soon rise and groan at every effort made to stand for their bodies are pained with wounds that would normally drive away the spirit from their bodies . But their spirits still remained in their husks that were nearly destroyed by the wounds inflicted on them . It was a sickening sight that made me curse out to the necromancer that made their spirits stay in their dead bodies .
I stared out into the vast ocean of undead and was instilled with shock , awe with a lingering fear which made my aching body froze with a spiritual emptiness . The sea of the dead was filled with a huge variety of dead soldiers and knights : Zexen Knights , Men at arms , light and heavy cavalry units , Karayan infantrymen and Lizard heavy infantry Clansmen . The only thing that they had in common with each other is the expression of suffering and cold , gaunt lifeless feeling that was instilled on their faces .
Suddenly , a near silent whisper of a incomprehensible voice with a tinge of a somewhat sorrowful malice ring into my ears . At first , I discarded the thought that the whisper was a message that was intended for my ears to hear , but the whispers grew louder and clearer and it sounded like winds blowing through a storm carrying words foretelling doom and despair . As the whispers grew louder and clearer , so did the significance of evil and its message of darkness grew .
It was not a long moment later that I could recognize the tone of the voice that whispered such vile desecrating voices . At first recognition of the voice , my conscience froze and I was instilled with guilt . As much as I didn't want to believe that the person who would do this to me , I could not ignore the voices from the winds that blew into my ears .
My eyes that peered through the endless fields of the dead suddenly caught my attention to a soul whose face was writhed with agony . When I fully caught my whole eyesight on him , I shuddered and gasped in terror . I took a step back to balance myself as I lost control of my legs and tried to desperately stop my hands from shaking . At the moment my eyes met his cold , vengeful glare filled with so much hurt and the longing for retribution , it seems almost impossible to break away from his stare of fury .
Irelon .
The very person whom I was entrusted to protect .
And I failed .
Now the very state that he is in is testament to my weakness and my inability to protect him .
He has became what I had dreaded and longed to escape from . Another demon who was conceived by my own doing .
And I know now , I know that his desire of retribution would be satisfied by the darkness that he has blindly bathed in and lovingly embraced with his innocent soul .
Irelon looked onto me as I was instilled with horror and guilt . Apparently , I assume that he savored the moments where I have displayed my weakness to give in to my emotions .
The terror and feelings of despair heighten as Irelon began to smile fiendishly . The ends of his mouth tore the sides of his face and reached his ears . I knew that somehow this was not the Irelon that I knew at all , for many times before I had seen him smile with so much happiness and innocence that I had to admit even melted and touched my heart one so many times .
Nonetheless , the darkness and his extreme pain of his death has made him become into the monster that I see now . And I shun the very evils that has twisted him to this wretched state .
Without any warning , Irelon began to raise his arms and open his palms , as if he wanted me to come to him and embrace him as a friend .
And all the dead who have perished in the battle , now gathered in this unholy graveyard stared their soul tortured eyes at me . Slowly , they raised their arms gesturing towards me as if to come forward like Irelon did and cry out in a common hollow and shrill wispy voice filled with evil intentions .
And then , Irelon began to open his mouth and spit out the very words that I feel was the finishing blow to the nightmare in front of me .
" You shall become one of us , Antier ... filled with sorrow , feasting on suffering and embracing the death of others like kin ..."
It was everywhere , those very words . They screamed into the grave of my fears which I had thought I had exorcised and buried long ago when I've learnt to deal with my fear when I was a squire then . Now , I can feel my fears are being resurrected and longing to eat away at my soul . Where is my courage , my stalwartness , my mettle ? Suddenly I have lost the very weapons that I have used time and time again to fight away death , danger and the devils that plague me so . And now I am rendered defenseless at the very instruments of my worst dreadful nightmares .
The sense of dread fills up into my emotions , dominating my soul with fear . Every single demon that was inside of me that plagued him for as long as I lived arise to take the opportunity to drive him to my own death . I swear , for a moment I felt that my own spirit seemed to be pulling itself away from my body .
Soon I feels as if the darkness around me is pulling my soul into itself to once again consume another soul to feed its evil hungers .
I closed my eyes , crying down tears of sorrow as I fall into the dark spiral of death .
" Forgive me Irelon .. I . have forsakened .. You .. "
And soon I fall into the spiral of those who have fallen to the malice and bloodlust of war .
" Antier ! "
Soon the weary knight snapped out of his nightmare and was left in a hazy daze that scalded his brain and blinded his sight with a flash of pure white .
" Antier ! " , The voice shouted into his state of half consciousness .
Somehow , he could not be bothered to answer back to a regular Man At Arms who was checking on the personnel to keep record of the soldiers who were still alive .
" Antier Herald ! If you are in this contingent , please answer ! "
Antier looked up . The scowls of frustrations that he saw on the many faces of the Knights around him seem to scream into his conscience . He knew that through his silence , their presence in this God forsakened place will be prolonged .
The entire battlefield was like a physical manifestation of Hell itself .
" I am here . " , he said wearily .
It was at the same moment when he fully regained his senses that he felt the weight of his armor . The discomfort , made present due to the sweat , dirt and blood came soon after . The wounds that Antier sustained overwhelmed him with torment which stirred up much bitterness in his mouth , making him hiss and spit out curses like poison every time due to the pain .
It was the price to pay for being so daring in the battlefield . Luckily for him , the price this time was a small amount that he could afford .
Antier then looked around him . Columns , rows , huge and small bundles of military personnel dotted the battlefield in every single direction . The echoes of shouts made by the Men at Arms rang far away into the rolling hills disturbing the silence of the dead . The necessity of the personnel being row called was tolerable . But to prolong the soldiers who survived to stay in the battlefield that embraced them with pain and death was torture . It was pure purgatory for all of these men .
Soon after the checking of military personnel ended , the Zexen Knight Contingent made haste in traveling back to the direction of Brass Castle . And it was soon that the surviving men would learn that it will only be their only sense of relief as they made their way out of desecrated plains .
The long journey was tormenting for the Knights . Even more so for those who had to walk or had lost their steeds in combat .
After all the sacrifices and acts of valor that the Knights and Men who have made and written their loyalty in blood to the Confederation , they could not suffer any other dishonorable discharge than to have their feet endure a long and torturous journey .
Antier knew that after every battle , huge or small would change a man . He just didn't knew that it would change a man so dramatically that it would mould or twist him to become so hardened and pained that he would never be the same again .
The stress and the load on his body and spirit is tremendous .
The sudden surge of pain from his body severed the Antier's mind away from the trance of thought and a blurry composition of what he sees around him . Now all that he feels is his body now .
His armor now is his bane . His sword , a hindrance to his legs . His Knight tunic , nothing more than a ragged piece of cloth . Everything , seems to him is now useless .
With every step , Antier felt that his leg muscles were no longer flesh but rusted steel . They grind into the bones of his legs , inflicting unbearable pain and testing his will .
His wounds further bane him with stings , waves and pressures of unbearable suffering . The death of his comrade has diseased him with the sense of powerlessness , guilt and sorrow .
Now he wonders if he could ever hold it all together .
He didn't want to suffer anymore .
Antier deliberately allow fatigue to take over his body and lets his mind drift away into the comforting darkness .
" Antier !!!!! Antier !!!! ... Ant .... "
Red . Blood Red .
A color brewed with anger and hatred .
The light blue distant horizon fades away into the rolling hills that were once so green .
It was only appropriate that the color of the sky be tainted and twisted by the tormented spirits of both my enemies and fellow countrymen .
How could they forever rest , dying with the knowledge that they were filled with so much hatred ?
After much contemplation , I've come to realize that their violent deaths will prevent them to acknowledge their own deaths and this will keep them anchored down on this desecrated place , preventing them from spiritual rest . Forever engaged in spiritual battle against themselves .
Now , the air seems to echo the clashing of steel and the screams of both the blood thirsty and dying .
The battlefield was littered with mangled , bloodied bodies forever frozen in suffering and torment . One who has survived could not help feel that he had witnessed a mass desecration .
Now I stand on the edge of losing my sanity and my soul . My bloodied sword , is gripped by my gauntlets out of fear and loss . I thought that this would be yet another battle that we could come out of the same person that we were before .
It was a very harsh revelation for me and for those who had survived the battle that took place .
I had never felt so vulnerable in my whole life , I did not prepare myself to see the twisted horrors that was evident during the fighting and killing . And the flashbacks of these memories haunted and plagued me like vengeful wraiths .
All of those memories began to play their unforgiving images of the past once again . Scenes of blood spilled and steel contested began to appear , most of what seemed to be blurred imagery of the horrors of the battle that took place before . It seemed that from that horrors that I remembered , the scenes where I witnessed my comrades being massacred were the most significant ones . As hard as I tried to resist to not allow my demons from exploiting my fear , I succumbed to my very weakness and I felt being overwhelmed by the darkness that the demons were harbingers of . I shook my head violently in desperation to deliberately lose my concentration in the nightmare that I could not wake up from .
I was left with a neck pained with a twisted neck muscle sprain and in a dizzy , mind unsettling trance of a blurry sight of the light red skies . I was ironically thankful that I was able to see through my eyes and catch the sight of the twisted battlefield that laid out in front of me .
As I thought that I was free from the nightmares of the battle ... The battlefield seem to manifest itself into a diary of its own horrors .
And then in a flash of a moment , the bloodied plains seem to turn into a darker hue of red . Dark silhouettes of armor and bodies littered all over the battlefield seem to twitch and move slightly . The solemn silence abundant throughout the battlefield is eventually broken with the moaning of death , suffering and the blasphemy of forbiddened life .
The dark silhouettes of fallen men soon rise and groan at every effort made to stand for their bodies are pained with wounds that would normally drive away the spirit from their bodies . But their spirits still remained in their husks that were nearly destroyed by the wounds inflicted on them . It was a sickening sight that made me curse out to the necromancer that made their spirits stay in their dead bodies .
I stared out into the vast ocean of undead and was instilled with shock , awe with a lingering fear which made my aching body froze with a spiritual emptiness . The sea of the dead was filled with a huge variety of dead soldiers and knights : Zexen Knights , Men at arms , light and heavy cavalry units , Karayan infantrymen and Lizard heavy infantry Clansmen . The only thing that they had in common with each other is the expression of suffering and cold , gaunt lifeless feeling that was instilled on their faces .
Suddenly , a near silent whisper of a incomprehensible voice with a tinge of a somewhat sorrowful malice ring into my ears . At first , I discarded the thought that the whisper was a message that was intended for my ears to hear , but the whispers grew louder and clearer and it sounded like winds blowing through a storm carrying words foretelling doom and despair . As the whispers grew louder and clearer , so did the significance of evil and its message of darkness grew .
It was not a long moment later that I could recognize the tone of the voice that whispered such vile desecrating voices . At first recognition of the voice , my conscience froze and I was instilled with guilt . As much as I didn't want to believe that the person who would do this to me , I could not ignore the voices from the winds that blew into my ears .
My eyes that peered through the endless fields of the dead suddenly caught my attention to a soul whose face was writhed with agony . When I fully caught my whole eyesight on him , I shuddered and gasped in terror . I took a step back to balance myself as I lost control of my legs and tried to desperately stop my hands from shaking . At the moment my eyes met his cold , vengeful glare filled with so much hurt and the longing for retribution , it seems almost impossible to break away from his stare of fury .
Irelon .
The very person whom I was entrusted to protect .
And I failed .
Now the very state that he is in is testament to my weakness and my inability to protect him .
He has became what I had dreaded and longed to escape from . Another demon who was conceived by my own doing .
And I know now , I know that his desire of retribution would be satisfied by the darkness that he has blindly bathed in and lovingly embraced with his innocent soul .
Irelon looked onto me as I was instilled with horror and guilt . Apparently , I assume that he savored the moments where I have displayed my weakness to give in to my emotions .
The terror and feelings of despair heighten as Irelon began to smile fiendishly . The ends of his mouth tore the sides of his face and reached his ears . I knew that somehow this was not the Irelon that I knew at all , for many times before I had seen him smile with so much happiness and innocence that I had to admit even melted and touched my heart one so many times .
Nonetheless , the darkness and his extreme pain of his death has made him become into the monster that I see now . And I shun the very evils that has twisted him to this wretched state .
Without any warning , Irelon began to raise his arms and open his palms , as if he wanted me to come to him and embrace him as a friend .
And all the dead who have perished in the battle , now gathered in this unholy graveyard stared their soul tortured eyes at me . Slowly , they raised their arms gesturing towards me as if to come forward like Irelon did and cry out in a common hollow and shrill wispy voice filled with evil intentions .
And then , Irelon began to open his mouth and spit out the very words that I feel was the finishing blow to the nightmare in front of me .
" You shall become one of us , Antier ... filled with sorrow , feasting on suffering and embracing the death of others like kin ..."
It was everywhere , those very words . They screamed into the grave of my fears which I had thought I had exorcised and buried long ago when I've learnt to deal with my fear when I was a squire then . Now , I can feel my fears are being resurrected and longing to eat away at my soul . Where is my courage , my stalwartness , my mettle ? Suddenly I have lost the very weapons that I have used time and time again to fight away death , danger and the devils that plague me so . And now I am rendered defenseless at the very instruments of my worst dreadful nightmares .
The sense of dread fills up into my emotions , dominating my soul with fear . Every single demon that was inside of me that plagued him for as long as I lived arise to take the opportunity to drive him to my own death . I swear , for a moment I felt that my own spirit seemed to be pulling itself away from my body .
Soon I feels as if the darkness around me is pulling my soul into itself to once again consume another soul to feed its evil hungers .
I closed my eyes , crying down tears of sorrow as I fall into the dark spiral of death .
" Forgive me Irelon .. I . have forsakened .. You .. "
And soon I fall into the spiral of those who have fallen to the malice and bloodlust of war .
" Antier ! "
Soon the weary knight snapped out of his nightmare and was left in a hazy daze that scalded his brain and blinded his sight with a flash of pure white .
" Antier ! " , The voice shouted into his state of half consciousness .
Somehow , he could not be bothered to answer back to a regular Man At Arms who was checking on the personnel to keep record of the soldiers who were still alive .
" Antier Herald ! If you are in this contingent , please answer ! "
Antier looked up . The scowls of frustrations that he saw on the many faces of the Knights around him seem to scream into his conscience . He knew that through his silence , their presence in this God forsakened place will be prolonged .
The entire battlefield was like a physical manifestation of Hell itself .
" I am here . " , he said wearily .
It was at the same moment when he fully regained his senses that he felt the weight of his armor . The discomfort , made present due to the sweat , dirt and blood came soon after . The wounds that Antier sustained overwhelmed him with torment which stirred up much bitterness in his mouth , making him hiss and spit out curses like poison every time due to the pain .
It was the price to pay for being so daring in the battlefield . Luckily for him , the price this time was a small amount that he could afford .
Antier then looked around him . Columns , rows , huge and small bundles of military personnel dotted the battlefield in every single direction . The echoes of shouts made by the Men at Arms rang far away into the rolling hills disturbing the silence of the dead . The necessity of the personnel being row called was tolerable . But to prolong the soldiers who survived to stay in the battlefield that embraced them with pain and death was torture . It was pure purgatory for all of these men .
Soon after the checking of military personnel ended , the Zexen Knight Contingent made haste in traveling back to the direction of Brass Castle . And it was soon that the surviving men would learn that it will only be their only sense of relief as they made their way out of desecrated plains .
The long journey was tormenting for the Knights . Even more so for those who had to walk or had lost their steeds in combat .
After all the sacrifices and acts of valor that the Knights and Men who have made and written their loyalty in blood to the Confederation , they could not suffer any other dishonorable discharge than to have their feet endure a long and torturous journey .
Antier knew that after every battle , huge or small would change a man . He just didn't knew that it would change a man so dramatically that it would mould or twist him to become so hardened and pained that he would never be the same again .
The stress and the load on his body and spirit is tremendous .
The sudden surge of pain from his body severed the Antier's mind away from the trance of thought and a blurry composition of what he sees around him . Now all that he feels is his body now .
His armor now is his bane . His sword , a hindrance to his legs . His Knight tunic , nothing more than a ragged piece of cloth . Everything , seems to him is now useless .
With every step , Antier felt that his leg muscles were no longer flesh but rusted steel . They grind into the bones of his legs , inflicting unbearable pain and testing his will .
His wounds further bane him with stings , waves and pressures of unbearable suffering . The death of his comrade has diseased him with the sense of powerlessness , guilt and sorrow .
Now he wonders if he could ever hold it all together .
He didn't want to suffer anymore .
Antier deliberately allow fatigue to take over his body and lets his mind drift away into the comforting darkness .
" Antier !!!!! Antier !!!! ... Ant .... "