Book one: The Fall of man

Prologue

There is a tale that is as old as time itself, it has been told and retold a thousand times over in a thousand different languages, throughout every religion that has ever existed...but each time the tale stays almost exactly the same.

They speak of a calamity so great that the entire human race shall be wiped from the face of the earth as if we had never existed at all.

Most waved this off as religious nonsense or superstition, that it is the work of mere fantasy and fiction not science and fact. The work of some of most imaginative minds,some would say, but we never did give any serious thought of them.

We should have listened,we might have saved a lot more lives if we had, but alas hindsight is cruel mistress as they say, because before we knew it our world took a change for the worst..." - an excerpt from the journal of the Unknown man

I found myself standing in a beautiful garden, flowers of all colours and shapes were scattered around giving the place a vibrant feel.

Huge trees that seemed to reach into the sky boarded the garden, the sounds of birds singing and creatures rustling through the bushes could be heard. However even with all the noise the place seems as though it were empty, almost as if the noises of animals I could hear were fake.

In the middle of the garden I could see a huge sparkling lake and in front of it stood a figure, I couldn't quite make them out as they seemed to blur in and out of the visible spectrum almost as if they weren't really there.

I tried to call out to the person and ask where I was and what I was doing here but for some reason I couldn't find the words, well to be more accurate it was like I couldn't speak any words at all, so we just stood there in silence as we took in the calming aura of the garden.

After a few seconds of standing in silence, the figure started to topple backwards as if they were about to collapse, I ran to catch them making it just in time, the second my hand touched the figure I immediately felt calm and at peace with the world, as if all of my problems and worries had disappeared in an instant.

Looking at the person i held more closely I could just make out that they where definitely female. However before I could do anything, she smiled at me, reached up and give me a kiss on my cheek. The moment her lips made contact I was bombarded images that flashed through my mind as if i was experiencing them myself.

Suddenly i was standing atop a Skyscraper overlooking a city in flames, the streets were littered with rubble, entire buildings had crumbled and the sky was a blood red, my vision blurred and I found myself on what seemed to be a military ship of dome kind, looking in horror as the ship was swallowed whole by a creature too terrible to describe...

Once again I was thrust into a new perspective, this time I saw a pile of dismembered Human body parts that made me want to retch and throw up, only to see a group of starved looking people swarm the pile and start to tear at the limbs with hungry looked in their eyes, those at the back of the group however were forced to fight each other for what little scraps they could find.

That's when I saw them, countless beasts of all shapes and sizes rising up from pitch black puddles of what looked to be oil that covered the ground, people began to run in terror, however it was ultimately futile as in a blink of an eye one of the beasts at the head of the group had caught up with one of the starved humans and began to rip him apart while the rest of the monsters did the same to any they could get their hands on.

Up in the sky bright glowing golden gate like portals started to appear as if from nowhere and out of them swarmed hundreds of winged Humanoid figures resplendent in shining silver armor holding spears of golden light.

The warriors began to attack the beasts with blasts of light from their spears, driving them back almost instantly, however as the fight went on some of these winged figures broke away from the main group and began to attack the Humans instead, vicious and savage grins plastered across their faces, splattered with the thick black blood of the monsters and the red crimson blood of Humans.

And then for a fourth time my vision blurred and suddenly I was viewing the entire globe from a birds eye view, what I saw were hundreds more of the beast and the humanoid figures battling all across the entire world.

As I looked on in horror at what was unfolding before my eyes, a voice echoed as darkness started to cloud my vision, growing weaker and weaker with every passing word.

"I'm so sorry, I have...failed….you"

"AHHHHH" I screamed as I sat up in bed

Frantically i reached for my bedside lamp, finding it i flicked the on switch.

As it flickered to life i started to quickly scan my room for one of those horrible beasts or savage winged warriors that might be hiding within one of the many shadows that were cast by my old lamp, I kept looking over and over again in fear that I might have missed something or someone.

I jumped in fright as a mound banging sounded from the wall to my left.

"Oi! Keep it down in there! Some of us are trying to sleep" the voice of my cousin shouted from the room next to mine "God help you if you make me late for my morning classes again Ajay!"

Adrenaline still coursing through my veins, I took several deep breaths as I tried to calm myself down 'Get a hold of yourself Ajay' I thought as my heart pounded against my rib-cage. 'It was just a dream' as i felt my heart start to beat a little slower I decided to answer my cousin.

"Go back to sleep then!" I replied somewhat sarcastically "I wouldn't want to keep you from your beauty sleep"

A disgruntled mumbling was the only response I got.

I looked again at my room, now calmer than I was a few minutes ago, there wasn't much in the way of decoration but when one was a 19 year old unemployed college student one couldn't afford much.

But what little I did have was plenty for me, a writing desk, a bookcase packed full of music books and CD and resting against the back wall was my trusty Gibson electric guitar, a gift from David for my 18th birthday.

I lived with my cousin in his two story pseudo Frat house that he had gotten from his dad and despite being a asshole most of the time, he's still family, even if he does get on my nerves a lot of the time.

We were close enough that I consider him my brother, I mean just looking at us interact would make anyone think we were siblings. Not that I'd mention it to him though, that would probably make his already inflated ego even bigger than I could possibly imagine.

Looking back at the room one last time, I decided that whatever those creatures were they probably weren't real, and definitely not in my room.

"Man.." I whispered to myself as i switched off my lamp and rolled over to get into a more comfortable position "I really need to stop watching late night monster movies before I go to bed, it's really starting to mess with my sleep"

My eyes slowly closed as sleep once again started to consume me. But I couldn't help but think one last thing as i drifted off into the sweet embrace of rest.

'why did that dream feel so real, and more importantly why the hell do I have this horrible sense of foreboding?'

A/N:

Heya guys Knight here, this is a new project I am working on with a few friends of mine, My ever Faithful beta Caffeinated and my second beta AnDeasAriana

This project is going to be grand in scale so I hope you will join me for this ride

And Please feel free to give us criticism on our work in the comments, but please constructive criticism only. You know who you are.

But for now this is The_Knight_of_Swords&Shadows signing off

see you next time