Author's Notes: I chose the American spelling of 'Honour' because the British version doesn't look right. No offense to British or Canadian readers.
Disclaimers: Cardcaptors belong to CLAMP. Some quotations used in the story were originally written by those poetic guys at Wizards of the Coast, Inc. I only own Shadow.
Honor the Fallen
Earth. Once it has been thriving with life. Now it shared the same fate as the planet that forced Strider to act on behalf of Nemesis...total destruction. The souls of the people have been sent to the hierarchy in the next plane of existence.
Will I always have to do this? This question rang through Shadow's mind over and over. One day, Nemesis will catch up to him and give him what he deserved. Perhaps it will be in a similar form as Earth 692, rallying around their banner and uniting in their name.
The entity simply floated around, trying to sort out the events, replaying in his mind. He had always felt a bit of remorse but not as much as this. The purity in the world he recently destroyed was concentrated around the girl with emerald eyes...Sakura.
He saw a small wooden staff, floating in the debris of the planet. It appeared to belong to Li's family. There were Chinese inscriptions on it. They went like this:
Simple wooden staff
Made from life, protecting life,
Stronger than cold steel.
This was the same philosophy the Silkenfist Fighters went by. They were true warriors, beaming with purity. They created the Silkenfist Order a few years after they banded together. Their oath played itself in the head of the Destroyer.
Hands weave life and death;
Intertwining spirits knit
Tapestries and shrouds.
Shadow tried to put a silence to those philosophies by destroying every last member of the order. When he stood above the last fighter, the fighter breathed out his last words, "Whoever obeys God and His Prophet, fears God and does his duty to Him, will surely find success."
Those words haunted Shadow's memory for a century. How can something like this haunt a powerful entity like this? Is there truly a God, a being higher than both him and Strider?
The defenders of this world had looked familiar to Shadow. Then he recognized them as something he had destroyed before back in the land of Llanowar.
flashback
"Does it burn, elf?" The Destroyer narrowed his eyes even more as he prepared to snap the neck of the fallen Llanowar Druid. "Do you wish you had never raised arms against me?"
The young boy's amber eyes stared right into Shadow's fiery red eyes. "This forest means more to us than our own kin. The loss of a tree is like the loss of a child." Shadow snorted. "Prepare to join the ranks of the fallen..."
Another druid worked feverishly to prepare the ritual. If it works...perhaps the land will have a chance of survival. With that, she sacrificed herself and her lifeforce started to replenish the trees. Her emerald eyes saw the great forest beam with life once more before she embraced the darkness.
In a few moments, the souls of Llanowar were harvested. Shadow was about to destroy the land when he noticed the forest. It wept for the loss of its children. For the first time, Shadow felt remorse.
end flashback
This feeling kept coming up for every world he destroyed. He finally decided to leave a legacy of each planet that was sacrificed for the hierarchy.
"Captain!! Take a look at this!!" The Janudais captain looked at the remains of the Earth and the message that was sent out on all frequencies.
'May the River claim the bodies of this world, wherever they lie.'
Disclaimers: Cardcaptors belong to CLAMP. Some quotations used in the story were originally written by those poetic guys at Wizards of the Coast, Inc. I only own Shadow.
Honor the Fallen
Earth. Once it has been thriving with life. Now it shared the same fate as the planet that forced Strider to act on behalf of Nemesis...total destruction. The souls of the people have been sent to the hierarchy in the next plane of existence.
Will I always have to do this? This question rang through Shadow's mind over and over. One day, Nemesis will catch up to him and give him what he deserved. Perhaps it will be in a similar form as Earth 692, rallying around their banner and uniting in their name.
The entity simply floated around, trying to sort out the events, replaying in his mind. He had always felt a bit of remorse but not as much as this. The purity in the world he recently destroyed was concentrated around the girl with emerald eyes...Sakura.
He saw a small wooden staff, floating in the debris of the planet. It appeared to belong to Li's family. There were Chinese inscriptions on it. They went like this:
Simple wooden staff
Made from life, protecting life,
Stronger than cold steel.
This was the same philosophy the Silkenfist Fighters went by. They were true warriors, beaming with purity. They created the Silkenfist Order a few years after they banded together. Their oath played itself in the head of the Destroyer.
Hands weave life and death;
Intertwining spirits knit
Tapestries and shrouds.
Shadow tried to put a silence to those philosophies by destroying every last member of the order. When he stood above the last fighter, the fighter breathed out his last words, "Whoever obeys God and His Prophet, fears God and does his duty to Him, will surely find success."
Those words haunted Shadow's memory for a century. How can something like this haunt a powerful entity like this? Is there truly a God, a being higher than both him and Strider?
The defenders of this world had looked familiar to Shadow. Then he recognized them as something he had destroyed before back in the land of Llanowar.
flashback
"Does it burn, elf?" The Destroyer narrowed his eyes even more as he prepared to snap the neck of the fallen Llanowar Druid. "Do you wish you had never raised arms against me?"
The young boy's amber eyes stared right into Shadow's fiery red eyes. "This forest means more to us than our own kin. The loss of a tree is like the loss of a child." Shadow snorted. "Prepare to join the ranks of the fallen..."
Another druid worked feverishly to prepare the ritual. If it works...perhaps the land will have a chance of survival. With that, she sacrificed herself and her lifeforce started to replenish the trees. Her emerald eyes saw the great forest beam with life once more before she embraced the darkness.
In a few moments, the souls of Llanowar were harvested. Shadow was about to destroy the land when he noticed the forest. It wept for the loss of its children. For the first time, Shadow felt remorse.
end flashback
This feeling kept coming up for every world he destroyed. He finally decided to leave a legacy of each planet that was sacrificed for the hierarchy.
"Captain!! Take a look at this!!" The Janudais captain looked at the remains of the Earth and the message that was sent out on all frequencies.
'May the River claim the bodies of this world, wherever they lie.'