Author's Note: Let's get back with some darkness, shall we?
Chapter Twenty-One: Birthplace of Evil
Drake stopped as the stairs bottomed out. The ground he was standing on was covered by a thick, otherworldly mist. What he felt down here was evil in a way he nothing he had felt on the Earth was. This was truly a place where the darkness gathered, a place where evil flourished. 'A darkness that gives even me the chills.'
Shaking off that feeling, he advanced forwards, his hand holding a ball of black flame that strangely enough provided light for him. His footsteps echoed down the tunnel, the only sound that could be heard. At least until the voice came to him. "You disturb the dead. The dead have remained pacified. Come no further mortal, or death shall take you!"
"I am no mere mortal! I am the darkness itself, darkness incarnate! Bring on your dead you bodiless motherfucker, and I'll burn them all to ash!" The voice didn't reply, so all he could do was continue walking down the tunnel.
Whispers in the darkness told him that somehow, he wasn't alone. His suspicions were confirmed when the tunnel ended in a massive cavern, and corpses of all shapes and sizes, and conditions as well, meandered around. 'I've wandered into Night of the Living Dead.'
The dead seemed to ignore him as he walked past them, their rotting bodies brushing up against him as he pushed in farther. The cavern seemed to grow thicker with them as he continued towards the center of the cavern. Eventually they grew so thick that he was shoving through a wall of decayed flesh before he was even half-way there. 'There are tens of thousands of them in this cavern alone!'
Briefly he considered burning them to ash like he had suggested to that strange voice, but knew that he risked striking the Concordance if he did so. He didn't know if it was protected by a barrier, or just these walking corpses. He didn't want to risk destroying the object that could make him a god. 'Damn it…it'll take forever to get there at this point!'
"Mortal, you approach too close to that which human hands should never touch. Advance no further or be consumed by the dead." Drake looked around for the origin of the voice, but just like before it seemed to come from everywhere, including in his hand.
"Listen you intangible fuck! I already said I'm coming to get it, and no amount of rotting lumps of flesh can stop me! The Concordance of Legends will belong to me!" The bodiless voice laughed the sound chilling and terrifying, even to Drake. There was something about that laugh that embodied something…sinister.
"So, they call it the Concordance of Legends now do they? Mortal, you know not what you seek. The dead protect it, and the hands of a human shall never touch it. If you wish to lay your hands upon that which humans should never touch, then you must become one of the dead. Is that your desire?" Drake shivered as the eyes of thousands of undead turned to look upon him, the large mass of bodies now facing him, surrounding him on all sides.
"Go to Hell!" Again that sinister laugh echoed in his mind and throughout the cavern, and even the corpses seemed to laugh.
"You are far more interesting than the last mortal to enter this place. You will make an excellent addition to my collection. Mortal, prepare yourself to join the dead. Your foolishness has caused this, for you have failed to see the truth." Drake tilted his head up to look at the cavern ceiling, hoping to catch a sing of something there.
"Oh? And what exactly is it that I'm missing?" The thick fog that layered the ground coiled around his feet, and to his surprise it began to solidify, and his legs couldn't move.
"Mortal…this is the place that births things even Hell itself fears. You walked through a convergence into the place with no name. This is the place where Evil was born into the world. Mortal, your death's crescendo will become a symphony in this place, to echo throughout time. Your suffering will be eternal. Prepare for the symphony of your demise!"
And as one the mass of dead creatures attacked him.
"You may already be dead, but I'll make you all wish you had never been born!" Drake's fist swung in a wide arc, crashing into the cheek of the first zombie. With his dark energy empowering the blow, the zombie's head was torn off its shoulders, and the body collapsed.
Unable to move his legs because of the restraints he was forced to jab backwards with his elbow, striking another zombie in the stomach, sending it spinning backwards with incredible force. Zombies were plowed out of the way by the flying body. "One or ten thousand, it doesn't matter when you're all weak as kittens!"
Their hands reached for him, surrounding him on all sides. He swung his fists as hard as he could, but no matter how many he slammed out of the way there were more to take their place. 'Damn this…there's too many of them to fight conventionally…I'm going to have risk the Concordance just so I can stay alive!'
"Fine, I'll burn you all to ash!" His power roared out around him, an aura of black flame covering his body, incinerating the zombies that tried to touch him. It licked outwards, burning away more and more zombies, but still there seemed to be no end to them, and his energies could only last for so long.
"Mortal, there is no way for you to survive and reach the Concordance. Yet even then, should you touch the Concordance you will become one of the dead. Where did you think all of these living dead came from?" That sinister chuckle in his mind was enough to cause his power to flicker for a moment, and the zombies rushed back in.
"I'm not a human, I never was! I…AM…THE DARKNESS!" His energy exploded off of his body again, shredding the zombies and turning them into ruined masses of flesh. Yet still he held back for fear of risking the destruction of the Concordance, his ticket to godhood.
"Fool. Destroy them all if you wish, but you cannot touch the Concordance. Your death is going to be glorious, and your suffering unending. Perhaps during the eternity of your pain and suffering you can come to understand your foolishness…" Drake paused, and his aura of black flames flickered and died, letting the zombies advance on him.
Slowly a cocky smirk revealed itself on Drake's features, his russet-brown hair rising up from his scalp as his power flickered, barely contained within. "Zombies…nothing but pathetic zombies. Let's do this without the risk of damaging the Concordance….let's do it with the darkness!"
"The darkness? You would actually challenge this army to a Darkness Game? This is…yes, I see. They will begin, starting one on one, just as you wish." Drake grinned as the mist dissolved around his legs, freeing him. Immediately he raised his left arm, duel disk clinking into place. (DLP: 4000)
The zombies formed a wide circle, and the first one approached, shambling up. It was missing one eye, and there was little sign of whether it had once been a man or a woman. Now it was just a corpse, a corpse with a sparking and nearly nonfunctional duel disk somehow on its arm. "D..draw." (ZLP: 4000)
Its single remaining eye looked over the four blackened cards that it was holding, and then unsteadily placed it onto the duel disk. A flickering image of a horizontally face down card appeared. "Monster…defense…end."
Drake snorted and flicked the top card off of his deck. "The slow talking, I can handle that. The crappy dueling? I guess I shouldn't have expected better from an undead thing. Two cards face down and end."
Once more the zombie drew in its slow fashion, its fingers looking like they would break off just from that minor strain. "Sacrifice…summon…Ryu Kokki(2400/2000)." The face down monster faded away, only to be replaced by a brutal looking monster which held a club in one hand.
Again Drake snorted, unimpressed by the powerful level six monster. "A Zombie Deck? Sheesh, like I couldn't have predicted. But anyways, the duel is over. Reverse card open…"
One of his two face down cards flipped up, and a burning dark circle spun out of it, latching onto the monster's neck. When the ring stopped spinning it was revealed to have what looked like explosives strapped to it, each explosive with the radioactive warning symbol. "Ring of Annihilation! This trap destroys one monster in play and deals double its attack as damage to each player!"
Ryu Kokki was torn apart by the explosion, evaporating into mist, just as the zombie was, being hit by a full forty-eight hundred damage. Drake seemed unconcerned as the wave of energy approached him. "Voice, you wanted me to eventually realize how foolish I was through suffering, right? Well…how's this for you? Open face down card, Revelation of Suffering!"
The blast swept over him, and the cave was still. Eventually the dust faded away, and Drake remained standing, his trench coat flaring out behind him from the remains of the gust created by the blast. "Whenever I deal effect damage to my opponent I gain that much damage as life points, so I absorbed forty-eight hundred life points just as I lost it, protecting me." (DLP: 4000)
His smugness faded as another zombie stepped forward, this one still decently covered by clothing. It too had a malfunctioning duel disk on its left arm, which was already activated, and it now held six cards in its hand. "They start when the next loses? Fine, I can deal with that."
The zombie selected one of the cards it was holding, and practically dropped it onto the duel disk. A flickering dark body now emerged in front of it, a true shape not even there. It was merely a shadowed form. "Summon…Fear from…the Dark(1700/1200). Attack."
Fear from the Dark covered the distance between the zombie and Drake in a matter of seconds, slamming bodily into him. He grunted, but didn't make any other reaction physically as his life points dropped. "Heh, even with a basically free turn you can't do much can you?" (DLP: 2300)
"End…turn." Drake drew, and immediately smirked at whatever card he had drawn. Had his opponent been anything other than a zombie it probably would have been nervous. Of course since it was a zombie, it just sat there staring at him.
"Since you're not much for reaction or speaking, I'll get no complaint about this. Activate trap card, Burning Hell Gamble!" He slammed the drawn card into his duel disk, and it appeared face down. Seconds later it flipped up, revealing a group of demons standing around a dice table.
"This trap card can be activated from my hand if I have no monsters on my field, and since that's the case it's easy. Now, for its effect I have to roll a die, and based on the outcome I get a certain effect. Let's just see what it is, shall we?" A blood red die popped out of the face-up trap card, bouncing and spinning across the stones beneath their feet.
The die stopped with four little dots facing upwards towards the ceiling. "Perfect. When a four is rolled I take the attack points of one monster on your field, add five hundred to it, and then deal it to your life points. Burn!"
All the zombies nearby were nearly tossed off their feet as the red die exploded. The zombie Drake was facing would have fallen onto its back if not for the sheer pressure of the bodies behind it. "Enjoy that freak?" (ZLP: 1800)
There was no reaction, so he moved along. "Since you took damage from an effect I now gain the same number of life points thanks to Revelation of Suffering. That's twenty-two hundred bonus points for me!" (DLP: 4500)
He smirked and selected two of the cards in his hand, then placed them into two of the open slots in his duel disk. Each of them appeared face down, one to each side of Revelation of Suffering. "I'll play those two cards down on the field, and then end."
Struggling, the zombie drew another card. Then it slowly lifted the drawn card open, showing a magic card that had a card with two swords piercing the stars on top. "Activate…Cost Down…discard card…reduce monster levels…two stars."
It slid the two cards into its grave very slowly, and then picked up Fear from the Dark off its deck in the same slow fashion. "Sacrifice for…Despair from…the Dark(2800/3000). Attack."
"You're so fucking slow, and so fucking dead meat! Open trap card, Death Cylinder! This trap card destroys the attacking monster and deals one thousand life points damage to you!" The massive shadowed form of Despair from the Dark shattered, and a blast of black energy blew a hole in the zombie's chest. (ZLP: 800)
"Revelation of Suffering, do your thing! Grant me an additional one thousand life points!" Energy flowed all around him, and was absorbed both into his body and into his duel disk. He licked his lips, looking satisfied as the life points put him past his starting point. (DLP: 5500)
When the zombie did nothing else, Drake realized that it was officially his turn. He sighed and drew once, giving him three cards in hand. "Not even a single set card? Of course traps against me is rather pointless. Oh…look at this, no more zombie here. Death Meteor!"
An orb shot down from above, wreathed in black flame, and struck the zombie, blowing it apart. Even as its life points were trailing off another zombie stepped up, its hand up to five cards and its life points reset. "Never ending, aren't you? Still, more life points for me, and more available carnage." (Z1LP: 0, Z2LP: 4000, DLP: 6500)
"Oh wait, I know what to do! Quick-play card activate, Instant Replay! I'll use its effect to use my last played effect, in other words here's a taste of that thousand damage for you!" Drake laughed as the meteor incinerated half of the newest zombie's head, yet it still remained standing. (ZLP: 3000, DLP: 7500)
"Go ahead zombie, I'm done for the moment." The zombie didn't respond in words, but rather in actions. Immediately it began the slow and annoying process of drawing a new card to start off with.
It took the newly drawn card and slid it slowly into the cemetery. "Discard…Swift Zombie(0/0)…effect to…special summon undead monster…from deck. Special summon…Vampire Lord(2000/1500)."
An elegant looking man with pale skin and bat wings now stood in front of the zombie. And it was eying Drake's neck with a hungry look. "Don't get anxious, you won't get even close to tasting my blood."
"Remove Vampire Lord…from game….special summon Vampire…Genesis(3000/21000)." A huge purple skinned monster took the place of Vampire Lord, its arms connected by hideous bat-like wings to its body. It too looked exceedingly hungry.
"Vampire Genesis…effect activate. Discard zombie…" It held up an Invader of Darkness. "Special summon…zombie from grave….less level than…discard zombie. Special summon….Ryu Kokki(2400/2000)." The hideous beast from before appeared, hefting its club and looking eager to go on the attack.
"Vampire Genesis…direct attack." Drake sighed and snapped his fingers, immediately causing the one remaining set card he had to reveal itself. It showed a man pushing a cart stacked high with bodies, while all around him people were dying.
"When I am attacked directly I can trigger this trap card: The Black Death! Its effect now takes the attack of one opponent's monster and deals it as damage to that player's life points. So I'll deal the three thousand points of Genesis to your life points, finishing you off!" The zombie crumbled to dust, a victim of the power of Drake's trap. (ZLP: 0)
Another zombie started to step forward, only to have parts of its remaining skin crumble under pressure. "Since you stepped up, The Black Death deals you Ryu Kokki's attack points as damage. So feel it!" (ZLP: 1600)
He snapped his fingers, and energy rushed from his continuous trap card into his duel disk. "Once again the effect of Revelation of Suffering activates! And that means I gain a grand total of fifty-four hundred life points!" (DLP: 12900)
The newest zombie shuddered as it placed a card down onto its duel disk. The two already face up zombies shattered, and what took their place was beyond hideous. It looked like a science experiment gone wrong, with its left side a red armored body, and the right side covered partially by white fur. "Sacrifice for…Maju Garzett(/0). Attack points equal….tributed monsters."
The monster shrieked, a terrible sound to any normal person. Drake just sighed and waited for the turn to continue, even as Maju Garzett's attack points showed as fifty-four hundred. "Magic card…Undead Wrath…discard zombies…increase zombie by….one thousand…attack."
It took the four remaining cards in its hand and dumped them all into the graveyard. Immediately the composite beast shrieked again as its attack points went soaring, straight up to ninety-four hundred. "Impressive. Of course, that was the second main phase, so you're finished I take it."
The zombie said nothing of course, so Drake drew, looking interested in the card he had drawn. "Perfect, it looks like I'm going to kill you. Magic card activate, Dark Trap Power! This lets me activate the effect of one trap in my cemetery and I choose…Ring of Annihilation!"
The nuclear powered ring of destruction snapped around Maju Garzett's neck, and started spinning. Seconds later it exploded, the detonation even more massive than the first time. Drake burst out laughing as he held up his final card. "Forked Power lets me take an effect that normally works on a single target, and spread it to a maximum of five. This allows me to hit four extra zombies who aren't playing!"
The five nearest zombies, including the one he had currently been dueling, all exploded under the power. At the same time the energy that was going towards Drake was being pulled directly into his duel disk. "Such wonderful damage…and such wonderful life points!" (DLP: 88,100)
"This is way too damned slow. Come on, five at a time! Bring on the best you've got!" He folded his arms across his chest, managing to look irritated and bored at the same time. The voice that he had been hearing laughed, and five zombies stepped forwards, their duel disks activating.
The first one placed a card onto its duel disk, and a rotting zombie appeared in front of it. "Wandering Mummy(1500/1000), attack." Drake didn't even budge as the zombie bit his arm, blood dribbling down. As it shambled away, the wound healed up. (DLP: 86600, Z1LP: 4000)
Its turn appeared to be over since the next zombie was already drawing and placing a card down. Wandering Mummy vanished, only to be replaced by a monster similar to Maju Garzett. Only this one looked more complete, with armor plating over its body, and white fur extending out from beneath it. "Sacrifice for…Great Maju Garzett…attack double…tributed monster's."
Drake shrugged, still looking bored. "Great Maju Garzett(3000/0)…attack." It reared back one arm, and slashed it at Drake. The dark duelist let the claws rake across his chest, drawing four lines of blood as it rented his shirt. (DLP: 83600, Z2LP: 4000)
Seconds later the third zombie was drawing, and it held up a magic card. "Magic card…Undead Horde. Discard cards…special summon…Undead Soul tokens(500/500)."
It folded up its hand and slid all five of the cards into the graveyard. A full set of five disfigured corpses now stood on its field. "All…direct attack." They lumbered over to Drake, biting onto his arms and into his shoulders, causing him to shake briefly as the blood flowed down his clothing. (DLP: 81100, Z3LP: 4000)
Number four drew, holding up a magic card just as the past one had. "Book of Life…special summon…Vampire Genesis(3000/2100). Discard Dark Master…Zorc. Special summon…Vampire Lord(2000/1500). Normal summon…Pyramid Turtle(1200/1400). Triple direct attack."
The three monsters all struck him, one being a turtle with a shell like a pyramid which just rammed him. The other two monsters, the vampires, sent waves of bats to strike him. Despite the continuous damage to his life points and his body he still looked cocky. "Hurry it up, I'm getting bored here." (DLP: 74900, Z4LP: 4000)
"Vampire Lord effect…discard magic card…from deck." Drake yawned, then held up a Death Meteor and slipped it into its graveyard. As soon as he had done that the fifth and final of these zombie opponents stood and drew.
"Play Zombie Generation…discard zombies…to special summon zombies…from hand. Discard Vampire Bats(800/800)…and Double Coston(1700/1650)…special summon two…Ryu Kokki(2400/2000 X2)." Two of the identical brutes appeared, and immediately they charged at Drake and slammed their clubs into him. (DLP: 70100, Z5LP: 4000)
Drake watched the last zombie for a moment until he was sure that it was done. When he was, he snapped a card, looking positively evil as he held it up. "The time for crushing you scum has come. I gave you five free turns of attacks and you barely dented me, so now it's my turn. Pot of Greed!"
He drew once, and then once he had seen what it was he drew again. "Second card in this turn…Collapse of Humanity! All monsters in play are destroyed, and their controllers take five hundred damage for each!"
The eleven monsters were ripped apart, clearing the field up completely. All of the zombies were hit by debris except for the first one, which had given its monster to the second zombie for tribute. "Take your damage like leftovers of men!" (Z1LP: 4000, Z2LP: 3500, Z3LP: 1500, Z4LP: 2500, Z5LP: 3000)
"Revelation of Suffering, let's undo some of that damage they had done, right?" He took in a whiff of the air, looking pleased at what he smelled. Of course what he smelled was the smell of burning flesh, but he was hardly a normal person. (DLP: 75600)
Smirking he held up the second card he had drawn from Pot of Greed. "Body Count activates! For every monster of the opponent's that I've destroyed or removed from the game during this duel I get to draw one card, to a maximum of ten. So, draw time!"
He counted down the cards, then pulled all ten free from his deck in one grab. "Death Meteor, target the first zombie!" The black fireball burned through the left forearm of the first zombie, dropping its remaining arm and duel disk to the ground. (Z1LP: 3000, DLP: 76600)
Smirking he flicked another card around. "Reclamation lets me pick up a single card from my cemetery and add it to my hand. I choose Forked Power. And now…I'll end all five of you in one shot. Armageddon Meteor and Forked Power combo together for five thousand damage to each of you!"
All five zombies were burned to ashes as the huge meteor swept through where they had been standing. Nothing was left when it faded away, meaning it was time for more zombies to step up, and five did to replace the five that were lost. "Yes…yes the life points are wonderful!" (DLP: 101600)
"This is an impossible task that you face, don't you understand that? Even if you take them down five at a time, or ten at a time, it is an impossible duel. There are a total of sixteen thousand one hundred and seventy-three living dead remaining in this room. No duelist could defeat them all." Drake paused, and looked up at the ceiling, even though the voice didn't originate there.
"Is that so? No duelist can do it? Is that like how no human being can touch the Concordance without becoming one of the living dead? Well then…I'll prove you wrong about this one, and then about the second. So…I'll duel all of them at once!" This time it was the voice's turn to consider this declaration.
Finally the sound of tens of thousands of duel disks activated reached his ears, and he smirked. "And so it begins, some sixteen thousand pathetic zombies against me. This will be the first test on my way to godhood, an impossible task for a mortal man…but easy for me!"
He looked down at his hand, and then a dark grin appeared on his face. "It's over…just wait. Magic card, Birth Into Suffering! This special summons a monster from the opponent's grave to their field, which lacks the ability to attack. They take half its attack as damage so…Vampire Lord(2000/1500) returns!"
The first of the zombies, the one nearest to him, suddenly had the regal looking Vampire Lord on its field. But the lord turned around and sank its fangs into the zombie's flesh. Seconds later it jerked away, not finding any blood in the undead monster. "Not much damage of course, but I've got a guaranteed victory with it." (Z1LP: 3000, DLP: 102600)
"One card face down. This is it you monsters, your end is about to come. I'd like to say something witty like 'I'll see you in hell' but since I won't be dying, that won't be happening." He smirked, even as the first zombie drew its very first card. After it would come a series of over sixteen thousand other zombies, all of which would be after his life points.
Immediately Drake's set card flipped up, and the field began to shake. "Trap of Darkness activates! This lets me pay one thousand life points to activate a trap card in my cemetery. And the trap I'm activating…is Ring of Annihilation!" (DLP: 101600)
The deadly trap fell across Vampire Lord's neck, and the regal undead monster struggled to free itself. None of the zombies reacted, their emotions long since stripped away. "Like I said, this is the end. Ta ta!"
A string of explosions spread throughout the room, jumping from zombie to zombie as the effect of Ring of Annihilation dealt four thousand damage to each and every one of them. And for every explosion Drake gained more life points. (ZLP1-16173: 0)
The smoke faded away, leaving Drake as the only person standing in the entire room, all the zombies gone. There, about sixty feet away from him, in the center of the cavern, was a small black book on a pedestal. "And so victory is mine." (DLP: 64,789,600)
His duel disk shut down, and then he threw back his head, laughing as loud as he could. His laughter echoed across the entire cavern, and it lasted for a good five minutes before his mirth finally subsided. "That was definitely an ego stroker right there."
Still smirking he sauntered up to the little black book and gingerly reached his hand out for it. To his surprise he encountered no barrier of any kind. "So the people who placed this down here thought the seals and the undead would be enough to stop someone from claiming it? Heh, pathetic."
He let his hand come to rest on the cover, drawing his fingers across the surface. It didn't feel like anything he had ever touched before, it wasn't leather, or anything like it. The material that made up the book was not natural, just like the book. "I want to claim it…its calling to me."
Indeed, in his mind he could hear a faint sound like a hellish choir singing to him. The sound was most definitely coming from the book, and finally he grabbed it by the spine and lifted it away from the pedestal. "It feels right in my grip, as if it was always meant to be here."
"Yes, you were never born. The book was made in a time outside of time, created for that which is human, but never born of human flesh. That which is sundered free from a champion of man to become the destroyer of man. This book, truly named The Revelations of Suffering, is a book created just for you." Drake found himself somehow unsurprised, instinctively knowing it to be true.
"So the book was made just for me. But, what secrets does it contain? Can it really bring a person to ascend to godhood, or is it something else? Hey…you knew the whole time that it was made for me?" The voice laughed in his head, and he felt the irresistible need to punch it, but of course there was nothing to punch.
"I exist beyond time, beneath time, above time. Call it what you will, your mortal mind cannot comprehend the manner in which I exist. But I have seen your coming time and time again, yet only once at the same time. It is for this point in time that I exist, for I will impart to you the knowledge that you need. This is your beginning, this is your end." Drake's lips quirked as he looked down at the book in his hands. He wasn't sure how to take this information.
"What knowledge? What am I supposed to learn from this? And answer the question…can I become a god, or was this whole thing for nothing?" He felt his hands itching, and the singing of the book become louder in his ears, more insistent. It was insisting that he open it…
"It contains all the knowledge of who you were, who you are, and what you shall become. It is your truth, it your I. It is everything that you were, are, and will be. Open it, and know the truth. Open it, and be born." Drake cracked the knuckles on his right hand, ready to do what the voice said and open it. It felt right, he knew that he should open it.
The moment his fingers pulled back that top cover, a terrible howl slashed through the air, echoing through the cavern and up through the three separate tunnels that headed out of it. It was a sound that would have caused a normal person to suffer intense psychological pain, but to him…it was beautiful. "It screams for me…it yearns for me. It calls out for me to turn its pages, to revel in its truths. I was created for this moment…now, I'll be born."
As he began to read, the voice sounded in his head. "Yes. This is your birth from this confines of normal existence. This is your death. This is where all you know ends, and where everything else begins. This is the defining moment in your existence, and the lives of countless others."
He felt himself enraptured by what he was reading, his eyes flicking from word to word. Each word seared into his eyes, imprinted upon his brain as he read on. "Yes…this is right. This is me…this is what has been missing from my life. I am going to know the truth…and then I'll bring it to everyone else…I will reap such glorious carnage throughout the land!"
The flame within him that was his soul flickered, its form changing as he read. It was growing darker, and growing out of control. "This is the Birthplace of Evil. This is the place of your birth. Where all evil begins, where true evil begins, where the last evil begins. This is your birth, and the death of everything else."
Drake's eyes darkened and he stopped on a single sentence. He felt compelled to read it out loud, and so he did. "The Apocalypse walks in my footsteps."
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Author's Notes: We've reached the end of roughly the first third of this story, and now we know a little bit more, don't we?
Next Time: Although the darkness in Drake's heart has been born for a purpose, Drake himself finds himself without purpose, without passion, without true life. Though he drifts onwards like a ghost, the world drifts towards danger, and he must be awakened.
See it all in, Sorrow's Ghost!
Review Response
Time Mage: Yeah, I created the Balance Matrix before I ever created this story, so it definitely has its explanation. As for your questions, they shall all be answered in due time.
WolfGeneral: Brutal killing, there's nothing it can't cure…or something like that. As for the Balance Matrix…yeah, there's some complex stuff ahead.
Black Death X: Yep, when I first designed this storyline I created the finale's outline before I did the rest. This story is what I've been building up to the whole time.
G.O.T. Nick: Mmm….freaky eyes. Like those purple M&Ms. Unnatural.