Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) in the aftermath of this carnage… especially for the dark one.
~保護者~
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Hello, MelGamingPlays! Well, there are gonna be a couple more than four prologue chapters. But, anyway, that's a really good guess! You'll just have to see if you're right about them being about him.
~保護者~
"Prologue Part 4: Hell Rising"
~保護者~
In the aftermath of a long fight, a man walked alone. Heedless of the corpses surrounding him, of the lakes of blood, of the gore, he strode toward the largest victim of them all. It was a huge beast, grotesque in shape and snarling even in death. Once, it had been a mere dragon, but what it had touched today had irreparably changed it, corrupted it. Clenched tightly between it's huge, mutated fangs was a shard. It would have seemed inconsequential to most, but he knew better. He knew far, far better. This was a Twilight Shard, and it was something he wanted. Needed, even. And this beast had been fool enough to try to keep it from him… Powerful or not, you were doomed from the start… He paused briefly, contemplating the gruesome nature of it's demise. Fitting, he decided slowly, that you should die such a bloody death when the last moments of your life were spent feasting upon the blood of others.
Ripping the shard free of its narrow confines, the man turned away. He tucked the large shard under his left arm, the same arm that was currently holding his sword. His other hand casually wiped some of the dripping blood and gore off of the blade, revealing some of the black metal beneath. Idly flicking the detritus off of his hand, he resumed his earlier walk. Smoke hung heavily in the crimson skies, an endless reminder of the bloody conflict that had just taken place. Fires raged all around as the screams of the few survivors were cut off one by one by his hordes. He reveled in the slaughter, unable to restrain a small laugh from bubbling up inside of him when he heard someone beg for their life… only to have said life be ruthlessly taken from them not a second later.
With a dark smirk, he approached an as-of-yet still living victim of the earlier carnage. She was young, fit, covered in blood. She was a pretty little thing, really, but he had no care for it. As she lay there in the oversaturated dirt, unable to get up or even move on her own, she dared to shoot daggers at him with her eyes. It was a look he had seen before, and one that meant nothing to him. Kneeling down, he set the shard aside and then placed a finger under her chin, tilting it up so that she was forced to look directly at him. "Tell me something…" he murmured, smoothing down some of the feathers on her cheek with a bloody thumb. It was a sinister gesture, and she shuddered terribly as a result. "Why did you think you and your little friends could survive this...?"
Predictably, she spat at him (literally, even) and did her best to intensify her glare to frightening levels. "Even if we fail," she growled as best as a mere bird could, "others will come. No one is about to stand aside and let you go through with this…"
"Let me?" Another laugh escaped him, this one shorter and decidedly darker than the first. She trembled when he grasped her chin again. His grip with tighter than before, demanding focus. Attention. Belief. "I ask for no permission to do as I please, dove. And, in case you were somehow unaware…" He suddenly shifted his hand to the side of her face and jerked her head to the side, effectively slamming it into the ground and forcing her to stare at all the death around them. By now, tears were forming in her eyes as fresh terror set in. "You lot have already failed. There is no if. Your comrades are dead and, eventually, you will join them. And the others… the rest of your people? They are just as doomed. This brazen attempt at stopping me has done nothing to save any of them, or anyone else."
The woman swallowed thickly, apparently trying to steel her nerves. She shut her eyes against the torn and bloody world, denying it… and him. "No. Someone will stop you," she told him in as even a voice as she could manage. "You won't win."
"I already have, dove." His hand shifted higher, fingers tangling into her hair and pulling hard. Standing, he lifted her up with him, eliciting a cry of pain from mortal lips. His smile long gone, he muttered to her, "You are not strong, girl. You are not brave." Though it was futile, she tried to struggle. Her expression wavered between terrified and weak attempts at confidence and dignity in the face of her situation. "You have merely attempted to forget the fear of death." He raised his sword, watching as the tears finally began to spill from shimmering violet eyes. "Allow me to reacquaint you with that fear…"
Swinging his arm, he sliced her open deeply, then turned and walked a few feet to the right as she cried out her pain for all to hear. With no remorse and no expression, he threw her down a fiery chasm to a horde of starving beasts below. Her screams lasted for a regrettably short time, but that was a matter he soon put out of mind. Taking the Twilight Shard out from under his arm, he contemplated the blackness of the glass-like object and his own dark reflection within. So the Babylonians have finally decided to interfere…
He tilted the shard this way and that, almost idly, as he thought. Blood-red light from the crimson sun above caught the shiny surface with each slight movement, tinting the shard with one of the most favorable colors in existence. Eventually, he smirked. The portal is far from finished… I suppose I have time for some more fun. Grinning darkly to himself, he turned and began walking toward a distant citadel sitting atop a rocky cliff. Who knew… perhaps he'd even have an opportunity to kill that damn hawk and his friends, too. But, for now…
For now, he had a shard to place.
~保護者~
1,025 words this time. Dark though this is, I hope you all enjoyed. There are only a couple more parts to the prologue stuff, then the main story will begin. Also, the line, "You are not strong, girl. You are not brave. You have merely attempted to forget the fear of death." was taken from Destiny 2's original main villain ("Gaul" I think is what his name was). Posted (at about 10:00 a.m.) 10-27-18.