Lamentus 5
Five Days.
That is all it took. The solemn blue sky fractured into void, lamenting the heavens in dark-lit divinity. I saw it with my own eyes. The five moons burnt out, and they, THEY awoke. The vile blasphemies, shadows of ill omen, came only to defy their place, came to remind us of our true lords. The beasts were unchained, ravenous, and razed everything that opposed them. Sending hundreds weeping on their way, the others ran, as one rose to face the opponent.
Scathed in hateful vehemence, it rejected the whims of catharsis and was exhumed within the grave of light. The Knight, the eldritch sovereign of the blackened spires, the blighted harbinger of rancorous acrimony, it desired nothing but to scour the offenders from the land. When they constructed monuments, it was The Knight who knocked them down. When they healed their wounds, it was The Knight who gashed them back. The being bared no name, yet if ever met in gaze will brand itself within your soul.
Its will was nigh unbreakable, a gluttonous bastion of unsatiable fervor, feasting on the pain and eternally hungry for more. Tearing through all realms, it ravaged until none were left, subjugating gods to its defiance. I've yet to learn the true beliefs of such a force of nature, however, it is a well-known fact that The Knight...will never die. It bares a steel cold blade of hatred which it uses to smite all those who wrong it. It will continue to live on as long as its resentment is fueled. It lurks within the far reaches of this world, awaiting its time to return, for it is a being of pure anger and animosity, the embodiment of wrath.
The man woke up in a mess.
A huge migraine erupted from his head as he sat up. From what he could see from his grainy vision, he was strapped onto a leather-plastered chair in a tiled room. He was wearing some strange blue gown. The walls were surrounded by shelves, and a man in a white coat standing at one of the stations. Four strange strips dangled near him, bloody, from what he could see. The man tried to get up from the chair, but lines of buckles restrained him. He raised a hand to rub his eyes to clear the fog, but nothing happened. He tried again, trying to rub his eyes but he felt nothing. Strangely he couldn't feel his arms or legs, and looking down, he realized they were completely gone...
"Oh...you're awake. I'm Doctor Andrew Wainwright, I'll be your surgeon for the time being."
The doctor spoke in a raspy voice. With scraggy long brown hair and a lurked posture, the man sensed something strange from him.
"What are you doing with my limbs?! Why am I here?" He responded,
"Fatal fractures between every bone, entire femur snapped in half, with those injuries I'm awed on how you kept going."
"Then how did I?"
"I'm sure you noticed your body doesn't work like the average human. You have the ability to possess your body with concentrated mana and move it at will. No matter if you break every ligament, or tear every tendon, you can still perform every movement if you have enough mana."
"Damn...That's good to hear...? Can you reattach my limbs now? If they're healed?
"Your forearm and lower leg bones have been augmented with titanium bracing supports so they break less. Try to fracture them less. You'll visit tomorrow for a full cardiovascular examination."
"Wait...why?"
"Anomalous transferences have been seen within your hemoglobin. For now, I'll have to sedate you for the reattachment process."
The Doctor walked toward him and flicked a switch on the white plastic box to his right. A needle poking into his arm injected him with a fluid. His vision quickly went melting away as everything turned dark. The man went to sleep.
When he woke up, all his limbs were back and reattached. He raised both arms and moved his joints, flexing his fingers and wrists. Some tendons felt slightly odd, but most of all they worked completely fine. He slid off the plastered chair and took a few steps barefoot on the polished tiles. The Doctor sat at a desk near the back of the room, turning his head to him.
"You're all set for today. Kade's waiting by the door, he'll get you set up."
The door creaked open and Kade entered the room and waved to the man. He was carrying a set of clothes, neatly folded into a stack.
"Welcome back." Kade said, "Get dressed, we have work to do."
The man walked to the doorframe and grabbed the clothes. A thin grey sweatshirt and a pair of cargo pants. He took his medical gown and slid on the new clothes, a quick sensational rush running across his veins. The shirt was pillowy soft, the pants comfortable. He had gotten used to the damp, tattered rags before, but the feeling of moving around without drenched ribbons slapping against his skin was incomprehensible to him.
Kade guided him out of the medical room and into a hallway intersection. People varying from heavily armed soldiers to regular men bustled from one end to another. Although varying in differences, they all had an aureate emblem affixed somewhere around their equipment, the exact one from Kade and the others. The walls were plated in a dark-grey metal hull with an overhang of steel beams and support.
"Where is this? Doesn't seem like the city or the palace to me..." The man asked,
"This is the Throneguard Stronghold, located between the palace and the lihzard temple, the center of Yharim's Godseeker Subjugation Front." Explained Kade, "Yeah I know...fancy name. We're here because you've got some things to sort out and a pact to seal."
"Pact? What pact?"
"You are now part of the special defenses division. Division number 9. Welcome to the team."
After that sentence, it was a ceased silence. Kade strangely talked a bit quieter than usual, and the charisma in his voice had simmered down. He guided him through various rooms, stashes of armor, prison cells, and rationed packs of food.
This isn't good...Ren...They're going to examine your bloodstream...
Finally...you spoke something.
Laurence. I exist as part of your blood, my soul infused with it. Who knows what will happen if they find out? As soon as we reach the Necronomicon, you need to transport me to the blood before the next checkup.
The two walked into a cramped office room, neatly organized and quite empty. At the oiled wooden desk sat Fenrieth, a single paper in front of her. She noticed the presence of them and welcomed them in.
"Hello. Please, take a seat."
The two pulled out the seats in front and sat down. Fenrieth stood perfectly still and calm, posture stiff and slid the paper towards Kade and the man. She spoke in a bold voice.
"So you are Laurence, pleased to meet you," She said, raising for a handshake which was reciprocated untrustfully," You already know why you're here so let's just get to the business. By joining a military division of the subjugation front, you must participate in any activity of The Lord or a commander direct, no matter what. Because you are not considered a citizen of citadel rule or an allied force, rejecting this line of duty will secure your role as an unaffiliated entity, where we will have the right to inflict any possible thing on you."
A thousand thoughts rushed through his head. What does she mean be that? Could I be killed or captured for something else if I reject it? He didn't know. He turned his head to Kade to see him facing forward, blanked face. He stared through different corners of the room, nervously rubbing his thumb on the table. Cold droplets of sweat trickled down his face as he clenched his toes in.
"Yea, I accept." He said informally,
"Then I am glad you made this contribution to our cause, welcome yourself as the new member of the special division."
A guttural feeling was evoked across his body. A resonance of detestment and rejection pulsed and heated in waves of emotion. Why was he doing this? What would this serve? What would anything server?
Did he want to live?
The two left the office room after a few reluctant paper-signing and walked to the hallway. They went to a large open doorway heavily guarded in dark metal rebar and locked in by several steel bracings that looked heavier than anything he's seen. Upon entrance of the doorway laid a gigantic hangar, plated with reinforced walls. Across the hangar were racks extended from one end of the building to the other, framing up thousands of firearms and guns.
Trays of artillery parts were situated across the edges and dozens of teams of workers scooped the parts up and filtered them into an inner cylinder. Conveyer belts protruded from out the walls to back into across the ceiling twisting and turning in a network of production, carrying newly forged parts to assembled weapons to boxes of ammunition. Other teams carried racks of fully-built weapons to large cargo cases, sorted them in, and shipped them away.
Kade pulled the man through the factory, squeezing through whatever space there is to reach the end of the room. At the back was a heavy hydraulic door with a sealed vault lock. Kade clenched the rotating lock and twisted it open. The hydraulic door opened with a metal hum as a wave of heat wafted out. Through the door it was temperatures of an active volcano, the polygonal walls were paved in thick layers of concrete. Crucibles of molten metal were placed in batches everywhere with anvils and furnaces. Greatswords and rapiers and shivs and katanas were racked on the walls, hundreds of them. Vulcan stood in front of a huge curtain of lava flowing at the end of the room.
"Oh hey, Kade! Oh god, the hallowed armor is good. Anyways, the product is ready." Vulcan said once they entered.
"Wait, what?" The man asked, "What's ready?"
"Vulcan's curse creates a new type of metal we dub Carnosus Steel. A metal that's flexible with movement but hardens on impact, a very valuable material for the making of many weapons. And now we have one specially commissioned for you."
"What is this, some sort of welcoming gift?"
"I don't know, Yharim just ordered it."
Vulcan picked up the weapon from the grate table and handed it to him. A pitchfork gilt in magnificent aureate intricacy, swirling and spinning to the three glistening, steel prongs. The socket had a near-skeletal design, the gilded metals weaving around in a ribcage. The socket was affixed to a shaft and grip plastered in fine blue leather, with more gilt designs at the ends.
"The Furicus. Able to channel mana energy from the user to a powered strike. Its prongs are bladed so you can both use cleaving and impaling motions." Vulcan ranted, "Perfectly adaptable to any situation, and I wonder why I don't make these things for myself. So yea, I made this with the big worm's armor so consider this a trophy for your win, or such. I should really make something with this armor."
Vulcan keep ranting as Kade and the man awkwardly waved goodbye and shuffled out of the room, Passing back from the hangar, back to the hallways, and to a new room. A metal-plated pad elevated high by a set of stairs. The pad was glowing in yellow light, contrasting with the dimmed blue LEDs of the walls.
"This is a warp back to the palace." Said Kade, "We have residency suited for you there, Layer 6, Residential Housings, Room 16. Stay there for the time being, I have business to take care of."
The two exchanged waves and The man climb to the teleporter and beamed away in an array of yellow light.
Kade's smile dropped quickly after Laurence beamed away, turning around and marching away from the room. He straightened his clothing and roamed to the regal staircase at the center of the hallway intersection, Every foot down twitching his fingers. The ancient pathways to the olden Lihzahrd Courtroom had colossal statues of fierce reptilian warriors guarding the walls.
The ancient courtroom, tattered and blazed by embers of its past, derelict and decaying. Yharim stood at the center of the room, his golden armor masked away by the shadows.
"Beautiful, isn't it? How such intricate architecture could be made for its time, truly miraculous." Said Yharim,
"...What drives you to do such acts, Yharim? Send your men down into a dusky pit with no supplies, vague instructions, and intend for us to fight a mechanical beast when even the air there was killing us?" Questioned Kade, fuming with anger. "You knew the extent of The Destroyer's abilities, so why did you do such a thing? We all would be dead if it wasn't for Laurence, and you knew that the entire time."
Yharim turns his head and helmet around, his cuirasses rustling together, and spoke:
"You believe I sent you down there because of the 'problems' that machine was causing? Fool. I never cared for any of that land. I sent the execution team down there for Laurence. To see what his actions are in a real fight. How he adapts to the conflicts given to him and his otherworldly sense of solutions. Laurence will grow to be one of my greatest beings at my service. These executions are mere stepping stones to unlocking his powers."
Kade stared in blasphemy, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists.
"You'd give up the lives of others for the favor of one man?"
"Once Laurence has reached the maximum of his capabilities, I will have no use for any other being in my ranks. Now, I believe our meeting is over, away from my sight."
Kade turned away and stormed out of the chapel.
Beginning of Arc 2: War