Speech = ``…..´´
Thoughts = … ….
….A new land, new blood...
ºº
The air was filled with the sulphuric taste of ashes and cinders from the myriad of the towering columns of smoke that marked the location of the fires hungering and consuming entire streets, interrupted from time to time from violent and wild explosions as the flames came into contact with volatile material from certain warehouses..
Red ichor, still warm from the bodies that had failed to halt their approach, sliding down the cobblestones and filtering through the cracks like rain...
Scorching marks had melted the higher sections of entire buildings, while at ground level nothing but chunks of stone and splintered wood remained from the brutal and rapid flooding of warriors as the artillery did not stop its barrage for even one second.
Buzzing over his head like wasps made of steel infused with warp power...before they disappeared from his sight, but not his hearing as they exploded not far away. The ground shaking and bringing down those buildings that had been left with nothing but their skeleton, unleashing clouds of dust into the air...
A lone, towering figure of back steel and spiked helmet walked through the empty streets, stepping over the corpses of those who had been too foolish to resist and flattening them by the sheer weight alone. Uncaring of the way the blood cling to his black carapace or stained the white cloth of the cape he dragged around…
It paled in comparison with the stains of blood and minced meat still attached to the massive slot of what had been once an unblemished massive ebony sword, absorbing the light around him and dimming it until it appeared as if he was walking towards the core of the earth even if day had broke out by now..
Leaving nothing but the glow of his eyes to light the path before him..
Rhinor…, the crown jewel of the Zlarick empire on the Easter counties. The door to the capital and his final destination and end to this nonsensical bloodshed and corruption that had been long due several generations ago.
A bastion more than a city, famous for the only resource that it provided the rest of the nation through out the centuries.
Not for wine, gold or marble that so many times appeared on their markets. Not with the elaboration of gunpowder or the presence of factories of light cannons within their walls.
But bodies for the meat grinder...
Its walls were as tall as churches, thought to have been built to resist dragons. Known for the stubbornest of its people the city had been said that it could last a siege for a hundred years and never fall as long as the walls were high and men within retained the strength of their arms.
It fell in a day….
Quick and simple.
No games or schemes, but shock and awe….
The ground cracked under him as he shifted his feet to the side. Watching from afar how entire sections of the castle keep fell down, crumbling like a house of cards that could no longer keep themselves in place into the ground below when a bolt of magic the size of a small house slammed against the already weary and worn down walls, revealing its interior like a broken carcass where insects were still fighting a desperate, yet one sided massacre...no matter how hard they tried to push back.
They had wanted him to lay siege to them..
They thought that they could take control of what was to take place…, they really had thought they could force him to play their game.
He shook his head at their arrogance…..
``Madness and stupidity...´´
They should have known that one did not need to bring siege engines to break an egg. For even though stone was great, it was not steel….and he was not a dragon.
He did not have the luxury to spend frivolously time with something so petty like a siege. The worlds fate was at stake, storm clouds were coming from within the material realm and beyond...and he needed the board empty of any threat before it inevitably reached them.
It was not a matter of if…., but when.
…..
The world burn…
But for now he would take solace with burning this place first and every soul still clinging to their decadent, parody of order...
Soon enough the fallen started to stir up to life once more..., the dull look in their eyes gone, replaced with a primal, primitive hunger as their eyes shone red like his.
``Hunt...´´
His voiced boomed out in a cold, sharp command through the iron mask. One that did not elaborate any further, not it needed to.
The entire street moved around him at speed in an instant, the new risen uncaring of the blows and wounds that had given them death as they followed such command to the letter.
If they could not offer their life's for his cause….., they would offer their bodies.
Just like his servants had offered their souls to him, and he had given his flesh and blood in return..
Perfectly balanced….as all things should be.
He finally reached the main square, surrounded by all sides of iron clad warriors in black and crimson. Holding halberd and his flag as if a parade of sorts they were welcoming him.
They did not spoke out, or knelt at his presence. He did not pay them any attention either, the burning coals that he had for eyes looking down at the towering form of one of his praetorian guard.
Born to wear the red, and made to spill it on the ground…
``The city has fallen, their meek leaders portray themselves to you…..the rest await extermination´´
As if to reinforce his words the pathetic whimpering of the proud, and massively obese master of the city made its annoying presence to be known. With only the rags of what had been an expensive garment around his body, he barely could hide his indecency. His legs had been cut off, though he doubted he used them very much. To the sides where more men and some woman in similar states of ridicule.
No one pitied them..
Nor they would be mourn...
But this war would be bigger than everyone else…, he needed more men.
``No….´´
``Master…?´´
`` Gather them...I will take them all...´´
ºº
``Oh, now this is a life one loved to have….´´
A man named Marcus said out loud, a playful grin warped around his features as he relieved himself on the bunch of bushes that were in-front of him..
Without having to serve in the army..
Without having to pay taxes to a bunch of uptight cunts who spoke too much…
Doing whatever he wanted wherever he wished…
He yawned loudly. Yes, this was heaven.., and it was getting better each day thanks to that deal with those hooded wackos with their simple request..
Still, he liked to may more money than by just selling rotten demonic flesh.
``Wouldn't you say the same, Timm? Isn't this paradise for the likes of us...?´´
He spoke to the other man next to him, a young, meek boy who had more brains than muscle. Someone that he would consider beneath him had he not managed to get them all a good prize in their last hit.
The little shit had been able to sneak into the coachman's stall, leading a minor nobleman and his daughter off the beaten track and into the jungle. Away from prying eyes... the two idiots had been so tired that they hadn't realised something was seriously wrong until it was too late.
But well, nobles were never precisely chosen to hold their positions above the rest of the shaft for their brains
``Y-yes boss…, is really nice´´
He scoffed, tapping the boys shoulders with one hand that almost made him fall on his face.
``Come on! Why are you stuttering now? You were like a wild beast when you forced your way between that little girls legs, making her mother watch...´´
``Well.., I..I just like them young and I could not help myself´´
He shrugged. ``Well, I suppose I cant blame you…, me however prefers them with a little more meat and with some technique to back themselves. If you know what I mean...´´
He smiled at the memory, he almost could feel the way the soft, plump flesh felt as his hands sunk on them. How he kneaded and groped those ample chest as he took his way with that woman. So haughty and arrogant, yet a beauty to see the way she squirmed with each thrust of his little brother.
As it was custom, the boss had first pick, then after he was done everyone else were to take their time with them, some made wages about who could last longer.
Ah, good times...
They even promised to the those two that they would release them if they could take them all. Not that they were really going to keep that one though...they would definitely make good slaves in the market.
Too bad that they had to kill them afterwards when instead of becoming mind broken with pleasure they became insane and try to kill them.
Such a waste.…
He shook his head. Well, some you won and other you did not. Besides, there were more women to catch in the world
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Timm snooze a bit loudly, using one of his arms to wipe away the thing out from his ridicule moustache..
``What were you trying to do, call for dragons with that nose of yours?´´ He laughed.
The boy became flustered, shaking his head rapidly. ``I am sorry boss, I was n-´´
He halts mid way as he is force to snooze again, this time even louder than before. Gods, with the way his nose was becoming a red spot he reminded him of a mutant reindeer he saw once in the mountains.
``Shit...is just,.. is getting cold here, don't you think boss?´´
That rose an eyebrow.
Cold?
Looking around he could feel the cool air grow a little too too much for his liking. Well, perhaps he meant the way his sweat was crawling on his back, or how his breath had become a soft, brief mist that came from his mouth.
No, it was not cold…
It was freezing, he could almost see spots of frost started to devour part of the ground.
``Now that you say that, you are right...its bloody cold here´´
``Y-eah...I thought I was imagining things, but have you seen ice appear from nowhere?´´
He shook his head.
``Strange, isn't it? I thought that were in the middle of a heat wave..´´
``Yeah, weird...´´
Things like this were not common as far as he was concerned, but well, it wasn't strange for unstable weather to change so suddenly. Perhaps a storm was approaching…
Or something worse.
He looked at the specks of frost clinging to his feet, then to Timm, then back to the ground before finally deciding to end on Timm again. His eyes narrowed a bit before he gestured to him to get a little closer.
``Hey, did you hear that?´´
``Hear what? Boss?
``That..´´
He parroted as he looked at the bushes, his semblance becoming stern, lines forming over his brows.
The young boy shifted his feet uncomfortably from one side to the other as he looked in the same direction. His fingers clumsily grasping the handle of his sword, yet failing to pull it out.
``B-oss?´´
He shushed him. ``Don't you hear it? Is right there..´´
The boy started sweating bullets as his eyes darted to left and right, trying to see what he was looking yet failing. His body trembling like a sheet of paper as he pulled out his sword, holding it tightly to the point his knuckles took a pale shade.
Biting his lip while his hair started to bristle on its own...
Only to jump out and drop his blade while he screamed like a school girl when Marcus farted right next to him.
Gods, he was pathetic….but he really made for good comic relief.
A grin that only grew wider as he noticed the black spot appearing on the boys crotch. Did he just pee himself? Oh by the gods...this was too good to be true.
The boy was trying to maintain his heart from bursting out, his breath haggard and erratic before he sent him a glare.
``You bastard! You scared the shit out of me boss!´´
``Oh gods, you should have seem the look in your face Timm. Priceless I tell you´´
``Well fuck you too…, and here I thought you had my bac-aaaaAAAAARGH!!´´
The man had started to say, throwing him an annoyed glare before a massive arm lunged from the darkness itself and graved the man by the head, pulling from him and making him disappear in an instant towards the bushes. He shrieked in panic for one second, then the next it was silenced with a sick, brutal crunch that felt too much to the sound of rotten fruits bursting out when thrown to the ground.
Something warm and sticky reached him. Trembling and with his heart beating so fast that it was threatening to burst through his chest he tried to wipe it away..only to realize that it was not rain, but rather blood.
Just as that observation started to click in his mind something big and cumbersome flew through the air, smacking him and throwing into the ground. Taking away the air from his lungs and groaning in pain when the back of his head landed with a thud against the though soft grass still firm ground.
``Shit man...what the fuck!´´
He moaned and half cursed through his teeth as he tried to get up, only to find such task slightly impeded when something big and sticky was still over him.
His eyes widened when he realized that what had slammed against him was not a wild animal, but Timms broken and...if it could be even called it, remnants of his body.
His skull had cave in, leaving barely a quarter of it as the rest had either being crushed under a massive grip, his brain having almost disappeared from its proper place, though what remained on it had become a grey puddle.
The rest of his body was no better, having been torn apart viciously. A cut opening him from his throat and reaching to his waist, something had pulled out half of his ribs to the side, while the others had been bent to the other. Exposing his heart or what remained of it as something had gripped and left nothing but a shrivelled lump of flesh...
What…
What the actual fuck!
He threw the body off him, his heart beating loudly inside his ribcage, his chest heaving over and over as he started hyperventilate.
This could not be happening, this had to be a dream, this had to-
His panic would came to an end, but it would not end when his eyes spotted a massive thing just a few feet away from him.
A massive, black clad thing. Easily towering above him a good head or two, its head devoid of flesh of any kind, replaced with a cold, ebony skull. Its sockets filled with two bright flaming fires that were scorching his soul with .
Its right arm gripping with fresh blood...
It hurt to be in his presence.
It hurt to even look at it..
It was as if this thing, this aberration..was too hard, too heavy for this universe. Like an invasive entity, a lion suddenly lost in a world made of meat and cotton candy.
Despite thinking all of this, feeling it, and all the fear that came with it. Marcus swallowed hard, but rallied his resolve to do the only thing he knew he had to do in a situation such as this.
Run…
Fucking run...
``Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT….!´´
He screamed out, each time louder than the one that came before as he tried to get away from it as fast as his legs could take him. His joints hurting by the strain they were subjected to, but he didn't care.
He had to get out.
He looked back a moment to confirm it had not moved... only to find him missing.
Confused, he looked once more to confirm and he found it barely a few meters away from him as if the universe had plucked him right there and then. He gritted his teeth, sweat sliding down his head as he felt his throat became stuck with his desire to cry like a child.
He looked one more time and he was not there any more, vanishing like a ghost. He was instead in front of him, pulling out a fucking psyche as big as him from its back.
``FUCK..!´´
He screamed on the spot, avoiding slamming himself against it though his efforts were rewarded by almost crushing his nose when he hit his head with a tree that had appeared almost from nowhere.
Bleeding and seeing the stars he continued to dash out of the wood-line, every shadow became that thing, every shade covered by those flaming eyes. The light of the moon glinting over the sharp edge of that blade.
He closed his eyes, not stopping as he felt those eyes grew closer and closer to his skull, how a pair of sharp talons was about to grasp his head and turn it to mush just like Timms. Only to realize after a while that he had reached the clearing were the tents of his boys had been.
He had never been more happy to see those poor excuses of idiots in his life. Now at least he could use them as meat-shields if worse came to worse.
``Boss? Is something wrong?´´
``Boys, boys...we are in deep shit! A bastard caught Timm and sod him off in a flash, he is coming here!´´
``Boss, we all drank a bit. Are you sure you didn't hit your head and thought you saw something?
And then how do you explain all this fucking blood I am currently bathing in you wanker!? Are you saying I am lying..!?
He spatted angered as much as he was still shaken by the whole ordeal while he pointed at his drenched clothes. Making everyone flinch in the process and nod in understanding.
``S-sorry boss. I did not wish to say that...´´
``Good, now get your arses out of joy-land, we are about to get nasty company´´
He did not need to say any more as the worry and emotion on his words convinced them of the veracity of what he had told them.
Everyone started to move and get ready, swords and axes in hand the men took a circle formation, with him at the centre of it. To lead them of course and not because he wanted to feel safe. A new sword had found its way into his hand once he had realized he had lost his back there...
They waited…
And waited…
He bit his lip. It had to arrive at any moment now.
He did not need magic to know that everyone was getting more nervous by the second as they searched with their eyes at the maze of trees that surrounded them.
``I don't see a damn thing boss, but is damn cold here..
``Fuck, now that you say it...I can feel my body shiver´´
``It feels like we are in the thick of a snow storm instead of summer...´´
He could not help but narrow his eyes at that.
Cold?
Yes.., now that he thought about it..it indeed was cold as he saw a small mist come out from his mouth given the difference in temperature…
With the chaos of the situation and the rapid, almost bursting throbbing of his heart pumping adrenaline through his body he had forgotten all about it. Now that he focused on it, he could feel it, though just a little and not the frigid wave that was assailing the rest of his men.
But with the knowledge of it, also came horror from its poor enlighten. Flaring through his eyes as the realization of what the cold carried with it struck harder than anything else he had ever felt.
That thing was here..
That bloody bastard was here..
He shifted his feet to the left and then the right, eyes darting from one side to the other, switching targets rapidly and with haste, his hands growing sweaty and uncomfortable as he tried to hold his sword, but he ignored the symptoms. Perhaps trying to tell himself that he did it out of worry and caution of the whereabouts of that thing and not utter panic.
That those red, glowing fires that it had for eyes were not burnt at the back of his head. Repeating that scene, over and over again...
He bit his teeth, sweat sliding down his head and falling into the ground. He cursed their luck, but above all, his...
They were exposed, in open ground..., the clearing they had set to stay to hide from view and see anyone who dared approach now becoming a trap for them. It could be anywhere behind those trees, the light of the moon not making things easier.
Spawning shadows left and right.
The wind blowing hard and moving them out of place, or did they move on their own?
He dared not look back and see the warm spot forming around his crotch, leaving a terrible truth of what had just transpired as his neck refused to look away from any direction it could still come.
He saw nothing..
Was it hiding under the trees? Had they scared it away?
O-of course, that bloody wank must had been scared of them when it saw the way they regrouped and formed ranks, only having the courage to strike from the shadows when they were at their lowest. It was a comforting thought, one that he allowed himself to be deluded.
Yes, that must be, it had to be.
There was no way it was a hellish apparition that came from hell to punish them in the most brutal and terrible fashion their minds could not even begin to comprehend for the only reason that they were on its path, right? Right?
He was about to share a joke with the rest. but whatever he was about to say was long forgotten when he felt a pang of pain course through his body, blasting away his breath and spit out like a rapid and merciless punch in a brawl.
It was hot, it was cold, and it hurt. He felt the sting from his back connect to the lower section of his belly grow bigger and bigger..while his body grew wet and humid.
It was a burning…, searing pain that was wrecking his mind and frying his nerves the same way a man would cook a potato under a massive fire to the point he could barely bear it.
Without a word his legs gave out, unable to keep holding his weight...and yet he did not fall to the ground as he had expected. He did not even reach a semi kneeling position.
Something, or someone was keeping from doing so. Something was keeping him upright.
It took all the strength he could muster to look down at the source of his pain, it was a gruelling, slow pace as his muscles flared and bled on their own as they tried to push his head to look at the bloody sting. And when he did, he realized why he could not fall...
A psyche...
A massive, bloody psyche had made its way through his back and had protruded from his belly into the open, reaping a hole in the process where copious amounts of blood and intestinal liquid were spilled to the ground like milk. That sensation of sweat and humid clothes had been the blood staining the cloth as it made its way out...
The length of the blade that was coming out was easily as large as himself, now slick with his own arterial fluids and arched so that the edge was aimed upwards.
He caught by the corner of his misty, yet bloodshot eyes those two crimson stars that had tormented him looking down at him with no care in the world, cocking its head a few degrees to the left... mockingly.
As if a human was staring at a cockroach which leg was trapped under its boot. Watching how it helplessly tried to pry the thing off, yet failing...over and over again much to its amusement.
And yet, there was only one particular thought that crossed his mind louder than the rest.
How..how the fuck did he get there?
He tried to scream, to shriek..but nothing but a gush of blood came out from his lips, staining his chin and chest. The croaking, half dying sound of his lungs collapsing by sheer shock finally alerting everyone that something very wrong was going on.
``W-what the fuck..!´´
``Who the hell are you..!?
``Stay away from the boss..!´´
``Die bastard..!´´
Were many of the cries of his men. His assailant did not seem bothered in the slightest by the fact that he was surrounded by at least forty five men. In fact, he merely kicked him. Freeing the length of the blade from his body as if he was nothing but trash, with barely any force whatsoever put into given his apparent demeanour….
And yet hard enough to shatter his spine like glass and rob him forever of his legs before he even hit the ground like a mere sack of potatoes.
He would have rather preferred he yanked the damn thing and be done with it than this...
The worlds was nothing but a blurry mess or red and black spots at the corner of his eyes. Tears fell down from his eyes, he bit his tongue trying to shut his cries of agony while one of his hands tried to kept the blood from his stomach from coming out as quick as it had, but he failed miserably as its slipped through his fingers...
It hurt..
It hurt so much…
But soon enough his attention was drawn away from those crippling wounds and into the massacre that was taking all while he squirmed in agony.
``F-fuck...´´
Men were dying by the droves, a single swing cleaved five men at the same time, reaping their bodies open like meat-bags and spilling out their fleshy and liquid contents into the air before they fell like rain around them while the very same swing seemed to decapitated four more that were behind the monster, and obviously not in the range of the weapon.
He would have thought magic was at work, but he had saw the red sparks that using such techniques would require.
Just, raw brute force...
It moved slowly at times, short, methodical steps taking into their direction as if he was not in a battle nor a hurry at all. The sound of those sharp, cold breaths through that thing on its face drilling into their skulls. The way his eyes pulsated with each body that joined the pile.
The psyche nothing but a blur that was almost invisible on its hands, allowing them to take approach yet no one landed a hit. Their weapons broke and their bodies along with them..
And then sometimes it appeared and disappeared around them in a flash, as if it was teleporting back and forth, yet the way the wind slapped their faces with such tenacity spoke of something worse. With each time it disappeared another group of his men became mince meat.
Their bodies not able to understand that they were already dead before they hit the ground...
Limbs were severed from their bodies, heads were pulverized into powder, guts were opened and spilled out by either those sharp talons, the jagged edge of that mounted wrist blade on one of its arms or that massive psyche all the while blood started raining non stop all around them.
``M-monster!´´
``P-please.., I don't wanna die…!´´
``Why is this happening to us..´´
His men cried out, yet he could only gawk in horror as each one of them was silenced forever. Unable to move as the sound of bones shattering and meat being rendered useless and discarded like wet paper grew louder and louder at the same speed the number of his men decreased.
And the worst thing he saw was when he caught a man by the leg and smashed it down another one like one would do with a stick to a wild dog. The two unlucky souls exploding in a mist of blood and gore as their bodies could not handle the force of the impact and burst out like balloons.
Some of it entered onto his mouth...making him puke on the spot what little remained from his stomach though it was mostly composed of biles and gouts of blood.
By the time he looked again it was over...
His band, his men...they were all dead. Their bodies, or what little remained of them scattered all around the field that was now painted in red.
And all that in a matter of seconds.
Something that big did not deserve to move that fast. It just didn't make sense...
And then he was alone with that thing...
All alone…
The field now devoid of any sign of life or sound felt wrong, the silence was deafening, only disturbed with the sharp, cold breaths emanating from that thing. It then looked back at him, the tubes running from the sides of the archaic rebreather attached to its ebony skull jangled against one another.
Glowing with unholy light as whatever they held within fuelled those burning coals that were burying him already in his mind.
He could not die..
He cant die here..
He started to crawl away, his hands digging on the soil as they pushed his useless and unresponsive legs, all while leaving a puddle after puddle of blood from his open belly, his sight was becoming blurry and everything felt so cold..
A pathetic show….
Five seconds later he found himself screaming his lungs out when a boot crushed and turned into a puff of smoke and bone his right leg, a clawed hand graving him by the back of his vest, yet leaving deep cuts on his flesh in the process before he was thrown to the side, his back against the cool though now sticky ground, now longer able to look away from his tormentor.
He rose his bloodstained hands, trying to shield himself as he whimpered.
``Pl-please….mercy, have mercy´´
``…..´´
``I-I will gi-ive you an-ything...ple-please...spare me..´´
They had money, they had been stealing from the merchants who used this roads, the fools. It would hurt to throw away all that gold, but if it meant to live on more day he would not care.
But nothing happened but the way the handle of the psyche creaked under the pressure of those monstrous hands, he could swear a black smoke was coming out from it. The contempt in those eyes was turning him insane.
He could hear the voices of those merchants, of his men echoed in his mind, cursing him, calling him to join them. But none more louder than those two women they had used not long ago.
``I I did not do that, they..they did..they did it..´´
It took a step forward, he pushed himself back.
It took another...
``I-I...´´
His words yet they were silenced when he felt a pair of hands tug him from his back, they were soft, they were small, but they were frozen.
As if ice given form was grasping him by the exposed parts of his clothes, demanding his attention whether he wanted or not.
He weakly turned around or as much as he could, what he was met with was the last thing he was expecting.
His lips quivered, his eyes open wide as they trembled as the pale forms of the woman and her daughter had rose from the barely started grave they had made for them and were right next to him. Their bodies pale like the moon, the soft shades of their eyes that he remembered now gone and replaced with two glowing pair of crimson.
``Y-you are dead…, how.., how is this...possible?´´
The woman did not reply as her grasp became tighter. It would never do, it instead smiled with a grin that did not belong to a human being.
So wide and diabolical that her lips were torn apart in the process.. Showing the raw muscle beneath and the rows of sharp teeth that had grown which was sure they had never possessed in the first place.
Shaken as he was he did not see coming the way she lunged at him and bit his throat, teeth biting and tugging like a wild animal as she pounced on him. The little one joining in the frantic as she smell the taste of blood in the air. Attacking his shoulder and sinking her teeth as-well.
He tried to fight back, but there was little he could do given his current state, something that made all the more obvious as their grip appeared to be made of steel. Pushing him down like was nothing as they continued their macabre feasting.
Fresh blood dripping down their pale chins, giving them some much needed colour while they smiled wickedly at him.
And then they dived into the open wound that had cleaved his organs on half, their fingers pulling the cut and expanding it as they tried to fish out the meaty contents inside as if he was a damn piñata.
He could not bear this pain…
No soul in the world could...
Unable to fight back the coldness and numbness that had taken hold of his body his body felt limp as the darkness finally claimed him.
The last thing he would see would be those three pair of glowing eyes looking at him as they enjoyed themselves in his misery.