"He has come into his beginning," said an ethereal feminine voice.
Everyone, besides the sleeping ones, sank to their knees as if forced to do so, even Edwin, for one did not look upon the face of Nocturnia. Though what little Edwin could see of her, was fabric that levitated around her like wisps of darkness. And he had a fleeting glimpse of a face that was an even starker white than that of a corpse, and dark, flowing hair.
"Goddess of the Night," Edwin pleaded with his hands clasped in front of his forehead, his elbows supporting him on the soil.
Kai, Zara, and even Meena, lowered their eyelids, but said nothing. They were not the ones being spoken to.
Edwin never communed with the goddess of alchemy, stealth and twilight. She was a patron to thieves, and all creatures of the darkness. She was, however, markably better than her brother, the Daemera Xorlock.
"What say you, Priest?" Nocturnia drawled, her voice an echoing whisper from another realm.
He was hoping for Mitra to appear. He supposed one goddess was as good as the other. But he was comfortable in Mitra's light; Nocturnia made him shudder inwardly. And he had no idea why she appeared in the place of her sister.
The portal still writhed with shades, while the people who fell asleep at its base jerked with nightmares. The evil shroud that swallowed the thrall remained as it was.
Edwin hoped that Nocturnia would appreciate his efforts to rid the world of evil as he was sure Mitra would have. True, Mitra hadn't appeared to him for months before the Medhir arrived on his doorstep, and hasn't since.
Sometimes, he had to dabble with demons in order to effectively accomplish this mission. He ardently hoped that Nocturnia would disregard this, minor hitch.
"I come to you, Your Lady Grace, admitting that I have vanquished a servant of the wicked," Edwin began with fervor. "Now, I implore your assistance in banishing the malevolent darkness that he has brought down on our once peaceful land. These portals to Oblivion are his breeding ground for sinister creatures who seek to destroy the sanity of all who look upon it."
To his surprise, the goddess gave a closed-mouth, low laugh that short-circuited his nerve endings.
Gods and goddesses were not of the material plane, and it was impossible to understand the workings of their minds, whether they know things or not, or how they would react to any given situation.
Edwin once prayed for a banker's good fortune, who was immediately struck down by a lightning strike the moment he left the temple.
Clearly Sterran, the god of business and commerce, didn't favor the banker on that particular day.
"Poor Edwin," Nocturnia whispered, though her voice shook the ground, "victim of your own delusion, a specter of virtue tainted by corruption. All of Oblivion knows you."
Sweat beaded on Edwin's forehead. His lower priests exchanged glances, still keeping their heads to the ground.
"I am doing you a service, your Lady Grace," Edwin replied carefully.
The nightmares intensified in the crowd, and they writhed where they lay.
"So you did, Priest. You have awoken my gaoler, Hell's watchman."
She disappeared into thin air, enveloped by an eerie aura.
The portal crackled with lightning bolts, and eerie cries from a distant dimension cut through the air, as if the gates of Oblivion were being opened.
Emerging from the sphere on the platform, a slender shadow demon lunged forward, its razor-sharp claws outstretched and finding their mark on one of the slumbering people below.
Pouncing on a woman in her thirties adorned in a simple brown tunic, the demon remained stealthily motionless as she twisted and turned in nightmarish sleep. Snarling with hunger, the creature's saliva dripped from its elongated fangs, staining her face.
Fear stricken, Edwin stood frozen for a fleeting moment before summoning his inner courage. He brandished the amulet used to banish evil, raising it high. "Return to the realm from which you came! I command you to go back!" he shouted with authority.
The shadow demon curled its lips into a sinister, contorted smile that revealed chalk white gums, and hissed back, "You do not command me,"
Edwin's eyes widened and he lowered the amulet an inch, his priests recoiled behind him.
"But he does," said Kai behind the shade.
The shade answered in a menacing hiss. Suddenly, from within the dark shroud, a long, black chain surged forward, coiled like a lasso. Swiftly and with precision, the loop ensnared the shade's sinewy neck, constricting mercilessly.
In its desperate struggle to break free, the shade let out blood-curdling shrieks, its claws flailing against the unseen force that tugged it back to the abyss. The interlocking links of the chain blazed a fiery red, searing the creature's flesh and compelling it to yield in submission. It's claws scraped the wooden planks as it was drawn back.
Drawn by the light of the portal, more nightmarish abominations escaped in grotesque and twisted forms.
The decaying specter of a man whose torso bore a gaping, oozing wound leapt from it, and plunged himself into the body of an innocent young child, corrupting her flesh and soul.
She convulsed and writhed in torment, her face distorted by grotesque decay. In a gut-wrenching scream that defied any human sound, she jolted from her supine position, and locked her gaze to Edwin. Her mouth gaped in a void from which legions of spiders poured.
Like man turned beast, she charged towards Edwin on all fours. Edwin unsheathed his blessed dagger concealed beneath his robes, aiming to defend himself. His reflexes were slow however, and she effortlessly slapped the weapon out of his hand, and sank her teeth into his forearm. He threw his head back and cried out in agony.
As the venomous decay coursed through his veins, Edwin fought desperately to shake her off, flailing her this side and that side, yet her jaws remained firmly latched onto his flesh. Her once blue eyes transformed into black abysses, devoid of any semblance of humanity, low growls clawed out of her throat.
An arrow hurtled through the portal, finding its mark in the back of her head, with its tip protruding from her forehead. Her body went limp, slumping away from Edwin's arm, leaving behind a horrifying scene of torn flesh and tendon, and oozing thickened blood.
The sleeping mob was now trapped in slumber, while the shades seized the opportunity to wreak havoc on their defenseless minds.
A spectral being with elongated limbs and gnarled features, plunged its razor-sharp claws into the chests of unsuspecting victims, extracting their beating hearts with sadistic precision. Another, resembling an arachnid, emitted a venomous vapor, suffocating its victims with tendrils that snaked their way into their slackened mouths and nostrils.
The shades transformed into ethereal beings that swiftly infiltrated the slumbering bodies of Edwin's congregation. A grotesque spectacle unfolded as people convulsed unnaturally. Reminiscent of the undead, one individual abruptly performed a half-somersault from a supine position, defying the laws of nature.
With a hand trembling in horror, Edwin grasped his amulet, for all the good it would do.
The influence of the shades extended its grasp to Edwin's lower-ranking priests, leaving Meena, Kai, and Zara as helpless witnesses to the unfolding chaos.
"Untie us!" Zara pleaded, but Edwin remained unmoving, unsure if he could even trust them.
The echo of approaching horse hooves sounded through the air. Meena glanced around, but saw no one coming to their aid.
Then suddenly a hideous demonic black dog with four sets of red eyes jumped out of the sphere next to her. It had a muscled body like a pitbull and was thrice the size of one, snarling, drooling, revealing three sets of fangs.
And then it sprung another two heads.
Meena stared at the dog, a scream trapped in her throat. It turned, locked gazes with her. The shadow sphere vanished.
This beast, she couldn't command. It wasn't of this realm.
Out of the portal, emerged a shadowy horseman on a black horse whose headcover gleamed with polished iron spears.
Then she recognized the clothing.
Her eyes widened. "D?"
He swung the lasso, threw, and captured three corrupted slaves. The chain links burned fiery red, and seemed to dissolve all within them to ash.
Hordes escaped the portal.
"Gods save us," Edwin sank to his knees, as an army of darkness descended.
Before Edwin's very eyes, the enigmatic dark horseman fragmented into five distinct entities. A swarm of crows swooped down upon the shades, launching relentless assaults in groups.
With blurring speed, a sinuous python detached itself from the horse's tail. It coiled around a cluster of five unfortunate people, now reduced to slaves, and suffocated them.
The rider himself splintered into three forms, each carrying out a different method of attack. One unleashed a barrage of arrows upon the shades, while another cleaved through them with the ghost of a battleaxe. Shifting shape in an ethereal dance of shadows, he dominated the entire battlefield, adopting various guises seamlessly.
The three-headed dog snarled at Meena before prowling towards her. She flinched and shut her eyes, expected the tearing of its canines into her flesh.
She heard its growling, felt the wet of its teeth against her wrists, its saliva coating her skin.
Then she realized it was tearing up the rope that held her captive. When she finally opened her eyes, her hands were free, and the dog had gone over to Zara, then to Kai.
Once all their restraints were chewed up, the dog lunged into the crowd of enslaved individuals, who were now consumed by lunacy and beyond salvation. It tore through flesh and bone in a macabre frenzy, flinging severed limbs through the air. Blood painted the soil.
Stunned into silence, the trio stood transfixed, witnessing this controlled chaos. Darius seemed to embody every face of death, omnipresent yet impossibly elusive.
Kai was the first to wake up and gather their weapons. He threw Zara her daggers, and grabbed Soulsnare. They entered the fight.
Meena didn't have weapons, didn't know how to fight, and couldn't command any of the creatures that Darius had brought out of hell. She helplessly watched the dark rider who was her brother... or was he?
He didn't move or act like the Darius she knew, though he wore his face. Not a speck of emotion, of mercy, graced his features.
She saw the Shadowborn, Death, in all his might. He carved through the enemy mercilessly, shifting between so many forms, killing in such an abominable way, that she had trouble distinguishing him from the demons at times.
He didn't need Zara or Kai's help, or even hers. He could've flattened a whole army by himself.
A crow cawed above her. She lifted her head. It swooped low, and dropped a silver round artifact into her hand. She stared at the thing, embellished with what were clearly demonic runes. The back of it seemed like it fit into something.
Before she could ponder it any further, Darius' horse halted beside her. She stumbled back, and met his eyes. His irises glowed green, while the whites of his eyes had turned pitch black. Her blood chilled in her veins.
Close the gate, he commanded, voice unnatural, more of a growl.
She fleetingly caught sight of the left side of his horse's face as he went back to battle, which was rotted off to the bone.
Fighting against the chill running through her, she ran, zig-zagged through screaming monsters, some his, some not, and shrieking enslaved children.
An elderly woman, clearly manic, flanked her from the left, frantically pulling at strands of her silver hair. She moved in a chaotic manner, arms flailing and howling, contorting her jaws, intent on sinking her teeth into Meena.
Meena gasped, preparing to defend herself by hurling the key at the woman's head. Before she could act, the three-headed dog leapt into the scene, positioning its formidable bulk between them. One of the dog's heads ruthlessly tore a substantial chunk of flesh and bone from the woman's skull, yet she continued to thrash and shriek even as that should have killed her.
The dog's second head ripped away another piece of her dead brain, while the third head fully separated the skull from the vertebrae with a sickening crunch of shattered bones.
Meena forced herself to move, to tear her eyes away. She stumbled to her feet. Thankfully, nothing else turned its attention on her.
Before the portal, her heart hitched at the thousands upon thousands of shades still swirling within. If they were to escape, they would overrun the entire world. No one would ever see the light of day again.
The rim of the portal rotated, and she saw the key's slot coming down.
She encouraged it, "Come on! Come on!"
Her hand was pulled back, the key stolen from her grip.
"Cease this evil, child!"
"Give it back!" She reached, but she was too short for the likes of Edwin. "If you don't, you'll free them!"
"He has corrupted you," Edwin was a pathetic picture, his eyes watery and his entire frame trembling in fear. "He wants to set them free."
His face was so close to hers that she could smell the sourness of his breath.
A gloved hand gripped his shoulder, and he swung. Behind him stood a hooded figure in black, one half of his face nothing but a white skull, but he recognized the other half as the boy.
Though his mouth did not move, he spoke. Stop getting in the way, Priest. Or I'll be obliged to end your life sooner than is neccesary.
Edwin felt all his energy being drained, his knees wobble, but he stubbornly remained standing. "What are you?" His voice nearly broke.
Darius plucked the key from his lame grip. Death.
"Have mercy," Edwin pleaded as he sank to the soil.
I should be so kind, after the courtesy you've shown me.
He pushed the key into Meena's hand, and simply stared at her expectantly.
No, she thought, this was not her brother. It couldn't be.
She turned and stuck the key into its hole. The portal crackled with lightning once more, before breaking apart, and then all the falling pieces vanished into another realm.
Silence took over the chaos. And when Meena looked around, the soil was littered with gore and dead. She felt faint.
Edwin crawled to one of his people, and cried in her tunic, sticking his nose just above the hole from whence her beating heart had been ripped out.
"D?" Meena whispered. She needed a hug, but all she got was a cold, emotionless stare.
He simply turned on his heel, and walked away from her.
from
The Sonoran Desert
5 Minute Strength, 5kg Dumbells.
I'm not claiming this badge because I couldn't actually complete half of this. So I'm just restarting it.
from
Days of Consecutive Exercise (Because everyone is doing it and it seems like good motivation!) : 59