A World without Misery (Interitus 1: Book 0)
Chapter One – Having Never Seen the Sunlight
“The storm of screaming souls surrounds every thought and swallows the hollows of this hopeless world. The tempest of the damned roars on even when my eyes are closed.”
[https://i.imgur.com/zh6udfz.jpg]
Hatasuko stared at the monster in the sky as flames roared all around him. Shouts echoed as helpless people ran through the dusty streets of the city. He stood in the center of the panic as smoke lifted from the rooftops and shrouded the stars in the sky.
He whispered to himself, “It is a symphony of anguished screams – an orchestra of broken souls. A storm that wages on, both when I fight and when I am most alone. I hear every shriek of those who were lost to this evil, and I can hear nothing else. Their misery is my curse and my fuel; it is a reminder that it’s my destiny to bring this evil to an end.”
Hatasuko glared through the smoky air at the demon floating over the city. Its jagged feet levitated above the burning rooftops in the distance. Its body was built of the darkness and fueled by the shadows. Its massive arms glowed from the reflection of the fire. Its golden eyes pierced through the veil of smoke and starlight. A transparent layer of blackness blanketed the sky and shuddered every time the monster made a movement. Countless evacuees screamed as they ran away, but Hatasuko stepped forward when the last of them had passed.
“It is the most detestable being in the universe; it is the monster that cursed me with this symphony of screaming souls. It is the catalyst of agony and the emissary of darkness. Every heart has been scarred by its unacceptable existence. Every inch of this world has been soaked by the tears and blood left in its wake. It is the demon of flashing blades and shifting shadows – the nightmare known as the Interfectus.”
[https://i.imgur.com/t757zbx.jpg]
The Interfectus twisted its massive body so that it faced a different street in the heart of the smoldering city. It lifted its arm, its golden eyes glowed for a fraction of a second, and then it unleashed the first weapon of the Interfectus. A diamond-hard blade of shadows shot forth from the demon’s arm at an extraordinary speed. It pierced through the smoky air and crashed into a distant home with more than enough force to dismantle it entirely. And though he could not see through the smoke and the darkness, Hatasuko could feel the crushing pain of a human life ending in the wreckage. He could feel the tempest scream louder in his head, he could see the transparent layer of blackness begin rolling like an ocean wave, and he could hear the splatter of the Interfectus ripping its blade-arm through a victim in the distance. Another scream echoed through the sky.
“I’ve known from the very start that this fight is hopeless. I’ve known all along that resistance is meaningless. They say that a human cannot scratch the surface of an Interfectus, but I have to do this. I have to fight. I need to end this madness so that the storm in my mind may finally fall silent. I need to end this madness so that I can avenge the ones I was too weak to save.”
Though his body demanded him to turn and run away from the nightmare demon in a full-force sprint, Hatasuko refused. Instead, he sheathed his sword in the holster on his back and started dashing toward the monster. His nerves screamed at him to stop since he felt like he was running toward certain death, but his heart had defeated his brain long ago. As he ran closer to the Interfectus, he glanced to the side and saw the streets of the world as it was brought to its knees – the hopeless world that he was now fighting to save. He could see candlelight pierce the smoky air in the homes behind broken glass. He could see smoke stains on the buildings which were not yet destroyed; he could see bloodstains on the walls of those which were.
[https://i.imgur.com/iqyZqUh.jpg]
“I used to hate the tempest because I can never rest. Even in my dreams, I am haunted by the anguished voices of those who were lost. I used to hate this world for being plagued with tragedy, and I hated myself for being too weak to change it. But weakness is temporary. It will pour from me like sweat and blood as I fight on, because I’m going to become faster. I’m going to become stronger. I will defeat the Interfecti and bring peace to the storm of screaming souls. Their lifeless eyes watch from the shadows and surrender the silent reminder of what I know I have to do. So with my strength as my weapon and their screams as my curse, I will banish all agony. I will fight until my last breath so that I can create a world without misery.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
As Hatasuko charged through a dusty road toward the Interfectus, he heard the yell of a child up ahead. When he scanned the street for the child, he glanced away from the massive demon which basked in the fiery glow of its wreckage. A broken wagon rested on the left side of the street, just a few feet away from a smoldering building that had been blown apart earlier in the onslaught. The young child was pinned beneath the wagon with his skin stained by smoke and his eyes wide with terror. Hatasuko ripped his sword from its sheath, charged up to the wagon, and knocked it off the child with a single powerful slash. His sword transformed the wooden wagon into shambles; the child scrambled to his feet and then ran away. His leg was bloody and his body looked injured, but the child dashed away from the Interfectus because he had no other choice.
“READY? FIRE!” a loud voice shouted across the rooftops of the smoldering city.
The loud crack of a catapult sounded in the distance, and in the very next moment, a boulder flew through the smoke toward the monster at an incredible speed. Hatasuko resumed running toward the Interfectus, but it was not because this attack gave him hope. He knew from the moment he heard the catapult that this attack would be worthless; he had seen people try the same thing against other Interfecti in the past. And in the moment before the boulder would have struck the dark body of the demon in the sky, it deployed the second weapon of the Interfectus; it summoned a sudden shield of swirling shadows. The boulder struck the shield, fell motionless, and then plummeted into the streets below. When it crashed onto the ground, a cloud of sparks and cinders flew up into the sky. The boulder did no damage only because the people it crushed were already dead.
“This world is a paradox; I learned when I was young. Men are meant to have morals, but reality only facilitates pain. Only the bravest among us dare to fight the Interfectus, but defeat is the only outcome. Those who fight back are punished with death, and then the monster takes a handful of the innocent as the spoils. I’ve seen it too many times.”
As Hatasuko ran closer to the demon, he crossed onto a street that was covered with ashes. Smoke lifted from the wreckage; cinders scattered the street. The homes and buildings were nothing more than smoldering debris. The powerful wind had already blown the flames toward the northwest as it so often flowed. While Hatasuko ran on, his lungs cried for clean air and his feet begged for freedom from the heat, but he ignored every plea. With a heartbroken grimace, he watched the Interfectus unleash its shadow blade-arm once again. Just as before, Hatasuko heard a man scream into the sky, and then he heard silence. The Interfectus ripped its arm out of the man who had fired the catapult, and Hatasuko watched as blood and veins fell from the blade of shadows. His gold-colored hair was plastered to his face from a sudden rush of sweat, but he felt a coldness in his heart more powerful than the flames around him.
[https://i.imgur.com/meeF0Sr.jpg]
“The brave are punished, so humankind has given up on fighting back. Long ago, when the Interfecti first appeared, we thought they were unreal. We thought that these demons would disappear as easily as they came, but evil never erases itself. Everything only gets worse with time unless we do something to stop it. This is my hopeless campaign to stop it. I’d like to say that I will sacrifice everything to save these souls, but the reality is that I had nothing to lose all along,” Hatasuko said, just to give himself the strength to keep running.
In just seconds, Hatasuko ran beyond the edge of the smoldering buildings. He was now so close to the Interfectus that every nearby building had been flattened. He could see sparks and cinders fly through the gusty air at a high speed, just beneath the monster’s feet. Its dark surface flashed between orange and blue because of the fiery reflections. The heat felt excruciating, but Hatasuko knew that he had reached the perfect place to launch his attack. Without wasting a moment, he holstered his sword in the sheath on his back. As he heard the crackle of buildings breaking down from the forces of fire, he pulled his bow off his strong right arm and clenched it with his left hand. He quickly pulled out an arrow and stuck it to the bowstring by its nock, but he was too slow. The transparent layer of blackness in the sky was churning; the body of the Interfectus was glowing. With a deafening crash of noise, the demon unleashed the third weapon of the Interfectus – its scattershot of shadow spheres.
[https://i.imgur.com/vXCUEUl.jpg]
[Author's note: Please do note that this chapter is not over. I was encouraged to not upload much more than 1500 words at a time, which means each chapter will probably get split into 3 pieces. Sorry if that's weird. I'll post more later, but the image uploader is pretty inconvenient here. For information about my AI-generating practices and the inconsistencies therein, please check out my blog, linked in my profile]