The black roof and the cold night air felt surprisingly warm on Argant's body. He just silently laid atop the guild house, gazing into the stars.
His mask was laying by his left side and the robe was pulled from his body.
His dirty blonde hair fluttered in the gentle nightly breeze. It was a peaceful atmosphere, something out of an extravagant painting.
Argant's firm gaze held no signs of life anymore. The peace... was just an illusion. What laid there was nothing more than the former husk of Argant.
His mind has long ago lost the battle against the corruption and to protect those around him he used advanced wind magic to catapult himself onto the guild house's roof. Here the people could not get close to him and so he could prevent himself from killing them if he falls into a berserk state.
Of course once he got down from the roof he would attack them anyway but by then they must have had noticed his disappearance and heightened their allertness, so if Argant behaves suspiscious they would attack him. Another reason why he unmasked himself beforehand: killing a human won't weigh on their consciences.
He just prayed that in his onslaught he won't kill anyone, he would not be able to forgive himself for that.
Another safety measure which he installed was his darkness magic. He cursed himself countless times, a curse that drains vitality, turns your bones fragile, increases fatigue and pain, all those things were casted onto himself to make it easier for his companions to kill him. The snake which he created was also close to him and would bite mercilessly down onto him if the snake would notice an extreme change in Argant.
(The snake is made of mana, mana is connected with the soul, so... the snake would notice a change in his soul. Yeah I know I just made this stuff up, in less than a minute to be precise. :S)
With everything prepared Argant's body just laid there, cold and unmoving like a corpse.
A minute passed.
Two minutes.
Ten minutes.
Half an hour.
His body shock softly. It appeared to be just a slight trembling, at first. But soon his body started to convulse. The snake noticed the change but was still waiting patiently; maybe its master was alright?
The red fog of carnage wraped around Argant's soul and manifested itself in his eyes. The golden glimmer was lost and replaced by a crimson red.
The curses did their deed and destroyed Argant's body partly. Argant breathed in deeply and right off his lungs started to rupture.
Argant's body tried to sit up but its bones simply collapsed in itself and its muscles did not even budge an inch.
The snake now realized that its master was gone and started to bite Argant. With each bite the snake's poison and curse was pumped into Argant's body.
Speckles of black appeared on Argant's skin and his flesh was starting to erode.
Nonetheless his body, fueled by the pure animalistic desire to kill, moved up. Grabbing the snake with a hand and choking so long until it disipiated his body was now sat upright.
His bones and flesh were forcefully mended together by blood magic, something which Argant overlooked.
The unstable body of Argant wobbled while he was standing up, residue of the curses still made Argant suffer enormous damage to his now frail body.
A demonic red mist spurted forth of Argant's mouth, the blood that accumulated in his lungs. The mist slowly drifted in the wind until it started to revolve around Argant.
The red mist gathered closely to Argant's body and started to solidify. In a matter of seconds a ruby red armor was created, drops of blood dripping down sometimes.
With the armor adorned Argant looked like a ancient demon king, clad in the blood of countless foes.
The superficial bone and flesh mending finished. Argant got down in a crouching position and flexed his leg muscles.
CREAK!
With the sound of his bones breaking Argant jumped down the guild house.
A large group has already gathered around the guild house because of Silana's shouts. They could only watch as Argant rocketed down from the high building like a red shooting star.
BOOM!
The ground shook and a small crater was formed. The blast wave made the onlockers fall on their bums.
A huge cloud of dust was formed around the crater where Argant was staying in a three-point landing.
Red flickers were the only thing the observers could see through the thick curtain of dust.
The large upheaval was heard by the other adventurers in the guild and soon the plaza around the guild house was completely crowded.
The dust settled after a minute or two and a figure clad in blood red armor was standing there. A pair of hatred filled eyes was looming through the ventail of the figures helmet. The eyes scanned the crowed like a predator scans its next prey; looking for weak spots with an unalterable gaze.
SCHOOOOM!
The dust was blown away by a strong pressure, lifting up the clothes of the unsuspecting bystanders. Some screamed in surprise, others exclaimed loudly: “What the fuck?!“ and again others tried to sneak a peak of the uplifted skirts of random women.
“Uhmmmm... Fresh prey...“. A diabolic voice muttered.
With that one silently mumbled sentence the fight began.
A deep dark abyss.
That was the first thing that greeted me. An endless void of darkness closed in on me, a paradox insult to my mind, trapped in infinity.
My senses were going haywire and yet I could not make out a single thing. It was just utter blackness. I couldn't even see or sense my own body in this thick ocean of gloom. I was just a consciousness floating through this abstract space, with no direction or purpose in my life.
Minutes stretched to hours and hours to days, day to weeks and so on and so forth. In the chaotic quagmire like space and time I slowly started to lose myself, to merge with the background, the eternal darkness. The only thing that persisted was the endless obscurity.
I wandered for so long, to long in fact. My mind is murky and only a few jumbled thoughts escaped my self.
I felt the allure of finally relinquishing myself to the darkness, to stop the useless resistance but something, deep, deep in a corner of my mind stopped me from doing so. A flame of burning unwillingness to surrender. It was so ardent and yet so fragile, the flame that kept me from being me was slowly dying out however I could not bring myself to let this tiny thought just vanish. Each time the heated passion impended to die out I fueled it with thoughts.
Thoughts about a thing long-lost, life. I still had a bare notion about this fragile thing called life.
I remembered faces, some covered by a thick fog others still retaining their rough silhouette, but there was something else amongst these opaque memories.
A light.
A light that burned with the same passion as my own ego, my self-preservative drive unwilling to forsake my life, although it was a nuance different. It had nothing to do with my barely remaining self it was a fire that... it was impossible to describe. It was simple, yet complex; it was light, yet dark; it held the joy of life, as well as the dread of death.
Before I even noticed it I floated towards the light. It was brighter than even my own conservation of my ego. A simple memory, a memory of a small, horned girl.
Her slightly chubby cheeks, the beady eyes colored in a cozy brown, her chestnut brown hair that was as soft as silk and had those distinct two horns growing underneath them, her small nose, the vibrant smile, the rosy lips and her petite figure.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Her eyes were warm and filled with a love and longing that long ago breached the borders of sibling love.
I wanted to hold this image, to never let it go and embed it in my heart. I tried to reach out to it and bit by bit I came closer, until...
That damned red fog. I could only watch as this mist of red tried to suffocate this last happy memory. To drown it down into the darkness. And I could do nothing against it. It infuriated me, lit a burning fire of hatred, a raging inferno!
I tried to penetrate this blood red fog with my aethereal body.
I tried for so long, for so.... so... long. I didn't even know why I was trying to fight the red mist, it only hurt me whenever I attacked it and yet my mind did not falter, it was screaming, pleading, to never let this light go that was dying out. Yes at some point it did die but it always came back, this frail memory always came back to me. My mind was collapsing and yet this small image came to my help, blurred from the red fog but still unique to me.
I tried my damn hardest. Let my mind collide with this blood red fog, use my sheer will to propel my mind into the last few desperate struggles. I felt so helpless, so sad and... enraged. Enraged at my own weakness. So instead of even thinking about giving up I started to collide with the fog even harder.
But I couldn't even make the red fog move, instead, I was even tugged back, slightly at first but then it changed into a enormous vortex of attractive force.
I hated this, I could only watch how the red fog started to swallow this innocent fire of... yes I admit, love. I was in love with that girl.
If I could just remember her name...
I urned back towards the center from where this force surged forth. A big-ass maw! All I could see was a blood red maw, littered in millions of equally red fangs. Its mouth ended in an even deeper shade of nothingness than the abyss that surrounded me.
Two giant orbs of red were directly staring at me, through my soul and very core. The gaze alone felt extremely painful.
If I had a body at that time I would have pissed and/or shat myself, undoubted.
The vortex of attraction lessened and the giant creature's mouth turned into a hellish grin.
“I am the mighty epitome of carnage, the apex of war and blood, Ra'Kha. Lesser being feel honored!“. The giant beast shouted, but how could I even respond, every part of its body screamed 'DEATH! CARNAGE!', I was way to scared to even try to resist the pull that was making me steadily get closer to that monster.
But there was one thing I wondered, one thing that nagged me so much I just had to ask.
“U-uhm... Lord Ra'Kha, why are you prisoned here?“. Yes prisoned. I could indubitably see massive shackles piercing into the nothingness behind the mighty beast, there were also some of its fangs broken now that I remembered.
“SH-SHUT UP!“. He screamed at me but how should I say... he seemed now less dangerous. He started to mumble something to himself, but considering that that guy is huge and I was steadily getting draged closer, I could hear everything with ease. He said something about a mighty creature that smashed all common sense and how he could not know he offended such a powerful being. It was quite frightening, imagining such a beast of apocalyps being beaten to a pulp.
“Now let's talk straight you insect. I was force- uhh... uhm... I-I decided to bless you and gift you a part of my power.“
“What? How come my lord?“
“I simply decided it so shut up before I change my mind! Return to your normal life and don't bother me again!“
Normal life? What is he talking about? Wait a moment....
“Wa- was it you!? Did I lose my memory because of you? This killing urge was that all YOUR doing?!“. I tried to mask my anger to the best of my abilities but it was impossible, if it is true what I asked then it was that guys fault that I lost all my precious memories irreversibly.
“Of course. I tell you now. I am not such a low god like the Overgods of war or death and life, which pick their believers by simply who ahs the greatest potential. My believers need to shed their lifes and turn into avatars of carnage so that I can establish a link with them, in fact you are the only one who successed, even if I helped you a bit.“
I was speechless. This dirty being of fuck-your-assity simply decided that my old life is not worth it and devote myself to mindless slaughter and bloodshed.
“WHAT THE FUCK?! WHO GAVE YOU THAT MOTHERFUCKING RIGHT?!“. I shouted as loud as I could, luckily the abyss here somehow let the sound through.
“YOU DARE!!!!!“. Ra'Kha bellowed so loud that my mind got hazy for a moment. This creature was mighty enough to make my ego dissipiate with its mere voice. I really thought I made a mistake.
“Y-y-yes! I DARE! You took everything for me just so that you could 'bless' me on a fucking whim of yours?! What should I do now? I don't even know my name anymore, nor the people that are close to me!!!“
“YOU STUPID FOOL! Who said you WON'T get your memories back or anything? THAT is why I hate humans, you are so noisy and disrespectful and just plain stupid. I really ask myself why that dumb god of creation made you guys.“
“WHAT DID YOU S-... What? I will get my memories back? Eh... oh... I-I apologize.“. I tried to bow my non-existent head.
“Tch! Insolent brat. Haaaaah.... Anyway; I told you I will gift you a part from my power, take this.“
After finishing his words the grin again turned into this botomless void of a mouth. I shivered at the thoughts about what would happen next but to my relief nothing bad happened.
The teeth that looked like bloody obelisks suddenly started to shiver and loosen. After a minute or so all fangs were now floating around, slowly circling each other until theys started to fuse into one huge red blob.
The orb of red floated to me and upon contact the scenery dramaticaly changed.
Fueling the small speck of memory a huge explosion of light occured. Even I myself was blinded by the outburst of light.
The darkness vanished and was replaced by colorful specks of light, like beautiful stars they shone in thousands of colors.
My mind was quickly filled with my old memories and even my intangible self started to form into my old body.
Two rows of hot tears trickled down my face. Losing oneself is painful, I tell you.
I cried until my tears ran dry. I wanted to thank Ra'Kha but he too vanished. Only the now smaller red orb was floating leisurely before me.
I stratched my now material hand out to grasp the ball of blood red light. When my left hand touched the red orb I felt a surge of pain that was so incredible that I thought my soul would tear. Ominous red veins started to spread through my body.
Banshee like screams escaped my throat and my tears, which I thought ran dry, now flowed again, this time because of pain though.
I could feel teh red lines clawing their way up through my body. When they reached my eyes I could feel how they turned red and instead of normal tears now tears of blood started to fall.
An intense thirst for blood ran through my body, the urge was so strong that my body could not contain itself anymore. In the world of light I could see how everything turns black again, this time because I lost consciousness.
(Next comes the real fight!)