There's a place beyond here, somewhere not too far but not too close. Its scintillating features glow like a sheet of aurora. It circles the place we call home, radiating an eerie tone when examined too close. For a reason unknown, we have trained and trained under the leadership of our chief Xandier. Day in and day out, a select few of us are tasked with maintaining this boarder, walking beside it and continuously staring off into its mesmerising colours. We were told it protects us, we were told to stay inside of it, we were told to never question it...but we were never told that these rules wouldn't go both ways. So why is it...why is it that I'm covered in the last breath of these creatures?
The ones that pierce The Veil as if welcomed with open arms, greeted by none more than my own sword. In and out I thread my blade through their torsos, legs, limbs. Anything that had the least amount of resistance. Their bodies lack bone, blood, flesh and their minds are void of sentience. Shaped differently and illogically, disregarded for an actual role they may fit or how they may function in something as simple as movement. And yet here I am, kneeling down and staring into the distance at them melting through the Veil. I watch as they slow in pace as if showing some sort of mercy through their colourless pearl white eyes, encompassed and given existence through their shadowy body, the creatures themselves...in fact...lacking shadows.
Their disguised acts of mercy no longer keep them slowed, continuing their rapid approach towards my tired and worn down state, 'Get up' I try to motivate myself, planting the sword into the ground in front of me in hopes of using it to assist my movement. 'Get up!' I scold myself for showing any kind of weakness. 'What usefulness can you provide if you can't even kill a hundred more?' I ask myself.
Tensing my grip along the sword to where veins rise throughout my flesh, pushing off of the dirt in order to charge against them. A shadow amalgamated with 4 legs approaches me first, storming towards me with a clear imbalance with its humanoid stature attached to the appendages. Swinging back and forth with an open mouth as it runs high above me, showing teeth from under it that drool with delight over my body. I breathe out once, sweeping one of the legs off with a clean cut that forces the creature to drop on top of me and swallowing me partially.
The warmth of its organs showing certain life, but one to be disregarded for the sake of our home. As its teeth burrow into my legs, I run my sword through its skull from the inside, splitting it down the middle before the acidic juices digest my flesh. Both sides of its body falling beside me and showing yet another one approaching me. The common guise of humanoid, and yet covered in some sort of feathers, its arms replaced by wings as it begins to soar towards me with its talon shaped feet first.
Their mouths as silent as ever, not a hint of emotion or thought on their faces. We simply know they must be killed, just as they kill us. Preparing my blade once more, I hold it up in preparation to slice off its legs. Breathing in once more to gather my strength, I side step the talon and release the swing. Gazing upon its piercing eyes as its warm breath waves across my skin.
Without the hesitation to pain, it grabs my shoulder with its remaining foot, digging its talons into me as a searing pain courses through my veins. Tighter and tighter it grips onto me, I attempt to raise my sword to it but the beating wings smack me in the face each moment I take to look up. My left arm limp and my right arm not much use besides the chipped sword that lay in my grasp.
Higher and higher it takes me into the air, allowing me to take a glance upon the purple land extended from the Veil, the natural colours of nature itself changing into something unimaginable. I embrace the pain, no longer feeling it through me as my eyes close in acceptance of wherever this thing is taking me.
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"HEY!" A familiar voice shouts out to me from below, a face I immediately recognise to be Requis. One of the people from within my group that I lead. "I KNOW YOU'RE NOT GIVING UP!", She shouts at me while thrashing the hair out of her face.
I look away from her, instead looking back at the Veil. Through it I can't help but think...there's a place out there where these things came from, aren't there? 'So how come we can't see through it clearly' I ponder to myself.
"DON'T BE PASSING OUT ON ME!" She screams once again to get my attention.
I'm unsure of what she wants me to do, even if I somehow killed it...I'm not living this fall. Looking down, I scan the surroundings, from the trees to yet another winged one, and then Requis' determined sight, pointing at what...seems to be the river connecting from our home. "Fucking impossible" I speak to myself.
Releasing a sigh that catches the attention of this winged thing as it looks towards me with an open mouth, building up some sort of liquid. "DON'T YOU WANT TO SEE FREYA!?". She shouts with all her might, hitting my ear drums and forcing my brain to pulse with a sensation I've experienced only a few times before.
It's in moments like these...that I can hear it. The environment silencing as my heavy heart pumps adrenaline through my chest. In moments like these, I feel like I could truly do anything I set my sight to. I pull back my blade, tossing it upward and slicing off one of the wings. The unknown fluids release from the creature's mouth, hurdling into the air and missing me as we both spiral downwards. My hands find their way around the leg that still remains dug into me, bringing my teeth to it and chomping in an animalistic form of survival. Nothing but gases fill my mouth as I barely manage to chew through it, separating us but I re-grab it, spinning us both until its body remains under me.
I continue falling, gaining confidence after a reassuring thought crosses me mind. 'After touching one of these things directly, I now know for certain. They're far softer than us'. I smile knowing my safety is assured, I can go back and see her radiant face again. With an explosive thump, I land across a barren space of land. The purplish particles of its disintegrating body twist into a helix around me as a wolf whistle hits my ears from Requis approaching behind me.
She holds a hand to me, extending into the pit that I created as she helps me out of it. "Are you even human?" She asks.
"I-" I try to respond, not knowing if she's joking or not.
"I mean, you were alone here right?" She asks another question, tugging me back towards the original space I was fighting the Shadows at.
"I was" I confirm.
"The others of our group were done with their side already and decided to head back, but that was only because we had maybe 10-15 at the most..." She lingers on while passing the brief tree line, still hand in hand with my own. "So what the fuck is this?" She waves along the land, showing at least a hundred disintegrating bodies that I presumably left in my wake.
"I had more? I guess? I don't remember?" I confusingly assure her.
"It's no wonder you keep breaking sword after sword." She slaps her forehead before writing down a note for something.
She catches my eyes watching her, unwilling to explain unless I ask directly, "What are you doing?"
"Noting this area down because this isn't the first time you've done this all alone, is it?"
"I...no?" I rub the back of my head, finding nothing but a blur in my memory.
"Xandier keeps track of these breaches and this one in particular, only you have been stationed at. I'm asking him if I can help for the future, because we can't be having you coming back like this each and every time." She waves across my body.
"I'm fine though" I state with a smile.
"Oh really?" She raises her arm, slapping it down on my injured shoulder before unexpectantly tensing and sending electricity down my spine. "Oh shit! I'm sorry!", Back and forth I feel myself sway as my vision blurs...'I hope she can carry me'. I think to myself as she keeps shouting.
From what I can make out, she begins to panic while flailing her arms, "PLEASE! I'LL HAVE TO DRAG YOU IF YOU PASS OUT, DON'T!" She shouts into my ear, getting the smart idea of tensing harder on the injury as if that'll help...
"ORACION!?" I hear her last words distort as my head topples down to the floor.