Part 1:

Deep in a bulwark of ancient stone, a man lay considering, feeling, thinking...

"The world turns asunder", Estible hears as he lay on the flat stone eyes closed. "There will be no more." the final words come.

Standing, slowly, having stayed in darkness, meditation for days, he takes a moment to adapt before his senses fully come alive again.

"To what did we deserve such a fate." he asks to himself with a grim disdain. Thinking to himself, he queries his choices. "Among the best, the worst sit idle. Should I move, there will be none left unsilent."

Slowly moving as he stretches himself forward he approached the opening to his dark enclave. There in front of him stand the dirtied harbingers, the sinful, the wrathful, seekers to be worthy of apocalypse.

Staring forward he gazed at their visage, vibrant and young with unusual youth. "Why have you come here?" he asks as they respond in turn the twins, as they saw fit bowing.

"We have come, for it is the time. You requested that we may wait, and wait, we have. Our patience, is now due." they said.

Estible could not hear them, the words in his mind thousands of years old burned into the moments that presided his circumstances.

"Will you deny us?" fell the question before his waiting gaze. "No, I will not deny you." His voice falling heavy on the loud stone void he stood. Nodding, the twins walked away in silence.

Worlds flashed and memories quaked with Estible's soul. "Murder!" a voiced screamed, "Save me!" a voice held by only the strength of his existence.

"Damn you, damn you to hell." shouted an old friend, a memory and a reality. He could not continue, not just yet.

Moving downwards, he followed an empty hallway. Upon which did he find a door, that being one that held no secrets to him, although, he may have been the first in a thousand millennia.

With a forceful shove followed by a falling of dirt and detritus, he began to push the giant stone door aside.

Slowly walking through he found himself centered across from an expansive hallway, staring deeply into its dead air ignorant of breath.

"It has been, far too long." he said to himself, moving deeper into the chamber, lights flicking to life immediately catching infernal fire from the rush of air from the opening door on the cobwebs, as quickly as it came, the air cooled and the torches sat at ready burning ever into the empty halls.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Footsteps echoed as Estible walked, each step before the last a cascade of disappointment. "My failure." He thought to himself. "My obligation." He said with empathy.

Carefully, the stones watched as he moved closer with each step a presence deeper, wider, more. "It is my failure." he called out, the stone disappointed.

"Will you accept me as I am now?" his voice forced. The stone did not answer. The stone, did not care. The stone was not alive.

Estible roared, "It is not my place, nor yours. The decisions are not meant for us. Any of us. To let each decide, choose and define their destiny is their right, it is their reason."

A solemn voice rang out. "Do you believe that there lies a choice that has purpose? A reason worth being? Do you expect something from them? An.. understanding? What could they do? They can not begin to understand who they are. There has been epoch upon time to be that which they might chose to find their way. I would ask then of the individual. To what does thy seek? Where could any choice that could be found have been seen. No. ""

Fighting to stand as the earth roiled, Estible fell into the depths of endless breaking stone.

"A gift, a gift given" said two voices. "A gift repaid". Followed by the sound of footsteps Estible gasped for air.

Moments passed, and his eyes opened. Fire, beset upon his surroundings as he righted himself.

Seemingly uncaring he strode through the flames his clothes set ablaze and skin searing before reforming, his eyes shining dimly for but a moment. There was but one stop to be had, a single origin and goal.

As he walked out of the inferno he saw where he now stood, a city far above where he had been before. Stone, grand and immense. As far as the eye could see were massive stone structures built to withstand time.

"They will all fall" a voice in his head pounded. Gritting his teeth, naked, startling passersby his naked form coming through an inferno of stone, he continued to find his answer...

Upon several blocks of stone and mortar he became upon a building of a simple goods store. Within, a fred stood, young and strapping 16 years of age.

Shan shouted "What the hell?" as he ran to his to Estible. "You realize your skin is on fire?" he spat staring at the flesh falling off as it healed, slowly the flames dying out.

Part 2: TBA

Part 3:

The rough sandstone beneath my feet felt odd. It has been far too long since I had moved about. Wrapped in chains, thinking to himself.

A young man following beside calling out his name "Estible!" Shan shouted.

"Quiet your damned yelping," roared Estible. "There is more than enough time now."

Shan shouting back, "But what if they return?"

"Bah!" Roared Estible. "If another Sandskin walks near me I'll rip out his throat and feed it to the Zekhan."

Shan shuddering and faltering as his legs grew faint as they moved across to the arid desert. The sounds of raging winds echoed about as the winds whipped and roared.

Estible's eyes glowing a deep cerise. "We're going to fucking kill every last one of them."