Clock... Clock… Clock…..
A pervading stench filled the air as the smell of decaying flesh and bone permeated the very walls of the Throne Room of the Eternal One. It was a space where time seemed to bend and break, where shadows clung to the darkness like old, rotting memories. The room was built from dark obsidian stone. Its high ceilings arched in grotesque patterns, resembling the broken ribs of some long-forgotten behemoth, while ancient banners hung lifelessly, swaying ever so slightly as though moved by an unseen breeze that simply didn't exist.
Skeletons, some human and some from races that he didn't even bother remembering, shuffled aimlessly across the cold, unyielding floor. Their bony feet scraped against the stone, sending eerie echoes through the chamber. Their hollow eye sockets glimmered faintly, not with life, but with an eerie, disinterested glow.
Perhaps in another time, another age, another era, he might have reveled in such a sight. But now, after achieving all he had ever sought, after centuries of relentless war against the holy cities of Priscilla, an emptiness lingered within him... one he no longer felt the need to comprehend. Victory, once so desperately chased, had now left him hollow.
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Only a husk of the man he once was.
At the far end of the room, upon a throne of charred bones and blackened metal, sat the Lich King. His tattered cloak, once regal, now hung from his skeletal frame in strips, His skull cracked in places, which continually leaked faint, smoky wisps from his hollow eye sockets, as though he were barely hanging on to life.
"Perhaps," the Lich King muttered, his voice a raspy whisper that reverberated throughout the vast, empty hall, "this is what mortals call regret." He lifted his skeletal hand, watching as his Mana coursed through his brittle bones like dark lightning.
“I..”
His words trailed off.
He'd almost forgotten how good it felt to sleep….
and could faintly remember the warmth of the sun on his skin, the taste of sweet wine, and the sound of laughter that came from his family….
And he would never forget how good it felt to…
To…?
“I think I've lost something very important to me"
..
…
…….
…………
……………….
After a while of sitting there, the Lich King rose from his throne, his brittle bones creaking under the strain. For the first time in centuries, he felt compelled to move, to do something other than sit in silence.
As his gaunt hand extended, the skeletons below him collapsed into a heap of brittle bones. The Aether that once animated them had faded, its life force no longer suffusing their hollow frames, leaving them lifeless once more.
“I need a walk”
End