***
The echoes of the Trumpet broke me away from my stupor, back into the nightmare of reality. The sound of it, I can't even― Dread and Awe of different kind compared to just moments ago grip my whole being to the core. It's like nothing I've ever felt before.
Calling it a trumpet, or a sound even, feels somehow wrong; but that's what my mind immediately came up with while trying to puzzle out what I'm now experiencing. Words can't give it justice― metallic, bright but also dark, intense, brilliant, powerful and stately. It seemed to reach across the whole world and into your very soul.
I'm shivering as the notes filled with power echo across the land and the skies - now covered in billowing dark clouds. Whipping up strong winds that do nothing to disrupt the Call of―
It's not just me... The whole mountain Trembles, and the soft, white stone of this strange place starts to crumble near the top. Cracks form and the whole thing starts to break. Storm wind carries up dust that joins the clouds, dancing up above to the tune that could just as well herald the world's ending.
The clouds are growing darker with each passing moment.
This is bad, so very bad. And yet all I can do is just stand there, looking at the destruction happening around me, filled with awe. I'm not even sure when I got back on my feet. Absentmindedly I pick up a piece of cloth that got caught on my leg, after it got carried the wind -The same piece of silk that was hanging from the tree, now thankfully free of the black ooze. And drape it over my shoulders to cover myself from the sand and dust flying through the air.
Then I could hear silent drums in the distance... And the skies light up with thunder as far as the eye could see. One of the bolts, wider than it should ever be allowed, split away from the heavens and obliterated the top of the mountain and the side of it facing away from me, while setting the very stone on fire.
I got thrown to the ground when the shock wave reached me in an instant. That was a powerful wake up call ―I can't stay here... Need to run! Panic grips me, instincts take over and so I ran, ears ringing and half blind after the strike. Down the broken mountain at breakneck speed.
-Need to find some shelter or I'm going to die!
Stone crumbling under my feet I run to the beat of the drums coming from down in the valleys. Fire starts flying overhead, giant balls of flame - like meteorites, fall from the skies adding to the chaos. Peak of another mountain, one valley away from me Explodes! in a fiery blast. It highlights a swarm of dark winged creatures flying just under the billowing clouds of darkness, before a series of flashes bloomed among them like miniature stars ―I got distracted.
One wrong step– A piece of stone under my feet breaks off, and I go tumbling down the mountain side. Getting my fall under control I slide down the slope in a cloud of dust and shower of rock. Series of tremors strikes, shaking the ground strong enough to make me air born for a moment and I once again roll down head over heels. There are now multiple avalanches of stone going down the mountain, the roar of earth competing with the rumble coming from above the thick layer of clouds.
This really looks like it is the end of the world—
I land on a particularly big piece of sliding debris and ride it down to the bottom of the slope, clinging to it for my dear life.
Jumping off as we slow down near the flat ground I run away from the mountain to avoid being buried in a tsunami of rock and dust. The air is filled with smoke as fires spread all over the valley, casting eerie shadows in the growing unnatural darkness.
More and more winged beings fill the skies. Many look almost like humans -others are much more monstrous; creatures of horn and claws. They all tear into each other in a chaotic battle, raining blood and gore into the land below.
A group of the more human-like horned flyers emerged from thick smoke above me; some carrying halberds, others armed with big two handed swords. They clashed with a pair of four armed giants to my right, that were flinging fireballs all over the place while slowly advancing toward the mountains. Higher up and over the forest ahead, a bunch of half naked women with raven wings were swarming a floating- Thing. A huge monster that looked like it crawled out of some Lovecraftian story; tentacles and all the works. Just looking at it fills me with fear. They shoot shining red stars of light at it, laughing maniacally at the creature's impotent attempts to catch its more agile opponents.
A particularly bright flash highlights the clouds― revealing a shadow of a titanic entity hiding in the sky. Miles long twisting and coiling shapes lurking in the cover of darkness above, just out of sight. And a vague suggestion of a maw armed with curled horns. Dread.
-I can't stay here in the open, need to find some cover! So I hurry toward the tree line, part of the forest is on fire but who cares at this point. Anywhere but out of this pandemonium.
Even the trees look like they belong to a horror movie set; they are a twisted, macabre looking things with gnarled branches, exposed roots and black sap flowing down from they damaged trunks. Many lay uprooted by the constantly shaking earth.
Blinded by the smoke I run waving my way between them, tripping on the uneven terrain. In my terror fueled rush I've stepped onto something soft, and it released a scream that caused my veins to fill with ice. Only then did I realize that the space under the trees is writhing with a mass of crawling, maggot like creatures. To my horror I notice that they each have a pair of tiny hands they use to push themself of the ground to escape from the fires spreading through the forest... and on their heads, a vague mockery of a human face, as it a person was pushing their face against the skin from the inside. I stumble as more of the creatures echo the cries of the first one. But rather than attacking they try to crawl away from me.
—What is this madness.
Then something falls from the sky crashing through the branches and collides with a nearby tree's trunk, cracking it and falling to the ground in a heap. I stare at the bloodied body, still rooted in place from the shock.
It's a beautiful woman dressed in silks, she is still breathing -if barely. There are horns on her head. She's just like the ones from before, up in the sky fighting the― Thing. I shudder at the memory. One of her wings was completely ripped out of her back and is currently missing; badly bruised and clearly in pain with half of her hair burned away, she lays limp.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
She looks up and our eyes meet. Those beautiful eyes pleading for help, she is hurt and scared asking me to save her. Full lips slightly parted and leaking blood to the ground.
I take a shaky step forward to help her- when suddenly a big shadow shows up from behind the trees, stepping on a maggot-thing that tried to run away. A minotaur? It looks down at the woman laying on the ground. Then takes a swing and buries a giant axe in her head.
I watch in terror, as It reaches down towards the dead female demon with its free hand. A lust filled smile on a beast like face, a bulge slowly rising the hide loincloth it uses to cover its privates. It's looks more like a bipedal bull than a man -with powerful muscles and a pair of massive horns. Its hooves are covered in fresh blood. But then it notices me just standing there and huffs in irritation.
It grabs its axe in both clawed hands and I know I'm already dead.
As it's about to take a step– an anguished scream comes from above. A long spear falls down from the sky and impales the bull-thing through the chest, pinning it to the ground. It drops the axe and grasps at the long shaft... but I'm no longer there to see if it lives after something like this. I'm running for my life again, kicking the worms aside as I make my way through the burning forest of horrors.
Damn it all.
...
As I finally made it to the other side and out of the burning forest - tired and covered in scratches, coughing from the smoke. I'm forced to stop at the edge of a cliff overlooking a long, narrow ravine. Down in the middle a battle takes place; A group of small red devils is harassing a behemoth of a beast. It looks as if a bull and an alligator had a baby. Maybe with some bear mixed in for good measure; and after that someone kept feeding it steroids for its whole life until it grew to the size of an 18 wheeler. There is a harness over its back and a primitive throne like seat of bone at the top. It's empty right now, no sight of whoever was there before.
Little buggers with tiny wings at their backs are screeching while clinging to the walls, showering it with bright blue bolts of light with an occasional fireball -that does more harm than good, as it throws off some of their friends that are currently crawling over the giant beast's back - trying to do gods know what, and only annoying the thing. It's trashing around blindly on occasion managing to stomp one of them to the ground or hitting the sides of the ravine with its forward facing horns, causing the cliff to shake. There's not enough room there for the tank of a beast to fight properly.
I scan the sky with worry, as I'm now stuck here. Can't go back into the forest, the fire turned it into and inferno, and I'm not going down there.
The battle for the sky is in full swing. Giant horned monstrosities with bat wings and flaming swords seem to dominate this part of the airspace. There's not that many of them but they slaughter any opposition with both might and magic. One just cleaved something that looked like armored shark in half. A fucking flying shark!
Suddenly everyone seems to stop for a moment, as an insanely bright light breaks the cloud cover and streaks down across the sky to hit one of the still standing mountains, obliterating stone and causing the ground to shake. I can feel the impact all the way from here. There is now a giant crater in the mountain's side. The shock wave swept the sky clean from anything flying around there.
A roar came from above causing me to fall down, petrified. Something was coming down from high above, and no one here will survive that.
Radiant light shone from the cracks in the cratered peak and the mountain that got hit earlier —just disappeared. The earth heaved rising like waves of an ocean and the landscape all around changed. Giant chasms opened starting from where it once stood as the Light shot back into the clouds and out of sight once more.
I was sent into the air when earth itself slammed into me like a hammer of a titan, accompanied by the cacophony of destruction - feeling every bone in my body ache. I think I've lost my mind for a moment there. No way I can survive this day.
The fighting soon resumed with renewed vigor. Demons, devils, monsters and horrors of all kinds ripping and tearing each other all around, but I didn't care anymore. What am I supposed to do in face of all this? I just laid there after hitting the ground. While blood and stone rained down.
-No, I need to move. Get away from this madness, find shelter. The monster down in the ravine finally had enough and stormed out, trampling over the little red ones that fell of the walls, free at last as part of its prison collapsed. Surprisingly the remaining ones gave chase.
The deep cliffs should offer some protection.
Climbing down I find that danger didn't pass, one of the little bastards has survived. It's badly maimed but still throwing curses after the group that left and not looking my way. Without much thought I lift a big rock in both hands and smash its head. Again and again I bring the stone down, standing over it as I'm venting all my frustrations and stress on the poor bastard. I didn't scream, didn't say a word— just kept silently smashing standing over my victim until there wasn't much left. Now covered in gore I sit among the broken bodies at the bottom of the ravine. Looking up into the sky.
I will need a miracle if I want to get out of this. Something stirs inside of me and I feel sharp pain bloom in my back. My vision grew dark and I hear something just tore apart, my flesh was pierced and warm blood spills on the stone. I'm down on my knees then and I kiss the ground wet from the blood of the demon I killed, now mixing with my own.
Was I found and attacked by something? I didn't even see it coming.
A blow to the back ―A shitty end after surviving all this bullshit. But no follow up attack comes to claim my life. Are they waiting for me to bleed out? Wish I could tell what's behind me, as I can't move right now. My forehead feels like it's on fire, must have hit the ground harder than I thought. Wish I knew what was going on.
Suddenly it feels as if my head exploded and I blacked out.
——
Ah, a memory.
I wake up feeling changed, a bit different. It was probably my second worst transformation, right after that first one.
-Need to be more careful with the system. That's why I prefer to do in in my relatively safe lair. After all this time I still don't have the good feel for how much I can change things up and keep myself from blacking out like this.
Thankfully nothing happened —but damn this place sure brings back bad memories. That was an awful time to go to hell. Getting thrown into the middle of a bloody war. As if finding out you just died wasn't bad enough for one day. Well back on your feet, the day is wasting.
I look down into the wasteland from the remnants of the once majestic mountain. The place now looks so much different. The forest is long gone and there's no soul in sight. No demons fighting it out over the sky, and no titans battling in the clouds. The angels sure did a number on this place. That was a sight I will never forget.
It doesn't rain in hell- unless it's blood. And there is no sun. That day sure was something else.
Rose is happily eating her miasma and it will still take her some time - I wasn't knocked out for all that long. So there is no point sticking around. And feeling new strength filling my body makes me want to do something productive, like testing things out to get a better feel of my new power. It's very important to know your ability.
With a wave to the now darker plant I grab the goat's heavy mace carrying it over my shoulder, and head back 'home'. There is much to do, but guess I've all the time in hell.
Ha! With spring in my step feeling lucky I get down the mountain while swinging a bottle full of mana in my tail. Looking at my new status.
> Name: Meow
>
> Race: Hellspawn** (4)
>
> Class: Red Imp (12)
>
> Attributes:
>
> Strength 12
>
> Resilience 15
>
> Magic 30
>
> Spirit 50
>
> Intellect 31
>
> Perception 12
>
> Agility 20
>
> ????:
>
> Traits:
>
> ????
>
> Humanoid (2): Mana Channels, Magic Affinity.
>
> Horns (5): Sense Mana, Magi Focus, Amplify Magic.
>
> Wings.
>
> Tail (2): Dexterity, Mana Burn.
>
> Digitigrade (1): Quick Feet.
>
> Skills: Hell Born, Identify, Mischief II, Imp Magic, Alchemy, Enchanting, Magic Pockets, Illusions, Elementalist II, Empower.
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