They kept pushing me onward, their words full of hope were like sharpened knives piercing into my flesh, the kindness shown my way felt indescribably heavy, and the bonds we shared felt like rusty chains dragging me into the ground. I was only a single man, my dreams were small, my ambitions were limited, and I only wanted a simple life.
But what am I doing now, fighting monstrous creatures that came from the darkest night, forming bonds with people who may die at any moment, and this strange power forced on to me, against my wishes.
The title given to me was a sick curse, that would forever burden me. She who we left behind became a mere doll for the shadows to play with. I could remember her kind smile, her gentle dark eyes, and her soft words of kindness, and encouragement.
Every time I closed my eyes, those images of her last moments burned into my mind, the soft words she said echoed in my ears, and my beating heart felt that much louder.
…
Lan opened his blurry eyes as he slowly adjusted to the dark walls of the temple, he scratched his head in confusion, only to find aches spread across his hands, and body. He could feel a dull throbbing pain in his arms, and hands, and a stiff back from leaning against the stone walls. Ignoring his surroundings, he instead frowned slightly.
“Who's memories is that?”
He looked around the hallway filled with an impenetrable darkness and got back up, it had been several hours since he walked inside, and neither sight nor sound had changed. All he could hear was a slow gentle throb, and an atmosphere filled with malice.
Using true sight he once again navigated the maze like interior without any sort of hints, maps or even landmarks to recognize. It is a mass of dead ends, split paths, and endless walking. Occasionally Lan would slam the sword against the wall, and listen to the sound, and feel the vibrations, in the air and walls. In his mind he could hear curse words, and slander muttered constantly in his mind, but casually ignored it.
The slow echo of his foot steps against the hard floor was the only clear sound he heard as he moved through the darkness, when he entered a cross section, he carved an arrow into the wall and moved to the left. The twists, and turns continued on endlessly, as he saw countless similar pathways that mirrored the ones before perfectly.
“For something trying to invite me, it seems the place it lives doesn't want me there.”
As he continued to observe the dark surroundings with true sight he saw something barely a centimeter long sticking to the wall in a dead end. He slowly reached out his hands, and touched the fragment, it was a sharp piece of metal.
He could here a male voice stream into his mind.
“This damned place is at the heart of this great beast, to think it was borne from both the sky, and earth, to spawn this gargantuan monstrosity; Ah I lost my temper a bit, if it weren't for him, we'd be lost forever. What was it he said again? Follow the sound?”
“Does he mean that beating sound?”
Lan focused his ears listening to the distant thumping, and beating of what seemed like a large distant drum. No matter where he went, or which way he walked the drumming sound always seemed distant, without getting louder.
After turning another corner he walked into a dead end, the drumming sound slightly changed it's rhythm, when he turned back to the intersection, the sound regained it's normal rhythm. After he walked into the left path, the sound pattern changed slightly.
Lan raised an eyebrow and back tracked, this time he went right, then back tot he original spot again, and did the same for the front, and back.
“The drumming sound sped up slightly when I went left, but returned to the same normal rhythm when I went the other paths, I see.”
He slowly began to test both paths, and followed the rhythm eventually leading him into a large wide open space, he felt a great warmth wash over him, and a musty scent invade his nose. The drumming sound was now beating loudly in the far distance.
The presence he felt before was now thick, and close by, somewhere beyond the large space.
He slowly walked forward, when he noticed the mana in the room start to thin out.
Lan immediately side stepped, when a gray beam of light brushed past his clothes, and slam into the entrance behind him. One quick look and he could tell the entrance was filled with a gray liquid that slowly rose, and blocked the area he came from.
“Was it scared I would runaway when I faced it?”
“Hmph.”
Lan stared at the sword that actually mocked him.
A hoarse voice filled the room and egged him further.
“Come mortal, if you do not get rid of me, do not hope of escaping here.”
“Hmm why would it need me to come here, even though it could attack me from anywhere on the islands.”
After thinking it over, Lan followed the voice, and went deeper, he had already decided to just kill that thing, and move on, Lan had things that needed to be done after all.
As he went deeper, the heat rose dramatically and the drumming sound reverberated across the long hall way, eventually he faced a live heart the size of a house, it's connective tissue clinging to the ceiling, and floor. What was even more strange was an eyeball, and a contorted mouth sticking out from the beating heart staring at him.
“Ah the moment I felt you pass by, I could sense you were a compatible vessel, very well, I'll allow you the honor of being...”
Several scarlet blades slammed into a dense barrier, causing the room to shake violently, as Lan charged into the heart. From the very beginning he had no interest on what it was trying to do, or what it was saying.
The heart saw Lan charging in and didn't continue it's rant, instead the walls crumbled and red blood started to flow in, while the heart continued to beat rapidly. The red liquid formed spikes that shot out from around the room.
Lan poured a single enchantment into his blade and slammed the floor, the floor rumbled lightly as the floor hardened to a metal like substance, and formed rows of blades, that cascaded towards the barrier, slashing apart the blood magic, drilling into the barrier.
As he followed the blades, he did a light twirl where he swung the blade behind him leaving a single curving line of energy that clung to the mana, and warped it. The unstable energy reached a climax and exploded, the mana in the blood magic turned erratic, and collapsed it's solidified form, turning into a pool of blood that didn't move.
The face in the heart made twisted face at the scene just now.
“How! Even the hero..”
Lan did not wait for it to recover from the shock, he poured a shocking amount of mana into the blade, that caused even the sword to scream in shocking pain, as it tore through the damaged barrier, and pierced into the mouth on the heart.
The face screamed in agony as blood from the giant heart splashed out violently, the face twisted in fury and shouted angrily.
“How dare y....”
Before it could even complete it's sentence, a magic circle formed on Lan's fingertips, sending shards of broken blades into the eyes, completely tearing into the heart. He could sense the sword was laughing maniacally as it was bathed in blood, Lan jumped away and left the sword buried into the heart.
“Aahahaha this taste, this feeling, how delicious, how exciting.”
Lan frowned in distaste as the sword began to describe how wonderful it tasted, and made strange noises of bliss.
During the short battle, the sword purposely missed his trajectory, making it so he had to use some of his own unique forge magic. The battle should have ended with a single blow, to exert so much effort on one low class opponent was a waste of energy, and time.
The drumming heart started to slow down, and sag, eventually it turned color, and something strange happened. The heart began to resemble stone, as parts of it's body began to petrify, Lan immediately reappeared next to the sword in a small flash, and minced the heart to bits.
From where the heart once stood a single staff leaking gray stony gravel could be seen, he immediately swung the sword, and shattered the staff. The petrification stopped spreading, and the gray staff fell helplessly on the pile of stone, and meat.
After eyeing the flowing mana in the staff, he could tell it was not lo longer active, he reached out to examine it, and some residual thoughts leaked in.
“The heart of this beast is actually manufactured! Leave this staff here to let it be eternally petrified, so it's heart will never regrow.”
Lan just sighed lightly.
“Guess he was wrong.”
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As he thought this, he felt something deep linger, almost hidden in the intent of the owner of this staff.
“Too bad you didn't die as well... Heartless wretch.”
…
Lan was currently wandering out of the temple, by climbing out of the tunnels left by the heart which traveled very far, it eventually lead him to the outskirts of the Island, where he gazed at the open sky beneath the edge, with nothing to cling to.
“Dead end huh...”
Eventually he had to go back the way he came, instead of navigating through the maze, he basically mowed everything down with his sword, carving a brittle path. Originally he had refrained from such an action going in, to not alert his enemy of his power, and to save it for the fight, but surprisingly what he met was a pushover, so the energy he saved was pointless.
After breaking past countless walls, he managed to emerge from the temple entrance. Now that the source of annoyance was gone, he had to find a way back to the island. The petrified people would not be freed from the destroyed staff, and neither would his flying mount.
The gorilla like creatures could be used, but their bodies didn't look to be made for long term flights, as he was pondering on what to do next. His gazed wandered around, he realized the answer was all around him.
However instead of going to start his plan he decided to rest around the lake instead, the battle with the creature didn't use much energy, instead plowing through all those walls drained him a lot. He looked around and stopped at the plain lake, with small logs floating calmly.
He once again repeated the process of moving the logs and jumping about, it seemed whatever was in the lake did not move due to vibrations. As he finally reached the shore he tore his flesh with his teeth, and let droplets of blood flow out. The drops of blood floated on the lake surface, eventually a mass of shadows swarmed his blood in the lake.
“Guess I should save some for the trip.”
…
The next morning Lan sneaked back to where the ship wreckage previously was using the sword he slashed apart usable parts, looted what looked liked coins, extra clothes, and cut the tattered sails. Slowly but surely an ugly, mismatched thing shaped like a boat started to form, it was only about 3 meters in length, the outer structure was covered by pieces of bone from the giant corpse, and inserted to the sides were strange crystal orbs found from the interior of the ship.
Strangely enough the one who mentioned the orbs was the sword, apparently after drinking all that blood, her mood was extremely co-operative.
“I'll need more rations aside from the fish, some water, and plant life to carry.”
In the end he took a few barrels from the ship and stocked it with edible material, and the other had water filled from nearby shallows pools. In the end he smoked the excess fish from the lake, and foraged across the island for any fruit's, and edible plants.
A clump of tools were taken, followed by a roll of blankets for emergencies.
Using the vines found on the island, he used them as rope to tie together the barrels, because it seemed tighter than the ropes found on the ship.
After looking at the shabby boat with a single large sail he nodded lightly. Since no large pools of water could be found he decided to take one last job of cleaning his body using the pirates clothes as a wet cloth. After a vigorous cleaning process, he wiped himself dry, and took the black and white clothes.
The entire process took an entire day, he slept beside the ship he made, and another night passed.
The next morning he walked towards the crystal orbs, and carefully poured mana inside the dim white orbs, it glowed casually until the ship slowly floated in the air, Lan immediately jumped on the ship, and paused.
“What next?”
“Pft, what a useless fellow, guide the ship by using your fingers on the main orb, the magic tool controls the wind magic on the ship, all you need to do is guide the flow.”
“Now that I think about it, how would a sword know how to control a ship?”
“Hmph.”
Lan shook his head and didn't bother, he moved his fingers on the orb, and the ship slowly began to float higher above the trees, and over the thick mist, eventually meeting the bright sky again. With a single movement the clumsy looking ship started to move forward, flying past the rib cages, and into the distance.
He covered himself with the warm blanket, as he sat on the ship, guiding the small orb forward, the orbs regulated the wind flow causing the air pressure to circulate around the ship, making the ride surprisingly comfortable.
…
Lan yawned lightly as the night quickly dominated the sky, the stars shined brightly like jewels, while he munched on leaves, and plant roots. He hugged the blanket tightly as the wind became colder, it was nothing but a vast vacuum of open sky.
Occasionally he could catch a glimpse shadows flying in far away letting loose distant noises of chirping sounds, and screeching. While lazily staring at the quiet scene, he saw a giant shadow the size of a mountain break through the clouds, shaped like a human head.
Lan carefully slowed the ship down until it floated silently in place, eventually the giant head dipped past the clouds and grumbled lightly. After several minutes of silence Lan moved his finger on the orb, and the ship silently creaked forward past the creature that was looking around.
As the ship continued onward, a large red bird flew closed to his small ship, and let out a ferocious shriek, as it charged toward him.
Lan quickly muttered a spell, but as he was about to release it, a large black hand pierced the clouds, and grasped the bird tightly in it's rock like fists, the bird shrieked wildly as it was pulled downward, where he could definitely hear a loud crunch, followed by a deafening silence.
“What an unruly world.”
For a planet to have so much dangerous elements of this level only proved one thing, that there was no dominating race on this planet. As his thoughts idled, he noticed some small debris floating in the distance.
As he reached out his hands to grab it, he felt something soft, and small, looking closely he recognized what it was.
A toy doll floating with fragments of magic wood stuck on it, when he squeezed it a small child like sound came from it. He examined the grayish toy doll that looked roughly made, and resembled a smiling girl in a dress. Lan carefully took that doll, and stuffed it inside the bound clothes.
True sight was activated, and he examined his surroundings, all he found were floating fragments of a ship with higher grade materials than his own, but aside from the doll nothing unique came to view, the atmosphere was filled with chaotic mana showing magic had been used awhile ago, but the mana in the area had been restored. The magic used must have been fierce to leave the mana in this chaotic state after so long.
After exploring the area for a few hours he realized that whatever happened, the ship involved most likely managed to keep going forward, and didn't crash into the land below. In a few mintues he passed two mountain peaks to his sides, and examined them.
They were covered in vegetation, and no signs of life could be detected, he brought the ship near one of the cliffs and landed on the flat plain.
“Guess I should rest here.”
With that he slept on the ship, the mana circulating his body gave him warmth, on top of the small clearing on the mountain cliff.
...
In a dark black space, where nothing moved, and nothing existed, a voice pierced through the nothingness.
“Can you hear me, Lan?”
“Who?”
“Do you know why I am here?”
“ No, all I remember was crowd of people shouting loudly, a sharp pain in my neck, and then darkness.”
“Are you tired of this darkness?”
“Honestly I'm a bit comfortable with it.”
“Well that's a problem.”
“Why is it?
A teasing voice whispered gently.
“Because as an exception, you don't have a choice in the matter.”
“Wha...”
“My name is Zara, you have the honor of being my first, aren't you a lucky guy?”
As the darkness slowly dissipated, a blinding light pierced my consciousness, and a face slowly came into view.
…
Lan's eyes opened immediately, and he rolled to the side, a black shadowy hand was stuck on where his head was, Lan just glared at the creature sending powerful waves into it's mind, before it collapsed into nothingness.
After a light yawn he muttered.
“Those things are everywhere, aren't they.”
Lan casually stood up, and stared at the morning sky, he then lazily stared around him to find blooming white flowers, with a peculiar aura about them. When he reached out his hand to touch it, he pulled his hand back, and used true sight to examine it.
Surely enough he could see that the plant had magical properties, and powerful ones at that, however the properties seemed benign, from the way the mana of the flower interacted with the environment.
He plucked the white flower, and felt a refreshing wave wash over him, after that, the plant quickly withered away, and released seeds into the wind.
“Did it react to the mana in my hands?”
He slowly reached for another flower, this time the mana was quickly withdrawn, but the flower once again wilted. After a few tests, he discovered they had to be handled from the roots, he collected a few in a small pouch, and left the rest.
After breakfast he quickly went back to the ship only to realize something, as his senses triggered an alarm in his mind. He quickly looked around to realize humanoid shadows were scaling the mountain, thousands of them were climbing upwards, some fell to the ground below, others accidentally pushed their kin away, but they all mindlessly tried to reach him.
“Good thing they are stupid, just how wide spread are these things?”
He quickly jumped back on the ship, and tried to escape, as his ship started to float away, several shadows leaped over, trying to cling to the side. Lan just let lose a casual swing, that sent a flurry of scarlet blades into the shadows, instantly dispersing them.
He stared at the sword, and asked lazily.
“You know what those are?”
“The fact you don't is the bigger problem.”
“They are corrupted souls that cling to human life, seeking to return to human flesh and blood, if they get hold of a human, they violate the spirit, and take over the body, the body becomes a vessel turning into a barbarous human, that does nothing but worship monsters, and hunt humans.”
The ship eventually reached a fair distance away from the cliffs, and slowly flew away, he could see hordes of those things just staring at him, and whispering strange words incessantly, like an ancient curse.
With a small sigh he quickly let the ships fly away, not even bothering to stare back at the army of shadows. Just as he was flying away his eyes lit up, and he turned around, a black condensed ball of black gas flew from a far distance, arcing into the ship.
Lan let the ship fly by itself, he grabbed the sword, and sent blades of red light into the black fog, causing it to explode, releasing a cloud of miasma. His true sight magnified the area where the attack came from and sighted a humanoid clad in black, dyed in a gaseous form, launching more balls of miasma.
He asked the sword quietly, “hey do you have any other abilities?”
“If you slit your wrists then maybe.”
Lan ignored her words, and forced mana in the sword again, this time he aimed the red blades at the gaseous creature, the blades glowed violently, and even leaked red gas.The red blades flew out instantly, it pierced through the black projectiles that were hurled at him, and punctured the creature from afar.
It's head was cleanly severed, and it's midsection left a gleaming red line, where it exploded in a violent red light.
“Using a sword for long distance attacks is really a waste of energy, I should have grabbed a long range weapon.”
More of those things started to appear, but his ship was already too far, and the attacks could no longer reach him.
After a few minutes, it once again became a silent journey in the sky. He chewed on some smoked fish, while staring into distance. After awhile of flying he realized he needed to relieve himself, but the one great thing about flying was that the earth below him was now no different then a free, giant washroom that stretched endlessly in it's glorious majesty.
As he was about to take off his pants he noticed something burning in the distance, a large floating ship was being attacked by winged humanoid creatures. Several people from the ship fell overboard to their deaths, as the remaining few fought off the humanoid birds, that sent shock waves from their mouths.
If he did not hurry, everyone on that ship would not hold out, but if he did, another tragedy would occur.
Life was truly not fair, and full of harsh realities.