CHAPTER ONE Birth

Blinding lights of all colours wisped around my eyes. In a cauldron of confusion and fury I was born. I struggled against my restrictions, desperately shaking with so much anger the men in front of me took a step back. They grabbed spears and as blue flames rushed out of them, they stabbed me until I could no longer resist, and I again fell into a pit of blinding lights. This repeated several times, as it did, I realised something, the spears did not hurt me, I felt no pain at all.

I awoke again, this time I didn’t struggle I just stared at the masked men, they stood ready with their spears. When they realised I wasn’t going to fight anymore, they lowered them and walked up to me, inspecting their handiwork. Voices came from all angles, I was up against a wall, even so I heard one coming from behind me. I tried to focus on it, ignoring the men’s meaningless chatter. “Kill them, kill them.” It was my voice, yet I wasn’t the one speaking. Another silent voice was whispering for me to calm myself, slow rhythmic words “it's ok, let’s think, calm down, take it easy.” Again, it was my voice. My eyes began to slowly focus on things in the room. Various contraptions made to restrain or experiment on people. My head slowly fell, and I got a view of my own body. A body which was completely foreign to me, even if I didn’t really know what It was supposed to have looked like, I was sure that this was wrong. A line running down the middle of me, splitting two completely different sides of me. One side looked as if my skin was charred, that deep greyish black that only burns can accomplish. The other side was a pale colour, I blinked a little to help my eyes focus. I looked up at my arms which each shared the same colouring. My right side was completely dark as my left was light.

I stared at the man who was now right in front of my face, I could see his eyes through the mask, they were lifeless. I saw a red and yellow glow reflected in them. My own eyes. The man spoke to me, but I didn’t hear anything. I looked up and noticed tofts of my hair sticking down in front of my eyes. Red hair on the dark side and blonde on my light side. The man grabbed my face, so I looked into his eyes again, he kept speaking but I heard nothing. He then looked at his colleagues whose shoulders sagged as they shook their heads. They left the room, I was all alone now, the voices in my head kept speaking to me, but it just became senseless ramblings, as my head became foggy. When the men entered the room again, they slowly let me down of my shackles. I collapsed on the floor, I barely had strength to breathe. Deciding it wasn’t worth the struggle, I stopped breathing all together. Then as I didn’t die I slowly came to the realisation, breathing wasn’t necessary at all. When I think about it, I hadn’t been drinking water or eating anything. Immortal, I thought as I lay there completely paralysed, they had stabbed me with those spears full of energy and I had lived through that as well.

The men picked me up, I felt their hands burying into me, and again I felt no pain at all. All I could think was that I hoped next time I passed out, I wouldn’t ever wake up. Shouts all around, but I couldn’t find the source. Ah it’s the voices again, what are those voices anyway. “It’s us.” One of them said, Us? I thought, “we were made by forcing a demon, an angel and human together, in the same body.” The voice said. Huh? Well, that makes sense I thought, but how is it possible? “I don’t know.” The voice replied, the other voice was shouting angrily, “are you the angel?” I asked the voice, “yes.” The other was the demon then. I didn’t understand it at all though. The sun burned into my skin, this told me that we had arrived outside. The men had thrown me in the dirt. My eyes rolled around in my head, I tried to figure out where I was, but the sun was too bright.

“Stand up!” a voice yelled out, it was directed at me. I tried moving my arms, but I couldn’t. “Use your energy!” the man shouted, my what? My head was swimming, I tried to stand, then I began feeling a rush through my body, something was moving around it. I was regaining strength, I moved my arms under me and slowly I tried to put my weight on them. I lifted my body up off the ground on shaky arms, I put my legs under me and slowly stood up. A man with a sword stood in front of me, I stared at him with my mouth slightly agape. My head had become clearer, but I was still blanking on what was going on, where I was and even who I was. I didn’t remember anything from before waking, even so I understood the language being spoken, I understood the concepts of standing and somehow. I had used energy to help me up, even if I had no idea what exactly that meant.

The man walked towards me, his blade lit up with those pure blue flames I had seen earlier on the spears, I cringed in response to seeing them, I remembered what it meant. As he came close to me, I put my hands up to block the strike. I could feel the energy in my arms, but it was useless as the man slashed my stomach open with ease. I felt no pain, but as I looked down, I saw the result of the attack. The man stepped back “pathetic.” He muttered as two masked men came out to bandage me up. The bandages were thick and wide, they were strong and made for warriors in battle. “Heal yourself quickly!” the man yelled impatiently, I desperately tried to let the energy flow around the area I had been hurt. The flow of blood slowed down considerably, but even so I fell to my knees and then collapsed. I woke up hours or maybe just minutes later in the exact same spot.

I felt my stomach with my hands, the bandages were completely dry. I sat up and took them off. Nothing was there, not even a scar, I exhaled with relief. “Come again!” The man yelled, I gasped in disbelief, wasn’t he even going to let me rest. I again got up, he attacked me, and my defence was equally as useless.

I got bandaged up and then collapsed just like before. This repeated so many times I couldn’t even begin to count all of them. Whenever my opponent became tired, a new one would step in, I didn’t get a second to breathe. It had been years of continues mental torture, until one day, the man came in, and I hurt him, I hurt him badly. He swung at me, I put up my defences as usual, they had become better and my reaction faster. My energy must have become quite a lot more powerful as well. The fights could last as long as 15 minutes now, and sometimes he would just get tired of it and leave. But this time I was going to be the one who won, I didn’t dodge, I let him cut right into me, stabbing me through my stomach. I then grabbed his arm, and began twisting, I twisted until the sound snapping of bones stopped and until he stopped screaming. I exhaled with pleasure, I had hurt him so badly he would never carry a sword again, I had won.

The other men just stared on, not intervening at all. I stood over the man who just lay there writhing in pain. I was going to kill him, and nobody was going to stop me. I stepped on the man’s throat, I poured energy through my leg, I saw his life slowly leaving him. I felt nothing but relief, relief that one less evil was in this world. It continued on, and I just became stronger and stronger, I began killing my opponents one after the other. Meanwhile the onlookers just stared and talked together trying to figure out what their next step would be.

Soon that next step came. Children. I saw them for the first time, but they had been there all along. Young men and women, stronger than any of the real grownups. I couldn’t hurt them, but even so I had to win, I did so by beating them fair and square, making sure not to get them injured. I felt a sensation in my stomach growing, like a fire ready to tear everything apart. It was rage. These children were put up to fight me, after they all had seen me kill all those men. My rage grew each day I saw a new child’s face while an old one disappeared.

I saw their corpses getting carried out of the grounds. I looked at them with sadness, it was at that same time I noticed the walls surrounding us, this whole facility was caged in by large stone walls. I would later find out they had a slope that went down on the outside. The walls were almost triangular, which meant they weren’t meant to keep things out. No, instead the walls were made to keep things in. Me.

The whole time I was here I hadn’t spoken a single word, perhaps the men thought I wasn’t able to understand them, because they spoke about their plans in earshot of me. They talked about important information, like the limitations of my opponents. I learned the children weren’t getting any stronger, it seemed there was a limit to their energy. While that was the case for them, it wasn’t for me. Everyday my energy grew more and more potent. The angel and demon had stopped talking much. We were all focusing on the same task, destroying everything in this place, killing everyone in here.

The day of our escape came faster than I had expected. I realised I could no longer be contained, when one of the children cut me with all the power he had, and it didn’t even register for me. I gave him a push filled with energy and he got knocked out on the spot. I stood up straight and took a deep breath, then for the first time I turned to the men behind me.

There were considerably more than when it had all started, hundreds were staring down at me. I walked towards the building, they didn’t stop me or try to hinder my actions in any way. Was I always able to leave like this or did they know it was over? I felt the energy course through me, I was going to use more energy than I had ever used before. It became visible just like the energy on the swords, but mine wasn’t blue or flames, it was like that of thunder, it was red and yellow. Red on my right Yellow on my left. I charged the men, and now they moved into action, all grabbing their swords, blue flames were all around me, but it was too late.

They were a lot weaker than the children, I crushed them like bugs under my feet. I ran through the building causing as much destruction as possible, the building was soon lit on fire. I ran outside again and headed towards the main gates. A horde of men was guarding it, a small army of at least 500 men stood in my way. All of them are ready to lay their lives down for the cause, whatever it may be. Their leader stepped out to greet me, “you may not leave, you are locked in, you cannot escape.” My energy flowed as viciously as before and I replied, “No, you are the one who cannot escape.” Seconds later his head had been crushed in my hands, the rest didn’t take me longer than ten or so minutes to defeat.

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I stood at the gates ready to open it, letting the children out, but to my confusion, as I turned around to see everything on fire. Not a single child or even person was making their escape, at this point I felt no sign of life anywhere around me. I looked down at myself, I was covered in blood and dirt, it made me look even more horrifying. I noticed a few bundles of those bandages on one of the men, he was probably their medic. I wrapped my torso in it, then I covered my head so only my left eye was visible, letting my left arm stay uncovered as well. I took some pants from one of the men, they were brown and had metal knee pads. I grabbed a cloak as well as some boots and ran out of the grounds that had held me for what must have been years.

After leaving I wandered the lands in search of a goal, I met people on my travels. In the beginning they gave me a wide berth when I passed them. But soon I began to notice something, they began to grow curious when they saw me. Then I heard a couple speaking to each other as they saw me. “Look it’s the mummy, he is real.” “Shh.” I didn’t mind them, I just kept walking.

The days all blended into one, landscapes all melted into one colour. A greenish grey is all I remember from this long period where all I did was walk, I didn’t know where I was, and I didn’t know where I ended up. Like a hermit without a goal.

I stopped one day in front of a large barn, the symbol on front of the building was familiar to me. An eye with a goat’s pupil. It was the ones that I had killed, the group that had created me. They were my enemy and there were more of them. A detail that had never crossed my mind, I awoke from my slumber, energy came welling up in me and burst out of every pore. The door crumbled under my power as I broke it down. I heard yelling all around me, and a voice in my head said “kill, kill, kill.” I lost control of my body when I noticed all the cages with children in them. Not one of the men would leave this building. When it was over I began breaking the cages. Something was off though, just like last time none of the children left. I didn’t get it, either way I turned to leave.

I continued on my walk, now I had a goal, there were more of them, and I had to find them all and kill them. I had to fix this plague in the world, I had to fix it, that is the thought that ran through my mind now. I stopped wandering, I had a goal now I walked with purpose.

Now that I was paying attention I noticed a few demons on my walk. Just like my right half, their skin looked charred black, their red hair stood in stark contrast to their background. Their red irises in those dark eyes seemed to glow in the darkness, just like my right eye. They would attack me, wildly flailing at me, with no sign of intelligence behind the movements. They expended huge amounts of energy, their red flames dripping off them as they moved around. The colour matched mine perfectly. Even if they were more powerful than any human I had fought, their lack of coordination made them easy to deal with. They seemed completely animalistic, they couldn’t even speak or at least they didn’t try to.

Sometimes I would meet Angels who were very different from demons. They resembled humans much closer than their violent counterparts. One thing that set them apart, was that they always had pale skin and almost golden blonde hair. Of course, there were their impressive, large and white wings as well, that always seemed to be neatly folded behind their backs. They would stop to talk to me, their golden eyes boring into mine.

They seemed very interested in me, they had never met someone like me after all. I mostly avoided them, fighting them seemed unpleasant as they were always carrying blades of some sort. They looked to be as powerful as demons, and with the amount of logical thinking that was visible in their eyes, it would most certainly mean trouble. One other thing that made a possible fight even more of a worry, was what I was told by one very persistent angel. He kept asking me if I had lost my wings, it seemed he could tell I was part angel. I of course couldn’t tell him, I had no idea, neither did the angel within me.

He then asked how I would regain energy, I told him it came naturally to me, he then nodded and said I was no longer an angel then. I was not quite sure what he meant. Instead of telling me, he just showed me instead. He spread his wings, as he did, they began vibrating and humming, soon swirls of yellow energy formed in each wing. Like small tornados of pure power, the angel sucked the energy straight out of the air. That is how angels recuperate energy, faster than any angel demon or even me. I could immediately tell how much of an advantage that would be in a battle. While I, humans or devils would run out of energy, angels could endlessly regenerate. I nodded showing I understood, the angel had lost interest in me and left me to my travels.

Soon I found three other outposts of the group, a group I for lack of better began calling Goateye. I repeated my earlier actions in those places, tearing everything and everyone apart. The outcome was the same, the men would fall, and the children would stay. I wasn’t going to act like I understood humans and their ways of thinking, so I let them decide what they wanted on their own. After some time, they figured out that I was searching for them, and they stopped announcing their presence to the world. No longer was it possible for me to find Goateye just by travelling. I had to change tactics, I began asking people if they knew anything. Most would avoid me, they had heard the rumours about the mummy and the slaughters after all. Some would try to help me, by pointing in the direction of possible hideouts, but nothing bore fruit. Then I began visiting inns, this was by far the most successful way of getting information. The innkeepers or bartenders heard everything that would go on in town, and if I were willing to pay well, they would let details slip, even the ones I wasn’t supposed to know. I didn’t need to eat or drink and in general eating and drinking was unpleasant, but the bitter taste of ale was a pleasing one.

I began finding small outposts and sometimes larger settlements. It turned out that Goateye was quite a large group. They had their roots deeply planted everywhere in the country. The heat in my stomach grew larger every time I realised how big this operation was. How could people let these monsters do as they pleased, torturing innocent souls, using children to fight, it was all wrong. This world is wrong, I thought. Death was all around me, and it was caused by my hands, it felt like I was cleansing the lands from these pests. Soon the bartenders became more willing to talk, it could have been out of fear of me, or it could have been out of respect. Perhaps they wanted the same as I, to rid the world of those monsters.

Once I came upon an inn, it was a smaller one in a smaller town, the bartender was also the innkeeper. The second he saw me his eyes widened, he rushed from behind the bar and ran up to grab my hands. “You are finally here.” His eyes were tearing up, “I hoped you would come, please help us, the men. The ones you are searching for, have taken my child.” I let him hold my hands, I nodded slowly “where are they?” He gave a big, relieved smile, “oh thank you, they took my son, it was so horrible, he is all I have left after my wife passed.” He pulled me by the arm over to the bar, he pulled out a map where a spot was already marked. “I was going to go there myself with some men from town, even if it meant our certain death.” He spoke as he pulled something down from the wall, he presented it to me. “This is our family's most precious keepsake, it was passed to me from my father and from his to him.” It was a beautifully crafted blade, even I could tell it was beyond normal craftsmanship. I hesitated to reach out for it, not for any compassion towards the innkeeper. It was the fact that I had never used a blade before, and in general I had no understanding of how to effectively use a sword with my energy. He looked at me and smiled, “It's ok take it, please.” I cautiously grabbed it, it was light, I was a bit disappointed.

I looked at the map again making sure to remember the location, I turned to leave, sword in hand. “Please get him back.” The man yelled after me, a grumbling agreement came from his customers. As I walked out of town, I fiddled a bit with the blade, I slowly let energy through it. Metals were the only materials that let themselves be moulded easily by energy. It had something to do with the structure of metal itself, that I was sure of. Most minerals would also let energy flow through them, but it would either result in it melting or it just sucking all energy out of you for no particular gain. Metal though, it had an almost symbiotic relationship with energy, it was as if the two completed each other. The heavier a metal was the more energy it could take, which also made the sword that much more powerful. As far as I figured the more energy in a blade the stronger, a light metal couldn’t take much energy without disintegrating. A heavy sword was not as sustainable though, but it could pack quite a punch. That is why the lightness of the blade disappointed me, even so I was going to try and make use of it.

When I made it to the building, I saw instantly that this wasn’t going to be any normal teardown. This building was far bigger than any of the others. It was well guarded, this must be one of the central buildings.

As fast as I could I advanced on one of the guards, I was going to make it quick, so the others wouldn’t notice. I held the blade in my right hand, the man looked up just in time, as red electricity shot through the blade. Almost immediately the blade exploded in my hand, the man in front of me was blown to bits. The cloak was blown off me, but other than that I was fine. The other men had noticed me, their energy flowed throughout their blades, I rushed them and tore them apart. I Smashed down the door, I felt the rush I had felt so many times before, the voice in my head shouting for murder as I felt my body change. I got a glimpse of myself in a puddle on the ground, the bandages had been torn to bits. I wasn’t all that surprised to see my body completely black. The demon had been given free reigns, I let him murder every man in sight, tearing everything apart.

These monsters had to pay, they had to feel the pain, I enjoyed the look of fear in their eyes as they met their end.

I entered the room where they hid the children, but something was off, there was only one child. I walked slowly up to him, his cage was bigger than the others, he looked at me with wide eyes, he was in complete terror. I unlocked the cage, and he ran straight past me, that was the first time something like that had happened. I lit the building on fire as I left it, when I exited the building the townspeople had come down to see what was happening. In the lead was the innkeeper, he stood with his child in his arms, he seemed so happy, but when he saw me, his eyes turned to terror just like his sons.

He ran away screaming, the rest began shouting at me in rage, throwing things at me, they were ready to kill me. To them I was just a demon.

They were wrong though, I was far worse.