In a forest, as ancient as it is massive, in an equally ancient temple buried amongst the wise oak and leeching vines, blood was spilt, and came with it something older than anything currently standing.
Ollik stirred in his tomb for the first time in centuries. His form of ashen black wraps and deep- near black -gray hairs coiled and fluttered until his form was similar to that of a humanoid. With a surprising amount of effort, he managed to place his feet flat onto the underside of the stone slab currently containing him, and kicked with such force it shot into the roof, shattering both.
Ollik gripped the side of his prison with what some would call a bastardization of a hand and pulled himself into a sitting position, allowing him sight of the room. The metallic smell of blood filled the air. On the ground surrounding his tomb, etchings, runes, and symbols were drawn in patterns, most of them directing and emphasizing his prison, which lay at the center of the room.
Bodies also littered the ground as there seemed to be a fight just a few moments ago. The two main parties seemed to be some strange figures in even stranger robes.
Cultists, Ollik recognized.
The others were what appeared to be knights, possibly paladins, all clad in powerful and shining steel armor. There were much more knights than cultists but the cultists appeared to have been able to fend themselves off as there were many more dead knights than cultists. Well, they were all dead so they weren't able to fend themselves effectively, but still, it was impressive.
Ollik attempted to stand, but because of how long he has slept much of his power slipped away from him, causing it to be difficult to retain his humanoid form and not fall into a pile of cloth and hair. He took a step out, his form fluttering slightly. In a few more swaying steps, his feet were soaked by the pools of blood created by the dead and beaten.
Ollik peered around the room once more as he now had a better view point, but the dim candles produced a meager amount of light, barely enough to fulfill their job.
Good, Ollik thought, they at least knew how to set a stage.
It wasn't like he needed light anyways, his dark amber eyes easily being able to cut through what would be an obstacle to others.
Not much was different from his new position, nothing but corpses, blood, and runes filling the surroundings. But he swore he could sense something new, something familiar. Despair.
He knew he could feel it, but their couldn't be any despair in a place like this! Everyone's dead! Most corpses can't even feel despair! Unless...
Ollik gazed, not on the aspects of the room, but on the corpses.
"This one's dead, that one's dead, he's dead, that's dead, this one's d-" Ollik paused on a body slumped by the wall, "Ahh, I see."
It was faint, hard to see by normal eyes and it was made magnitudes harder to see due to the armor, but he could see it. Breathing.
He slowly walked towards the body, now realizing that it was a human woman with salt and pepper hair, tied into a bun. Her armor was much more detailed than the rest so she must have been someone of importance. Her breathing was ragged and rough, like she wanted to cough but just couldn't.
Her face was covered in blood and cuts, all of which seemed relatively recent.
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Her eyes were open, but were having a desperate battle to stay that way. The look on her face was something Ollik knew all too well. Fear and Despair. He could tell what her mission was just by the way she ogled at him, he could tell that she was sent to stop something that could have a massive impact on the world, and most importantly, he could tell that she failed. But he didn't need to see her face to know she failed, no. The very fact he was up and about proved that.
He lowered his face to hers, his dull amber eyes peering into hers through hair and black cloth, and though he had no mouth, he spoke as if he did. His voice punctured through the ambience of silence and struggled breathing.
"You had one job. One. Job. And you failed. Because of your failure, the world is going to witness something it hasn't seen in centuries. Innocents will die, kingdoms will fall, and everyone will fear."
The knight visibly stiffened at this and tilted her head, averting her gaze from his eyes. While he could have just left there and then, he was starving and really desired a nice meal in celebration of his awakening.
He brought his hand to her chin and gently tilted it back to the way it was, bringing her eyes back to his. She tried to move but couldn't in her poor condition
"You should be punished for your lack of victory. You should be shunned by any and everyone, you should be beaten in the streets, seen as nothing but a rabid dog that failed her one and only purpose. The ones that lie here would be furious if they were still alive, asking why you had wasted their lives to delay the inevitable, and not even being able to achieve that. They had families. Families. People that they needed to care for, people that depended on them to survive. Yet you wasted it, in an effort to expand a lost cause. But, that won't happen, you being shunned and hated that is, many more will in fact die. You will being getting punished, so you aren't off the hook."
Tears streamed down her now red eyes and snot covered her quivering lips.
There it is, he thought. Feeling better already.
Alright, that's about all I'm going to get out of her. Lets end this, hopefully I can still pull this trick in my current state.
A single strand of long dark hair slithered out of his heel and attached itself to the nape of the nearest dead knight. Sluggishly, the knight got up and shambled to Ollik. It may appear (almost) alive, but its dead, vacant stare dissuaded any notion that it might truly be a living thing.
"Look," he said as the knight stared at the walking corpse with horror. "one of them even came back to us to tell you something. You should be honored. Lets hear what he has to say."
The corpse finally arrived to the scene and fell to it's knees in front of the knight. The knight seemed to be in shock as she even stopped breathing for a moment.
With nothing but his will, (and some other things) he made the corpse speak.
"Why..."
It took a moment for the knight to comprehend what she just heard, but when she finally understood, she broke. Her entire body started shivering and the tears started flowing ten fold.
Through raspy breaths she answered its question.
"I'm sorry... I'm so, so, sorry..."
The corpse shuffled closer and kept repeating itself.
"Why..."
"Why..."
"Why..."
The knight didn't respond though, only crying and shaking were her actions at the moment.
Once the corpse was only inches away from her, it put its face to hers, and centimeters away. It was like this for a whole minute before it spoke once more.
"WHY?!"
It gripped its hands around her throat and began to choke her with impossible strength, all the while scream-peating its question.
The knight tried to stop it, but she was far too weak and was only able to slap her hands against its arms. After another minute she stopped struggling, and then, silence.
Ollik detached the hair and the corpse went limp.
Ollik stood up, admiring his work and savoring his recently finished meal.
He turned his attention to the large stone doors and began walking.
Time to get back into business.