Epilogue:
A figure in a dark room sat alone. Contemplating the future. They had a gift of true power. They could read, and even manipulate the flows of chaos. Time, and fate. Future, and divine. They could see it all. The issue is they could not see any further than a few years from now. It was like everything ended, or like it was blocked from their sight. This perplexed them, for they were powerful. They could see all worlds, and all timelines, but for one of these worlds. And all of its timelines to be completely cut off from them was something that had never happened before. They were ancient. They had seen the rise and fall of worlds, not just empires. They had seen immortals cut down, and men raised to immortality from nothing. They had seen countless chosen ones, and inumeral different ways things could go wrong. They had only one thought when this world's fate was cut from their sight. “It is another, who would shake the cosmos.”
Chapter 1:
“Get up boy!” Gerald yelled, picking up a young recruit from the ground. He had fallen, in the first volley of mage spells sent their way. “Get your ass moving! Sitting still is death!” Pushing the boy forward towards some cover, Gerald moved closely behind. He was checking all around for melee combatants, but it didn’t seem they were close enough yet. Gerald was part of an infantry unit pushing to take a keep from a band of highway men who had taken over. He was apart of the military for the kingdom of Siphon. Gerald thought the name was very apt, because all they did was force their people to fight. They were forced to take land, and resources from the lands around the kingdom, and had to pay taxes higher than any other kingdom on the continent.
Gerald made it to cover just as a volley of more magic flew past him. The highwaymen had an abnormal amount of firepower when it came to the mages at their disposal. This did not sit well with Gerald. The boy was there against the bolder they were sheltering behind, and shaking. He looked scared shitless to Gerald. “Take a breath kid. This is only the start.” Gerald took a second himself and couldn’t help but wonder how this boulder got here. It was not a part of the scenery. It looked like a boulder that would have been thrown by a trebuchet. Almost like the thought summoned the siege weapons for their enemy, boulders started falling from the sky. Not wanting to die here, Gerald grabbed the boy's shoulder, and moved. Pushing his way forward, Gerald was certain he needed to keep this boy alive. He was the son of the local Duke.
The idiot sent his 20 year old son to battle the highwaymen, without scouting their strength. There was nothing Gerald could do now, only keep him alive. He also couldn’t deny orders, and the commander of this force put the boy under him. Since no one knew the boys identity they didn’t care where they put him. Gerald only knew because he had overheard the boy talking to a lass at a brothel in the last town they were in. Gerald was there to get himself some company as well, and couldn’t help but overhear the drunk kid talking about getting the woman out of her situation. The idiot fell in love with the winch that night even if temporary, and his loose lips let out his secret.
Gerald pulled the boy forward, and against the wall making it hard for archers to land their shots. Pulling the boy over to cover, Gerald made eye contact. “Keep your head down. I will stay with you lordling. When this shit is over I want it known who kept your ass al…” a skeleton fell directly on Gerald. It was armored, and drew a mase above its head. Gerald, completely off balance, fell forward towards the boy, but with his first step he pressed his left hand on the ground pivoting to the left. Using the weight of the undead on his back, Gerald created some momentum, and threw his body into a roll. Using the skeleton as a springboard, Gerald stood leaving the skeleton on the ground. Knowing that his sword would be useless, Gerald pulled up his foot, and stomped on the skull of the skeleton. Over and over Gerald stomped, until the ghastly green light inside the skull was snuffed out.
Looking up he saw the boy was on his back about to be stabbed by another skeleton. Quickly Gerald grabbed the mace from his downed foe. Sprinting to the rescue, Gerald brought the mace around on the skeletons thigh bone. With a crack, the skeleton started to fall to the side. Using his free hand, Gerald grabbed the knife wielding hand, and pushed it away, then he pulled. Twisting his hips, and then the rest of his body, Gerald tossed the skeleton on the ground in front of him. With the skeleton grounded, Gerald did the same as the first time. Stomping on the head of the skeleton until it was dead.
Looking around he found the kid. “We need to get you out of here. They have a necromancer, and if you die, it would be worse than a normal death. The necromancer will flaunt your corpse around, and use your body as leverage against your family.”
With that said, Gerald looked around. The keep was lost completely. The duke didn’t send nearly enough men. This wasn’t some band of highway men, it was a fucking cult of undeath. They were finatics, who thought the best way to become immortal, was to become a lich. The issue with that was knowone knew how to do the ritual anymore. There were liches around, but mostly they kept to themselves. Being immortal made them not care about normal people much. Apparently when you reach such a level of strength a whole new world is opened to you. Most of the time immortals even leave the world, to do whatever immortals do.
Just as Gerald had the thought, an arrow flew straight into his back. Screaming in pain, Gerald pushed the boy in front of himself. He wanted to at least save the boy. If he was saved, maybe he would take care of Geralds son. “Stay in front of me.” Gerald said through heavy breathing. The arrow definitely hit his lung. “I’ll get you out of this if I can, but if you survive. Please find my son Keeton. Please take care of him. I know who you are, and I know you can.” As Gerald said all of this, he kept moving towards their people who were fighting off the undead, and soldiers of the cult. Gerald also managed to get himself hit twice more with arrows in the back.
Before he could guarantee the safety of the lordling, He collapsed, and fell to the ground. He landed on a body right below him. He had so many thoughts running through his mind. He had never awakened to magic, and he wasn’t as strong as any of the people on his side. He was the only one who didn’t have his magic. In a world where magic meant everything to someone like him, who made a name for themselves solely from skill with the sword, Gerald was an anomaly. He could fight any man in the red stage on equal footing. He had more real battle experience than anyone on this field, solely because he could never move up the ranks like everyone else around him. He had 12 years of fighting men stronger than himself under his belt. Yet here he was, 3 arrows in his back. Laying powerless over the body of a man he helped train. Trying to keep a lordling alive, in hopes the lordling would take care of his adopted son.
Gerald had all of this pass through his mind as everything went dark. His final thought was that he had a fate worse than death awaiting. He was dying on a battlefield that a necromancer was in control of. A battlefield that was outside of a keep that was being held by the cult of undeath. He was afraid for his soul. He did not want to become undead.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Chapter 2:
With a massive pulse of magic, he awoke. He did not know his name, he didn’t know anything, other than he was. He knew he existed to serve his master, in the second second he was awake, another blast of magic imploded towards the center of the first blast. It was like a wave of magic was pushed out all at once, only to be sucked back in the next second. With that he knew something new. He didn’t have a master anymore. He was free, and had no purpose. With that thought passing through his groggy mind, he knew it was wrong. He had something to do. He needed to do something. He needed to find someone. He didn’t know where they were. He knew that there were 4, and he was now the 5th. He had to find them to know who he was.
With that thought, he stood. He had to step down from a large bed of stone. He looked down at himself and didn’t know what to think. He had gray skin, and it was flawless. He had long black nails, almost like claws. He didn’t like how long they were, because they would get in the way. With that thought the claws pulled themselves into his fingers. Looking around he noticed he was in a room alone. He was in a dark dungeon-like room. Even without light, he was able to see perfectly fine. He knew it was dark though. He didn’t know where he was, but he did know something. It would be his.
Looking towards the only door out of this room, the man walked that direction. While he walked he noticed he was completely nude, and with the thought that he wanted cloths he opened the door. A man in a dark set of combat robes stood before him. The man did not know how he knew what combat robes were, but he grabbed the man by the throat. Before he could even let out a scream, the 5th broke his neck, and pulled the mans robe off. It was in two pieces. Pants and a top. It was loose fitting, and had a wrap for the middle. With the robe now in place he felt much better. He noticed the man did not have any weapons on him, only a stick. Disregarding the dead man, the 5th made his way to the right.
There was a feeling from the right. It felt like something that shouldn’t exist. He didn’t know why he had that feeling, but he knew he wanted to destroy it. Something was wrong with it. Like it shouldn’t exist. As he walked, he turned a corner and saw a group of men dressed the same as the first he killed there were 8 of them. The 5th decided they should die, because any who would associate with that thing were against the natural order of things. Stepping forward fast before the men noticed him, the ground cracked under his foot. He pushed himself so fast, the sound of him stepping forward registered in the men's ears only a moment before he was on them. He traveled more than 10 feet in a single step, in a single second.
With a thought the 5th extended his claws. He pushed his hand forward like a spear, and ripped into the chest of the first man he came across. Throwing that man's body into the mass of men behind, he ripped his arm free. With the opening he created, the 5th got into a stance one he didn’t know the name of but felt natural. He then proceeded to tear through the men. Ripping arms off, clawing gashes into others, and beating men with their comrades' appendages. None were spared, but he wasn’t fast enough to stop one of the men from getting a spell off. The spell called for help. With that action, the 5th realized he needed to take out magic casters fast. He didn’t know why he suddenly knew that, but he did.
Stepping forward fast again, he ripped the man's head off with an excellently timed jab of his hand. It went straight through the man's neck, and his head came off with a small wrenching from the 5th. There was nothing any of the men could do to him. When they cut him, it was always superficial, and the wounds closed like they were never there. It was like it didn’t matter what they did. He was destined to win.
Walking away from the slaughter he casually started, the 5th continued towards the profane object. There were twists, and turns throughout this large building made of stone. The 5th got lost a couple times, but he didn’t want to destroy this place. He wanted it to be his, and destroying it wasn’t conducive for that. It took him 6 more groups decimated, and 3 more dead ends to finally find the room he was looking for.
Opening the door, the 5th saw what was inside. There was a spectral man, and a gem with a crack in it. The feeling was coming from the gem. “You should not exist.” the 5th said to the gem. He knew the spectral man had the mind, but the soul was in the cracked gem. “I exist, and what you say does not matter. I don’t know how you got past my men without a scratch, but here is where you die thing. You stand before a clear rank lich. The only beings in this world that can stand before me are immortal. You are not one of those.” With that final word,the spectral man unleashed a pulse of magic right at the 5th. With a thought, and a step, the fifth appeared right beside the gem. The spectral man with his eyes wide started to shout, just as the 5th drove his nails into the crack in the gem.
With a crack the gem completely broke in half. The soul trapped inside, flew away into the afterlife. The 5th did not know what afterlife awaited such an abominable soul, but he knew it would not be pleasant. With a breath the magical power that was also implanted into the gem was pulled into the 5ths mouth. It was like he swallowed the magic, and made it his own. Which is exactly what he did. He knew nothing like this should exist.
Taking a look around, he got a new sense. He had broken some threshold he was on. It seemed that the soul he just released, had a small hold over him. It was gone now. The only reason he could do anything to that soul, was because the soul itself hadn’t known about the connection. The 5th assumed the soul was the one it had as a master at first. He did not know what that meant. He did know he had to find the other 4 now though. He needed to know who he was. He wanted his Name.
Stepping around the room he saw that it was trashed. He could feel magic in the air, but he didn’t know what it all meant. He did know that this seemed to be the center of where that wave of magic was released, then absorbed. The magic he had just swallowed. He knew he was stronger now, but not by how much. There was nothing of notice in the large room. It looked like a workspace, like this was where the spectral man spent most of his time messing with magic rituals. Thinking to himself, the 5th decided to cleanse this whole place, and then leave. He had wanted this place as his own, but the ritual the man used had tainted the air. It was spreading as well. Something unnatural, but not something the 5th had domain over. This was the domain of another.
Clearing the whole keep was as easy as breathing for the 5th. There were none even close to the power of the spectral man, let alone the 5th. He tore through the rest of the cultist like it was nothing. One at a time he ripped them apart. He used no magic at all. He only used his body. Healing from any cuts, and stabs he received. Blunt weapons did nothing to him. He seemed to be extremely resistant to blunt force. Maces, hammers, and staves just stopped when they touched his skin. The men who attacked still felt like they hit hard, but the 5th felt nothing. They were ripped apart as easily as a sheet of paper.
After a while he stopped running into anyone. He found his way to the outside, and saw a courtyard full of the nasty undead, and beasts. There were beasts of every kind. War beasts such as werewolves, and vampires that seem starved. The 5th didn’t know how he knew what these were, but he knew both of these were sapient races. They were also very violent. It was his luck they were both locked up. The vampires and werewolves would be a problem if they attacked all together, but the skeletons, and zombies that were shambling around behind the large doors would be no problem.
With that last thought the 5th attacked. Cleansing the courtyard took only minutes. He learned he could project his will at a distance if he swiped his claws. This allowed him to make ranged attacks of wind using his mana. He was able to decapitate many all at once with a single swipe. He cleared the whole courtyard with this trick. He knew to do the same for the werewolves, but they would be tougher. They died when they lost their heads, but their necks were extremely tough, so it took him many strikes to kill the wolves. The vampires were quite a bit easier. They were cages as well, so all he had to do was remove their hearts. The thing about vampires were that they needed blood, because their bodies couldn’t make it. So if you remove the organ that pumps blood around their bodies, then they will shrivel up and die. They did heal fast, but not without a heart. They would have to put it back in while it was still beating, but for a heart to still be beating after removed, it would have to be a perfect attack. Something extremely hard to do. If the heart was just damaged, then it could still heal. That is why staking a vampire would stop them, but not truly kill them. You have extra steps afterward. You need to destroy it, or remove it to kill a vampire.
With the last of his enemies dead, the 5th looked down on himself. He was covered head to toe in blood. He did notice one thing though. His skin was no longer gray. It was the same color of a normal human. He seemed to have the light skin tone of most of the cultists. It may have only been gray because he was in the dark before. Thinking to himself that he wanted to be clean, a pulse of mana was released from his body. This pulse pushed all things he wanted removed off of his body. “That is a nice spell.” He thought to himself, he then stopped. He just used magic, simply by willing something to happen. Could he have used magic more before? That would have to be something he thought on more in the future. He had much to learn, and much to do. Such as finding his name, and the other 4. For now, his journey was just beginning.
Chapter 3: