Entry 8
War is hell. Or so the saying goes. For me my purpose is war. I sit here cross legged meditating before the battle. They will come with their endless hordes of unthinking creatures and we will have to defend. I have no armor. I haven't worn any since my first year in this hell. The tough leather or heavy metal provides little protection against the natural weapons they wield. So we all battle in shorts made from the skin of our fallen enemies. Thankfully due to your enslaver the weapons we hold in our hands serve us well. They do not break, bend, rust, nor dull. They cut flesh and saw through bone. They are made of a glasslike substance that displays an obsidian color. Our feet are bare but due to our time here they have grown tough and durable. Our hair is kept short by our tools of war. Our bodies have been built to withstand the endless hoard. We who are both the greatest warriors and worst sinners have been given this task. Defend the land of the living against the armies of the underworld.
To my left towers a mountainside so steep that it appears to be perfectly perpendicular to the flat ground I sit on. To my right is only a frightening tall cliff at whose bottom lays an unbelievably deep dark blue sea. The water is calm for now but will rage once that action begins. The ground has long been pressed flat by time and my predecessors. The hard brown orange dirt has been my home for far too long. The battle field is my home. Violent, chaotic, and painful suits my needs. I once held a completely different outlook on life but this unending experience has deeply changed me. I am content with my only worldly desire being my quickly coming eternal rest. I lift my face at the sky and only feel an empty dark red heaven. No fluffy clouds, no yellow sun, and no starry night. There is only a bloody atmosphere fitting for this bloody duty.
My hands caress the ground for it is the last of nature these hands of mine will ever possibly touch. Through the hard dirt my palms feel the warmth of mother Earth. I lay my body on the earth and try to feel the life that still resides within her. I feel the soft feet of a newly born child. I feel the blades of grass on the empty planes waving with the wind. I feel the animals, both prey and predator, that share this world. I feel a gentle lover's touch that I can no longer recall the face of but whose feeling is still remembered by my skin.
This has been my ritual to remind me that I fight for more than just this curse. This war wears down even the strongest of souls. One must remain grounded with the thought that we were all once alive despite our time apart of this undead army far outweighing our time among the living.
Man walks among the living for perhaps a century's time. I myself have already died at the claws of the beasts a countless number greater than the days I lived during my mortal life. A unquantifiable number greater than the moments I spent next to a lover. Here, death is only a dream that you never want to wake from, but you are always ripped away from that fleeting sleep.
We the cursed must defend this passageway for all time. Some among our ranks consider this curse the greatest blessing a warrior could ever receive. They are usually the younger members for time here weathers all men until only their shells are left.
Once the mind has grown far too old and body ceases movement we, the ones left behind, throw the pseudo corpse into the sea. There it is said that your shell falls deeper and deeper into that blue water that has no seabed. It will never die and if the mind still resides in that body then you will continue to sink for eternity.
Within the darkness that light will never touch resides all who have come before me. Some whose names have forever been etched into the history of the world. Some who history has forgotten and some whose tales were never witnessed and such history will never know. Regardless in time my shell will join the fallen once this mind of mine has been crushed into dust by the sheer weight of time.
The vibrations, of our enemy's marching, resounds through the ground. I feel with my body the innumerable count that march. The sound has not reached our ears yet, but it is finally time to proceed with our final preparations.
I lift my old body from the dirt floor by straightening my legs from my crossed legged position. A few of the older ones of the young have caught on to what we ancient ones have felt. As I slowly walk towards the great army, the young move to make way for me. I feel eyes of admiration, worship and fear.
I find it understandable considering that most of them have only ever known me as one of the ancient ones. In our vast age we have outgrown humanity's chains. We must always be aware of our minds lest we forever lose control. We only move when it is time for battle. We rest where we finished the last battle. We do not speak nor eat for there is no need for such acts among the enlightened. The young ones suffer because there is no food or water here. They still retain the instinctual traits left over from their time in the living world.
There were a handful of ancients when I first arrived to this battlefield. I have personally thrown each one into the vast sea when their time had come. Currently there remains a similar handful from my generation. Each of us fights not only in this war but also for our minds. We have grown tremendously old participating in this never ending war. I feel my time creeping ever slowly but until then I will do as I have done for millennia.
I have arrived at the forefront of the immortals. Many behind me begin the ritual of the chant created by the first of the cursed. Over the eons the chant has changed with every generation. "May I rise again" was how I first spoke it. "May my valor grant me my death" is the current one sounding out from behind me.
The air fills with the whispers of the chosen. The ground has begun thundering loud enough to know that the armies of the underworld will soon come into sight.
I open my eyes for the first time since the last siege ended. Crimson red sky, dirt brown earth, and the deep blue from the ocean flow into my eyes. These are the colors of my reality. They make up the endless bridge, the unreachable sky, and the unknown sea.
The flat earth reaches towards the horizon becoming a thin line the further I look. At the distant line which sky and earth meet a new color comes into sight. They are too far to distinctly make out but their sickly disgusting color burns my eyes. Recalling my memories of them brings their repulsive odor causing the hairs of my nose to curl. Hatred fills my chest and with the new found feeling I begin taking the first steps forward.
My body cannot wait to encounter them. My blade will vanquish any that dare approach me. I will slice apart as many as my arm can reach while on my way to face their fiercest. Bodies will tower over me on all sides and I will walk through that valley of death. I will walk upon the skulls of my foes should they stand before me. Let them come and learn that they are not the greatest evil on these outer planes of existence. For here we reside and we are them which they are to life. Death.
No one follows behind the ancients. We elders march to meet the demon army. We will begin our slaughter and the young will take care of any that pass us. There is no spoken rule to letting the old have the first blood. They simply cannot stand beside us and withstand the waves of flesh and blood.
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Our movements are slow but resolute. To my sides walk the other ancients. Each one tested by the greatest opponents thrown at us over the course of years we have long lost count of. Time has deteriorated our bodies even within this timeless zone. After such the unstoppable force of time, limbs are only able to make motions to kill, they have forgotten all others. There is no need to mention our fracturing minds.
As we near the front line of monsters charging at us I stop and take a deep breath. The movements of the world slow and the colors fade. Silence fills my area for this brief moment. My eyes close and I feel my heart beat stop. My world is at rest. Against the force of peace my arm raises my blade. I point the tip toward the one that will reach me first and I bend my elbow until my sword arm rests against my chest. My knees bend and I lean far forward. I exhale.
Times resumes again and all my senses burst into life. The monster that has the body of a man and the head of a bull charges at me. My head is faced downward and my eyes only follow his feet. Once he moves into my range I quickly slide my left leg forward and slice upward with my blade. The sharpened glass flows through bone and muscle. Black viscera shoots out. Afterward I pivot backwards on my right foot so that the two halves of meat fly past me.
There is three more coming. My back is turned toward them but I hear the beating of their black hearts. I raise my blade to my chin and slide my right foot in a semicircle. My right arm follows a similar path and with it the blade. The air is split apart from my swing and with it the three fiends that challenged me.
The first was the snake woman who fell in two pieces, her arms flailing in pain and her lower tail twitching. The second was a shorter clay figure whose head was loped off. Its body crumbled into dust. The last was a bipedal wolf who tried to jump back as I swung. Its entrails fell out of the slit I had caused on its abdomen. It fell to its knees and attempted to push the fallen organs back into its body. Its head flew with a whip of my wrist.
Two green beings approach me next. With a swing of my right arm a fountain of purple squirts from its neck. With my arm swung behind my back I let go of my blade. I bring my right hand back to deflect the three clawed green arm that swings at me. With that movement I catch the blade with my left arm and with it I separate that green arm from its green body. It screeches in pain but that too is soon silenced with another swing.
Another bipedal wolf comes at me. It swings and I lean to the left to dodge it. As I twist my body I bring my left arm with the blade upwards. The beast is pierced through the brain. I slice through the dead wolf's face and let it drop on top of the green beings. A lizard dives at me from behind hoping to catch me off guard. I jump on top of my modest mountain of dead twisting my body in the air and reach out my right arm towards the lizards face. My middle finger digs into its right slit eye and I pull yanking its head back causing it to fall on its back. I give a kick with my right leg straight down above it and indent its face into its head.
Another lizard runs at my right side. I pivot on the dead lizard's face twisting and ripping its scaly face to shreds. My left leg flies directly into the approaching lizards head. Its head snaps to its right and it loses consciousness falling to the ground. While it falls I reach over and place my blade below it. I let gravity do my work and it cuts through its arm into its chest and out its shoulder.
The ground vibrates strongly and I turn around to be a behemoth charging through the crowd at another warrior. I sprint toward it sliding under a tall grey skinned being with no face. As I slide between its legs I hold my blade vertically leaving an upside down grey V shaped fountain spraying out pink blood on those underneath it. I zigzag through the monsters leaving them with a new slit on the sides of their necks, two spines instead of one, or a missing jaw.
I hold the glass weapon with my teeth while I run up a boulder like monster before jumping onto the back of the behemoth. I grab at the hair on its back and rapidly pull myself up on to its shoulders. I plunge my blade into the spot behind its right ear. The skull must be tough because the blade only goes halfway in. The behemoth stops and roars in pain. I don’t waste time and kick in the blade so that it sinks in to its hilt. The roar gets louder and a hand reaches for me. I grab the hilt of the blade and using like a vertical bar spin myself over it dodging the hand. The blade spins with me blending the inside of the behemoth's head.
It loses control of its hand and the arm falls to its side. I pull out the glass blade and with it pours out a river of dark red brain juice. I sink my dark blade into its shoulder and while holding on to the blade I fall over the behemoth's chest. The blade slices through its body while slowing my fall. I direct the blade to continue cutting through the leg until I have gone through the knee cap. I fall into a roll and look around to see if there are any that wish to test me.
The monster army stares at the bloody behemoth. Its head rests on its shoulders, drool leaks from its mouth, and it struggles to remain standing. I turn and slice its achilles tendon in half. After that the giant body tumbles down crushing a few dozen with its weight.
A hush fell over the ghastly army. Their eyes, many with multiple, lock on to me and it begins to sink in. Many of these things have no resemblance of intelligent thought but there are plenty that do. The intelligent ones are the first to realize who they are really at war with. The dumber ones learn faster with pain and experience. It's too late for any of them. They have come here for blood and so I will rain upon them a flood of their own.
I lick my lips and slowly walk over to the wall of bodies staring at me. They start to step away as I approach until they have completely surrounded me. They have me cornered on all fronts yet they still do not attack. I know that they can feel what I plan to do to them. I give them a wide smile and close my eyes. I imagine they feel insulted and they should after all I don't need my eyes for the likes of them. Their anger overcomes their fear and together they all come at me. I open my eyes and take another deep breath.
Time slows to a crawl. The colors bleed out leaving a grey overtone. Sounds stop along with their attacks. I give ten quick stabs at the ones coming at me. My obsidian blade goes into their hearts, whilst in there I give the blade a quick twist to widen the wound. I walk into the wall of bodies and slice and dice them up carving a path for myself in chunks of flesh and pools of grey blood. As I near the edge of the crowd my vision begins to fade. Light begins to disappear and the grey slowly darkens until it becomes absolute black. Once I reach the edge I let go of my breath.
Life comes back and I almost fall forward catching myself before I went too far. Behind me explodes the trail I had created. Screams and other more unusual noises shoot out from the monster army. They start running from me in utter terror. I cannot allow all of them to escape therefore I run after them chopping at their backs. I now see that many of the other monsters have begun to also run in mass so I can only assume the other ancients have also done their work.
There are now two groups of monsters. The ones that having faced us have started retreating and the others that stand behind them that continue to march forward. The two groups have entangled each other and now are stuck preventing one another from doing what they wish. It is time and as I think so giant flames erupt lighting much of the monsters aflame. At the same time many of the monsters begin attacking each other. Some entire sections disappear while others are pushed into the sea.
My brothers have started using their abilities gained from enlightenment. My own ability involves the manipulation of time and while it is tremendously powerful in a singular battle my brothers' abilities are more suited for culling this herd.
While death rains upon the invaders I cool my hatred and sit cross legged on the dirt floor. Around me are the bodies that I struck while they fled and the squished mounds of flesh that were trampled to death while fleeing. As I look out at this battlefield, or execution as it would be more aptly named, the dead begin to turn to ash and float away into the deep scarlet sky. There it forms a grey cloud and the blur slowly falls into that profound ocean.
I close my eyes and continue my contemplation on our curse. I feel my time coming. I will soon lose control of my physical vessel and be thrown into the infinite sea like all those that came before me. I will leave no name once I pass for both time and I have forgotten it. I enthusiastically await my long overdue rest.
But until then I will continue to butcher the any sacrificial underworld army that seeks to pass by me.