Do you ever think what life would be, where you will go , after you die.

I pause the holographic image, she freezes mid stride..... I reach to touch her face.Hair the colour of blood in the deepest twilight, eyes as striking as a mountain glacier and skin... skin like the purest of snow in the light of dawn.My love, my life , my alabaster goddess.

Her smile brings a tear to my eyes, and my sight falls to her belly. A bitter sweet smile spreads to my face. The day i took this she had told me the greatest of news, Me haha a father. But the war started, and took them away

" This world, this world and those goddamned creatures have taken to much" I howl to the mountains. 

I turn off the holoprocesser and turn the collar of my coat up to ward away the chill that didn't only come from the mountain air. Picking up my sword, I strap it to my back, I pick up my cane turning to my destination. Ruins that have became a home to bandits.

They won't stop me.

  As i near the entryway I draw my sword and start to sprint, within meters of it two heads pop out from within the entrance as they see me they cry out a warning. I push myself forward and lash out with my blade cutting their throats they fall to the floor clutching their necks as the life drains away.

Entering the ancient hallways I follow the maps in my head diverting as collapsed routes appear, as I near the inner sanctum I hear the drum of boots echoing along the stone corridoors.

  As I turn the corridoor the doors to the sanctum five men arrange themselves behind a low barricade. I raise my cane, one of the men dare chuckle, I flick the release on the side and the lower 2/3 fire off. It crushes the the larynx of the amused bandit, a blade giving off a chilling aura is left in its wake.

   I dash in vaulting off the barricade taking the heads of two men, landing I reverse my grips on the swords while pivoting and ram the blades through the hearts of the last of the men. The swords come lose as the men fall to the floor, I clean the blades and resheath them. I proceed past the corpses and enter.

  The inner sanctum of the ruins is a cavern so vast that the sides can not be seen. The path from the door can fit three men abreast then drops off in to an abyss, the path leads to a peninsula at it centre lies a dias and a way behind a wall with a statue twice the dimensions of a man. The cavern is in a gloomy light, columns spread out into the darkness even into the abyss.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

There are 6 men loitering around the dias at the centre,as i approach i remove my coat and top, keeping my sword and cane in my grasp. Once they see me walking across the path they all startle.

  " Wha..what are you doing here where are the guards." One of the bandits stutter out.

Pulling the blade from the cane letting the rest fall I reply " Dead, stand in my way and so will you." 

  " Kill him!" Another shouts as he draws his sword, the others follow suit.

I rush forwards into the path of their blades, i parry one blade into another and slash off the blocked blades hand. Turning to the first I boot him in the chest off and over the edge to the darkness below, his screams mixing with the handless fellow echoing out in the bleakness. It shakes the remain men momentarily, giving me time to knock another weapon from its path and opening the throat of its owner.

  The last three snap out of it and attack together, blocking two of the weapons I recieve a slash across the chest from the third. I jump back then pounce forward in a roll slashing the legs of the men I blocked. They cry out in pain as i come out of the roll kicking the knee with a sicking crunch of the slasher his wail spills into the crys of pain. 

  As i straighten up i turn a separate the heads from the first two men and pivot back altering the grip of my blades, ramming the down behind the collar bones of the last, whilst ramming my knee into tho his face.

I leave my blades in him as i walk towards the dais, I wipe my hand across my chest bloodying it. I brush it across the dais. It glows a faint blue.

  "HAHAHAHA it's true" I scream out. I continue walking to the back. 

A grinding sound can be heard as the statue splits in two reavealing an iron maiden like interior.

This place The Reaper's Clock runs on blood and sacifice of the willing.

I enter the statue turning to face out it begins to close. I do not fear death.

I begin to remember you, the way you look, the spikes begin to pierce me i shut off the pain.

The way yor skin feeels.Blood runs down my body.

The way..the way... you......Tasssteeee.

Outside in the cavern bright blue lights begin to run from the maiden a few a first then hundred and thousands.

Lightning starts cascading between the columns inside the vast underground kingdom.

The light blinding in the darkness of the undergroung kingdom, the lighting picking up frequency and intensity and in the crescendo of it all,  an orb appears around the statue it, engulfing it.

Then all the energy turns black exploding in a flash.

In the silence, the gradual cloistering of bells can be heard echoing through a glassed ruin.