Two darkened hearts were to become one, but they were separated by the threads of Fate.
Now they find themselves stranded in a cold, hostile world alongside only a handful of survivors, ruled over by a dark, omnipresent force.
Though they are not to...
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Below us raged rivers of molten metal, and above us was a series of interconnected, branching catwalks that moved vertically throughout the different levels of the enormous complex we found ourselves in. The roar of the streams of fire was the only sound that accompanied our footsteps on the metal grate beneath our feet.
As we walked down the oppressive metal corridor, hoping to find a way out of this strange place, I kept my eyes and ears as sharp as the mysterious blade that was currently sheathed on my belt. I had toyed with the idea of giving it a name, but I could not yet think of one. 'Bloodlight', for now, seemed to be the strongest possibility, named after its red-colored glow.
"Scrag, got a bad feelin' 'bout this place." Jolly said. "Feel like we're walkin' straight in to a trap."
"I could not agree more, Jolly." I concurred, scanning above, below, and in front. "There is something disturbingly... alien about our environs. As if we have entered another world entirely, discrete from the one above."
"That's how the Collapse works, scrag." Jolly said matter-of-factly. "One minute you're in an upside-down house, the next you'll find yourself in a garden filled with the dead. It's one twisted joke after another."
We finally made our way out of the short hall and in to the large room I had seen a short time ago. Before I could think, I was thrown across the room.
Normally, I would have broken my fall with magic, but all I could do was roll in to it, earning me a good deal of pain and a nasty cut on the metal grating below. The burning rush of battle compelled me to draw my weapon, and as I looked toward where I had been thrown from, I was met with the glint of steel coming toward my face.
I dodged to the left instinctually, causing the blade to hit against the ground.
"I'm afraid I can't help you. Please forward all complaints to the proper department." A voice said that sounded like it came from underwater. It was a disconcerting, stilted tone that fit perfectly with the creature in front of me.
It was an almost entirely metallic creature about one-and-a-half times my size, who seemed to be an abominable merger of some human organs and a grotesque mechanical body. It was like a poor, broken, ripped and melted attempt at a classical statue. One with a brain and beating heart held within its steel interior.
Doubt clouded my mind, but only for a brief, involuntary moment. I had been trained to think only toward the positive, to put my mind at ease even when it screamed that I was doing the impossible.
I drew Bloodlight and began my attack, aiming to thrust through one of its many tears in to its beating heart of ghastly flesh. I was only beginning to strike, my mind and heart united in the intent to kill, when a red light enveloped the creature and it was gone as quickly as it had appeared.
It was immediately clear what that light was: it was something forgotten and unheard of in this new world. Whosoever had crafted this blade had imbued it with the one thing that had the potential to save the world corrupted by darkness.
Bloodlight was an enchanted sword.
I stood there for a moment, staring at Bloodlight, when I heard Jolly exclaim a varied mix of congratulations for me and curses for the creature I had just dispatched.
I walked over to him, and as I motioned to sheath my sword, I noticed that its glaring red light had gone out entirely. I stared quizzically at it for a moment before slowly sheathing it once again. It was magic indeed.
"Beautiful work, scrag!" Jolly said, shaking my hand heartily as I wiped the sweat from my forehead. "How'd ya do it?"
"I did not do it of my own accord." I said, glancing at Bloodlight. "Somehow this blade... its glow had something to do with that wave of power. It was magic, Jolly. There is no other reasonable explanation."
"I'd agree with ya right away if magic still existed here, but it don't, scrag. Unless..."
"Unless what?" I questioned.
"That's a mighty fancy blade, alright. But this would mean magic isn't really gone. Somehow those... Gallogan priests... made a magic sword."
"The moment we leave this accursed maze of vile treachery," I began. "I would like to journey to Gallagos. Perhaps the clergy there can help me regain my power."
"I wouldn't tell anyone if I were you, scrag." Jolly said. "Some folks might kill ya for your boots, not to mention a magic sword!"
"True," I said, knowing that he was more than correct. Especially in a society such as this which was probably still in the barter stage of trade, it was safest to keep all mentions of magic items away from the public sphere of knowledge.
"It shall be our secret." I said, speaking more as a command than a statement of fact. "No one else shall know."
Jolly nodded and looked around.
"This place, scrag. It reminds me of the factories that got shut down over in Wellenbrook after the war. There used to be hundreds of these where I grew up, hell, my daddy worked in one 'till the day he died."
It was clear that this place, strange as it was, was beginning to hold some level of nostalgic value for him. I knew little of what he spoke, other than that these sorts of factories were the heart of the war, prime targets for magic-powered strike teams and guerilla warfare. Swords, shields, armor of all kinds, channeling staffs, the war, to some people, was fought, in truth, in places like these. I could not say either way whether that was true or not, it was human nature to believe that your contribution was the greater, when it came to concepts like these.
We began to move forward once again, and I knew that when I saw the next mechanical freak come around the corner, when I saw its blades swing at me, when I had the opportunity to take this energy, this buzz I was feeling and turn it in to combat, I would be ready.
When I heard the sound of heavy metal against metal on the ground as I turned the corner, I knew then that I was back in my element, and that I once again deserved the title of 'the Bloodied'.
