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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
His movements came at me with all the fury and consistency of a violent rainstorm. With each strike, he screamed at me to die. Such pain, such anger, that was what had become of his abominable mind.
"Perish now!" he shouted. We were at the edge now, and my back was to it, not his. This would be a hard-fought ending indeed.
I sliced at him and lunged sideways, away from his golden dagger. It was shaped like an elongated triangle, inlaid with strange carvings in its shining surface. The strike connected against his side, lodging my blade in his metal torso.
Now we were both equal distances from the edge of the platform, the river below us bubbling violently as if it expected a sacrifice. I had to pull hard to remove my sword from his side, every tug being met with shrieks of pain. Once I finally yanked it unceremoniously from his abdomen, I saw just how badly I had damaged him thus far. A strange black liquid had sprayed all over the metal platform, and now he just stood there, as if he were simply waiting for me to strike him down.
So I did. I lunged at him, trying to sever head from neck, but then, out of nowhere, came his dagger, piercing me through the side as I had done to him. I could feel it separating my flesh, diving through layer after layer like it was a swimmer cutting through the surface of water. I felt a warm liquid flowing down my side. I would not die to him again. I tried to breathe, but all I felt was pain, not the gentle relief that it was supposed to bring. After that, more of the liquid shot down my body and on to my leg. I was stabbed and bleeding badly. I had to end this quickly.
No more waiting. No more games. No more tricks. Only blood. Only finality.
Only victory.
I swung Bloodlight upward with a ferocious roar, and when I felt it connect, I knew my gods were truly with me that day. A bloodcurdling cry pierced my ears when I saw what I had done.
Nemenera now stood there silently, his right arm now completely severed. He dropped heavily to a kneeling position at the edge of the platform, coughing.
"You... you have bested me." Nemenera said somberly. He looked at me, almost pleadingly, and so pitifully. I pulled his telescoping dagger gently from my side with a cry that I tried to hold in but could not.
Upon his face, at that moment, appeared the mark, showing itself as a glowing red sigil painted upon the front of his helmet. I knew what I had to do.
Setting his dagger aside and swapping Bloodlight to my other hand, I reached out and felt the smooth, warm metal. I felt a tingle, and then then the world once again fell away.
~~~
I found myself looking down at an older man, trapped inside my own body. He had put me here, and every day he tried to make me better than I was the day before. He was an inventor, a man of great renown, and I would be his greatest creation yet. I would be more than just an invention, or a showpiece, I would be his child.
I saw the day when I could finally move. I wished I had real eyes to cry with, and real arms to hold him with, but what he gave me was enough. I embraced him, and gave him my undying gratitude. "Thank you, father." I said.
He brought me with him on walks in the gardens, he told me about everything from the beautiful myriad flowers to more advanced concepts like the creation of life itself. He said something about not being able to create life the natural way, so he made me instead. He did not see me as a toy, but instead as a thinking, feeling being, as he had created me to be.
All the world loved me, especially children. I was like something out of their imaginations come to life. I would often play with them, as I was content to do. We would play ball most days, playing games where we would have to throw or kick a ball in to a net or a hoop or a ring. One day I played an especially intense game and accidentally bumped in to one of the children while running to the net. I heard people crying, yelling, and screaming. There was sadness in the air. The child did not wake back up.
It was when strange men with swords strapped to their backs came one day, asking for a "Professor Thalor", my father, that everything changed yet again. I had been considered a threat, evil. My father was ordered to give me away, but he refused. I got up and stood in front of father, trying to get them to leave us alone. Then they tried to hurt us. I tried to make one never wake up again, but another took his sword and... they made him so he would never wake up, either. I then knew what I had to do. I simply made them so they would never wake up, too. All of them. Bumping in to them, and kicking them, I tried to protect father. I tried so hard. Some of them were too strong. I tried to save him. I tried to be his protector.
I failed.
I was immobilized, turned in to nothing but a statue for so long as punishment by the evil men of the world. For so many years my hatred burned, it was only then that I was given power by the woman in black. I was given my path to revenge. One last chance to make things right for father.
~~~
The vision then melted away, and all I saw in front of me was an empty shell.
