Bleeding Earth

Prologue

A Prologue of sorts.

The monk with the child could run no more. He had been on the run for the past twenty hours, trying to flee his bloodthirsty pursuers. Not that they wanted his blood - they were after the ten year old child.

He ran over the uneven rocks of the cave - the child slung over his back - his breath hot on his neck. He could hear the footsteps of the assassins - and he knew was going to fail the only task the Temple had entrusted him with before being destroyed.

He took a sharp turn left - barely avoiding a stalactite and entered another cavern which had the lake in the centre. There was no escaping his pursuers - he knew that now. They would soon catch up to him. There was only one thing to do now. There was this saying - if you're gonna burn, you might as well take out your killers along with you.

The monk calmly walked to the edge of the lake and sat down. The last twenty hours of continuous running had taken its toll on him. The monk was no normal person - but even he had his limits. Every muscle in his body screamed for mercy. Had felt as if he was going to faint. Well, his plan didn't require much energy.

He slowly set the child down. Aadi, they called him. He looked as if he was in a deep sleep, his curly mop of red hair a mess, dirty face looking peaceful.

He was supposed to save this boy. The child was supposed to have a good life, become a great hero like the predictions said. Well, none of that was happening now. The thing the monk was going to do - there wasn't any hope for Aadi now.

The four assassins arrived after a few moments. The monk didn't bother observing their faces - who cares about dead people? - and it was too dark to see anyway - the assassins' dim torches being the only source of illumination

Their leader smirked.

"Out of your capacity, your holiness?" He said with sarcasm.

"You have just referred a monk of the order as his holiness. Do your sins know no bounds?"

"We gave you the chance. You could have peacefully handed the boy to us and we would have let you live. But you refused to see sense. Now you must die too."

"Why do you do this? You know your masters' true intentions," the monk said.

The leader slowly started walking forward.

The monk got up slowly, so that the child was lying in front of them.

The leader sighed. "Do you have to?" He said. "I can give you one last chance."

The monk turned back and faced the vast lake. The only indication that there was a lake was the sparkling of the water due to the assassins' torches. The monk bent down, and slowly immersed his hands in the lake.

Reaching within himself, he could feel the power the Temple had given him before it was destroyed. He slowly engulfed it with his consciousness, skimming its surface but not embracing it.

"What are you doing?" asked the leader. He could feel the aura of the Void. He just didn't know what it was.

Taking a deep breath, the monk jerked the Void out of his consciousness, which took a physical form of an amulet as soon as it came out. It took almost all of the monk's remaining strength to do it.

He splashed his hands out of the water and caught it. He got up and showed the brilliantly glowing amulet to the assassins.

There was no problem of lighting now. The colour drained out of the faces of the four assassins. Two were men, including the leader, two were women......

Why am I describing dead people anyway?

"But.... That was..."

"What? You thought the Temple had locked the amulet inside poor Aadi here?" The monk asked calmly as ever. "No. it was inside me. I was the one you should have been hunting."

"But then... the prophecies said the boy will get the Void!"

The monk's face split into wicked grin, with a glee he did not feel. Maybe he wasn't resistant to the amulet after all.

"Why, he will get it."

And just like that, he let the amulet fall on the Aadi's chest. It gently wrapped itself round his throat, shining brighter than ever.

Slowly, Aadi - no, the thing opened its eyes. Bright red eyes. It slowly stood up - taking a deep breath as it examined its surroundings.

"What did you do?" The assassin asked. There was panic in his voice now.

The creature looked at the monk, expression impassive, the face looking like anything other than that of a child. Dark red veins were spreading around his body. It felt difficult to just stand near him.

He then looked at his might-have-been killers, and a smile tugged his lips. It was darker than anything the monk could have managed. No wonder the guys wanted to kill him.

"Get out of here!" One of them shouted. The three assassins other than their leader ran towards the exit to the cave.

"You realize what you have done?" asked the leader. "You have doomed his child! Not saved him!"

"Ironic you should worry about that" The thing said. Nothing special about his voice - just as expected of a kid - but something about his tone chilled the monk. This wasn't a person. The Void itself was speaking.

The monk didn't see what happened after that. He just sat in lotus position, facing the lake.

The boy came to him a minute later. There was just a splatter of blood on his shirt, but the monk knew that all four of them were dead.

Before the thing decided to kill him too or something, the monk quickly snatched the locket away. It came away without resistance because it was his hand.

The real Aadi seemed to have surfaced now. The red veins disappeared.

"Where am I....." he began.

"Sleep," the monk said, kindly. "You must be tired." And he put two fingers on Aadi's forehead.

The boy crumpled down like a heap of stones. He then passed the amulet into the boy - just like he had pulled it out of him.

The monk could feel the heat in his chest, the after effect of pulling out the Void, and knew his end was near. He lay down.

After a few hours, he heard footsteps.

"Brother Utande-und!" Came a voice.

The monk was in no condition to move.

They lifted him and gave him some water from the lake. A wasted effort on a dead man.

"Please...." The monk coughed. "Take him back to village - take him to Dante, he will know what to do."

"Brother... please don't leave us. How will we save our race without you?"

The monk smiled.

"Aadi will help you."