A Dark Night

Chapter VII

Chapter 7

The white stained red

The blood. The blood. The blood. The blood, the blood.

Embrace your hunger my child, the voice spoke gently in my head. His voice, deep yet gentle. It was comforting yet still so.. dark. I.. I could not comprehend why I was now moving. Everything was so fast.. So blurry..

Go now my son, I will await your return. And before I knew it I was outside the mountain forterss. The cold wind was once my enemy, but now it was all I knew. Devoid of warmth in my flesh and soul, my soul longed for a fire. My body longed for a flaming passion to fill it’s seemingly hollow state.  I walked in the snow slowly my metal boots leaving heavy prints in the ash white snow. I had not eaten for days as I embarked on this lone quest from camp earlier this week. What a fool I was, believing I would make it in time. I wondered how the others were, Wilhelm and Gatrie. The lads must have presumed me dead by a sneak raid of some sort to remove the leader of their enemy forces. And such a tactic would have worked since my men relied on me heavily and it would have caused a hysteria among our men as many of them admired me not only as a higher rank but as a hero. To them I was a white knight among the looming heathen darkness in this land. Not only had I saved them from a pagan monster but from countless battles in the past. It was my skill and expertise in this field that many assumed I was not mortal. Now.. now they were true.

I was far from mortal now and my flesh cursed for eternity. The gates of heaven now eternally closed for me, all I could do is lament and long for my once human mortality. There was no going back now, no more being a hero. No longer would I be seen as a shining white knight, but a dark knight of blood. A knight of blood, blood from flesh he once carried. Dark as his now cursed soul. I was no more a man but a beast damned for the black gates of hell where the rivers carried a deep shade of red amidst flaming horrors, where mans ancient terrors are as lively as his sin. The sin that now carried his soul to the pits of the river of fire and realm of the fallen angel.

Amidst my brooding I stopped and walked close to the broken bridge. It was broken in the middle making any way out of this icy hellhole impossible yet my instincts told me otherwise. Somehow.. I felt that I could brave this bridge and onwards. It was true that I was no longer mortal, but was I then more? Beyond mortal? If I was like the man in dark robes that would be true as he carried a presence and power far beyond any champion of the lands. I then came to the conclusion that I had to make it past this regardless if I were to die or not, I wasn’t entirely sure why. Something somewhere in me ensured me that my very survival depended on it. And my survival was waning, growing dim and frail. I needed it.. I needed to go past here. I needed to seek out my survival beyond this bridge. I needed to rise beyond this!

I stepped back a few steps and took a deep breath, summoning all my might to my mind and legs. I closed my eyes and relaxed myself. My body and mind itself seemed to connect in my moment of solace and just then, just then I knew I was ready. My feet awakened and shot forward, propelling quick and making a firm step before the bridges and then in one shot, my body flew forward. I was in the air, jumping forward. Longer than any man, beast, creature I had ever known. I lunged my body forward to maximize my flight path and then landed a firm metal boot on the opposite side of the bridge. With that foot on the ground firmly I transferred my weight there and lunged forward hurling to the ground. I… I was safe. I was fine and I was alive. I could not believe myself, I could not believe my feet, my hands, my mind and soul! I could not believe I had just jumped across the broken bridge not once falling into the abyss below. It felt so natural yet foreign to me. It was as if my body had been crafted to undertake such feats but new to such things. It was so quick.. yet so long as I pondered in thought. I was now quite sure I was no longer a man, but something more. Something... better.