3rd person POV***
Shurima is dying. I do not think she will rise again.
The emptiness that writhes in the very bones of my homeland is a malignant, unspeakable thing. It spreads. It devours. Its merest touch is death. A thousand deaths—a thousand, times a thousand, times a thousand. Perhaps once there were some who could stand against it and hope to prevail, but no longer.
I walk here, alone, in the darkest places beneath the world, and I see it with my own eyes, through the finely crafted lenses of my helm. What is seen cannot be unseen, and what is known cannot be forgotten. Not here. I am weary, so very weary.
Still, I walk.
I can no longer feel the ground beneath me, nor the bare rock of the cavern walls, but so, too, am I spared the worst of the numbing winds that rise from the depths. I give thanks for that, for truly this is a chill beyond the desert’s night. I have sat upon the endless plain of the Sai Faraj beneath the first moon of winter, and yet never known anything like this. It is the deep cold of the Void, which the ancients—in their ignorance—might have named as their underworld, and the source of all evil in the mortal realm.
The truth is worse, I think. The air itself feels wrong, and unnatural, throbbing with a fierce, purple un-light that pains the mind.
And from the shadows that even my eyes cannot pierce, you come.
Three. Four. Maybe five. It is difficult to say. A hundred and more of your kind have I faced, and slain. Your howls echo in the gloom, but I do not fear you, for you have already taken everything I ever had.
My wife; my beloved. My daughter; our binsikhi, our little explorer. I call out their names, as I always do, to remind myself why it is that I fight. Then I raise my gauntlet.
For all your teeth and your claws and your ravenous rage, you cannot defeat me. Either I will strike you down, back to the pit… or you will send me into the hereafter, and I will finally be at peace. I will be with them once more.
Kiyotaka POV***
As I ran across an atop an ocean of purple creatures I spot Nouria in the distance on the ground unconscious.
I quickened my paced and enhanced my feet with light.
Each time I step on a disgusting creature, it cries and explodes, propelling myself on each stride I swooped Nouria off the ground and began running to the less dense part of the horde. Placing her on my back I tore some of the fabric on my stone mason clothes and tied her waist around mine. Wrapping her arms on my neck and holding onto her with my right hand to not let her slip off.
Feeling her faint breathing on my neck I assumed she was fine, for now at least.
I could've just abandoned her and my escape would've been easy but, there's still so much stuff I haven't learned from her. So not yet, I forbid you to die.
Listening to the history of this world piqued my interest and I want to hear more from her, so you better be grateful and tell me the wonders of this god forsaken world.
The little bits of sand on stone made it a little harder to run on but I can manage, because back in the white room I was trained in various environments.
Shooting pulse fire in front caused the creatures to avoid it and created a small path ahead. Immediately taking the opportunity I ran as fast as I could but the path was getting smaller until we were finally surrounded once again.
I'm running out of options since Nouria looks hurt, I didn't get a proper look at her since I was in a hurry. Some of her ribs are broken, a few cuts and a large one on her side that I temporarily covered with my light. But, I have no idea how long I can keep this up.
Pondering about what to do, I kicked, punched, and occasionally dodged so she doesn't get hit.
All of a sudden the endless waves of purplish creatures froze, and then they screech, some clawed on the ground and opened their mouths showing their razor sharp teeth.
They seemed angry, yet at the same time afraid?
Not wasting any time I channeled all my energy/light and my vision changed. Everything was white, illusory lines shot from every living creature to the sky. Like strings of a puppet flowing up to the heavens above.
I looked at mine It was a blue? Nouria's was red? What does this mean? Amidst all the strings up ahead was something different. I maneuvered silently past them towards its source since they were distracted.
There, I saw a man with what looks like a gas mask with metal horns, wearing armor on specific parts of his body stood against thousands of these creatures.
An ethereal blade on his right hand, there was crackling energy around it.
On his left he clutch a stone that radiated a powerful energy. Surging towards me I tried to block it with pulse fire but it was instantly destroyed.
When it hit I almost lost my balance, I tightened my hold on Nouria as my vision went back to normal.
The hungry creature's screams where now climaxing. He looked at us and gestured for us to leave. He glance at us and muttered something, I couldn't hear it because of the mask.
I'm glad I could save you two...
I didn't question why he helped us, maybe just a good samaritan? Thanks for the save, I'll remember you. Maybe pay you back in the future If you survive that is.
I then ran pass him without looking back.
3rd person POV****
I'm glad I could save those two youngsters, have a great future.
You will not take their lives like what you did to them, the beast of the last infinity.
In my other hand, I clutch the stone tightly. Its foreign magic has kept me alive this long--long enough to delve far, far beneath the wastelands of old Icathia. It holds your corruption at bay, though at what cost to my flesh and my spirit, I cannot guess, for this smallest of trinkets now thrums in time with my own heart. That fearful rhythm is not the pulse of life, or magic, or any other wholesome thing, but of oblivion itself. Of that much, I am certain.
Looking behind, the man and woman were no longer visible.
Fast...
Looking back I said, Back, beast. Stay back.
The Nether Blade snaps out from my gauntleted wrist, into the air between us.
Yes. Yes, you know this weapon, don’t you. You all remember it.
Where only moments ago you hungered for my flesh, now you are wary. Now you hesitate. You circle. Those of you that have eyes cannot take them from the blade’s shimmering edge. Even you must know, I think, that this thing was not made for mortal hands, or mortal souls. It was made by clever magic, by men who were no longer men, and who now are nothing at all. Would you remember them too, I wonder?
You screech and hiss, and stamp at the uneven ground. It would be easy to imagine that you hate all living things, but you do not hate us, I think. Not truly. You do not know what hate is.
Hate is the fire that burned in the immortal hearts of the god-warriors when they saw your kind spilling out into the world. Hate was what drove them against you, again and again, though they knew it would almost certainly be their doom…
Yes, this weapon remembers you. It remembers how to end you.
Horok, it was, that struck the first telling blow against your masters. Great and mighty Horok of the Ascended Host, whose name shall live forever. He is the Finder of Hidden Ways, and the One Who Follows After. It was Horok who first dared to face you down here, in the darkness, away from the light of the sun that had given him his strength. It was Horok who first bore the Nether Blade unto the Void’s vile heart.
And it was Horok who showed his brothers and sisters how to defeat the abyss.
I am no Ascended hero of Shurima, no god-warrior to be remembered in the grand halls of that ruined empire. I am but a man. I am a grieving father, From the dust I came, and to the dust I shall return soon enough.
But not yet. For now, I walk as Horok once walked, and I do this with his blade held out before.
The closest of you lunges. Horned shell and razor-sharp talons graze my side as I twist away, breath rasping through the pipes in my mask. For a moment I am blind, trapped inside this meager armored suit of my own devising.
Then I bring the Nether Blade up sharply, cleaving through what on any other creature could be called a neck.
The sinuous body crashes down, and I feel the weapon’s aching hunger in my sword arm, in the sourness at the back of my tongue, like the aftertaste of a scream. Who will be next? Which of you will try?
The desert knows Horok. His name shall live forever. Even when he was betrayed by the tyrant Ne’Zuk (ascended god warrior of shurima, also the owner of Ezreal's gauntlet.), to his death, none would claim the bladed gauntlet from Horok’s wrist. As far as the god-warriors had fallen, even they could not deny that these lands might be threatened by the Voidborn once again, in some unseen future, and this great weapon should be ready.
This is my land. Such horrors walk here now, openly, and I cannot allow it. I will plunge this blade into the creeping nothingness beneath Shurima, as I have a dozen times before.
Was it destiny? No. Nothing so noble as destiny. It was fated, I think, that I knew where this thing might be found. I led the echnebi treasure-seekers to Horok’s mausoleum on the banks of the Kahleek many years ago—back then I sought nothing more than their Piltovan gold, so that I might provide for my family. I gladly helped break open the tomb that had remained sealed for thousands of years. The Nether Blade was not the prize the echnebi sought, but they deemed it valuable all the same.
Some in the tribes called me mercenary. Some called me a traitor. All I know is, in the strange days since then, Horok’s mausoleum has been utterly consumed by the enemy. Were it not for those treasure-seekers and the bounty they paid me, this weapon would now be lost. Like my people. My family.
Unlike them, when the time came, the blade was something I could find again.
Kas sai a dyn. Whom does the desert know?
The desert does not know you, beast. You are not welcome here. You are lost in this ancient land of gods and men.
But the desert knows my name, for that is my name.
Not once have I lost my way. I know exactly where I am, and how many more paces it would be to the doom of all things. I will atone for what I have done, and that which I have not.
And I will defy you until the end.
Kiyotaka POV***
Running all night, I didn't stop.
I'm out of time, standing on a hill made of sand I scoured the vast desert. Enhancing my vision with my ability I can now see farther and clearer.
Lights...
Don't worry Nouria, I found a city. Hopefully, they can help, Bare with it for now. She groaned in her sleep, possibly having a nightmare.
I descended down the slope.
And headed towards the lights.
Sigh
It's so peaceful without the fighting.
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To be continued...
A/N: I got a ton of stuff to do, send help please!!!
Have a happy new year everyone! I hope...
Also I'm sad that Solo Leveling ended(the manwha)
You sad?
Same.
Hawk out!
(Not mine.)