Rawwwwr. Whew when everyone else goes out on friday and you just go home and pass out without brushing your teeth. I feel like I just came back from another dimension. Thanks for the kind comments!
Dark. So so very dark. The ancient one had been neither asleep nor awake for so very long. It had been so long in this half-life that he did not even remember whether he had chosen to go into this slumber...or if he had been forced. However in this endless twilight he remembered one thing.
Eat. Devour. Grow
In his timeless stopped mind these were not so much words or even feelings but an order. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a brand or a seal which had been imprinted deep into his being. Throughout the ages, when he dreamed, if he even did dream, it had been so long he wasn't sure if any of his memories were real, he dreamed of dark shapes and amorphous figures in the void which sought to consume him. He had to consume them before they devoured him!
Tsss... Tssss.....
A strange sparking feeling came to him. Wait what was that? A feeling? Impossible, it had been so long that he had long since forgotten the feeling of having feelings. That couldn't be...
"Wake"
??? Was someone talking to him? However he had been gone for so many years. Additionally...he was sealed away. There should be no one.
"Wake"
?? The voice louder...definite...real.
Tssss...TSSSSSS...
That sparking feeling came to him again. The energy of lightning. Electricity deep in his being. With a great effort his eyes opened though he remained unfeeling and unthinking in his slumber. His eyes were open yet he was still asleep.
"Wake"
He had not opened his eyes since entering his slumber. However now that he had, the world outside was disjointed and blurry. It was as if he was staring through a glass window however the glass had warped and cracked with the passage of time and now he was separate from reality...forced to gaze through a distorted lens forever.
TSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
"WAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
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"Is he awake?" The head cultist stared through the crystal like coffin which housed the object of his attention. His god, his lord, and master.
"I think so...we must conduct the ceremony yes? That one has come again so it is time. We shall bring the ancient one back to fight evil with evil once again!" The giant called Jin raised the strange sword which had opened the doorway. He gave a look to the head cultist who nodded at him in return.
"It is time. Goodbye. The rest of you...witness this so we do not make a mistake yes? If things go wrong, if our divinations are off then you must let someone know. Someone must survive to guide the ancient one to the battlefield." With that he nodded to the other cultists who all raised their hands and pledged their assent.
"So be it." The man named Jin first stabbed himself in the heart. Then without faltering he ripped the sword from his still beating chest and impaled the head cultist as well. They both fell lifeless to the ground with their life's blood pouring out into the strange black and purple material of the floor. Wordlessly the cultists looked at each other as nothing happened. What should they do now?
Tsss.....tssss....tssss....
Suddenly sparks of electricity began to dance on the ground where the blood touched the strange black and purple material. The sword still lodged in the head cultist's chest began to pulse and writhe as the electricity was absorbed! Gradually it floated up into the air of its own accord, 2 meters of fearsome alien material. As the other cultists looked on in shock the entire room was suddenly lit up in white light!
Kraaaanggggg!!!!!!!!!!!
A thunderous bolt of lightning snaked into the room and illuminated the shocked faces of all the cultists as they were all instantly electrocuted! The entire roof of the room was blasted off as lightning poured in from the sky and blasted down through the collapsed rubble of the former Hellhole and destroyed half the mountain!
TSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssssss......tssssssssss.....tssssss...tsssss...
The room danced with mad currents of electricity and all the while the being in the ancient coffin's eyes were opening wider and wider. As the last sparks of electricity faded away into the floor the crystalline coffin opened in the room which was now exposed to the night sky.
HISSSSSSSSSS
However...as the being inside slowly regained consciousness, not a single cultist had survived to guide him. The entire room had been vaporized. All that was left was the crystalline coffin.
"Wake!!"
The voice came so loud that it was undeniable. The ancient one finally woke up though his eyes had long since been wide open. He felt....HEAVY! Almost completely drained and energy less. The lid of the coffin popped open a few centimeters automatically and he tried to muster the energy to look at his body. To see what he was...who he had become. For he had long since forgotten. It took several minutes to muster the energy. When he looked down he saw a humanoid body. Black and purple runes spanned his arms and legs which seemed to pulsate dimly. Sometimes when they flickered out his body seemed to turn less solid as if his very flesh was losing the ability to hold its shape.
He tried to puzzle out who or what he was but as the coffin of the lid opened he felt something inside which he had dreamed of for a very long time. Or at least he thought he had.
Hunger
It burned through him with far more pain than the lightning had. An ancient feeling almost as old as he was. Maybe older. After being in that numb state for so long he no longer knew quite what it was. However his body did! Gradually it awoke and he gained the energy to rise to his feet and leave the coffin. What greeted him was...
Night and Stars
He exited the crystalline coffin looking up and stared up through the destroyed roof to the night sky and stars. A warm breeze crept in and he suddenly remembered how to breath.
Haaaahhhhhhh
As he inhaled for the first in who knows how many eons he smelt the burnt ozone from the lightning strike mixing with the fresh air of the outside. However, the smell only made him remember how hungry he was. That feeling. The burning in his belly. He needed to eat, consume, and grow stronger! Why though... As he gathered his strength he realized that on the lid of the coffin were strange characters which he had long since forgotten how to read. However, unbidden, words came from his lips.
"Summon me back from the grave to fight evil with evil once again."
Suddenly it almost felt like he remembered something and he whispered out of habit,
"But where are the ones who sealed me and where are the ones who released me?"
A second later the hunger gnawed at him some more and he forgot the last vestiges of his former self.
Pit.....
This feeling. What was it?
Pit...Pit..Pit.....Pit Pit Pit Pit Patter Patter!!!!
Rain. It came and soothed reek of ozone and the burning hunger in his stomach. It was like a magic balm as he remembered what it was like. It reminded him that he was alive again.
"Ahahahaahahahahah!!!!" He crowed with laughter and one could not tell whether he was evil or good in that moment. Just alive. After some time passed where he simply opened his mouth and stared up absentmindedly at the sky, eating the rain, he remembered the feeling in his stomach.
Hunger
He stretched his shoulders as his energy had returned slightly and clenched his fists flexing his broad back. However, nothing happened, no wings magically sprouted and he cocked his head curiously. Was he expecting something to happen when he did that? He disregarded that as something for later and crouched down. He could sense it distantly. Other beings in the distance. Far away but not far enough. He needed to consume and there was not enough space in the universe to separate something from him if he wanted it!
Boom!!!
He jumped straight out of the broken room and the crystalline coffin. As he left, mud poured down hastened by the rain and buried his tomb from the world.
"Every evil comes again. And I have returned!"