A passing cloud blotted out the azure sky over the empty coliseum. The ancient structure showed beauty even in its advanced age. Engravings in the marble depicted ancient gladiators that had survived gruesome battles against armored animals. Cracks acted as scars that grew alongside the aged surface. Large windows decorated the area above the stands, giving instantaneous death to anyone unfortunate enough to fall out of them. Four iron gates towered over anyone that would try to enter or exit the coliseum. Though rusted over time, the reddish brown complimented the marble shining in the sun. Small craters scattered throughout the arena, showing a new grace that contrasted the aged structure.
In the center of the ancient structure was a large minotaur silently waiting. Scars mixed in with the short black fur all over his body. His horns could easily pierce someone to death, and his hooves appeared to have the power to crack the very earth beneath him. A long red and white fabric covered his body from the waist down, giving his tail an opening so it could move freely. His broad upper body was naked, as if he didn't need any armor to defeat his opponents. In his left hand was a stainless silver halberd with a large blade. The creaking of rusted iron snapped him out of his trance. His piercing red eyes soon became locked onto the origin of the noise.
A young man in a malachite colored sweatshirt was thrown into the coliseum. Heavy chains followed behind him, and an iron collar lightly bruised parts of his neck. He had nearly suffocated to death by the guards' ignorance. Delta struggled for breath, gagging on whatever air he could intake. An aura of rage petrified the guards. The minotaur walked towards them, leaving his halberd buried in place. A long chain flowed from his left arm, connecting it to the silver axe. The minotaur knelt down in order to break Delta free from his chains. "Who was it that allowed this child to be dragged here in such a pitiful condition?" he threatened. The minotaur's voice was deep and held great pride. However the concern it showed for Delta was more prominent.
The guards stuttered as they attempted to blame one another. Impatient, the minotaur swung the chain on his wrist, removing the halberd from its resting position. The two guards were flung back into the marble walls, left alive to recount their mistakes. The silver halberd safely landed in the minotaur's hand afterwards. He laid his red eyes on Delta's miserable state, causing tragic memories to resurface.
*
Embers from a fading past illuminated the damp room. Shadows danced in mockery for the lone figure shivering in the corner. The chill of night seeped through the brick walls, contrasting the blistering heat of midday. A lone ray of pale moonlight penetrated through the iron bar window, revealing a man huddling in the corner. His burly figure gave the appearance of a gladiator, and his messy black hair grew down his chin. His name was Terrulous. He looked into the menacing darkness with hope filled eyes, for he had been promised freedom from the gruesome hell if he won five battles in a row. Terrulous was an unfortunate victim of circumstance. He apologized for bumping into a nobleman, but was immediately detained in front of his wife and daughter.
Never once did he forget their smiles as he barely survived four gruesome battles. He had persevered through malnourishment and scorn for three weeks, believing that his strength will once again reunite him with his family. Terrulous fought on for their sake, not caring how many corpses he would have to step over in order to reunite with them. His mind filled with the smile of his daughter, he fell into a deep slumber to prepare for his final battle.
The guards refused to hand Terrulous his meal for the morning, leaving him famished during the midday heat. Roasting even more than usual, the gladiator patiently waited for the guards to bring him to the arena. Without warning, two of them barged into Terrulous' cell. They forcefully chained a collar around his thick neck before dragging him into the arena. Struggling against the suffocating chain, his face grew pale as he wished to be inside of the coliseum already. He flailed against the marble, scratching his body up before his battle. It felt like an eternity before the guards threw him past the iron gate. The crowd jeered at the unprepared man forcefully dragged into the coliseum. Terrulous gagged on whatever air he could swallow, and the sun blinded his tear filled eyes as he attempted to look around. Not a single crack sullied the flawless marble, and the sun's blaze engraved itself into the pavement. It was obvious that this final battle was meant to end with his death. Not a single defensive armament could be found amongst the rusting blades and aged clubs.
Heavy clangor notified Terrulous that his opponent had entered the arena. The white sun reflected a blinding ray over freshly polished armor. His opponent of similar stature was covered from head to toe in unstained iron. Not a single opening laid within the flawless suit. His hands carried a similarly beautiful halberd that could slice a strand of hair. Terrulous recognized the crest over his chest plate immediately. A yellow emblem of a bull in front of a crescent moon; it was the same emblem of the nobleman that he had accidentally bumped into.
Terrulous couldn't help but let out a hearty laugh at the obvious twist of fate. He was designed to lose this match by the same person that put him in the coliseum. His feet burned against the sun beaten pavement as he prepared for battle. Terrulous stood practically naked before his opponent, but clung to the hope that he'll be free to live with his family again. He ripped his tunic off, telling his opponent that he was ready to fight to the death. A hollow bell reverberated throughout the arena, signaling the start of the battle. Cheers echoed amongst the stands in anticipation for the final fight. The armored man swung his halberd in a preemptive strike. Barely ready for the surprise attack, Terrulous dodged sideways while grabbing his first weapon - a club. Its wood was aged and ugly, digging splinters deep into Terrulous' right hand.
A parried strike caused the wooden weapon to snap in half. Normal weapons stood no chance against the silver halberd. Unprepared for an instant, Terrulous flew backwards from a sudden kick. Two rusted swords stuck in the ground broke his fall. His stomach was bruised, and he coughed up fresh blood against the pavement. Applause broke out for the armored knight who appeared to have the immediate victory. Pushing pain aside, Terrulous took the rusted swords in hand as he charged forward. Clouds of rust chipped off as the blades clashed with one another. Though his opponent was clad in full armor, it was obvious to Terrulous that he was just a novice. The gladiator took note of that in order to drive him back. While he had most likely been raised in a safe environment, Terrulous had struggled for the past month against opponents that trained all their life. With one final slash the rusted swords shattered, but not before knocking the silver halberd out of their foe's hands. A thunderous applause shook the coliseum for the man that they had jeered at just minutes before.
The flying weapon caught Terrulous' proud eyes immediately. If he gained control of that halberd, then his freedom would be assured. His opponent was off balance, struggling not to fall into the marble arena. Seeing that, the gladiator jumped off of the scorching pavement onto the stainless armor. The first step blemished the polished iron with a dirty footprint, and the second one knocked the helmet down first. With a flip, Terrulous grabbed the halberd midair as the armored man plummeted into the arena. Cracks formed in the marble beneath his heavy armor. Unable to move due to the immense weight, he could only watch as Terrulous landed safely behind him. The crowd cheered as Terrulous brought the axe up to signal his victory. All he needed to do was decapitate the fool and he would be reunited with his family once more.
However fate chose to sneer in Terrulous' direction. As he was about to swing the halberd down, a wailing child's cry brought him hesitation. He turned around to see two female figures that he knew all too well. The older woman with blonde hair and turquoise eyes was his wife, Helena, who he had been married to for 15 years. She wore a blue dress trimmed with white ribbons and peach skin that burned in the sunlight. Similarly dressed in a green dress next to her was their only daughter, Victoria. While her eyes and complexion greatly resembled her mother's, she inherited her black hair from her father. Her small stature showed that she was only 10 in age. They were held at knifepoint by the nobleman accompanied by guards carrying wooden crossbows. A deep rage manifested within Terrulous as he laid his eyes on the corrupt man holding his family hostage. He was then given two options: One, he could have his family killed alongside his opponent, or two he could choose to die himself in exchange for his family's life.
Expelling anger in hand, Terrulous dropped the silver halberd so that his family may live. Holding up his pride and honor, he helped his soon-to-be-executioner up before kneeling onto the ground himself. The armored man kicked Terrulous so that his wife and daughter would see his face during his final moments. They watched with tears in their turquoise eyes as their irreplaceable husband and father was about to get executed in front of them. Noticing their sadness, Terrulous chose to smile before his impending doom. He chose to send them off with his best face instead of a despair filled one.
The silver halberd glinted in the sun, signaling Terrulous' final moments. Time moved slowly as he waited, with his eyes and smile fixated on his family. Hesitation to applaud grew amongst the crowd before the scene before them. Horror befell Terrulous' face in the next instant. Before his very eyes, the nobleman had slit Helena's throat. Her warm blood splattered onto Victoria as her body fell onto the hard marble. The petrified child could not escape death either. Filled with a despair induced rage, Terrulous sacrificed his right harm to avoid his inevitable death. Caught off guard, the ironclad man had his weapon stolen before getting decapitated. Tears of fury rolled down his cheeks once he realized that he was too late to save his only daughter. Her fragile figure fell down too as the nobleman slit her throat.
The guards behind the nobleman then opened fire. Arrows lodged themselves deep into Terrulous, causing his garnet blood to pour out as he continued his rush. All pain was numbed in his sudden frenzy. Using his one good arm to exact revenge, Terrulous swung the halberd at the guards attempting to protect the nobleman. Their armor was cut through like butter, leading to their instantaneous deaths. The nobleman cowered before the bloodstained gladiator in front of him. He had chosen the wrong man to turn into his plaything. The shallow apologies and begging for his life that he stuttered out fell onto Terrulous' ears as drivel. Right in front of him, he had killed his family in cold blood for mere enjoyment. The nobleman snatched away the last rays of hope that he had clung on to for the past month. While contemplating about how would torture him, a weak voice called out to Terrulous.
"Da...ddy..." Victoria whispered. The dying voice of his child snapped him back into reality. Terrulous drove the halberd's spike into the nobleman's eye, causing instant death. Dropping the axe's handle, Terrulous knelt down to lift Victoria with his one good arm. Her turquoise eyes flickered between life and death, desperately trying to gaze at her father one last time. The wound on her neck was shallow. Unlike her mother who died instantly, Victoria slowly bled to death onto the marble. Her last audible words echoed in Terrulous' mind like a bell. "Sm...i...le..." She brought her icy hand to her father's face.
The sensation was one that he was not prepared for. He clutched Victoria's tiny hand in his, struggling to keep his dam from breaking. It was futile, however. Tears of sorrow and apology fell onto Victoria's pale face. In response, she mouthed the word "smile" once more. Like her father had done just a minute before, Victoria chose to smile in her last moments. Terrulous stifled his tears long enough to make the smile that his daughter was waiting for. Satisfied with what her eyes could barely see, the last embers of her life died out. Victoria's icy body had gone limp inside of his arm. The dam had finally shattered, unleashing a mournful torrent onto his daughter's face.
Groaning out a fierce rage, Terrulous lamented his family's death. He cursed the nobleman for putting him into this situation. He screamed out the sad fate that took his family away from him. Most importantly, he loathed himself for his own lack of strength. Terrulous felt that if he was stronger then he could have saved everyone precious to him without fail. Wishing for an absolute strength in this small world, Terrulous broke down even further in front of his family's corpses. Overcome with the tragedy of loss, he failed to acknowledge that the fabrics of space, time and reality crumbled behind him.
A brilliant scarlet bathed the coliseum in a sea of flames, suffocating each patron with hazardous smoke. Space caved in upon itself, transforming the azure sky into an inescapable steel cage. People disappeared in succession by the will of an unknown god. The pristine coliseum was but a shadow of its former self once the scarlet ocean dispersed. Rusted weapons erupted from the dull marble, and garnet torches lit throughout the arena. Walls crumbled to dust, and cracks became more apparent. Skeletons replaced the patrons that once watched gruesome battles to the death. Finally, a black mist blotted out all other light outside the inescapable cage. Only the gladiator and his silver halberd escaped the transformation.
Victoria's corpse was the last one to disappear. The weight on Terrulous' left arm left nothing but a lingering embrace as he attempted to clutch at air. A suffocation took hold of Terrulous' chest, mirroring the coliseum collapsing upon itself. The steel cage shrunk, destroying whatever remained of the arena. Within moments, Terrulous was the only thing that could fit within its frigid bars.
Locked within an inescapable cage, Terrulous was thrown out of his current reality. Not needing any form of sustenance, he drifted throughout a universe of iridescent worlds for eons. Each was uninhabited but contained a large amount of energy. While some were large enough to be considered a world of its own, others were the size of the cage that he laid trapped in. Every world birthed any number of individual ethereal connections, making sure that none overlapped with another. Power flowed from the world into the cosmic flow towards their respective destinations. If one world lost its light, then another one would come into existence. Every once in a while, a distortion would connect two worlds together.
Throughout the eternal journey, Terrulous' appearance had changed greatly. His body had grown twice in size and took upon a bovine-like appearance. Black fur replaced his hair in covering the body, and two crooked horns grew from his temple, facing forward. Piercing red replaced his previously blue eyes, and earth shattering hooves replaced his feet. There was only one word that could describe his appearance now: Minotaur. Although his arm had grown back with his beastlike appearance, he retained his human heart.
Terrulous still remembered the tragedy of losing his family in front of his eyes, and eternally felt the lingering embrace of his daughter's corpse in his left arm. His desire for an absolute strength nearly became an obsession, but he somehow held on to sanity thanks to precious memories. After an eternity of solitude, a scarlet flame in the shape of a phoenix appeared before him. Its radiance blinded him in a way that the worlds of pure energy could not. The phoenix transformed its wing into a slender arm to free the minotaur from his confinement. "If true strength is what you desire, then achieve revolution with your own hands," it stated. Her beautiful voice echoed a divine radiance throughout the universe, and her poetic tone would captivate even the most savage of men.
A scarlet flamed distortion appeared behind Terrulous. He looked into the black dawn that had replaced the divine phoenix. A newfound resolution found its way into his human heart. "Helena, Victoria, I shall gain an absolute strength with my own hands." The magical dimension dispersed as he entered the scarlet distortion. "So long as victory is within my sight, I shall proceed for as long as I live." Shedding his first tears in centuries, he embraced the new world he was about to enter. "I shall overcome my previous self, and once I have died in satisfaction, I shall greet the two of you with a smile." A wish crossed the isolated world as Terrulous was consumed by the scarlet distortion. No longer would he lament his own weakness, but would become obsessed with the idea of an absolute strength. After 3 years in the unfamiliar world, the human known as Terrulous no longer existed. Instead he had transcended into a near divine being, the Pillar of Taurus.