Post by Khaos on May 24, 2021 21:16:54 GMT -5
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(Trigger Warning: Scenes of Violence)
(Trigger Warning: Scenes of Violence)
Damien held his breath as long as he could as he fought against the Lich’s hold on his neck, his face fully submerged underneath the water of the reflecting bowl. He had been enduring this treatment for who knows how long, his memories flashing by him so fast that it was impossible for him to focus on just one. A swirling vortex of colors spinning so fast, the gale winds threated to pull him in, devouring him whole… a dark figure standing before him, her hair as dark and blue as the depths of the ocean, her hands tracing across his skin, washing the blood off his body… a wolf perched atop a precipice, its maw dripping red with blood, it’s head pulled back, as it howls in the moonlight… a wicked smile, made more-so menacing by the vampiric fangs that revealed themselves as the lips curled upward… the mysterious woman stepping from the shadows, her chocolate-skinned still as silky as before, her dark eyes piercing his very soul, forcing his heart to skip a beat… the fire swirling all around him, but his eyes were on the staircase, his feet inching forward of their own accord as he looked at the body that lay below…
Damien’s eyes bulged as the veins stretched across his face and neck, his lungs feeling like they were on fire; he wasn’t sure how long he could endure this torture. The skeletal fingers dug into his neck as the Lich pulled Damien from the bowl, tossing him off the dais and to the nothingness below. He choked as the excess water poured out of his nose and throat, Damien struggling to force the air into his lungs. His eyes darted around to those silent witnesses, the lifeless souls still standing where he had last seen them, unmoving. Damien’s gaze fell on the Charon, her body still where the Lich had left it, the jagged bone blade still sticking out of her chest. Was she dead? Could she even die? Was he next? All of these questions raced through his mind as he forced himself to look upon the Lich, his back to Damien as he continued to stare into the waters.
“What do you want!?” Damien managed to gasp out, the water still rolling out of his mouth and dripping from his lips.
“I used to ask myself that question a lot, even in life,” the Lich responded, his voice deep, dark. “That is, until YOU killed me.”
Damien didn’t recognize the voice, but the face seemed familiar to him. At least, the “human” representation of it anyway. The Lich didn’t seem to hold that visage for very long in their first encounter, showing his “true colors” as the flesh cracked, split apart, and rotted away from his body, leaving behind the skeletal remains that currently stood before him. The grotesque sight was enough to catch him off guard, making their first confrontation over before it even began. And so Damien was forced up onto the dais, his face plunged into the reflective waters; his memories on display for the Lich to see.
“I don’t know you,” Damien tried to reason, half telling the truth.
“Doesn’t surprise me,” the Lich snickered. “You’ve racked up quite the body count, Damien. What was your final tally again… 1607 souls within a five-year span? What… did you take a vacation or something?”
The Lich let out an obnoxious cackle that rattled around inside his head, practically forcing Damien to cover his ears as a result. He allowed himself a moment to look towards the motionless body of the Charon; what he wouldn’t give to have her cryptic riddles and mind games right about now.
“Don’t pay her any mind,” the Lich ordered, stepping down from the dais and skulking his way towards Damien. “She’s one of those annoying ‘hard to kill’ types. You, on the other hand…”
The Lich held out his hand again, letting the bone shards “click” and “clack” their way from his skin, forming into the bone knife once more. Damien looked for something to defend himself with, his eyes falling on the Charon’s body once more. Rolling over to her, he went to grab the blade from her chest, only for it to rise up out of her body of its own accord and fly over to the Lich’s other hand.
“Did you just try and use my own bones against me!?” the Lich accused, swiping a blade at Damien.
Damien rolled backwards out of the way, narrowly avoiding the knife. The Lich pursued after him, the blades slashing through the air, forcing Damien back with each strike. As he retreated, he passed through the souls as they turned with his movements, their eyes always watching him. Their focus on him distracted him enough that he didn’t see the bone shard, still interlocked to the Lich’s wrist, lunge forward and drive into his chest. Damien grunted as he felt the blade expand within his wound, creating a type of claw inside his body. Before he could react, the Lich was pulling Damien through the air, forcing him down at his feet again. Damien clutched at his injured chest as the blade detached itself and skittered its way back to its master.
“Are you starting to understand yet?” the Lich questioned, kneeling before Damien. “You will die here, Damien. Well… die again, I guess I should say. I’m a little fuzzy on the details but, suffice it to say, when I slit your throat, there will be no afterlife for you.”
“Why are you doing this!?” Damien gasped, as the Lich slid a blade under his chin, forcing him to look into the gaping hole of an eye.
“Before I was unceremoniously and inconveniently dispatched from the world, would you believe that I had aspirations, Damien?” the Lich snickered, flashing his teeth. “The people I worked with, we knew all about your Gods. Generation after generation, our order has survived their will… staying in the shadows, waiting for our moment to strike. They think us beneath them and yet… people like you… willfully do their bidding! Look around you, Damien; look at just what you’ve done in the name of your God!”
Damien was forced to look at the souls that gathered nearby, each of them seemingly growing closer, as if they had some vested interest in just how this all played out. It was then that he started to connect the pieces of the puzzle. These just weren’t any ordinary souls. No, these were the souls that he had reaped, all in the name of Erebus. His past had come back to haunt him, literally.
“As sweet as it’ll be to be the one that kills the infamous ‘Khaos’, I’m afraid I’m here for more than just your life,” the Lich grabbed Damien’s head, his skeletal figures clawing at his face as he forced Damien to look upon him once more. “You have something I want Damien; the location to the Underworld. Now I’ve been a very patient undead host, but even I have my limitations.”
The Lich’s fingers wrapped around Damien’s neck, as he easily hoisted him into the air. Grunting his disappointment of him, the Lich listlessly threw Damien back towards the dais as he, himself, turned and followed after his prey.
“No more games now, Damien,” the Lich stalked after him. “Show me what I want to see!”
Damien gasped for breath as he turned and looked at the approaching Lich, before his eyes went past to the Charon, lying peacefully amongst the surrounding audience of the damned.
“It doesn’t work like that,” Damien stumbled to his feet, backing away as the Lich approached closer. “The Crucible doesn’t show you what you WANT to see…”
The Lich appeared to be losing patience as he closed in, attempting to grab Damien and force him under the water again. Only this time, Damien was ready for it. Recalling just how he had done it in the junkyard, Damien called upon the darkness… and it answered in the form of his obsidian dagger, materializing out of thin air. As the Lich came into striking distance, Damien swung with all of his might, severing the Lich’s left arm at the elbow. The Lich made no cry of pain as the bone dropped into the swirling pools of black at their feet, his face an expression of confusion.
“The Crucible shows you what you NEED to see,” Damien finished his thought, a smirk on his face. “Perhaps you should try it!”
Before the Lich could react, Damien had him by the scruff of his neck as his own face collided with the water. Steam and smoke began rising from the surface as the Lich screamed out in agony. This appeared to be enough to wake the entranced souls from their mindless slumber as they rushed into action, leaping onto Damien, scratching, clawing, and pulling him from their undead Lord. Where-as before these souls had been nothing more than corporeal nuisances, now their bodies appeared to be flesh and bone. With the horde assaulting him, Damien stumbled backwards and fell off the dais as the Lich slumped away from the Crucible, his usually ivory skeletal face now turned a boiled and burnt red, pieces of the bone being to melt away.
“You blasting paltry parasite!” the Lich screamed in annoyance, the bones already beginning to reform in the shape of his arm. “I’m going to enjoy-”
The Lich stopped short his threat as a bright blue gateway opened up in the darkness, illuminating the area with a soft azure glow. With Damien’s eyes having fully adjusted to the darkness, this portal seemed to be as bright as staring into the sun itself, forcing him to look away. The souls continued to hold him down as the Lich looked down at Damien, a sly grin forming across his lips.
“She always did seem to have impeccable timing,” the Lich chortled. “I’d ask if you had any messages for me to carry on to any loved ones, but we both know that-“
“Eaden!” the Charon’s voice echoed off the walls, stopping the Lich in his tracks.
Damien looked over to her, seeing her back on her feet once more. Her silk gown was pure white once more, as if her flesh had simply absorbed all the blood back into her body and left no blemish behind. She cast a glance over at Damien, before waving her hand, forcing all those souls off of him as if she had just swatted away a group of flies. Damien stumbled up to his feet as he looked from the Charon, to the Lich, then to the blue portal, watching as it pulsated in the darkness, calling to him.
“So you know who I am,” the Lich answered, flexing his new hand as the bone daggers slipped from his skin again.
“It was you who destroyed my boat!” the Charon accused, finally understanding what was happening. “You damned all those souls-“
“Did I?” the Lich mocked. “Or did I set them free?”
“What you have done is disrupt the balance,” the Charon declared. “And for that, you have left me no choice; I MUST right your wrongs.”
With a flourish, the Charon waved her arms before her, a long-staffed knife magically appearing out of the void. She twirled the Naginata with ease, switching it between her hands, familiarizing herself with the weight of the weapon. The Lich gritted his teeth as his lips twisted upward into a sadistic smile, his one remaining eye shining bright with fury. Damien stood still like the many souls around him, just another silent witness to all that transpired.
“Damien, I give you leave to return back to the land of the living, but on one condition,” the Charon decreed, moving towards her adversary, her eyes locked on the Lich. “You must seek out those that Eaden has unleashed on the Earth and send them back to their final resting place.”
“Getting ahead of yourself, aren’t you Echo?” Eaden scoffed. “Only one person is going through that portal and it sure as hell isn’t your little lap dog!”
Echo dragged her weapon along the black nothingness that served as their foothold on this existential plane as she rushed towards her foe. Drawing upon her powers, she swung upwards with her attack, creating a blinding white light as she did so. Damien had to cover his eyes from the glare as the Lich hissed in hindrance, his bone knives barely able to parry the blow aside. The intensity of the light had been enough to send him staggering away as she continued on the offensive, slashing horizontally across his chest. Still disoriented, he barely managed to dodge back out of the way as he growled in defiance.
“Go Damien!” Echo shouted, her grip tightening on her weapon. “Now!”
Damien saw that she had created an opening for him, giving him his opportunity to make a run for the swirling vortex, but he hesitated. This was what he had wanted, a way to return to the land of the living; a second chance. But now that he had seen those images of what type of man he was… what type of monster he became… perhaps he deserved his fate, as the Charon had previously stated.
The Lich launched his bone knife out as the Charon managed to parry the blow easily. This didn’t deter Eaden, however, as he sent the other one towards her. Again, she deflected the attack. These were probing attacks, the Lich looking to put her on the defensive while finding a weakness in her assault. Echo realized this as she leapt into the air, twirling past his last attempt, and pressing forward, looking to close the gap. The Lich pulled back the blade but not in time as Echo descended upon him, stabbing at his neck. He barely managed to push her Naginata to the side, the edge of it grazing across his left shoulder.
Though Damien had severed the Lich’s arm clean off without him shedding a single tear, the blow from the Charon was enough to get Eadon to cry out in shock. Desperate, the Lich lunged forward, driving his head into hers, a flash of fire erupting from the contact. Echo stumbled backwards, temporarily blinded by the flames that had licked at her flesh. Eadon pressed the attack, looking to take advantage of Echo’s debilitation. Extending forth his hand, the bone-shards reached out and wrapped themselves around the Charon’s neck, pulling her back into his body. Holding her taut against his slender frame, the shards grinded against each other as they continued to wrap tightly around her throat, constricting her airway closed as she gasped for breath. Damien watched helplessly as the Lich began to squeeze the life out of Echo, the veil that had concealed her face since his arrival partially burned away, revealing her identity to him.
“I know you,” Damien gasped, horrified by just who it was that had been leading him along this whole time. “You were there… at the beginning…”
“You already killed her once, Damien,” Eadon gloated. “Why not let the rest of the class get a turn?”
“No-“ Damien began, but it was too late.
The Lich sneered as he slid his bone knife into Echo’s back, piercing her heart.
Damien’s eyes bulged as the veins stretched across his face and neck, his lungs feeling like they were on fire; he wasn’t sure how long he could endure this torture. The skeletal fingers dug into his neck as the Lich pulled Damien from the bowl, tossing him off the dais and to the nothingness below. He choked as the excess water poured out of his nose and throat, Damien struggling to force the air into his lungs. His eyes darted around to those silent witnesses, the lifeless souls still standing where he had last seen them, unmoving. Damien’s gaze fell on the Charon, her body still where the Lich had left it, the jagged bone blade still sticking out of her chest. Was she dead? Could she even die? Was he next? All of these questions raced through his mind as he forced himself to look upon the Lich, his back to Damien as he continued to stare into the waters.
“What do you want!?” Damien managed to gasp out, the water still rolling out of his mouth and dripping from his lips.
“I used to ask myself that question a lot, even in life,” the Lich responded, his voice deep, dark. “That is, until YOU killed me.”
Damien didn’t recognize the voice, but the face seemed familiar to him. At least, the “human” representation of it anyway. The Lich didn’t seem to hold that visage for very long in their first encounter, showing his “true colors” as the flesh cracked, split apart, and rotted away from his body, leaving behind the skeletal remains that currently stood before him. The grotesque sight was enough to catch him off guard, making their first confrontation over before it even began. And so Damien was forced up onto the dais, his face plunged into the reflective waters; his memories on display for the Lich to see.
“I don’t know you,” Damien tried to reason, half telling the truth.
“Doesn’t surprise me,” the Lich snickered. “You’ve racked up quite the body count, Damien. What was your final tally again… 1607 souls within a five-year span? What… did you take a vacation or something?”
The Lich let out an obnoxious cackle that rattled around inside his head, practically forcing Damien to cover his ears as a result. He allowed himself a moment to look towards the motionless body of the Charon; what he wouldn’t give to have her cryptic riddles and mind games right about now.
“Don’t pay her any mind,” the Lich ordered, stepping down from the dais and skulking his way towards Damien. “She’s one of those annoying ‘hard to kill’ types. You, on the other hand…”
The Lich held out his hand again, letting the bone shards “click” and “clack” their way from his skin, forming into the bone knife once more. Damien looked for something to defend himself with, his eyes falling on the Charon’s body once more. Rolling over to her, he went to grab the blade from her chest, only for it to rise up out of her body of its own accord and fly over to the Lich’s other hand.
“Did you just try and use my own bones against me!?” the Lich accused, swiping a blade at Damien.
Damien rolled backwards out of the way, narrowly avoiding the knife. The Lich pursued after him, the blades slashing through the air, forcing Damien back with each strike. As he retreated, he passed through the souls as they turned with his movements, their eyes always watching him. Their focus on him distracted him enough that he didn’t see the bone shard, still interlocked to the Lich’s wrist, lunge forward and drive into his chest. Damien grunted as he felt the blade expand within his wound, creating a type of claw inside his body. Before he could react, the Lich was pulling Damien through the air, forcing him down at his feet again. Damien clutched at his injured chest as the blade detached itself and skittered its way back to its master.
“Are you starting to understand yet?” the Lich questioned, kneeling before Damien. “You will die here, Damien. Well… die again, I guess I should say. I’m a little fuzzy on the details but, suffice it to say, when I slit your throat, there will be no afterlife for you.”
“Why are you doing this!?” Damien gasped, as the Lich slid a blade under his chin, forcing him to look into the gaping hole of an eye.
“Before I was unceremoniously and inconveniently dispatched from the world, would you believe that I had aspirations, Damien?” the Lich snickered, flashing his teeth. “The people I worked with, we knew all about your Gods. Generation after generation, our order has survived their will… staying in the shadows, waiting for our moment to strike. They think us beneath them and yet… people like you… willfully do their bidding! Look around you, Damien; look at just what you’ve done in the name of your God!”
Damien was forced to look at the souls that gathered nearby, each of them seemingly growing closer, as if they had some vested interest in just how this all played out. It was then that he started to connect the pieces of the puzzle. These just weren’t any ordinary souls. No, these were the souls that he had reaped, all in the name of Erebus. His past had come back to haunt him, literally.
“As sweet as it’ll be to be the one that kills the infamous ‘Khaos’, I’m afraid I’m here for more than just your life,” the Lich grabbed Damien’s head, his skeletal figures clawing at his face as he forced Damien to look upon him once more. “You have something I want Damien; the location to the Underworld. Now I’ve been a very patient undead host, but even I have my limitations.”
The Lich’s fingers wrapped around Damien’s neck, as he easily hoisted him into the air. Grunting his disappointment of him, the Lich listlessly threw Damien back towards the dais as he, himself, turned and followed after his prey.
“No more games now, Damien,” the Lich stalked after him. “Show me what I want to see!”
Damien gasped for breath as he turned and looked at the approaching Lich, before his eyes went past to the Charon, lying peacefully amongst the surrounding audience of the damned.
“It doesn’t work like that,” Damien stumbled to his feet, backing away as the Lich approached closer. “The Crucible doesn’t show you what you WANT to see…”
The Lich appeared to be losing patience as he closed in, attempting to grab Damien and force him under the water again. Only this time, Damien was ready for it. Recalling just how he had done it in the junkyard, Damien called upon the darkness… and it answered in the form of his obsidian dagger, materializing out of thin air. As the Lich came into striking distance, Damien swung with all of his might, severing the Lich’s left arm at the elbow. The Lich made no cry of pain as the bone dropped into the swirling pools of black at their feet, his face an expression of confusion.
“The Crucible shows you what you NEED to see,” Damien finished his thought, a smirk on his face. “Perhaps you should try it!”
Before the Lich could react, Damien had him by the scruff of his neck as his own face collided with the water. Steam and smoke began rising from the surface as the Lich screamed out in agony. This appeared to be enough to wake the entranced souls from their mindless slumber as they rushed into action, leaping onto Damien, scratching, clawing, and pulling him from their undead Lord. Where-as before these souls had been nothing more than corporeal nuisances, now their bodies appeared to be flesh and bone. With the horde assaulting him, Damien stumbled backwards and fell off the dais as the Lich slumped away from the Crucible, his usually ivory skeletal face now turned a boiled and burnt red, pieces of the bone being to melt away.
“You blasting paltry parasite!” the Lich screamed in annoyance, the bones already beginning to reform in the shape of his arm. “I’m going to enjoy-”
The Lich stopped short his threat as a bright blue gateway opened up in the darkness, illuminating the area with a soft azure glow. With Damien’s eyes having fully adjusted to the darkness, this portal seemed to be as bright as staring into the sun itself, forcing him to look away. The souls continued to hold him down as the Lich looked down at Damien, a sly grin forming across his lips.
“She always did seem to have impeccable timing,” the Lich chortled. “I’d ask if you had any messages for me to carry on to any loved ones, but we both know that-“
“Eaden!” the Charon’s voice echoed off the walls, stopping the Lich in his tracks.
Damien looked over to her, seeing her back on her feet once more. Her silk gown was pure white once more, as if her flesh had simply absorbed all the blood back into her body and left no blemish behind. She cast a glance over at Damien, before waving her hand, forcing all those souls off of him as if she had just swatted away a group of flies. Damien stumbled up to his feet as he looked from the Charon, to the Lich, then to the blue portal, watching as it pulsated in the darkness, calling to him.
“So you know who I am,” the Lich answered, flexing his new hand as the bone daggers slipped from his skin again.
“It was you who destroyed my boat!” the Charon accused, finally understanding what was happening. “You damned all those souls-“
“Did I?” the Lich mocked. “Or did I set them free?”
“What you have done is disrupt the balance,” the Charon declared. “And for that, you have left me no choice; I MUST right your wrongs.”
With a flourish, the Charon waved her arms before her, a long-staffed knife magically appearing out of the void. She twirled the Naginata with ease, switching it between her hands, familiarizing herself with the weight of the weapon. The Lich gritted his teeth as his lips twisted upward into a sadistic smile, his one remaining eye shining bright with fury. Damien stood still like the many souls around him, just another silent witness to all that transpired.
“Damien, I give you leave to return back to the land of the living, but on one condition,” the Charon decreed, moving towards her adversary, her eyes locked on the Lich. “You must seek out those that Eaden has unleashed on the Earth and send them back to their final resting place.”
“Getting ahead of yourself, aren’t you Echo?” Eaden scoffed. “Only one person is going through that portal and it sure as hell isn’t your little lap dog!”
Echo dragged her weapon along the black nothingness that served as their foothold on this existential plane as she rushed towards her foe. Drawing upon her powers, she swung upwards with her attack, creating a blinding white light as she did so. Damien had to cover his eyes from the glare as the Lich hissed in hindrance, his bone knives barely able to parry the blow aside. The intensity of the light had been enough to send him staggering away as she continued on the offensive, slashing horizontally across his chest. Still disoriented, he barely managed to dodge back out of the way as he growled in defiance.
“Go Damien!” Echo shouted, her grip tightening on her weapon. “Now!”
Damien saw that she had created an opening for him, giving him his opportunity to make a run for the swirling vortex, but he hesitated. This was what he had wanted, a way to return to the land of the living; a second chance. But now that he had seen those images of what type of man he was… what type of monster he became… perhaps he deserved his fate, as the Charon had previously stated.
The Lich launched his bone knife out as the Charon managed to parry the blow easily. This didn’t deter Eaden, however, as he sent the other one towards her. Again, she deflected the attack. These were probing attacks, the Lich looking to put her on the defensive while finding a weakness in her assault. Echo realized this as she leapt into the air, twirling past his last attempt, and pressing forward, looking to close the gap. The Lich pulled back the blade but not in time as Echo descended upon him, stabbing at his neck. He barely managed to push her Naginata to the side, the edge of it grazing across his left shoulder.
Though Damien had severed the Lich’s arm clean off without him shedding a single tear, the blow from the Charon was enough to get Eadon to cry out in shock. Desperate, the Lich lunged forward, driving his head into hers, a flash of fire erupting from the contact. Echo stumbled backwards, temporarily blinded by the flames that had licked at her flesh. Eadon pressed the attack, looking to take advantage of Echo’s debilitation. Extending forth his hand, the bone-shards reached out and wrapped themselves around the Charon’s neck, pulling her back into his body. Holding her taut against his slender frame, the shards grinded against each other as they continued to wrap tightly around her throat, constricting her airway closed as she gasped for breath. Damien watched helplessly as the Lich began to squeeze the life out of Echo, the veil that had concealed her face since his arrival partially burned away, revealing her identity to him.
“I know you,” Damien gasped, horrified by just who it was that had been leading him along this whole time. “You were there… at the beginning…”
“You already killed her once, Damien,” Eadon gloated. “Why not let the rest of the class get a turn?”
“No-“ Damien began, but it was too late.
The Lich sneered as he slid his bone knife into Echo’s back, piercing her heart.