On a land worn out by the blood of the sky, ash was the last thing to fall from a heaven that had watched the slaughter
It settled over cracked stones and charred timber, and over faces whose eyes stayed open, still searching for some way out for their souls
A faint burning echoed from far away. Buildings caved in. A wind drifted through, carrying everything the body recoils from, and the stench of rot and ruin crept down the roads with it
Worms appeared whenever the smoke thinned
Worms gnawing at what the decay had left behind. The rotting remains of soldiers who had imagined that their fate would be settled by bow and arrow, only for reality to ambush them with something else...
"Why do we always strive to change what was written for us before we were born?
Perhaps because we only see it once it's too late"
Soldiers, pierced from the inside. It hadn't been a sword. It was something strange and black, as long and sharp as a blade and scorching as volcanic fire. It had torn through armor and flesh together and burst out of chests and throats. Some of it had branched through more than one body, gathering its victims into a single heap of iron and blood
One of them was still standing, pinned to the wall behind him by thorns. His mouth hung open, and his hand clutched the place where his stomach was no longer whole
The wind swept a layer of ash off the road, revealing long grooves carved into the ground. They crossed between the corpses, then vanished beneath the rubble
They weren't footprints
"Must I fight a war I never chose to exist..."
A helmet rolled off the top of a pile of stones, struck a body lying at its foot, and came to rest upside down
"And walk a path my blood never chose?"
Beside it, a trail of fingers dragged through blood stretched across the ground. It began at one body and ended far from it
And those trails hadn't been scattered without a source
The closer they ran toward the heart of the devastation, the thicker they grew and the tighter their paths drew together. Until they no longer looked like separate thorns, but like the limbs of a single thing stretching beneath the rubble and the dead
And at the very center of the slaughter...
A colossal mass rose
"This is what you always said... What came before you is waiting for you"
An organic structure, a half-dome nearly thirty meters high and more than sixty wide. It looked like part of a giant's body buried mostly underground, with only this twisted swelling left above the surface
It had no skin, not in any sense of the word
Its outer layers were made of interlocking flesh, twisted muscle, and half-human organs fused into one another in no order a living body could survive. Bones jutted out, driven between the tissues like struts. Shapes like enormous human ribs surfaced for a moment before another layer of shifting flesh covered them
And deep within the mass, behind thin membranes stretched between the tissues...
Something was beating
With each beat,
the flesh around it clenched
A second beat
The black thorns lodged in the soldiers' bodies stirred
They hadn't pierced them and then stopped
They were still connected to it
Dozens of black extensions had come out of the mass and spread in every direction. Some dove beneath the rubble, some rose between the ruined buildings, and the rest ended inside the bodies of the soldiers hanging from them
The third beat came
And the thorns clenched all at once
The corpses moved with them
The grinding of armor against armor rang through the ruins as the hanging bodies began to slide slowly down the thorns...
Toward the mass
Some of them had tried to run
"In the end, the wheel will stop within itself"
On the horizon the bodies stretched on, and the fires kept devouring what was left
A few meters from the center of the organic body, the roof of a building gave way. Ash burst from between its stones and swallowed everything around it
Then something moved beneath it
A small stone slid down the rubble
Then another
A bloodied hand pushed out from the wreckage, dug its fingers into the dirt, and shoved
The stones shifted
And a man rose from beneath them
A man who had carried a weapon into a war that hadn't been waiting for him, and had ended up at its heart
He dragged his body out with great effort until half of it was free of the rubble, then tried to stand
His leg betrayed him
He dropped to one knee and braced his weight on his palm as blood ran down his forehead, past his eye, and into his mouth
He breathed slowly
Smoke filled his chest and cut off his breath for a moment. Then he coughed and spat blood beside him
He lifted his head
The corpses in front of him
The thorns
The fire
And in the middle of it all, the organic body
He kept staring, motionless
Then the voice came
"This isn't how it was supposed to happen"
Static pierced his head all at once
He bent forward slightly and pressed his fingers to his temple. A sharp ringing tangled with irregular crackling, and a voice slipped through from between them
A young girl's voice, so distant and distorted he could barely tell whose it was
«Akaino... can you... hear me?»
He closed his eyes for a moment
"I hear you"
The static grew stronger. Words vanished and others returned, until he caught the question
«Did you... reach the heart?»
He opened his eyes
"I'm late"
He looked at the flames eating what remained of one of the buildings
"The road wasn't open"
«We don't have time for that anymore... Tell me, how much is left?»
He lowered his eyes to his hand and opened his fingers
Three black vortices moved across his skin
Each one spun around its center in an uneven rhythm, and one of them was eroding at its edges with every turn
«Can you see them?»
"Yes..."
He watched the erosion devour another piece
"It's getting worse"
«Then tell me... how much is left?»
He didn't answer
He kept his eyes on the vortex until another piece of its rim vanished
"It's not enough"
The other end went quiet for a moment
«To get there?»
He closed his hand
"To get back"
This time the silence dragged on
Nothing remained but static, broken by the crackle of burning wood and something heavy collapsing far away
Then her voice returned
«We agreed you'd come back before the last one begins»
His eyes stopped on the third vortex
It wasn't moving like the others
"The plan changed"
«There is no plan after the third!»
He lifted his gaze from his hand
"I know"
«Then get out of there. Now!»
π212
He pushed his knee off the ground and tried to stand
His leg shook violently and nearly dropped him back into the rubble, but he planted his foot and waited until his body straightened
"I can't"
«Why? You have to come back... We don't have much time»
He looked down the road stretching between the corpses
At its end, behind layers of smoke, something moved
It vanished
Then it reappeared, farther than before
He couldn't make out its shape
"Because I haven't reached it yet"
Silence
Even the static faded for a moment
«Don't tell me you still mean to do it!»
He walked
One step
Then another
He dragged his injured foot behind him and moved through the bodies without taking his eyes off the spot where that thing had moved
"If I'd meant to back down, I would've done it before the sky started raining"
The static rose
«And if the last one runs out? We don't have enough...»
.- .-. .--. .-- -.- -.-- / .-.. -.. / .... / .-.. -.. / .-.. -..
He stopped
He opened his palm one last time
The eroded vortex was smaller
As for the third...
It moved
He looked away from it
"Then don't wait for me to come back"
«Akaino, no—»
The static swallowed the rest of her voice
«—listen to me... If it starts... It can't be—»
The words broke apart
«Aka—»
.- -.-. - - .. ...- .- - . -..
Silence
Only a faint ringing remained. It weakened gradually until it vanished entirely
He stood there for a few seconds, as if some part of him was still waiting for the voice to come back
He closed his fist
"I'm sorry..."
He lifted his head
The thing behind the smoke had stopped moving
Because it was no longer behind the smoke
It was closer
Akaino moved
One step
The ground pulsed beneath his foot
Another step
The rubble shuddered, and ash sifted down from the stones
Then came the sound
A strange sound from somewhere far behind the smoke, low and distorted, laced with a wet scraping he couldn't place
He stopped
He stayed still for a moment
He advanced slowly. One wrong step could cost him dearly
He set his feet carefully between stones and corpses, until all he could hear was his own breathing
He stopped again
And in front of the curtain of smoke...
Something appeared
A child's corpse
Half its face was missing, and the rest was caked in blood and ash. One eye stayed open, fixed on a direction that no longer meant anything
Akaino froze
He stepped toward it
Then he saw what was behind it
A thing roughly three meters tall, standing among the rubble, hunched at an unnatural angle
It had no fixed shape he could name
A body from which severed hands dangled
Dozens of hands
Some crawled across its surface, beating at it, trying to grab hold of anything. Others dug their fingers into the flesh, trying to climb out
But the body kept swallowing them
An arm went in
Then the shoulder
The rest of the hand vanished inside
As if they hadn't been trying to escape it...
But were being pulled into it
And in the middle of all that, one of its arms held the child's corpse by the back
It raised the body in front of itself
As though studying something whose worth it knew well
It opened its mouth
Long, uneven teeth appeared
They sank into the child's body
The jaw snapped shut
The corpse tore in two
Blood sprayed through the air, spattering the ground and the creature's face, while the other half dropped between its hands
Akaino didn't move
His jaw clenched, that was all
Clenched until the muscles of his face stood out
It wasn't only an unknown enemy in front of him
He was looking at the result of something he himself had started
Every corpse
Every scream
Every body here...
Carried a piece of his responsibility
He stepped back
Then again
Slowly
He never took his eyes off the creature
He felt for a safe spot with his foot, avoiding stones, iron, and bones
Until—
His foot pressed down on something brittle
He froze
Under his boot...
Glass
It cracked
A sharp sound split the silence
The hands stopped
The chewing stopped
The creature raised its head
And its voice exploded
The air shook
The ground jolted under Akaino's feet and stones rolled around him. At the same moment the organic body behind him lit up from within, its fissures glowing a dark, sullen color, and it began to pulse violently
A beat
Clots of blood fell from its surface
Another beat
The tentacles stirred slowly, rubbing against one another, giving off a sound like iron grinding against broken armor
Akaino raised his eyes
The creature was gone
"What..."
He whirled around
He spun fast and drew his sword
Something massive slammed into the blade
A thunderous crash
He was hurled backward, his feet gouging the dirt
"I won't let you bastards end everything!"
A colossal branch lunged from the organic body
It split the air
He leapt at the last moment
The branch passed under him and crushed a row of stones, shards flying in every direction
He landed
Planted his feet
Raised his sword
The creature was in front of him
And he charged
The two collided
A strike
A block
Another strike
A deflection
He gave half a step, a claw whistled past his face, he ducked low, circled around it, and lunged with his sword
The blade cut along the creature's side
The beast fell back
Then rushed in again
Faster this time
He dodged the first strike
The second
The third
He leapt over it
Twisted in the air
And drew his dagger
He landed behind it and drove the blade into its back
It bit deep
The creature bent over
A sound tore out of it that ripped the whole place apart
The ground shook
Layers of earth burst up around them
The thorns rose
They came out of the organic body like whips
One
Two
Dozens
They shot after him
He fell back
Leapt
Ducked
One cut the air above his head
Another pierced the ground in front of his foot
A third grazed his shoulder
He kept moving over the tentacles themselves, running between them as they rose and fell beneath him, blood pouring from the organic body with every movement
The creature appeared
He turned
Too late
A blow
It slammed into him
His body was hurled through one of the tentacles, and in the same instant thorns shot out from behind him
Crack
Part of his sword shattered
The thorns pierced through his momentum and lifted him into the air
Up
Higher
Higher
And the creature launched after him
It reached him in midair
Grabbed him
Crushed him in its grip
The two began to fall
He freed one arm
Struck
It did nothing
Struck again
The grip loosened
He shoved his body away
And broke free
The creature plunged beneath him
He turned in midair
Locked his grip on what was left of his sword
Raised the blade
And roared
And dove
A slash
The creature's body split in two
Blood scattered through the air
At that very moment, a giant tentacle shot in from behind
He caught the movement
Veered
The tentacle passed beside him
And he drove his sword into it
The blade went in from one side
And came out the other
Everything stopped for a moment
He fell
Hit the ground
Landed on one knee
His hand still gripped the sword
And behind him...
The giant tentacle fell
It struck the ground with tremendous weight
And blood began to rain down
Not droplets
A warm flood that drenched his shoulders, poured over his clothes, soaked his hair, and covered his face
His head stayed lowered
He didn't move
Blood dripped from the ends of his hair
A drop
Another
And more
Behind him...
The organic mass kept pulsing
His eyes looked exhausted
He didn't lift his head all the way
He moved his eyes slowly
They stopped on something nearby
The child's head
Only half the face remained
The skin torn down to the bone, the cheek open on a dark cavity where scraps of flesh had piled up
The other half no longer had any clear features
Facial bones exposed
The blood had dried in places and stayed wet in others
Worms were crawling out of the cracks
Pale white
Slick with blood
They writhed over the bone, burrowed into what was left of the flesh, and returned inside with tiny scraps of tissue in their mouths
One crawled out of an eye socket
It inched slowly over the rim of the skull
Fell to the ground
Another followed
He raised his gaze slightly
He couldn't move
He kept staring at the head
"I didn't know it would reach this point..."
The words came out inside him with difficulty
"I didn't know..."
His eyes stopped on one of the worms
It was working its way between the broken teeth
His eyelid sank
The regret showed in his silence more than it ever could in words
A short while passed
All he heard was the wet sound of chewing from the head
It stopped
He raised his eyes
He sensed something
He turned toward the skull again
It was trembling
A slight movement
Barely visible
He fixed his gaze on it
It trembled again
This time the jaw lifted slightly
And the worms in the mouth shifted with the motion
He froze
Something was coming
He put his hand to the ground
Tried to rise fast
Half his body lifted
A scream lodged in his throat
He dropped to his knee
He looked behind his foot
The bone had pierced the skin
It stuck out the other side, snapped at its tip, the flesh around it torn and swollen
Blood ran down his ankle
He clenched his teeth
Tore a strip from his clothes
Wrapped it around the wound
Pulled the cloth tight
His hand shook
He pulled tighter
The bleeding slowed a little
He tried to stand
Leaned on his sword
Rose slowly
Planted his good foot
Dragged the other behind him
One step
He stopped
The shaking grew
Small stones began moving around him
A low sound rose from beneath the earth
It wasn't a scream
Or a roar
It was a deep grinding that ran through the ground
He looked around
The organic body shuddered
The tentacles lying on the ground stirred slowly
And the skull...
Wouldn't stop trembling
The sound rose
Slower
Heavier
Closer
He stayed on his feet despite the pain
His hand closed around the hilt of his sword
And the worms kept moving inside the child's skull
One of them crawled out of the mouth
Stopped on the torn lip
Raised its head
And began to crawl toward him
He gripped the broken sword
Only half the blade was left
He set his fingers firmly around the hilt
The shaking beneath his feet didn't stop
In the distance...
The dirt moved
The earth swelled
Its surface split
A deformed hand emerged
Long, twisted fingers, the nails caked with dirt and blood
It clung to the ground
And dragged a body out behind it
Other cracks opened
A hand
Another
And another
Dozens
Until the earth began pushing out everything it held, from every direction
He raised his head
Thud
The sound arrived from far away
Thud
The ground shook beneath his foot
Thud
Dust rose from between the rocks
The sound wasn't close
But every blow reached his body
Passing from the ground into his leg
His knee
His chest
A roar
The air trembled
He felt the pressure on his face
Dust scattered from his shoulders
Another roar came
Closer
His ears rang from its force
His breathing dropped without his willing it
The smell of rotting flesh reached him
Heavy
Suffocating
Mixed with blood and damp
He looked toward the horizon
Something was running there
Huge
Low-bodied
Four legs pounding the earth
Every impact shook the place
Boom
The rocks quaked
Boom
Stones rolled
Another appeared behind it
Then dozens
Hundreds
Thousands
The horizon changed entirely
Bodies jostling among the ruins
Claws tearing at the ground
Feet shattering rock
Bodies slamming into one another
And pressing on
The numbers swelled
Tens of thousands
Hundreds of thousands
Millions
The air itself began to move ahead of the oncoming mass
A cold pressure slammed into his face
He felt his clothes cling to his body
His blood-soaked hair flattened in the current
And the closer the creatures came...
The heavier the pressure grew
A step
The earth shook
A step
The bones of his injured leg rattled
A step
His chest tightened under the weight of the roar
One drew near
He could make out the details of its face
Torn skin
Twisted teeth
Thick saliva running from its mouth
It lifted its foot
Brought it down
It struck the ground
Gravel exploded around it
The impact reached his body
His knee shook
He gave back half a step
Another roar burst from the back ranks
It hit his face like a gust
His chest trembled
The sound no longer came from one direction
It was all around him
Above him
Beneath his feet
In the gaps between the bodies
Millions moving
And each movement added new pressure
The ground was no longer steady
It shook beneath his feet without pause
The air grew heavier
Breathing grew harder
Even the blood on his face trembled with each wave of sound
He looked right
The bodies closing in
He looked left
The bodies closing in
Behind him...
A roar
He turned
He found eyes
One
Dozens
Thousands
Millions
Moving in the dark
The front ranks advanced
Bodies collided
Piled up
Shoved
Pushed one another forward
There was almost no space left
Feet pounding the earth
Claws scraping rock
Bodies crashing together
And a roar pressing on the air until every breath hurt
He gripped the broken sword with both hands
The first creature advanced
One step
Impact
His whole body shook
Hundreds more advanced behind it
Another step
The pressure grew
More came forward
The air rushed toward him
He gave back a foot
The distance disappeared
Only a few meters remained in front of him
Millions of bodies on the verge of reaching him
He raised the broken sword
And clenched his grip around it
And the roar...
Was inside his chest now
He swallowed
His throat had gone dry
He heard his own breathing
Inhale
Exhale
Short
Ragged
His eyes moved
Right
Left
Behind
Ahead
The millions were still there
Watching him
Waiting
Not one of them moved
His thoughts faltered
"Why aren't they attacking...?"
His eyes narrowed
"What are they waiting for?"
Silence
Nothing
Even the roars dropped
A step
His breath stopped
Not from the beasts
Another step
Heavier
Closer
The creatures stirred
The front ranks drew back
One after another
Bodies shoved
A space opened among them
A long corridor formed through the millions
The roars rose again
But they weren't angry
They carried something else
Broken sounds came from between the mouths
"We want..."
A short silence
"Food..."
Other voices rose
"We want food..."
Claws struck the ground
The bodies shook
The creatures drew back further
The corridor widened
Another step
A black boot appeared from between the ranks
It touched the ground
A step
The hem of a black robe appeared
Another step
The robe stretched downward
Covering the whole body
No part exposed
No clear features
A figure moving down the corridor
Until it stopped
A few meters away
Akaino raised his eyes
The beasts didn't look at him
They didn't see him as an enemy
They were making way for the figure
As if its presence among them was only natural
His eyes locked on it
His expression changed
He didn't need to see the face
He knew it
He knew this stance
This silence
This presence that made millions of creatures go quiet around it
The figure raised a hand
The beasts stilled
The roaring vanished
All that remained was the sound of his breathing
And the sound of blood dripping from Akaino's body
The voice came, calm
"There's no escaping to him, Akaino"
Akaino raised his head
"It's over"
His grip tightened on the broken sword
"It won't be over as long as I'm alive!"
His voice rang out among the millions
Its echo bounced across the ruins
"It was always in our hands to settle this..."
He took a step forward
"The choice was always in front of them..."
He raised the sword
"And they were capable of making it"
The figure stayed still
"There's no solution left"
Silence
"Tell me where he is"
His eyes held on him
"That's the only solution"
Akaino's head lowered slightly
His fingers tightened around the hilt until the knuckles went white
"If you want to know where he is..."
He lifted his eyes
"Then you'll have to kill me first"
Silence fell
The beasts didn't move
Not a sound from them
The figure raised a hand
The fingers lifted slightly
Akaino's breath stopped
His eyes were revealed beneath the shadow of the hood
A dark glow ignited in them
The light spread through the pupils
The hand hung fixed in the air
One signal
It fell
The roar erupted
The beasts surged
The earth shook beneath the millions
Bodies rushed in from every direction
Collided with one another
Dirt flew
Rocks shattered under their feet
Roars burst into the sky
Overlapping sounds
Claws
Fangs
Bodies surging toward a single target
The front ranks closed in
Meters
Less
Less
And Akaino...
Closed his eyes
He stayed still
Despite the broken bones
Despite the blood
Despite the sword with only half a blade left
He didn't move
The beasts were a short distance away
Close enough to hear their breath
He opened his mouth
Inhaled
And the world before him...
To be continued...