"It is why I fight this damned war. To make a better world for my children. It is why I cannot stop!" anger spread across his face for a moment, and he paused to compose himself.
“Another day, another death, right?” he seethed, digging deep within himself to find the kind of words a leader needed to say. “This time it was my son… so what must a man do? Do I lay down? Submit? Do I give up?" commander Crinnan trembled with fury and passion. His eyes were ablaze with fervor, and he swept his gaze over the assembled soldiers in front of him. As his lip curled into a snarl, he took a mighty step forward and pounded his fist against his chest.
“Fuck no!" he began to speak faster and more furiously, “The battle isn’t any less won or any more lost with the death of my son or Jeph Scaven… we now have an even deeper responsibility to keep fighting, to win! We fight for true freedom. For those that hate us we fight. For those who think they are already free, we fight… We fight for our sons, for our daughters and grandchildren, our husbands and wives… We fight for those fighting next to us. We must never stop, even when not if, we lose something or someone we love. My son died, yes, and I will never forget that boy... and I will make damn sure that my sword cuts down a hundred other father’s sons if that’s what it takes to free this world from Govia’s grasp!”
The mourners nodded, and some clapped or cheered. Commander Crinnan turned to his wife and looked at her for a moment and then back to the crowd.
"Today, we remember Jeph and my son and all the others who have fallen to protect our way of life! Today we mourn. Tomorrow, we pick up our swords and we shove them through the hearts of all who will stand in our way. We will cut down every Govian who would ever dare think of getting in our way!"
Captain Bran stepped forward and pumped his massive fist into the air. “For Crinnan!" he bellowed, returning his thunderclap of a voice for all to hear. The mourners returned his shout with their own.
“For Crinnan!”
Chapter One
Crinnan XI
21st of Cidraa – 346 AG
90 Days Prior to Awakening
He felt as if he were falling a great distance as the wind passed through his hair and over his body. His gaze was cast downward, and he curiously watched as the world grew smaller and further away instead of closer as he would have expected it to if he were truly falling. That was when it hit him, he realized he was in fact not plummeting toward the ground, but instead rapidly ascending into the sky.
The darkness of night had gone. The growling of his attackers and the pain that they had induced was nothing more than a memory. Crinnan’s arms flailed as he floated upward, or at least he thought they did. When he looked for his body, he saw nothing. That of all things made him panic.
He passed through the clouds or what he perceived were the clouds and was engulfed in the brilliant light of the Brothers. The brightness blinded him, and he saw only the radiant exuberance that one would when facing only toward the suns. A comforting feeling of heat spread over the skin that he did not have. He thought he felt warmth and solace in the light, but Crinnan discovered that he was no longer a physical being. He was nothing more than his thoughts.
Crinnan tried to think, to figure out what was going on. The last thing he remembered was being dispatched by his sergeant Kavin, to scout the area. His squad was camped in the Izla’Axi caverns West of the Belhaasi Weald. Their mission had been to gather intel on a radio tower that had recently been constructed south of the Canruusi Canyon. It was supposedly powerful enough to give the Govian Empire communications abilities throughout the entire country of Izla’Axi; they were to observe it and determine whether they were going to be able to destroy it.
Crinnan had been sent with his squad mates Jeph and Pancho to make sure the area was secure. He remembered walking through the darkness of the Belhaasi Weald, flashlight in hand and a cigarette hanging from his mouth. He saw it all clearly; his memory was as vivid as if he were watching himself. He saw the ambush, the Toraan monsters jumping from the trees, eviscerating him and taking his body to consume. He watched his guts fall from his stomach, saw his eyes close and witnessed the life fade from him. Crinnan saw himself die.
“No," he cried as his “body” stopped ascending. A wave of sudden terror overcame him. Having realized he was dead, he knew what was coming; the Hells awaited him. He was afraid, no he was mortified.
“Fuck!" he angrily shouted as he stared into the light of the brothers, “Not this. Not now!”
Twenty-three years was all he had. Twenty-three years of living, breathing, eating, drinking, fucking, fighting, and shitting it all back out. As he floated above the clouds and stared into the brother’s light, he realized that it all was in vain. He realized that his life had been worthless, that he had been a failure, a damned tool in a war that had only brought him to his death. Had he still had his eyes, he felt like tears of disappointment would have begun to fall.
“Where are you?" he called out as he looked around, “I knew this day would come! Let’s get this over with," at that, a brilliant, blinding white light even brighter than the Brothers exploded from what would have been the center of his body and for the briefest of moments he saw nothing.
Everything went silent. He heard nothing, neither the wind nor the steady beating of his heart. When he finally came to, he found that his body had been returned to him. He looked down at his hands, the same hands he had looked at his entire life and he bit his lip. As he shook his head, he realized he was completely naked and that he stood on a crystal clear glass floor surrounded by radiant white light. He knew that he was no longer alone.
“I guess I am here," he choked. He was fearful of looking up for he knew exactly what was before him, “And I suppose you must be…”
“Dura’Ana," a voice more beautiful than he could ever imagine said, “I am,"
Crinnan looked up and saw before him the form of a female adorned in a flowing white dress. Her silky black hair and the fabric of her clothes seemed to float all around her; her face was hidden behind the same white light that previously enveloped him. In her right hand, she held a sword, in her left, a golden book… the Book of Mercy as it was called by her followers.
“Crinnan Jamiso," she sang, her voice sounded like a chorus of angels. He only allowed himself a moment to marvel though, for she was not his goddess, “Why did you deny me in life?”
“Fuck yourself," Crinnan growled as he clenched his fist, “You and your son thrive off of the pain of others. You made my life hell. Do what you must goddess, I am not afraid,"
“You are, afraid child," Dura’Ana corrected him., “You opposed me in life, you curse me in death. What must your judgment be?”
“Send me to the Hells bitch!" Crinnan shouted, “It does not matter what I say, I am Hells bound no matter what. I cannot stand to look at you another minute; get it over with!"
At that, the book of mercy in Dura’Ana’s left hand crumbled. The goddess swung the sword in her right hand and vines of darkness began creeping toward Crinnan from all directions. He watched and his heart pounded yet he did not move. He was consoled only by knowing that he would meet the same fate that every Black Knight before him had, that he had earned his place in the Hells.
The vines quickly took hold of Crinnan and wrapped themselves around his wrists and ankles. Dura’Ana reduced in size so that the two of them stood eye to eye and she stepped up to him. Without another word on her part, she planted the sword into Crinnan’s chest and the black tendrils seized him and suddenly became everything he saw.
Heaven vanished and Crinnan once again saw the planet far beneath him. He fell from a height he did not know existed and watched as the world grew bigger and bigger. He grit his teeth and his lips trembled as the ground drew nearer.
When Crinnan’s body finally struck the solid ground, the world seemed to shatter like glass. It tore through his skin and left jagged splinters all through his body. What wasn’t shredded by the glass was ripped apart as he passed th
rough the rocky layers of Duraan, the glassy planet taking every bit of flesh it could. Eventually, he found the bottom of the world and it opened up and allowed Crinnan to pass through. Crinnan, who was naught more than bone and blood at that point, burst into an entirely new world.
Had the ground not been engulfed in flame the world would have been naught but blackness. Crinnan’s bones passed through wave after wave of smoke and he began to hear the roaring and crackling of the fire beneath him. He heard the screaming, the shouting and the laughter of the demons within. He had entered the Hells.
The sound of solemn organ music began playing, softly at first, accompanied by the voices of a chorus. They sang in an ancient language, one he did not understand, but the as he drew nearer and nearer to the burning ground the tempo and volume increased, to a point where it sounded like the chorus was screaming.
Fear enveloped him. He did not know what was going on but when he was nearly one hundred feet from the ground somehow something flashed before him. It was a sentence spelled out into red glowing words and it seemed to float in the air above him no matter where he looked.
You have died.
“No shit!” Crinnan shouted. However the strange words had appeared, he couldn’t help but notice that they weren’t very helpful.
The burning ground was approaching quickly. Crinnan knew he had no more flesh to lose, but he braced his bones for impact. He closed his eyes tight just as his skeleton slammed into the ground, shattering into more pieces than he had bones. Everything went silent.
“Wow, so this is forever?" he found himself asking as he laid sprawled out through the fire of the Hells. He listened to the pleading and screaming around him, watched as laughing armored demons stomped through the flame in pursuit of fleeing prisoners. He tried to close his eyes but realized there were no eyelids. For all he knew, there weren’t even any eyes…
It was a strange sight to behold, the daily activities of those who accompanied him in the Hells. He watched as the strong hunted the weak. Some of them planted daggers into their target’s backs, some just chopped them in half with giant glowing swords. Everyone screamed, some with delight some with terror. Crinnan couldn’t make any sense of it, was it a war? Was the place being plundered?
For what seemed like days, Crinnan lay on the ground in pieces and watched as more bodies fell from the sky and shattered just as he had. As he laid there, he thought most of his mother. In life he had not spoken to her much for the two had grown very distant. He knew she loved him and he, of course, loved her, but it was not something they spoke of. Yet, it was the most comforting thought he could find, the idea of being a child once again locked in her embrace.
“No!" he suddenly heard someone shout. A smooth, wet and pale skinned corpulent demon with a hook the size of Crinnan in his hand was hot in pursuit of someone. The demon laughed and whooped as he chased his prisoner. Crinnan watched as the monstrous looking creature caught up with its target and quickly swung his hook. The point of the massive weapon impaled the terrified being and the monster lifted him up off the ground.
“No use running little worm!" the demon bellowed as the prisoner squirmed on the hook. “I’ll always catch you, always!”
Crinnan watched as the demon ripped the prisoner’s body from his hook, splitting him in half and spilling his guts onto the ground as he did so. He hurled the prisoner’s top half in one direction and his bottom half in another, laughing heartily as he did so.
“Good luck putting your little body back together!" he shouted at the screaming prisoner.
Crinnan lay motionless and silent as to not alert the demon to his presence. He was only a stone’s throw away and did not want to be its next victim. Unfortunately, as he had not learned yet, that was not how the Hells worked.
“Who do we have here?” the fat demon bellowed as he stomped over. The rolls in his flesh jiggled as he waddled and his abnormally wide mouth formed into a grin, “A newcomer by the looks of it! A Black Knight?” he laughed a disturbingly gleeful laugh and licked his lips, “Well, let me be the first to welcome you to the Hells!”
Crinnan groaned fearfully as he felt his body reassemble. His bones quickly flew in from all directions and snapped together and he felt his muscles and tissue begin to grow back. For the first time in what seemed like days, he felt his heart begin to beat again. Unfortunately for him, it was pounding.
The demon approached the newly formed Crinnan and grabbed him by the throat with his massive, fat fingers, “A warrior in life?" he shook Crinnan’s body like a doll, making an amused and horrifying expression as he did so.
Crinnan growled and swung his fist, watching in dismay as it bounced off the demon as if he were made of stone. The demon laughed again and squeezed harder.
“Down here,” he snarled, “We do the fighting!" he slammed Crinnan into the flames beneath him, pressing his face against the hot ground, “Do you feel that, warrior? Stick your tongue out and taste it. That’s all you’ll be eating for the rest of time!”
Crinnan whined and tried to scream as the ground burned his flesh but the demon’s grip was too tight. He could neither make a sound nor wiggle free; he was at the monster’s mercy. The demon continued laughing and pulled Crinnan’s melted face out from the fire. Pieces of his melted skin stuck to the rocky ground and they stretched as he was lifted. The demon laughed at the sight.
“You will learn soon enough," he lifted Crinnan to eye level. At that, the corpulent demon’s jaw unhinged and his mouth opened revealing two rows of razor-sharp teeth. Crinnan whimpered out of fear, a noise he never imagined himself making, and tried to shake himself free but there was no escape to be made.
The demon placed Crinnan’s head in his mouth and slammed his jaw shut, piercing his neck but not removing his head. Crinnan could feel his blood gushing out onto the demon’s tongue and then cringed as the monster grabbed his body and twisted it like one would a piece of meat. Crinnan’s head ripped free and as he felt the teeth begin to grind his skull, he heard something.
“I do not know if he can hear me,” an unfamiliar and slightly modulated voice said as if through a shoddy radio connection, “I have tried over and over again but have not been able to reach Crinnan,"
As Crinnan’s temples caved in he suddenly felt everything stop, red numbers were flying in all directions and suddenly the world around him went silent.
You have died
“Well thank the fucking Brothers for that,” Crinnan sighed, but how could that have been? He was already dead; how could he die again? Nothing in the Hells was what he expected, though he supposed that was the idea. But what were the floating numbers, the strange text? Where were the weird voices coming from?
Connection Established, user: Vajinious, user:44232001423932
>Messages: Disable
>Overlay: Disable
>BetaMode: Enable
>Superuser: Enable
And what was that? What did any of that mean? Crinnan sighed as he stood, laid, sat… whatever he was doing in the darkness. He sure as fuck didn’t know.
“It says we are connected, Crinnan can you hear me?” the strange voice from before suddenly called out. It did not sound like a demon or Dura’Ana or any of the others he had heard since his death. The voice sounded… strangely and indescribably real, it sounded like someone who was alive. Crinnan opened his mouth and spoke.
“Who are you?” he asked, wondering if the voice could even hear him. Crinnan waited in the silent darkness and felt his heart begin to beat a little softer, “Hello, can you hear me?”
“He hears me!" the voice cheered, “I did it!”
“Yes…" Crinnan replied, “I can hear you. Who are you?”
“Hi!” the voice shouted, “Hey, how is it going?”
“It's... pretty bad?" Crinnan had no idea how to properly respond to the sudden voice. He did not know who or what was talking or where they were. He did notice, however, that every time they spoke a word appeared in the bottom right cor
ner of his vision. That word was “Vajinious” What the fuck did that mean? “I mean, how do you expect it’s going. I am dead and in the Hells... What is going on, who are you?”
“Yeah, that sucks,” the voice said empathetically, “So Sage isn’t here right now, he had to poop, but he told me to watch his station and wait to see if you responded, and you did."
Crinnan did not know what to say. He did not know who Sage was, or the person talking to him or what Vajinious meant. He felt a bit like he was communicating with an idiot, "What…" Crinnan struggled to speak, “What is all this?”
“Like you already said,” the voice replied, “It’s the Hells,"
“No shit!" Crinnan returned, “I mean who are you, how are you talking to me?”
“Oh!” the voice exclaimed. “Well, I mean, my name is Lucaas but you really won’t be talking to me very much… maybe not at all? I don't really know,"
“What does Vajinious mean? Why does it appear every time you talk?” Lucaas chuckled for a moment and Crinnan impatiently waited for an answer.
“Yeah, so that’s a funny story. You see Dad… or rather, Sage’s real name is Sajinious and he told me to update his username from his NPin allocation. I thought it would be funny to call him Vajinious… you know. Like vagina?”
“Sound like something you probably don’t know much about." Crinnan quipped, “Though, I mean other than vagina, I have no idea what anything you just said means.”
“Well, I mean. That’s not very cool of you but I get it. You’re upset," Lucaas replied, his tone was mildly perturbed but it evened back out, “Sorry, I forgot to mention that to you. We are communicating with you through the NaNe; we are in the physical world you are in the digital."
The Black Knight Box Set Page 26