Bloodlust...
Inside the monster
Gatestown, Ess'yer, present day (2 years, 3 months, and 4 days before Twilightfall)
That son of a bitch!
What did I expect?! What was I thinking?!
He's an assassin, he kills people for money. He'll work for anyone if the price is right, so why not for a Councilor? He worked for my brother Shayeld, so why not for Councilor Jenathar?
This is just so low...
Well, I will see what he has to say, I will hear out his excuses. I will be waiting right here, atop this tree, and watching. I can clearly see the tavern door from here, it's less than a hundred feet away, there is no way he can leave without me noticing it. He won't sneak past me, no way...
Unless...
Unless he does that trick of his. If he molds into his shadow. If he does that, he can sneak out and I'll never spot him. It's dark enough now, he can slip away...
That bastard! If he does this, I swear I will...
Wait... What is this?
Mages. At least ten, or fifteen mages. They surround the tavern building. All of them are wearing the markings of Supreme Councilor Jenathar on their robes...
Jason, you fool... It's a setup! They want to capture you!
What now?
Perhaps he will do the smart thing and use his skills to flee. He should be able to slip away unseen. But he might attack them instead.
`What do we do?' asks one of the mages.
`We wait. He will come out, and then...'
Suddenly the whole tavern building erupts in a gigantic explosion, and the mages are knocked off their feet. They slowly stand up, and I look towards the flames. I see a large, intimidating figure emerge from the fire.
The creature is enormous, at least eight feet tall. It is humanoid, but has four arms, each ending in paws bearing sharp claws. And its head...
Its head is surreal! It has a face in front, and a face on its right side. As it walks out of the fire and moves around, I can see it has a third face on its left side as well...
For now, it just stands there, as fire consumes the remnants of the tavern behind him. The mages are standing up slowly.
`What the Hell is that?' asks one of them. Another mage, one who may be the leader of the group, ignoring his question, addresses the creature directly.
`Jason Vogan! You are hereby placed under arrest in the name of the Supreme Council! Reassume your human form and come with us!'
Jason...? Is that really Jason...? Then he was telling the truth...
`This is the guy we are to apprehend?' asks the first mage. `Jenathar didn't tell me he was a half-demon!'
`Silence! Just do as you were told.' says the leader mage to him. Then, he turns back to the demon.
`I will not ask again! Reassume your human form, and come peacefully, or we will...'
Before he could finish, the demon opens its mouth and seems like it would scream at him. Instead, a ball of fire comes out of its mouth, and strikes the leader mage. I see a large sphere alight around him, probably some sort of magical protection shield or whatever. He is unharmed by the flame. The ball of fire explodes and everything in twenty feet around the leader mage is set on fire. Everything except the mages themselves. All of them seem to be protected the same way as their leader.
The demon jumps forth and tries to catch the leader mage, but he vanishes, and reappears some ten feet from there. The demon then moves on to the next nearest mage, and attempts to grab him. This one doesn't vanish. The demon strikes at him with all its claws. Once, twice, trice. Nothing. The shield protects the mage. He tries to cast some spell, but the demon's fourth attack breaks through the shield. It grabs the mage, and lifts him high above its head, holding him tight with its two upper arms. It spits a fireball at the mage, and he is set on fire. He screams, and the demon tosses him away with great strength. He falls against the wall of a nearby house, and drops to the ground. He is no longer screaming...
Then the demon turns towards another mage, and spits another fireball. Then it turns towards another one and spits a fireball again. The two mages are unharmed, but the surrounding houses are not so fortunate. Soon, the entire town will be burning...
Some distance away I see the garrison approaching. A little more than a dozen guards. They bravely attack the demon. Or perhaps foolishly.
The demon breaths a ball of fire at them and they are all engulfed in the flames. Some get blown away and fall silent as they hit the ground, others are rolling on the ground aflame, screaming helplessly. They're all done for... Just like that, the demon has wiped out the town garrison...
The mages counterattack. Countless spells are fired, magical projectiles of varying color and shape are fired at the demon. It laughs as these projectiles hit it. It seems to be amused, as if these spells did not hurt it at all.
It runs towards the nearest mage and strikes at him with its paws. After a few hits, the mage's shield vanishes, and the demon picks him up. It holds him with all its claws, holding one arm and one leg in each. It pulls him apart with tremendous strength, and the mage's limbs are ripped off his torso. A sickening sight... His screams cease as his torso falls. The shock of what the demon did to him must have made him faint. Unless it outright made his heart stop.
Two mages and over a dozen guards died in just a few minutes at the hands of this creature. And all I can do is stare at it, partly mesmerized by its terrifying presence, and partly concerned for the man who is, apparently, inside that monster. The man, who, from inside the monster, has no choice but to watch as the demon kills any and everyone who gets in its way. They came for Jason, but he certainly didn't want this to happen. He didn't want them to die like this...
The battle of the demon and the mages grows more and more intense. Spell after spell is thrown at it, and it just laughs and laughs, spitting fireballs all around, setting the town ablaze, and ripping mage after mage to pieces in various ways. It is truly the horror of the Hellish Planes unleashed here tonight...
The leader mage is still alive. He seems to be more skilled than the rest. He constantly teleports around, or whatever it is that he's doing. He keeps evading the demon, and he keeps firing spells at it. Yet his spells appear just as ineffective as those of his comrades.
He calls out to the others:
`Surround the demon! On my signal, stasis field!'
Six mages remain alive along with him. They try to position themselves around the demon, but one of them is caught by the creature. It mutilates him much as it did to the rest of the now dead mages, and throws his remains aside, laughing.
The surviving five mages somehow managed to surround the demon during this. Now they seem like they are about to begin casting some kind of spell in unison... What did the leader say? Stasis field? What the Hell does that mean?
`Now!' screams the leader mage.
A green beam of light is emitted from the hands of all five mages, striking the demon. At that very moment, the monster is encased in a large green sphere, and its movements begin to slow down. At first, the sphere is faintly green, but its color gradually grows deeper. Simultaneously, the creature becomes slower and slower...
`That's it!' says the leader mage. `Now we will have him. Jason, you lowdown good for nothing bastard! Tonight you'll be dead, I can promise you that. Don't worry, it will be quick. We won't give you the chance to fight back!'
They mean to kill him!
No...
I can't let them, he...
How could I stop them? How could I stop them? I must help him, he...
He... saved my life...
`He's breaking out!' screams one of the mages suddenly, and I am filled with a sudden rush of hope...
`No, the field is building well. We just need more magical energy!' says the leader mage.
`This is the most we can do!' says another mage.
`Deactivate your protection shields!' commands the leader mage. `There is no need for them while he is in stasis. We need al
l the magical energy we can muster...'
As he issues this command, I see the green sphere around the demon grow even deeper in color, and the demon slow even more.
Suddenly, with a quick decision that perhaps I shall regret for the rest of my life, I take an arrow from my quiver, draw my bow, and aim...
*
My arrow strikes one of the mages in the eye. He falls like a bag of rocks, as the dwarves would say.
The leader mage screams.
`What the fuck?! This cannot be! Where?'
`There, that tree!' says one of them pointing in my direction.
The leader mage turns towards me, and sees me fire my bow.
`Kill her!' he commands, at the same moment as my arrow pierces the throat of another mage.
Still pointing one hand at the demon and trying to focus on that spell they are casting, he pulls a wand from his belt with his other hand and aims it towards me. I jump off the tree and run as fast as I can. I hear an explosion behind me, and I am tossed several feet forward by the gust of wind. From the ground, I peek behind me and see that the tree is on fire.
The mage sees me but does not fire the wand again. He looks to be afraid.
`More! More! You fools!' he screams at the last two surviving mages. `We need more magical energy!'
`We can do no more!'
Then the leader turns to me.
`What have you done...'
I look at the demon, and see that it is moving slowly, but steadily towards the edge of the sphere.
`It's breaking out!' screams one of the mages.
`Shields! Quick, you fucked-up blundering imbeciles! Shields!'
A moment later, the demon breaks out of the sphere, and lunges at the nearest mage with unimaginable speed. It grabs him, the mage apparently having failed to activate his shield spell. Then, instead of brutally killing the mage, the demon drags him along with two arms and rushes towards the second mage. It grabs him with its other two arms, and holds them both in front of himself.
He breathes a ball of fire at them and they are set on fire.
They scream, but the demon just laughs. As they are rolling on the ground trying to put out the fire, it proceeds to dismember their burning bodies one by one.
The leader mage, now alone, advances slowly on the demon.
I jump up and run towards him. He hears me coming, turns, but he is too late to block my attack. I jump up and kick him in the chest, knocking him to the ground.
Suddenly, a strong force grabs me, like a gust of wind, and throws me backwards. I fall on my back, but I see the mage standing up. He moves towards me.
`You don't know what you've done! You bitch! You will pay!'
He aims his wand at me, while I still cannot move. A powerful invisible force keeps me pinned to the ground. Before he could fire the wand, the demon comes, and strikes him down from behind. His shield protects him, but he falls to the ground.
He turns on his back and fires the wand into the demon's face. A small reddish sphere emits from the wand and explodes into a fireball. But nothing happens to the demon. It is not burnt, nor is it blown away.
`Blast!' screams the wizard. He puts his wand in his belt, and pulls out another one. He fires the wand at the demon. A bolt of lightning strikes the creature, and unlike the fire, this seems to harm it, but only slightly. The demon just laughs, and begins to pound on the mage's shield, kneeling over him.
`Why won't you die?!' screams the mage, and keeps firing the wand. It's no use, and his shield is getting weaker and weaker...
Suddenly, the shield vanishes, and the demon strikes down. It strikes towards the leader mage's chest. It sinks its claws deep, and then rips them out. As I stare at the scene, I am shocked to see the still beating heart of the mage in the demon's hand. It swallows the heart with a wicked pleasure spread across its demonic faces. Then it slowly stands up.
I also stand up, slowly. When the mage died, the spell that had me pinned down was ended. I can move again.
I stare at the demon and it stares at me. It walks to me, and now stands in front of me. Towering over me, looking down into my face.
I do not run.
If this is how it must end, if this is how I must die, so be it, I accept my fate. I chose to intervene, I chose to save the man who saved my life once, long ago. And if the demon in him must kill me for it, so be it. I am not afraid.
I stare into its dark, threatening gaze. I look deep into its eyes. And it stares me down. We stand like this, who knows how long. It doesn't attack. It does nothing. Just stares at me.
Suddenly, its contours shake, and its form begins to change. It shrinks, to the size of a human, and changes from a demon to a human. The demon is gone, and the final proof to what Jason told me earlier today is given to me, as he stands before me, in the place where the demon stood a moment ago.
He looks at me. His eyes show a tired man, a man who's very soul is exhausted by all the things he had to live through. He looks me in the eyes and says:
`Now you've seen it...'
Emptiness
They say revenge is empty, and it's true... but nothing is emptier than my life...
For so long I thought I could make my life take a better turn. But I was wrong. That day, I knew there was no chance for me.
I remember it, as if it had just taken place yesterday. The day when I walked into Doorn's retreat with the Amulet of Darkness in my hand. The day when the demon surfaced and unleashed all its fury on my mentor...
Doorn's retreat, Kh'Tal, eight years ago (10 years, 3 months, and 2 days before Twilightfall)
I will never forget that look in his eyes...
As he lay there, bleeding from the countless wounds I had inflicted upon him in demon shape, his face burnt beyond recognition, he looked up at me. I expected his eyes to express disappointment, perhaps anger, or both. But there was only a triumphant gleam in it, like he had just won a great battle. He lay there dying, but he saw something else in the outcome of our fight than what I did. My eyes must have reflected the guilt I felt at having been so helpless once more. We stared at each other like that in silence, until he broke the silence.
`So, it has... come to pass, as it... had to. I knew... this would come. I knew well...'
`You... You knew?'
He slowly nodded.
`I did. I... knew well... that you'd eventually... lose control. I knew... that you'd... kill me.'
`I've failed you.'
`No, you did not. You... did all I hoped... you would... What took place now, had to happen. This was... destiny... Do not... blame yourself...'
`But...'
`It had to... happen. There is... no controlling... the monster inside you... It's no use... You cannot suppress it... It feeds on death... and one way or the other, it has to feed...'
`If you knew this, why did you choose to risk this all?'
`I knew you would succeed... where all others failed... I spent my life... searching... for the amulet... Now... you... found it for me... That.. is why... I chose... to accept death... but I am unimportant now... You live still, and... you've choices to make, battles to fight... You need... what aid... I can still grant you... before death takes me...'
`Aid?'
`The essence of the Shadowland I offered you... You can... still... have it... You can... make good use of it...'
I slowly nodded, and he took the amulet from his neck and placed it in his palm. He pressed the index finger of his other hand against the black stone of the amulet, and whispered some magic words. Moments later, he released the stone with his finger, and a fist-sized puff of what appeared to be black smoke was released from it, and it floated in the air, towards me.
`Now... Open up your being... and let... the essence... into you.'
I did as he asked, and focused on the floating spark of Shadowland essence. It slowly neared me, and I watched as it entered my body. I felt a strange chill running through my whole body, and for a moment everything fell into a pitch bla
ck darkness. Then everything became clear again. Doorn was still staring at me.
`Now, you can... hide in your... shadow. Focus... on it, focus on... becoming one... with it.'
Again, I did as he told me, and a few moments later my vision changed radically. I was seeing everything from a ground view, as if I was laying on the ground, but I could see all around me, in every direction. Yet I saw nothing of myself, it was like my body had vanished. It was strange to behold this for the first time, to say the least.
`Good. Now try... to move.'
I moved. I didn't see my feet and I didn't even feel them moving, but I did move, as the view changed exactly as it was supposed to.
`Very good! Now leave... your shadow. Simply... break focus, and... you will reappear... as normal... again.'
I did as he asked, and my vision returned to normal. I could see my hands in front of me again.
`Good. In time... you will learn to use... this skill well... Just remember... Your shadow will remain visible... It can be noticed... by the keen eye... but the amulet... can help you with that... Take the amulet...'
I leaned down and took the amulet from him.
`If you wear it... and touch it... and focus on it... it will help you. All around you... will be covered... in darkness, no-one... will be able... to see, but... you. So... none will see... your shadow... Don't... try... to tap... more... of the... amulet's... power... than this... It could... prove... fatal... Now... go... and leave me... to...'
Then, before he could finish, his head fell back, and he spoke no more. He died.
And I wanted to join him in his fate.
*
I dragged his lifeless body outside and set up a funeral pyre. I cast his ashes to the wind like I did for Carrie, Reqa and Lerui years back. I said farewell to the man who gave his life to try and help me overcome the beast inside me. Then I walked off into the wild.
I headed for the most untamed parts of Kh'Tal, regions that travelers are warned never to enter. Regions ruled by fearsome creatures. They were exactly what I hoped to find. I wanted to die, I wanted to meet my punishment for what I had allowed to transpire that day in my weakness. But I was denied my death wish.
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