sorry
Chapter 8.
*Revelations*
Karima woke up, and saw nothing but white, all around her. "Er, Dareth, wake up." Dareth's wounds were gone, he awoke and stood up. "This is the place where it all started! We completed their task!" Karima was a little confused, but she didn't really care. If Dareth was all right with it, then so was she.
"Mortal, welcome once again." The voice was different from before. "It is time we revealed ourselves."
"What the **** is going on!" Dareth and Karima were trembling on their feet, the ground beneath them was shaking. The good natured white slowly turned to red, blood red. Four figures stood on four red pillars in the near distance. Allow us to introduce ourselves to you mortal: I am Void, my fellow Godhand members are, Slan, Ubik and Conrad. Void was wearing a long black robe, and wore a skull on his neck with external brains. Slan was a beautiful woman, covering her body with her black feathered wings. Ubik and Conrad were looking similar, small and misshaped. Ubik was stitched together from pale flesh, while Conrad had a red skin and an evergaping mouth. "We thank you for completing our task mortal." Said the one called Void. Horrible shrieks and laughter were echoing around Dareth and Karima. "I'm asking again, what the **** is going on?!"
Slan was smiling, "Boy, you completed our task so horribly well, it was beautiful." Ice cold chills were running down Karima's spine. "Dareth, what's going on." Ubik approached Karima and hovered around her head. "Let me show you what you have accomplished." Suddenly a large mirror appeared in front of them. "Look in the mirror, and see what you have accomplished."
Normal men, soldiers, were lying dead, slain in the most horrible ways, some of them had severed body parts, others were cleft in twain, or their intestines came out. It was a most horrible sight. "Why are you showing this to us, it's disgusting!" Ubik laughed. "Still not a clue hm?" More visions were shown. This time they saw a beautiful woman cleft in two, her armour was torn to shreds. Her looks resembled that of the demon queen they had slain. Dareth saw the resemblance. "Who is that! She looks like..." Ubik interrupted. "Looks like? Heeheehee, wrong! It is her!" Dareth was shocked, "That's a lie!, what we killed was not a mere human!" Void spoke. "Mortal, not everything is what it seems, you slayed a very strong concentration of good, along with that girl of yours." Dareth was shaking his head, "No that can't be true, I refuse to believe it." Karima was getting more and more scared. "Dareth, what if it's true?" Ubik laughed. "You should listen to her mortal, heeheehee."
"Could it be, did innocents and good people die by our hands? By the Gods, what have we done!" He shook his head again. "But how! How! What we saw and what we touched and what we killed could not have been these visions. HOW!?" Ubik spoke again. "Mortal, we control the destiny of mankind. It was us who murdered your relatives, or should we say, we gave the order. With this done, we could be sure we could let you sink deeper and deeper, until not a shred was left of you. That's when we started to manipulated your mind. Instead of mere men, you saw hellspawn. All of them were illusions covering the truth. We even made sure you would meet with the girl, you would've not been able to do it without her."
"Elena!, Morhan! That was your doing?" Dareth's anger was rising. He tried to unsheathe his sword, but it was gone. "Not only did the girl take them off, we already took the armour and the weapon back mortal, there's no chance of fighting your way out of this." Said Void. "Mortal, we thank you for your accomplishment, but we have other business to attend to now. With that large concentration gone, you broke the balance of good and evil. We shall now enter your mortal world and shape it to what we like it to be. Of course you shall be thanked for this, mortal. We shall send you to a place where you can wield that unsatisfiable bloodlust of yours forever." Slan laughed and opened a portal in front of them. They got sucked in. "Be well... hahaha!"
"Brace yourself Karima!", Dareth held Karima tight to him. They fell high, from a fiery sky. "Water!" They fell in and tasted it, this was no water, it was blood! They fell in a lake of blood! They swam up, and breathed the air in. Karima vomited, the air was filled with the overwhelming stench of death. They climbed out of the lake and then saw where they had gone to. It was an endless surface of corpses. Dareth and Karima recognized them, the were the corpses from the visions. "Dareth, were are we, what's going on." She cried. "I don't know where we are, but from the looks of it, this must be Hell."
"How did these corpses ended up here, if they were good natured they should have went to the other place! What is going on here? ****!" Some of the corpses were standing up and walked or crawled to Dareth and Karima. "Slayer..., come here slayer, we will now reap your body as you reaped ours." Their dead bodies slowly approached the two. Dareth kicked one in the face, and it's head fell off, he took it's weapon and started bashing in the others. Karima was on her knees. "Get up! Defend yourself." Karima stood up and fought with tears in her eyes, she still had her daggers. But it was no use, their attackers were already dead, no matter how many they took down, they put themselves together again and returned. "It's no use... We can't hold this up forever." He remembered Voids words.
"We shall send you to a place where you can wield that unsatisfiable bloodlust of yours forever."
So this is the destiny you made for me.. I wish I really died that day, not only am I truly lost now. I dragged her along with me, because of me, she will suffer the same as I will, this misery.." Dareth dropped on his knees, he gave up! Karima ran over to him. "Dareth!, get up, fight!" He shook his head, "It's no use, no matter how many we take down, they will keep returning, until we run out of hope.." Karima dropped down and held him, "Then I will give up too.. We will suffer, but at least we are together." Dareth held her tightly to him. They both closed their eyes, holding each other, ready to be torn apart by the animated corpses. "No matter what happens, thank you for taking me with you Dareth." Said Karima. "Thank you for coming with me, Karima."
But no matter how long they closed their eyes, nothing happened. When they opened their eyes, the living dead were once again laying on the ground. "A nightmare?" Dareth shook his head, "We're still in this cursed lace, and It feels to real to be a nightmare." They stood up. "So, what now Dareth?" Dareth started walking. "Where are you going?"
"I honestly don't know, but staying or go somewhere else doesn't seem to make a difference, we might as well go somewhere, wherever that is."
"Slayer.. You're not going anywhere" They behind them and saw her standing. The woman from the visions. She was covered with blood. She had a horrible wound on her back and was sown together near her abdomen. "Well done slayer.. You killed my comrades and me. You sent us all to hell, thanks to you, the mortal realm will soon stop existing and be turned into a hell like this." Dareth stood up, "I did not send you to hell woman!" She laughed in agony. "That lovely sword of yours, in common tongue it's called 'Mournbringer', everything it kills is sent to hell, wether they are good or evil."
"What have I done.. Not only did they die by my hands, it was me who sent them here." He dropped on his knees.
The woman cried. "Amongst the dead were my two brothers, Archon and Nos, for killing them I will let you die over and over again for an eternity. My name is Jadira, remember it well, you will be slain by her many times along with that girl." She slowly approached Dareth wielding her sword. She held the sword up and striked down on Dareth.
Someone or something parried the attack. It was a mounted warrior. He was covered in black armour. Underneath the armour was probably nothing but bones, as the warrior had a fleshless skull on it's neck. "Who are you!?" Said Jadira. "I once had a name, but I now longer remember it, you may call me skullknight." Dareth stood up. "What is going on, even in hell you Gods are not leaving me alone!" The skullknight laughed. "A God? me? No, I despise the Godhand as much as you do, that's why I will help you." Jadira became angry, blood kept pouring out of her wounds. "Help them! Look at what they've done to me, to the others laying here, around us. They don't deserve any help!" Skullknight looked at Jadira. "Hold your tongue before you judge someone, the same goes for your weapon." Skullknight reached for it, and Jadira's weapon hovered to Skullnight's hand and it broke in two. "Now, you two have made a mess of the mortal world, but I will take you back if you restore it to what it's supposed to be." Dareth stood up, he grinned "I just sent a legion of good men to hell, I helped the darkness to invade my world and I ended up in hell with the people I have slain. It possibly can't get any worse then this, count me in." Karima nodded. "He won't be going anywhere without me. Count me in as well."
Skullknight approached Jadira. "What about you?" Jadira looked up at the mounted warrior. "What about me?" The skullknight unmounted and now stood in front of her. "It's within my power to take one more with me, to the mortal world. Those two will need all the help they can get, paladin." Jadira shook her head. "That face will forever remind of the murderer of my brothers, I can't help." Skullknightâs eyes lighted up green. "You're judging him by his recent actions, and I understand that. However, in his eyes, he was doing the right thing. Beings with endless powers made him look otherwise, he did not slay your brothers, something else did." Jadira was considering things, "What about these wounds I have, wouldn't I die right away if I go back to the world of the living?"
"Will you help them?" said Skullnight again. "But what about..." Skullknight interrupted her, "I will ask you again, Jadira will you help them?" She sighed, I will help them, if it helps making things right. But .don't expect me to.." Skullknight mounted and before Jadira could finish he said:" So be it! You will be sent back." Skullknight pulled a sword from his mouth. "This is the sword of resonance, it can rip holes in dimensions, making it possible to travel from one to another." He drew a circle with the sword, it created a black portal, he pointed at it. Dareth and Karima approached it and went through. Jadira followed soon thereafter.
"Where are we?" In front of Dareth and Karima was a large castle. Four towers and one in the middle. The castle was imposing. "Don't you recognize it?" Jadira appeared, fully unscathed. "That middle tower was where we last fought, slayer." Dareth looked at her. Now he saw what she really looked like. Dareth was awed. She was beautiful. Her blond hair was dancing in the wind. Her bright blue eyes, her lively face, and red lips. She was a little taller then Karima. "My name is Dareth, but if you want to call me that, I understand." Karima looked at the castle again. "Why does it look so different from before, even the woods surrounding it look peaceful now."
"Before we do anything, first let me do this." Dareth got on his hands and knees and kept his head down. "I'm sorry for killing your brothers, sorry for killing your comrades, and I'm sorry for killing you." She turned around. "Your apologies mean nothing to me, you can never make up for what you have done to me. Once this is done, we will be enemies again." Dareth nodded. "Yes, I understand."
"How rude... You better accept his apologies, lady!. Or you won't be seeing any help from my side!" Jadira chuckled. "I don't need help from you, little girl. You two will need my help, not the other way around." Karima got angry. "Why you hrmbl." Dareth quickly covered her mouth. "It's all right, she has all the right to blame us, after all everything died by our hands." Karima nodded. "I suppose you're right, but still."
Dareth broke the silence. "We need supplies and weapons." Karima smiled. "I still have everything." He nodded. "But I don't and neither does she." Jadira looked at her armour. It was dented and ripped open at the back and stomach. "You're right." She removed the chest piece carefully. And suddenly took it all off. "Why are you taking everything off, the rest was still intact." Karima nodded. "I refuse to wear it any longer, it's covered with the blood of my fallen comrades!" Now she was wearing nothing but some thin silken cloth. "Take this, you'll catch a cold like that." Dareth threw his cloak at Jadira. Even though she did not want to take it at first, the sudden cold wind made her realize he was right. She put it around her. "We should head for Woodsworth. It's probably the nearest town from here." Karima nodded. Dareth started walking with Karima next to him. Jadira was walking behind them, still not quite fond of Dareth. It took them a few hours to reach the edge of the forest. They had reached the green hills. "Would you look at that..." Karima pointed to one of the hills. Two horses were grazing. They looked up and saw Dareth and Karima. They obviously liked the two as they immediately ran to them. Dareth smiled. "So they made it." The horses were welcomed warmly by Karima, she smiled and laughed, and both horses received a hug with a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you for waiting for us, my friends." Dareth chuckled. "Don't scare them off now." Karima sticked out her tongue at Dareth and chuckled along with Dareth.