Only the Dead Wallow in Self Pity

CURRENT TIME:

'Where am I?' 

'It's cold here.'

Darius could hear his own heartbeat slowly fading. Then it came to a halt. And a new beat replaced the original one. This one was rapid and very loud. The rapid beating brought a painful feeling to his chest. For a moment he felt like vomiting up every part of his guts. Then it flowed all to his head. He saw many visions at once, flooding his mind with too much information he knew nothing about. And a question crossed his mind.

'Am I going mad?'

 The slight thought that him, of all people, could be losing his sanity would have terrified him to the bone, but right now he had no time to be thinking of such shallow matters as madness. For what he saw next would be even more worrisome.

 He saw an opening where a white light was permeating from. Then two stretched hands made of light, appeared from the bright white light, but all he could see was a star-shaped movement that seemed to have replaced where the body should be. Nevertheless, it still stretched onwards. Fingers started sprouting from the hands. And then this transformation continued to its whole body. Now he could see its full glory entirely. 

It was a woman.

But what felt wrong about all this is the fact that he actually knew who it was. He has never met this woman, yet he knew everything about her. It's like he had read her entire life from a neverending book. It felt wrong to know all of this.

Instead of trying to understand why he knew of her, he found himself moving forward and landing a soft hug on the woman. Then on his face tears could be seen. The woman in front of him raised her head up. Her long dark hair endlessly growing, and coiled itself around the two of them, into the shape of a cocoon.

Inside it, he could see the face of the woman. It was quite pale, but felt like it was powdered up. Of all the features on her entire body, only the face did Darius feel very concerned over. He has never been acquainted with this woman before, yet he still felt sorry for her. Then it slipped off his mind:

"What a sad life to have lived as a consort to a dead lord."

This statement shook him as well. He didn't know why he thought of it at all. For a time it seemed like someone else had taken over his thoughts.

He stood in silence at first, but brushed it aside after nothing else happened. And then he stared at himself. For the first time since he appeared here. He hadn't even realized that he had no physical form below his waist. It was as if he was slowly forming from nothingness.  

Before he could question this, he heard a faint whispering sound. He immediately stared back at the woman. For a moment, nothing happened. He waited again, this time deep in hearing. As a former king of a nation, he isn't that naive to close off his ears. Then it flew by his hearing range, and he caught it this time. It was a plea. A plea from someone who wishes to be set free. 

At first he thought nothing of it, but then the woman stretched her hands and caressed his face, slowly. At this point Darius saw the woman's eyes. Although she hadn't being talkative as much, Darius could tell everything she wished to say from those teary eyes alone.

The plea was directed at him, and he felt it to be something he would gravely hold onto with utmost importance in the future.

Within the many memories he is getting from this place, one shattered his mind in a harsh realization. And he lashed out to the woman.

"You bitch!

Why..., you bastard?!

You're the one who traded your life for your dead lord. Who the hell gave you the permission to trade mine as well?!" Darius planned to release his entire 'many layers' of hatred on the mysterious woman, but sadly for him, his time was already up.

Darius felt his body pulled into the center of the cocoon, slowly merging with the woman, he was lushing out on just a while ago. This continued until the cocoon was the only thing left of them. Then a burst of energy formed from the cocoon, and a flower blossomed on it. And after all the light dispersed itself, only Darius remained.

Darius Seinfeld's POV:

"What is this? Where am I?"

Darius looked around utterly confused at his environment. The light had long dispersed and he could now see some figures surrounding him. All of them were of feminine nature. He wanted to ask them questions, but he screamed in pain instead. All the information he had gained from the cocoon seemed to take action against him. He could feel himself reliving each of those memories.

It was only a short manner of seconds, but to Darius it felt like years of someone's life. At the end he fell to the ground, covered entirely in sweat. Panting aloud, same as his heartbeat, fully exhausted to talk. He strained a bit, and then spoke at last:

"Vesnia."

Darius started coughing up uncontrollable, then came the vomit. He vomited everything that was in his stomach, and was left in immense pain. But this pain didn't last long before vanishing as fast as it came. After which Darius finally woke up from the ground, and stared ahead.

He focused on the anonymous people who were in front of him. He could see their faces covered in bloody tears, even while covered in dark cloaks. Most had fainted from what seemed to be a ritual. Even though they seemed dead, he could still feel the faint vibrations of their heartbeats.

'Who are these people? Are they with the Church of Night and Day?' Darius wondered to himself. But then questioned even more. 'What do I mean, by a church?'

Then came the hemorrhoids, this time they weren't as strong as before. He was even laughing at the pain, thinking that he had conquered them. But then found himself a clown for laughing at his own pain. Then came the knowing silence.

'I know these people.' He thought to himself. He wondered for a bit, before adding: 'Are these Vesnia's memories?' He felt a bit irritated for knowing the answer to this question, but tossed it aside. He stood glaring at the group around him. In truth they were all of feminine nature, but he knew some of them weren't always soo feminine. Some had gone through a blasphemous transformation and formed a feminine body. So most of them were male in female bodies.

He knew exactly why this happened. 'To overcome the corruption of their decaying dynasty, the children of the dead virtuous Lord of Storms, had no choice but to convert to another deity; One who holds a Transcendent Dynasty that could hold their entire population. And the deity with these factors, and closest to the previous Lord of Storms, was the Formless Mother. This change in dynasties also changed their body form as well.' He sighed knowing all too well why he was summoned into this world. It was a summon by the previous Lord of Storms, through the Mystifying Castle.

'But I wonder as of why my form hadn't changed? I'm still as masculine as I was.' He could see it in his hands and chest area. Nothing on him felt feminine. But also nothing of this form felt the same as his old body. 'So where did this body come from?' He knew Vesnia was a woman, in originality she was a man before the blasphemous transformation. But this body wasn't similar to the one in Vesnia's memories before the change. This was an entirely new body.

"I'm sorry to intrude on your valuable marvel, but we have no time to waste on such minor frivolous thoughts." Darius was interrupted. It was an older woman far back. This woman, her cloak was down, only the long cape was up. She had golden locks put well over her head. She was completely covered in a white cloak, underneath she wore red clothing, but it was too hidden to tell of it all. But of all of her glamour, Darius felt uncomfortable from how much miasmic essence she was releasing out of her body.

"Liandra." Darius called out. That was the name Darius thought off. He knew exactly who this woman was. And he knew she was going to be trouble.

"This is quite thrilling." Liandra spoke out to Darius. "You survived it. Vesnia was a lost soul, now she has found her calling. To say she has revived the last embers of the Lord of Storms, and yet not succumb to the corruption, is a somewhat blasphemous miracle." Liandra laughed out in vigor, then slowly added:

"And as of Lord Darius. A man of your status must feel prideful for surviving such miracle. For many have fallen before you. But that pride is to end in such a world as this. You'll find out that death feels like a mercy gifted." 

Darius stared at Liandra and smirked. "I have nothing to say to you Sinning Witch. For as long as I'm alive, I shall not grief or face regret. For only the dead wallow in self pity." 

Darius looked back at the rest of the group and calmly added:

"As Liandra has spoken of. If we are to make it to Bastion - Selia, before the winter solstice, we have no time to waste." Darius locked eyes on the ones who were sailing the large ship they were standing on, and gave them a nod to proceed with the journey back to Selia. For they had stopped for the ritual.