Pitch Black Intrusion

I chase after Fortino.

No matter how hard I push myself, he is at ease, walking no faster than a relaxed stride. Every route I take through each hall he’s already there at the other end, far from me. Entering doorways and turning corners, I lose sight of him so quickly.

All of my pursuit leads me into the body of a cold and hollow castle. The sights of the clouded gray skies flow beyond the open windows and white, tired snow gently drifts down from the heavens. Keeping my pace, my breath forms clouds of mist that I cut through as I run after him.

With another fork in the road, I take pause to seek for him. Straining, it takes a handful of seconds to spot him. He keeps his stride as he ventures into a new wing of the forgotten castle. I return to speed and tail him into another stone hallway. All along its length there is a fragile warmth from the flames of the candles lit within.

Through the shattered wall I can see a full moon staring in, watching me as I run to Fortino who opens up the doorway far at its conclusion. That moon is large, larger than any moon I’d ever seen. Its face is clear, its eyes are watchful, its smile is gently encouraging.

I thrust the door open and find myself among fountain streams within an enormous chamber room. The paths of the water are nonsensical, breaking up the stone pathway at the feet into spots and islands. But I refuse to let it halt me for even a fickle moment. I begin to leap across and through all of it as I keep my eyes fixed on Fortino who now ascends the large, luxurious stairs beyond all of the floating floor tiles.

The humidity of the room pairs with the chill of the air and causes my skin to grow frigid. I endure the chill and the feelings of my skin spiking with prickling stings. I hurriedly rush my way up the stairs, anticipating to at last meet with the honorable knight.

Ascended to the next floor, I find an even colder world has been waiting for me. The doors are set with thick and imposing rusted iron bars, every direction comes to a cold stop. He’s there, far away and beyond the bars. He walks beyond them and down the hallway that they front. Soon his dark clothes blend into the darkness misting in the throat of the hallway.

I grip the bars tightly and grit my teeth in frustration. I’ve lost him again.

No other recourse left, I twist around to seek for any other way through but find that I’m mocked as staircase I’d risen is now completely sealed off by the grand rubble that was once the roof overhead.

The moon now stares down at me where I stand and shines its platinum rays in place of the candles that have since extinguished. Its pleasant smiling face has now become anguished. I’m not alone as being a prisoner; it too is held captive in the heavens that have been seized by glittering glass.

I move to the center of the room and give it a once over, still holding out for hope that there’s a possibility for escape. A way to continue after Fortino before I’ve lost my chance to confront him. As I contemplate my predicament, I begin to feel a foreboding sensation of darkness congregating.

Slithering, playing the assassin, I know that something dark bids to catch me by surprise. Behind me, a collection of shadows draws near. Squirming together, writhing until their form becomes manifest. The glowing of violet eyes stares through that darkness which slowly dispels like a mist in the wind.

Encumbering, a massive build that stands taller than me despite its quadrupedal stance. Its forelegs are lined with rigid, rugged claws. The long snout pointing towards me is lined with the most hungry fangs one could imagine. Their fierce edge dripping, starving for my flesh.

A wolf – no – a warg stands in opposition to my campaign. In the arena beneath the imprisoned moon it’s only us.

Standing tall before it, I feel no fear. I only feel a wrath building within me. An offense that it would ever arrogantly fathom itself as great enough to have right to stand before me. My blood begins to boil within me.

I walk to the rusted bars at my shoulder and give it a tug. I refuse to relent until the sound of its breaking pleases my ears. The broken, sharp edge of its end faces forward in my arms, towards my combatant.

“Come and die, Feral.”

A bursting howl whistles to the moon, its upturned head gazing towards its frightened face. Sprinting, I swing for its head and put its cry on pause. The indignation is clear in its eyes as it bares its teeth for me.

It snaps those teeth at my neck but falls shy as I step back and counter its lunge with another blow to its cheek. The swiping claws nearly catch hold of me but I swing my body out of the way and beneath it where the edge of the bar pierces its stomach. I give it a push and it stumbles in the throws of its new pain.

The glow of its eyes stare me down, burning with an even greater hellish hatred. I beckon it to come and settle its fury once and for all. In its dash to exact revenge, it all to late discovers that it’s a failure to its own cause. The bar I was holding is lodged all the way to my hand. Run through beyond its collar bone, its sharp edge is run through its heart.

I grab hold of its jaw which grows slack, too weak to even nip at me, and I push it to the stone floors where it gives its last twitches of life before ceasing in death.

“Yes. This feeling. I know it. This is the feeling I’ve been seeking.”

Interrupting my realization, I catch visual of two creatures breaking through the bars at either of my shoulders. Their borne weapons in hand, the gaunt and peculiar form they carry which mocks humanity comes through the wreckage of the blockade they had demolished. Each dashes towards me with crooked mace and axe alike, following their desires to brutalize me.

“Yes and the feeling of these creatures… I understand.”

The axe comes for my neck and I duck beneath it. Its whistling edge plays on my ears while it is sent by. The mace comes down for my skull but meets with the stone instead. I catch my body into a roll and stand away from them. The memory becomes clear to me, the sensations of their putrid souls is something I know deeply.

“Loveless.”

And then a feeling begins to grow in my chest. Beyond the pain of the scar, a desire I had long fostered but never nursed.

From the moon on high comes a voice ringing so clear. A voice so familiar. I know who speaks the moment their first word spoken.

“You feel it, don’t you? That desire you’ve been waiting to sate.” Speaks Fortino.

The Loveless now pivoting on heel to follow through and assail me are frozen in their motions. Still as statues, their weapons held aloft for bloodshed. I pay them little care, save for the role, they will be playing soon and look up to the moon to answer him.

“I do. This is the feeling we have in common. This is the place our hearts are connected, isn’t it?”

“This is what pushes us forward through these dark kingdoms. It has always been the reason we rise to the occasion. You understand well.”

“Of course I do. This is one of the greatest reasons I became the Celestial Knight. When I was in that sick bed in agony from this scar, this was the darkest desire I’d found in my heart. To make them suffer for that they’d taken from me.”

A smile begins to form on my lips. A curved, sharp smile where I begin to bare my teeth just as the Feral wolf I’d put to sleep before had. I relish in the sensation of that deep joy, that violent glee now staining my soul with a red desire.

“To you, the one who wishes to erase all the evil of Loveless from the world. The one who wishes to kill the Sinners, I give to you my power.”

A shining light descends from the moon. Its glowing radiance is one with its platinum rays and all of the glittering of heaven’s stars are captured and made into a fang. There in the light I reach out to is the key to fulfilling the desire which now thunders in my heart.

So ceases the ray of light to show a sword standing tall. Its blade is made from the very glass of the heavens. The stars line its edge and shine from within.

Nightfall. Fortino’s very own sword made to slay Loveless.

I take it into my hand and train it at the ready for combat while time slowly returns to this hell. The Loveless which bore a mace slowly slides in two where the light of the stars had shone on its skin. I swing the blade and spatter the blood of my dead enemy all across the prison I will be breaking free from.

But not before exacting my wrath upon my final enemy which deludes itself to believe it could ever make it out alive after meeting me.

It twists its head, at a loss that its target had been sorely missed. The edge of its axe had earned a new chip in its face, having smote nothing but stone.

“Come and die, you bastard.” I smile at it, taken in euphoria for the blood that is to come. “I’ve been looking forward to slaughtering you all.”

It lifts its weapon and casts it for my neck once more. A sharp clang sounds as its blade soars away and skitters across the floor behind me. I make another swing and shorten the metal bar it holds further.

It panics before me, having now known the fear of its mortality. The Loveless uses the remnant of its axe as a javelin and as it catches the edge of my sword, it splits into two and glances past each of my shoulders. Next, still having a will to fight, it puts its fists up and prepares itself to scrap with me. But it’s mistaken that I’d ever give a damn.

Its fists come off cleanly and then it comes to feel the sting of my sword barbed through its chest. It can only muster the strength to glance to the shining blade now running through its heart before it falls limp.

“Oh, how cute. You look so tired.” I laugh and flick its forehead.

Putting my strength into it, I cleave the rest of the way up and out, fracturing its clavicle into bits as I speck the prison with its blood. The sensation of the few droplets that had met my face deepen my pleasure to the spoils of a victorious slaughter. I take it all in and the sharp smile fixed on my lips grows.

“Yes, I know this sensation. The feeling of a dead Loveless. The sensation of their blood.”

I stare up at the moon which now smiles down upon me and thank Fortino with my all of my heart for this experience.

An experience I had yearned for but had so forgotten.

An experience I hadn’t realized I had so missed.

“The beauty of a dead Loveless. This beauty I love.”

I extend my arms out to praise this blessing and offer myself to the moon. I close my eyes to meditate on the blood spilled.

“I understand.” I sigh in ecstasy. “This is my true purpose. To murder every last one of you disgusting creatures.”

As I open my eyes, the color of the dawn light illuminates my room. Peering in through the clean glass of the window at my side.

I lay in my bed back at the manor. Awake.

There is a weight on my chest as I lay. I feel the item I hold near and dear to me like a friend finally found. Raising to sit up, I pull its blade from the scabbard and see the shining of stars caught in its glass. The light of the sun is clear to see through its clear surface.