Solomon said, “What? The Darkened One?”

The man nodded as he said, “He is invading from underground. A horde of the forgotten tribe has joined him. The ground is shaking. The blackfire is burning. It matches the descriptions given in Nern.”

Solomon slammed his shield into the ground before turning to me and saying, “Are you ready to kill a legend?”

I shook my head as I said, “I’m sorry Solomon, but if anything, I would get in your way. You’ve seen the difference between our strengths. I will stay here and guard the remnant along with the king and pontifex. We can’t risk their lives for glory.”

Solomon nodded before saying to the king, “His words are wise. Do I have your permission to leave then, your highness?”

The king nodded as he said, “Go, immortal saint. Tear that monster asunder.”

Solomon beat his chest with a fist before dashing out of the room, his steps quaking the earth beneath him. As he leapt above the gates, I reached out a hand towards the remnant before grasping the giant gem.

A torrent of souls, larger than the moon and dense as mercury poured through the gem and into my hand. My mind swelled as Deluge consolidated the souls, our minds wary of what comes next. My hand burned like fire as my flesh glowed as the souls channeled into consolidation. No amount of force could rip my hand from the object as light screams echoed in my ears.

Veins of phosphorescent blue crawled up my arm as I grit my teeth and clasped my fists. Imagine containing the world in your hand. My whole arm strained with an equal effort before the souls waned into a light water. As the last souls spilled, a presence large as space and forceful as gravity clashed into my mind.

Our minds warred against one another. The piece of Gaia’s wrestled for control, its every movement like a tectonic plate crashing against my will. The power broke bones and ruptured veins. My hand’s clasped until blood poured from them. My teeth shut until they cracked. Like pushing against a tsunami, I planted the feet of my mind as I braced against it.

Against that behemoth, I stood on the sun. Oppression like the hatred of a father cracked my nails and bruised my flesh. The corners of my conscious groaned as something so unfathomable attempted turning my mind to mush. My skin split. My toes and teeth shattered. My wrists and toes snapped and my feet crumbled. My body dilapidated like a stone weathered by years of rain and wind, yet I endured. I remained. Against this wall of steel, I pushed back, firm as an ironoak.

I measured my mettle. I resolved my might. I chose to stand. I chose to fight. I understood my goal. I understood my pain. I withstood any burden. I withstood any bane. I remembered a dying man’s words as I wrestled for control. ‘I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.’

I carried the sins of my father and the love of my mother. I dragged the undertaking of malignance and the wishes of an angel. As Gaia’s mind faltered, my will only grew. Deluge amplified my strength with his own, our goals clear as air and focused as a wolf’s hunt. The hands I planted on this wall of steel dug deep into the slab of metal before I thundered in my mind, “You are no master of mine. I decide who I am. I decide who I will be.”

With an inexhaustible determination, I grated and grinded Gaia’s will until a fine powder remained. I retaliated against the abyss, my blows solid, my defense hard. All sense of time ceased as I brutalized this god’s mind. Deluge steadied my ravenous and frenzied carnage. He allowed my every effort to concentrate on offense.

With a sudden slip, Deluge swallowed the titan. It fell into the chasm of our subconscious, fusing with the other fragment. As my vision returned, guards stood close around me, their breaths held in their chests. The king glanced with worry, his teeth chewing his nails while the tall knight stood stiff as a corpse.

As I released the remnant, the ashen knight said, “Are you...alright?”

A smile molded with malice and forged in fires of hatred shot across my face, letting loose my teeth that sharpened as I spoke, “I’m hungry, actually.”

As I said so, I clamped my arms onto his before tendrils of meat crawled from out of my skin. Gasps of horror spread across the room as the tails of flesh bore inside, weaving in and out of his armor. The sick, gurgling sound of sucking liquid created gags from nearby soldiers as my body drilled through his eyes and ears and brain.

He died in seconds before Deluge drained the knight’s body from the shell. The sun overhead waned as a cloud passed overhead right as I released the gray knight’s armor. It clanked onto the floor, empty as the eyes that glanced at it. As the empty remnant clapped against the floor, I rolled my shoulders, adjusting to the new sensation of pulsing souls.

Those around understood nothing. They gaped with horror before I grew sharp spikes from my palms. I whipped a hand through the crowd, slicing throats and decapitating several guards. Reality soaked in as the guards panicked. Spears stabbed into my arms and chest and legs, yet I broke their wooden handles before retching acid onto them or impaling them with limbs like moving marble.

Men screamed in agony as I stomped skulls apart and tore guts open. Blood flung around me, a melody of red around the golden trimmed stone. Iron armor crumpled like paper as I caved in the chest plates, spurting organs out every orifice. My blows ripped red as a crimson banner before I stood upon a mountain of carcasses, each ready for eating.

After the carnage, I paced towards the king of Bastion, a sea of blood surrounding me. My own steps caused ripples in the red pools, and in the eyes of the once noble ruler, a madness born from fear refused the sight in front of him.

Dozens of decaying corpses rotted on the ground and across the walls. My hydra skin already absorbed the blood, leaving me clean at the center of this massacre, even though I was the titan who ripped them apart. I wanted to eat what was left of these people, yet I withheld that desire from those around me. Few things estrange a person as quickly as eating your enemy’s remains.

Lavish tapestries carried the colors of Bastion, white and green in honor of their god, Gaia. Twelve gems circled the leaves of a vast tree, and a ring, smooth on the inner edge and spiked on the outer one, encompassed the entire spectacle. The roof above us arched over a hundred feet in height while a gold trim embroidered the white marble that composed the entire spectacle. The large windows allowed light onto the king’s throne at all times of the day, creating an illusion of holy grandeur as long as the sun passed through the sky.

Intimidating the man who sat upon that throne proved far more difficult than I anticipated, yet I never doubted my own talents in that regard. Even before Deluge molded with me, I already owned a savage glint of cruelty. That malice grew over time, and by then, I’d evolved into a rather callous creature.

Drawing from that ruthlessness, I listened to the king’s words without sympathy. He spoke them in a voice intermingled with absolute disbelief and fervorous panic, “What are you?”

I lifted an arm covered in black, scaled skin before a set of burning white talons grew from my fingertips. I grinned with sharpened canines and the slitted eyes of a predator. I growled out in a deep, haunting voice,

“I am the death of your god and the beginning of a new era. I am the Darkened One.”

At that moment, Razor and Aether strode into the castle, their figures daunting as their dim glow. By now, Kade and Solomon fought one another, keeping each other busy as I found the remaining remnant. Aether had paced under the dome with the other forgotten tribe members before regrouping with me here. Razor already pierced through their defenses the day prior. She waited until Aether rose onto the surface before she joined him.

Galen’s betrayal fell right into my open hands. I used the accusation in order to clear doubt, leaving the guards exposed. I used that opening for assimilating the remnants power, and with Krakowah and Solomon preoccupied, not a single soul stood between me and the shard of Gaia.

In essence, the many months of planning coalesced here, at this single piece of time. After staying there, I couldn’t bring myself to run in and murder those present. As twisted as Nelastra, the city of storms may be, I found a home here. I met friends who I’d live my life with. I found family amongst the beauty of this barrier. I wouldn’t spiral into a maelstrom of hatred like Galen or Petra. There was no need for the death of a city. What was needed was a change in leadership.

Deluge and I had already set that separate plan into motion. Solomon and Kade could already be figuring out my plot, so time was of the essence. Killing the guards had been an unfortunate result of my plan, but they’d hinder my interrogation of the king. In their present, pulped state, they amplified the effect of my words rather greatly instead.

So as I finished my pre-planned one liner, the words left my lips with a strange impact. On one hand, the king paled at the declaration, yet on the other, a colossal golem stood in silence while the queen of razor’s floated overhead and giggled. Aether’s hands jostled back and forth. He struggled just seeing the sight around him. On the other hand, Razor reveled in the carmine and carnage, so she giggled, exposing her inhumane character.

Maintaining my act, a light smirk formed on my own face before I leaned closer and said,

“Now tell me, where is the remaining remnant of Gaia?”

The king’s eyes darted around, hoping, praying for escape and finding none before he said, “Is that why you’ve come here?” Accepting his death, his eyes hardened before he hissed, “Do you intend to kill our people then our god?”

I laid my face in my hand for a moment before I lifted my face towards his. As I did so, I said, “What is it that you want?”

The king glanced around in confusion before I continued speaking, “I ask as a form of insurance. You see, the best way for ensuring someone’s compliance involves knowing what they hold dear. In your case, I may guess at a few of the more important pieces.”

I lifted a hand out towards my side, glancing towards my claws as I said, “On one hand, you care for your own life and the life of your guards I’m sure. The guard’s lives served as an example of my potential for destruction. Your own life may be bargained for yet.”

I clasped the hand into a fist as blood coagulated on my fingers while my claws retracted. I said with my tone both cruel and adamantine, “Refuse me and I will kill each of your relatives in a wave of carnage your empire has never seen, and in the wake of my massacre, your precious empire shall fall and collapse, along with your lineage.”

The old man’s face paled as drops of sweat dripped down his forehead. After I gave him a curt moment of deliberation, I snapped, “Then this is the end of Bastion-”

He shouted, “No, no...I’ll tell you. Just...please, leave my family out of this.”

In order for someone’s resistance to crumble, all you need is equal parts of danger and the unknown. Sporadic, random changes in attitude throws anyone off balance, leaving them manipulatable, so I raised an eyebrow as I said with a serene calm, “I’ll leave you alive as well if you just give me what I want.”

He blinked for a moment before he spoke with disbelief pouring from his words, “You would spare me?”

I grinned as I said with a near familial warmth, “I’m not quite as cruel as your religion would believe I am. I’d rather not kill you.” My amiable smile transformed as the light in my eyes dimmed while my smile warped until a crooked grimace. With a voice like ice, I said, “Though the proclamation of before still stands.”

His eyes glanced around at my companions before he closed his eyelids, and after deliberating for a second, he said without opening his bloodshot eyes, “The remnant is within a crypt underneath Saint Jericho’s chapel. You’ll find it in the catacombs.”

As he finished his words, a spark of realization caused the hairs across my skin to bristle while a smile encompassed my face. This smile carried no warmth, however. The smile carried a heated hatred that boiled beneath my skin like magma. The smile carried the suffering of souls and the might of madness. The expression opened my eyes far too wide while the sharpness and number of my teeth made my face both inhuman and sinister.

With the king gasping in horror, I turned towards Aether and Razor as I said, “It appears as though the Arcanum is lying to Joan.”

The king squinted his eyes as he said, “What?”

I reached out, stabbing my fingers up and through the bottom of his jaw until they reached out his eyes sockets. His death came faster than he could comprehend. I stood, his body dragging on the ground while stuck on my fingers, so I shot my arms sideways. As the king’s corpse landed, his cooling meat clapped against the stone.

Aether gasped, “I can’t understand...How can you murder so easily?”

I frowned as I glanced at the ripped out face of the king, pooling black blood around him. I said, “It’s something that takes a piece of you, at least at first. But after a few times, you’ll have nothing left. You become broken and numb and null, like some walking, breathing void.”

The words rung like sound through a hollow room before Razor wrapped around me while saying, “You feel delicious. Nothing like what you spoke of earlier.”

I rolled my eyes before pushing her from me with a smile spread across my lips. I replied, “Appearances can be deceiving. Come now. We must find the last remnant.” I picked up the remnant’s remains before Aether picked me up with Razor before saying, “Let’s rid ourselves of this place.”

With his explosive strength carrying his feet, Aether shot towards the wall as wind drug my eyelids and cheeks open. In a stop just as sudden, I smashed into the edge of his body before he said, “Where am I going?”

I pushed my bruised face from him before I mumbled, “To the outer ring of the palace. It’s in the newest chapel on the northern side.”

Aether nodded before colliding through the wall with the ease of tearing bread. A bombardment of tiny rocks brushed against me before we rose above a cloud of dust. Inertia pulled and pushed from every side as Aether moved across Nelastra, eyes pinned on us. Not a soul believed the sight. The strongest golem carrying a saint wrapped in a vas queen, running around, looking through churches. We looked like a sandwich of unbelievable sights.

After peering through a dozen buildings, we reached a short, stout building with claret colored windows. The dull gray of the lead lined around the doors and windows, accentuated the blackened stone. The white mortar popped in your sight from between those bricks. A small set of low lying stairs led up to the cherry red of the finished doorway. Every surface sheened with a pristine polish.

So far, finding a new building had proven arduous. It turns out, the barrier keeps the buildings within Nelastra well maintained since it casts a shield against the elements. How do you weather stone without wind or rain? You cannot, so only slight scratches from human error indicated a building's age.

No scratches lined this small building. The chapel felt fitting, like a warm meal in winter while wearing your favorite mantle. I deserved no more for what I would do there.

After cracking open the door, I found a well with three doorways behind it. Two doorways lined the sides of the room like guards while the central stairway led downstairs, into the catacombs underneath the chapel. Gems of orange lit the inside room, the welcome warmth of fire opals lighting the room.

Scents of earth, water, stone, wood, and grit filled the nostrils, as if in a cave full of lumber. Cedar and lavender sat still in the air, their oils spread all throughout the room. After passing through the darkwood pews, Razor and I leapt from Aether’s back before walking down the steps. The door swung open, no noise present due to well oiled hinges.

A dark blue ebbed from several sets of lit lapis lazuli. Tombs lined up and down the chapel, each of them carrying a corpse. Carved on their tops was an embodiment of Gaia, her long hair streaking down the sides of her closed, gentle eyes. Her circle lined around her shoulders, and inscriptions etched on their sides.

Dozens of names of different tribesmen lined these tombs. They’d created tombs for each of the forgotten members sealed here. The palisade tried remembering their sacrifice by putting their bodies under the ground and surrounded by stone. It was a pretty thought, but nothing more. The family's wept at their missing member still. Those they loved would never know of this remorse. Even with thousands of these graves, how did that help the tribes? In any meaningful, tangible way?

So the heartfelt gesture sung to deaf ears, besides for Aether. He stopped advancing towards the back wall as he laid a hand on a tomb while saying, “These tombs are of the those that died to the palisade. This...” He squeezed his hand tight. “If this doesn’t mean anything, then what does?”

I sighed before walking beside him and pulling the top from the tomb. A bundle of hearts pumped at the center of the pit, viens diving into the rock around them. Different half formed organs jiggled with each beat of the heart. The slimy texture of the organs created a thick humidity in the air, and the scent would make a gravedigger gag.

Claws of all kinds twitched of the walls, each spike scrambling without purpose. Eyes glanced around, some locking on us, others on the lights around. As an arm scraped the side of the grave, a deformed mouth spit red mist from itself as it choked. After coughing several times, the side slit opened as a weak voice as weary as atlas gurgled,

“Help...me...”

Aether stepped back as he murmured gibberish in horror like a scared child. Growing ten sharpened talons from my fingertips, I pierced the top of the creature before slicing across the poor thing’s entire body. I gave that abomination the healing help of death as I minced the inside of that coffin until only a pile of mushy blood remained, like pulped juice.

In an instant, Aether spoke with his voice like broken glass, “Why...why did they do this.”

I absorbed the mush through my hand as I seethed, “Some say for god. Others, for evil.”

A bitter and grim and oppressive scorn pulsed in my chest as I beat my heels into stone. I reached a plate of diamond with another hollowed diamond over it. It radiated at the back of the room. Underneath, the iridescent glow of a remnant colored the hard gemstone in a mixed melody of colors. I palmed the top off, shooting the hallowed diamond across the room.

The energy of the remnant flowed outward, bathing all of Nelastra in its corrupting aura, but I let the spill occur for only seconds. With hatred in my heart and ire in my veins, I smashed my hand into the stone. Deluge devoured the souls, consolidating with a hungry anger as I readied my own will.

I compressed my mind into a blunt hammer of might. As the souls cleared, the remnant of Gaia charged into me once more. However, I met its charge this time. I swung the hammer of pure human right into Gaia’s will like a wooden club cracking the back of a skull. The magnitude of the assault created rifts across the behemoth, its will already waning. I growled my words like an eruption,

“Succumb, corrupter of worlds. I am your end and this world’s new beginning.”

And so the darkness I swallow, drinking dark ichor bled black. Unlike the remnant of before, no battle took place. Instead, the sounds of slaughter tore and squelched like a bull’s butchering. I vulcanized in the blue fire of brimstone. I galvanized in the thunder of Baldowuh. I drenched in wrath and bathed in spite.

For the first time, I unleashed the evil anger lying dormant in my soul. All the contained rage ruptured like smashing a bottle of thunder, wind, and rain. The shock shook Gaia’s mind to its core, preventing any meaningful retaliation. Within two minutes, another remnant lay dull and dead and desolate.

After absorbing yet another leviathan of a conscious, I knees collapsed as I fell to the floor. The ground shook, and my head rang like a bell just struck with a sledgehammer. My vision blurred and each breath pressed on my chest, pushing me down like lead. Hunting for relief, I pressed my face against the cool rock beside the remnant, letting the icy cold bleed into my face.

After several minutes, Razor floated beside me before saying, “Are you alright?”

I blinked several times, my vain attempts at clearing the thick haze over my eyes resulting in an opaque vision. I took all my exhaustion and sighed it out, and I pushed myself up afterwards. My hands shook while cold sweat dripped down my chin. My ankles wobbled before I bit through the inner lining of my lip.

A searing, clarifying pain cleared my mental fog before I shook my head and said, “I’m alright. I just needed a moment.”

Aether walked over as he said, “You do not seem fine. Not in the slightest.”

I said, “No really, I’m fine.”

Agony erupted in my head as a blood vessel burst. For a few seconds, I grimaced, completely paralyzed by the sensation before Deluge healed the wound. Noticing my sudden pause, Aether said, “You are not fine. You need to rest.”

I screamed, “I will never rest.”

Aether lowered his gaze before I reeled in my wrath. My speech littered with gasps as I said, “I...I’m sorry. I’m just rather short of temper...right now. You and I both know...no one else can do this. I have to get all of them...I’ve worked too hard and too long to give up now.”

Aether reached out a healing hand as he said, “You will lose yourself if you continue.”

I snarled, “I already have. I’m a walking shell, not a man. Let me stumble my own way at least.”

Aether lowered his hand, scathed by my words. After a moment, he said, “I wish I could help you.”

I walked past him and up the chapel as I said, “No one can help me now.”