Chapter 14 Lure Of The Dead

“Who’s next? Get in line!”

Many more strong men came after Balrog who attempted to prosper where he had failed, nonetheless, they suffered the same gruesome fate. Only dried husks remained of their noble valour.

“Is this how the holy blade operates?” I thought to myself. “Those who weren’t worthy of unsheathing it from the ground wouldn’t get a second chance at life only a swift death. Could no one really withdraw their grasp from the holy sword unless their essence was totally consumed? Is unmitigated power really that difficult to attain?”

I began second-guessing myself, moreover succumb to trepidation the closer I got to the celestial blade. Only 3 more men were left in front of me to test their mettle against the holy sword. I had to maintain a stable balance to my malnourished form so that I wouldn’t slip from atop the mountainous pile of corpses.

“KYAAAAH!” Another terrible scream sounded couple paces ahead of me. I witnessed the repugnant depletion of another valiant warrior’s essence. Was no one really able to pull out this holy sword?

Finally, the line moved up and it was now my turn to test my mettle. As I stood there breathless before the celestial artefact, many eyes were fixedly staring at me with weak expectations. This was especially so due to my bony constitution brought about by excessive starvation.

[Thud! Thud!] I took small steps towards the blinding sharpness while desperately trying to still my fears. My throat was lacking essential moisture thus I was unable of taking frightful gulps. The seismic palpations of my heart almost crippled my entire body. All over my character was a violent pulsation of terror. Terror more turbulent than that of the pale witch.

I reach out my right hand to grab the hilt of the holy blade but hesitated. My shaking hand was veritably scared of interacting with the holy object. My skinny legs wanted to retreat to safety, however, the lure of Terror was such a frightful beast that it forcibly wrapped my body with an unwavering chain which compelled me to not flee.

I tried to strengthen my resolve by reassuring myself as to why I was attempting this dangerous act. “Yes, this was all for Tagon’s sake. To save his life I wouldn’t mind offering up a piece of my soul. With that being said, if I fail then I will die along with my horse.” I was sure that Tagon wouldn’t want for me to die for his sake, even so, I was willing to take this life risk for I wasn’t ready to part ways with him yet.

“On the bright side, at least if I succeed then I could become a living god.”

I tried focusing on the positive side of things. Without realizing how much time had passed by, I was drowning in an unsettled ocean of thoughts which garnered some insults from the spectating audience.

“Hey, string bean! If you are not going to doing anything then piss the hell off already!”

“Yeah! Get your scrawny ass down from there if you are too damn scared to die!”

“Where did that weak-looking man come from? With a thin body such as that, he’s sure to die a miserable death.”

“No doubt he had a horrible upbringing and only wishes to end his life suffering by testing his luck against the holy sword in the hopes of succeeding. Just look at his malnourished feature. I can see the outlining of his rib cage all the way from down here.”

“Ha-ha-ha-ha! What buffoon that scrawny man is! Hurry and kill yourself already so that I can have my chance at godhood!”

Myriad of unscrupulous insult were being tossed my way, many demanded me to go to hell. Because of the increasing pressure, I decided to touch the holy sword and get it over with. Whether I live or die, I left it up to fate.

“Here I go!” [Grab!] I latched my sword arm around the celestial relic’s hilt. Immediately I found myself standing in a bloody puddle of dead remains. My keen vision wandered around the strange environment, trying to ascertain what sort of realm I’ve been transported into. Everything around me was dark save for the endless stretch of puddle underneath my trembling feet. The puddle was very clear except for a certain area around my proximity. That portion was of crimson nature which continually followed closely to my footsteps.

I strongly felt that my sword arm was still gripping tightly on the holy sword but within that bizarre realm, I saw nothing of its celestial presence. [Thud! Thud!] I advanced a couple more paces throughout the light wetness while being extremely vigilant. My strides were steady and laborious, the deeper I went inside the bizarre realm I found it more difficult for me to lift my legs. It was as if the puddle itself was sucking me underneath.

“What is this ghostly place?” My cracked voice echoed in all respects of the darkness and reverberated throughout the bloody wetness below me. Later on, I noticed an obtrusive ripple forming the mysterious clear puddle. A blinding sharpness began revealing itself.

“Is that the celestial sword? No, something is different about it.” What I witnessed appearing in the bloodthirsty puddle closely resembled the holy sword. No, it looked exactly the same except for the bottom portion which possessed a lot of jagged curves along with baleful dark tint and eye-catching decorations.

“This must be the lower half of the holy blade that is currently stuck underneath No Man’s Land.”

The moment the eerie view of the celestial sword fully comprised my vision, I understood right away the inner workings of what was taking place. A lot of inexplicable information was flooding into my mind without my consent. I knew not where this knowledge was coming from. All I knew was that my awareness was being expanded.

The celestial deity that was rumoured to have descended from the heavens and offered its benevolence by bestowing man with a challenged of obtaining great power if they managed to unsheathe the holy sword was all but a duplicitous farce.

The true intentions of the deity, Azaizel who had graced the earth with his presence was of a sly nature. He had no intention of bestowing man greater power nor transforming the chosen one into a god amongst man. His holy blade was set in place to reap the essences of 10,000 brave souls who would fearlessly tackle death to gain greater strength. The moment the required quota was achieved, the Lure of the Dead would encompass the vast lands of Bethlia and reap countless more souls until nothing remained.

[Whoosh!] Ancient Knowledge kept flowing inside of me. The reason why this deity Azaizel employed such sneaky tactics was that he was bound by Natural Order of Divinity which prevented him from altering the course of humanity directly. By trusting an almighty sword into the ground and luring in the masses by promising them great power didn’t fully breach the Natural Order of Divinity. With this, inadvertently man would doom themselves of their own volition.

And it just so happened that I was the 10,000th brave soul who had embraced the holy blade with the intention of seeking unparalleled strength to save my dying steed. If my soul essence was to be completely swallowed into this puddle of bloodlust then all of humanity would come to know the source of true terror.

“No! I can’t let this thing awakened!” [Splash! Splash! Splash!] I began running around the dark puddle with frantic footsteps, desperately trying to find an escape route from this bizarre realm. While searching for a way out, I felt my sword arm being dipped into an infernal furnace as the pain continued to spread.

“AHHHHH!” My loud lamentation resounded from the peak of No Man’s Land. The pile of corpses trembled beneath my feet. The air-waves became so turbulent, it caused the men lined up behind me to falter down the husky mountain. This came as a shock to the Brilmah’s king liegeman for I heard his sonorous voice echoing all of a sudden.

“What’s happening? Why is that man creating such an uproar! No Man’s Land had never received such a violent earthquake before. Could he be the chosen one to lift that blade from its sheath? Archers! Get in position! Fire the moment you see that holy sword in all its glory!”

“Yes, sir!”

“AAAAAH!” As the holy blade continued to reap my soul essence, I identified multiple bowmen gathering on the elevated platforms which were on par with the mountainous corpse height. I could tell that they were planning to shoot me down if I ever managed to pull out the holy sword from the ground. Of course, they would employ such tactics. I reckon the king’s liegeman wanted the blade for himself. Why else would he have come to No Man’s Land with his personal army which was supposed to be fighting in a war? Not only did he not attempt to test his might against the holy sword directly; he sat back and observed the proceedings as countless corpses fell to create a mountain.

“Huh!” Somehow I had snapped back to reality without realizing it. However, a part of my consciousness was still inside that eerie realm. At least that was the sensation I was receiving. When I glanced down at my sword arm I noticed that the burning red tint already crawled up to my bicep. If it were to consume me wholly then I would become a mindless puppet to the Lure of Death.

I struggled greatly to free my arm from the holy blade’s captivity, I tugged as fiercely as I could but to no avail. “Alright, then how about this.” I reached for my long knife which was sheathed behind my back in the hopes of cutting my arm free. But when I swung around the knife aiming to chop off my sword arm, some mysterious force compelled me to toss away the blade.

“NAAAAAH!” I fell to my knees while screaming out in utter despair. I lost all thought of struggle and accepted my imminent death. “Sorry, Tagon. I failed you.”

[Neighs! Neighs!] It was in my moment of disparity when I heard my steed’s ferocious neighs and gallops. Glancing to my left, I was appalled to capture a distinctive image of Tagon soaring towards me. “How is this possible?” I thought to myself.

Seconds later, Tagon crashed into my volatile frame with such brute force, it tore off my sword arm from the holy blade and knocked me several stretch-of-men away. [Boom! Tumble!] Due to the brutal impact I lost consciousness immediately.