Chapter 16 Holy Sword Uplifted!

“Hah! Hah!” As I struggled to free myself from the celestial blade’s sucking tyranny, my soul essence kept on getting drained from my carcass. Due to this, I was unable to resist the Lure of Death any longer. My sight started to fade and my tensed muscles relaxed. My perilous journey seemed to be nearing its end. I had only a few drops of life left in my body. If the last drop was to be consumed by the holy sword then true terror would be awakened.

I quickly lost the power to fight against my fate anymore. Hence I hung my limbs loosely and let the wind sway them back and forth. I wasn’t content with the daft way of how I was about to reunite with my ancestors, but oftentimes a warrior’s death was unexpected so I didn’t quarrel too much and accepted my imminent demise. When the last drop of life was about to be sapped away from my depleting corpse, I heard Tagon neighing coming closer towards me. I shot open my only eye and glanced up at his spiritual nature.

“Tagon… you came to witness my downfall. I’m so sorry it had to be this way. I tried my best to save you and now look where I’ve ended up. I’ve become an adornment for this bloody sword. Tagon… please forgive me…”

As my last breath started slipping out of my mouth, Tagon transformed his spiritual nature into a breath of life and dashed into my lungs. [Whiff!] I was being possessed by my valiant steed. I was surprised that Tagon would have resorted to such a sacrilegious act just to save my life. I guess we were both similar in that regard. We would do anything to save each other.

[Neighs! Neighs!] After my trusted steed had taken control of my dystopic body, he commanded my ghost arm to grab the hilt of the holy sword then pulled with all his might. [Whoosh!] By using my body, Tagon unsheathed the full likeness of the holy sword. Its keen edges burst through my maimed flesh and aroused a spatter of my blood to rain on No Man's Land. Now there was a large gash present at my torso. No ordinary man would have been able to survive these fatal injuries. It was thanks to Tagon’s soul sustenance why I was still capable of taking breath even though my heart had been ripped out of my chest.

I knew that Tagon’s possession wouldn’t last for long so I opted to toss away the holy blade as far as I could before it had the opportunity of reaping the 10,000th brave soul it needed to be awakened. But the moment I get in position to throw away the celestial sharpness, I felt endless assault of arrows penetrating my already wounded flesh. [Boom! Boom! Boom!]

“KYAAAAH!” A resounding war cry escaped my chapped lips as I fell to my knees and began tumbling down the huge pile of corpses. [Whoosh!] The holy blade slipped out of my grasp along the way down. That was the last thing I remember of being in No Man’s Land.

Day 47……..

[Gallop! Gallop! Gallop!] To my unexpected cognizance, my singular eye opened and began attracting the visuals of light once again. “Am I still alive? How?” I was shocked by this reality. I tried getting up to ascertain my surroundings but I could barely flinch my muscles. My body was being bound by thick metal chains, moreover, I was feeling a rough jerking to my spine. Shortly after, I ascertained that I had been captured. I was being carried off somewhere in a mysterious carriage that had small holes to the sides which allowed mild light of shining through. Not too far from where I was being restricted on the wooden surface, I recognized the holy sword in its unsheathed glory, albeit it wasn’t as bright as it used to be. Maybe because it had been unsheathed from the soil of No Man’s Land. The holy sword was also bound by thick cloths and chain. But unlike the clean chains wrapped around me, the holy sword’s chain had lots of blood soaked over it.

[Gallop! Gallop!] Some horsemen were galloping outside the carriage, my keen earing made out 5 horses followed by an army of hoofs way behind. It was after I’ve eavesdropped on the horsemen‘s conversation outside that I found out who my abductors were.

“General Windum, our king will be pleased with your achievements. Not only have you discovered a celestial relic but you have also managed to seize it for yourself.”

“Don’t talk rubbish, Reingo. I haven’t seized anything for myself. All that is within the carriage is a gift for my sovereign. The holy blade along with that undying man.”

“I understand General. Forgive my foolish sentiment. Anyway, about that holy sword. Didn’t the voice of the deity say that whoever pulled out his sword would become a god amongst man? Does that mean that man inside the carriage has become a demi-god?”

“That would explain his undying nature. However, to be bounded so easily tells me that he hasn’t fully awakened. Something must have gone wrong back at No Man’s Land.”

“Even so, the causality we suffered just to get them into this carriage isn’t light. It took 96 of our men’s life to chain up that damn sword. If we had known it would retaliate so negatively when it isn’t in range of that man, none of our men would have to die so stupidly.”

“Unlocking the mystery of greater powers requires sacrifice. It can’t be helped that those men lost their lives. Even the mystery concerning those men death hasn’t been solved. It seems to me as if the dead claimed their lives.”

“It was rather strange indeed, General Windum. They all just collapse right after the sword escaped that man’s range of 6-stretch-of-men.”

“Which is why we had to take precautions by strapping that sword along with the undying man inside the carriage.”

“But how will our king wields the holy sword’s mighty power when it is somehow linked to that undying man?”

“That I do not know but I trust in the brilliance of my king to figure it out. We’re lagging behind with all this chatting. Hurry your steeds! The kingdom of Brilmah is just around the bend of that mountain. We have to get back before the battle at the Vagabond War Plain dwindles in our enemies favour.”

“Yes, General Windum!”

“Yah! Yah!” [Gallop! Gallop!]

I felt the carriage speed increased as the shaking became more violent. The terrain was a lot smoother than No Man’s Land. By what I heard the men speaking about outside the carriage, they were transporting me to the kingdom off Brilmah as an offering to their ruler. I shimmied myself to a corner of the carriage and began peeking outside the holes. A magnificent castle appeared afield in my vision. It was below my line of sight due to the high mountain pass the steeds were treading over.

“This kingdom of Brilmah is really something. I’ve never laid an eye on such brilliant architectural work before.” The city outer walls were taller than 100-stretch-of-men lined up vertically. There was also a very tall building in the naos of the settlement. That was where the king and his harem resided.

It wasn’t long after the carriage that I was being imprisoned in descended the mountain pass and approached the kingdom of Brilmah’s main entrance with an army of gallant warriors trailing behind it.

“Open the gates!” The king’s liegeman commanded the city guards to open the gates. Shortly after, I heard the loud screeching sound of the large doors coming asunder.

“Keep the gate open until my men have all entered the city! I’m going directly to the king’s residence!”

“As you command, General Windum!” The guards let us into the city without any sort of delay. Our expeditious entry to Brilmah had much to do with the king’s liegeman’s reputation. His credentials were well known throughout the Brilmah kingdom. The common folks referred to him as Great General of the heavens thanks to his massive achievements garnered on the battlefield. I heard he had taken 3,000 of his most trusted men into battle against 12,000 formidable foes and triumphed with only minimal causalities.

General Windum that bastard was the one who gave the order for many acute arrows to be fired into my body. He was also the one who imprisoned me and was now dragging me to his master’s boot heel. The unstable carriage continued to shake irregularly along the stony path leading to the king’s premises. After some time passed, I felt the leading steeds came to a halt and heard General Windum’s gruff voice.

“We’ll stop here for now and see to the cargo before presenting it to the king. I’ll go report to the king’s private courtyard.”

“Then I shall open the back for you.”

These men referred to me as a precious piece of object. I heard them spitting out derogatory words while passing ill-mannered conversation. If I could get my left arm free then I would have taught them some manners. [Creek!] When the carriage’s door opened, I perceived the faces of the men who were tossing insults at me, moreover, I glared back at them. Their rough bristly faces almost paled when they noticed that I was awake.

“General Windum! The undying man has already regained consciousness!”

“What?” General Windum quickly retraced his footsteps to the rear part of the carriage with his sword arm holding tightly on his blade. I heard him told his men not to approach me rashly then he instructed one of his servants to take me out of the carriage.

[Thud!] I crashed into the dusty floor with a rough embrace. These damn servants were so scared of coming into close contact with me, they actually used a long stick to hook onto my chain and pulled me from the blasted carriage. The holy sword was closely intertwined with my chains, hence where they dragged me it went also. This was done to ensure that the blade wasn’t far from my vicinity. However, they couldn’t allow me to use its power which was why they bounded my limbs.

To tell you the truth, I was scared of being so close to the holy sword myself. What if it had decided to finish sucking out the last drop of my essence? I reckon this didn’t happen because something went wrong while the sword was devouring my brave soul, now it wasn’t that much interested in the remaining portions of my broken soul. I could tell that the holy sword desperately wanted to be awakened and for that to have happened it needed to fill its fresh quota of 5,000 brave souls.

What had caused the holy sword to restart its rapacious consumption of brave souls was a rare glitch brought about by Tagon possessing my body with his spiritual nature while I was in close contact with the holy sword. This caused a malfunctioned that mistakenly allowed a lot of vengeful souls to escape, now it needed to refill these missing spots to reach its point of awakening which was at 10,000 brave souls.