Chapter 23 Emergence Of The Vengeful Afterlife!

[Gallop! Gallop! Gallop!]

The Brilmah’s army was rushing tirelessly to their sovereign’s aid before he could get dominated by their enemies, however, they were too far away to help the situation at this point. They should have just given up and let their king die a gruesome death, he deserved it.

“Hurry up and kill that man before his reinforcement arrived! He must be one of the Brilmah’s ace to attract so much attention from Supreme Commander Kratus!” [Thud! Thud! Thud!]

“Don’t get too full of yourselves, filthy Vagabonds!” [Boom!] King Shuzzon’s unexpected outburst sent a chill into the Vagabonds’ spine which stilled their movements briefly. That bastard took advantage of their stupor to crawl from underneath his collapse horse, moreover, he quickly reached for the holy blade.

“No! Vagabonds! Don’t give him a chance to use that holy weapon again!” I tried warning the Vagabonds before King Shuzzon could fully unsheathe the holy blade. However, because it was my severed head that issued the warning, the Vagabonds were even more surprised when they heard me speaking. In light of this reality, added paralysis was multiplied to their stillness.

This gave King Shuzzon ample time to withdraw the holy sword from its sheathe and brandished its celestial sharpness across the battlefield once more. [Spsssssh!] A vast amount of steam was exuding from my left arm that the bastard king had stolen from my undying corpse and attached to his body. This indicated that he was overheating pass his limits, even so, he continued to brandish the holy sword’s sharpness.

“Wo-ho-ho-ho! You filthy mongrels think you could contend with me! Witness true despair! WAAAAAH!” King Shuzzon began burning his own soul essence to sustain his handling of the holy sword.

“That insane wretch!” I was furious to have come across such a tenacious evil doer. He was willing to sacrifice a portion of his existence to prove to everyone his untameable mettle and expand his legend.

“No! Don’t do it you fool! If you kill those men using the holy sword then everything you love and cherish will be destroyed.”

“You talk too much for a severed head.” King Shuzzon ignored my warnings and proceeded with the slaughtering of the Vagabonds. He drew out more power than he could handle from the holy sword. His body was gradually thinning down all the while giving off increasing steam.

I recognized the celestial blade in his grasp acquiring a burning red tint. The powerful steam that burst from its sharpness when King Shuzzon cut the air encompassed the Vagabonds with a generous embrace. An embrace rife with such warmth and benevolence, it reduced 2,000 Vagabonds to cinders in a matter of seconds. [Fwoosh!]

“KYAAAAAAH!”A bloodcurdling lamentation resounded across the Vagabond War Plain which forced both opposing armies to stand steady in their tracks. The vagabonds were mind blown by the number of warriors they had just lost. The Brilmah’s army was no exception, they were completely flabbergasted by the ominous power that their king had just displayed.

I searched my eye towards the direction of King Shuzzon which had a thick cloud of steam radiating. The heavy downpour quickly calmed the foggy ambience and I was now able to see the cruel man clearly. To my unexpected prediction, King Shuzzon was still standing on two feet, however, his prior strapping physique was now bony as a malnourished corpse. Warm air escaped his mouth which told me he was still alive. When I took a gander at the holy sword resting in the earth beside him, my Eye of Ghost suddenly activated of its volition.

[Rumble! Rumble!] The earth began shaking violently as the bloodthirsty puddle leaked all over reality to the point where the remaining warriors on the Vagabond War plain could also perceive its reflective wetness. The clouds above became darker and more apprehensive. Sometime later, I noticed a blinding light shooting up into the heavens. This blinding brilliance obviously came from the holy sword. The powerful light tore the sky asunder and revealed a crimson celestial body of the moon which attracted the sight of every awakened soul in Bethlia.

“What is that blinding light shooting into the sky?”

“The moon is dripping with blood! How is that possible?”

“What in God’s name! The scent of blood has become so toxic! I can’t properly breathe!” [Cough! Cough!]

“Cover your nose with something! This mist is poi…” [Barf!]

Thousands of men across the battlefield began shrinking to their knees while holding their necks and vomiting their entrails. What caused this was the myriads of crimson spores radiating from the vertical light exuding from the holy sword.

At that moment, a bulky steed rode passed my severed head with such ferocity it actually knocked my head off the wooden spike and onto the mucky ground. It was General Windum who came to King Shuzzon rescue.

“My lord! We have to evacuate from here immediately!” General Windum quickly dismount his steed and ran towards his sovereign with a cotton cloak in his hand. After securing King Shuzzon in the thick vestment, General Windum stowed him on the back of his horse. During the moment of his rescue, King Shuzzon was reaching out for the holy sword as if he was telling General Windum to not leave without it. However, when General Windum tried retrieving the holy sword as his sovereign demanded, the arm which he had tossed towards the radiating sharpness evaporated into steam instantly.

“KYAAAH!” General Windum quickly retracted the remaining parts of his arm then dashed towards his steed and withdrew from the battlefield with King Shuzzon. He didn’t want to linger near this danger zone any longer than he had to.

Because of the warrior’s disarray, my severed head which decorated the mucky surface was being kicked all over the Vagabond War Plain like a rag doll. It was a wild stampede all around me. The Vagabond warriors, as well as the Brilmah warriors, weren’t paying too much attention on fighting each other. Due to the unknown anomaly which was occurring all around them, everyone forgot about their squabbles and did their best to escape to safety with or without their fallen comrades.

[Boom! Boom! Boom!] As the warriors continued their massive disorganize panic of a retreat, I was using the impetus garnered from having my head kicked all over the battlefield to roll towards the holy sword’s proximity. It took me a few tries before I was able to get near the holy sword. Getting there was possible after most of the warriors gathered around me had perished due to the poisonous spores which were turning people into steam by excessive overheating.

When my severed head finally settled a breath away from the holy sword’s sharpness, I witnessed the bloodthirsty moon above giving off a blinding illumination which cascaded all across the vast lands of Bethlia. My vision became amplified in that instant, I was now able to perceive the Vagabond War Plain from a bird’s eye perspective. This was possible due to the spiritual link that I shared with the holy sword.

“Woah! What is all this?” The men below resembled ants to my hawk’s eye vision. I found the chaotic way in which they were scurrying across the battlefield dreadfully interesting.

While I was frightened by the apocalyptic scenery which I was perceiving from above, my evolved gaze made out an impacting large ‘Z’ which encompassed all of the Vagabond War Plain! “Z? Why is there a, Z?” To garner more truth to my awareness, my vision zoomed closer to the proximity of the moon until I was able to overlook all of the vast lands which comprised Bethlia.

What startled me the most was when I recognized more large words spread across Bethlia. Z, E, L, I, A, Z, A. In sequential order these predominant letters spelt the immortal appellation, Azaizel!

This revelation struck me with heightened fear which snapped my evolved sight back to the ground level where my severed head was laying amongst bloody entrails. I remembered the intriguing tale that the elder of my Aigoo tribe had told me about the immortal of the primaeval era who went by the name, Godsend. He bequeathed his beloved, Louloth E. Bethlia with his immortal cognomen after visiting the earthly realm from the celestial providence. The elder said that the immortal name was none other than Azaizel. Whenever this name was revealed to the knowledge of man, an irremissible catastrophe would begin.

Later that night I witnessed the start of the inexorable catastrophe which would later mark the most gruesome period in mankind’s history. I’ve estimated 90% of the inhabitants would perish from the vast lands of Bethlia due to the rapacious natures of the afterlife’s vengeful spirits who were collaborating with the selfish ambitions of man.

“If I, Ludwig B. Aigoo don’t put a stop to this celestial tyranny which had set loose upon the land of man then history won’t even matter anymore because there will be no one left alive to keep records of anything.”

On the 51st day of my bizarre life’s journey, commenced the inception of the dark era known as the Black Death!