The sound of footsteps pierced the pale silence that shrouded the island like a fog, the sounds of metal boots pounding against the ground echoed in the fog
The sun peeked out of the fog a maniacal grin on its face, the sound of boots stopped at the sight of a great tree, and after a soft incantation the fog cleared to reveal 11 knights clad in armour from head to toe,the armour positively radiating energy
And at their middle a man stood there his hair blowing in a non existent wind,a blue coat with the symbol of the royal family on it, his eyes scanning the clearing and with an affirmative grunt he nodded to the knights
Soon after the knights formed a formation about the tree, the man moved to draw a ritual circle in the dirt with a red ink glowing with heat,
After placing a circular object with concentric rings around it at the middle of the circle, the knights knelt and closed their hands in prayer
They prayed to the being who managed to overcome the world by sheer force of will,
they could all feel it.........
The concepts they embodied eating them from the inside out, whispering into their ears, telling them to let go, to leave their mortal shell and become one with them, many had fought but all had lost
Time and time again all fell to the whispers and ascended to become and unthinking concept, some a river of blood others, a flock of crows
But there was he who overcame them
As the incantations continued the island shifted beneath their feets,the grin on the face of the sun slowly turning into a frown, the abbys around the island stirred, motes of sliver leaking out of it
The fog rolled back revealing a scene of nightmares, trees bent at impossible angles, the sunlight seemed to shimmer with sentience and the shadows seemed to dance to their dark tune
The man in the blue coat grunted,a wave of force rolled over the island, the trees snapping to normal as the stones underneath their feet stopped shifting, but the snarl of the sun did not overturn, he had imposed his will upon this place,a will that spoke of truth an unrelenting, objective truth
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Soon the incantations reached a crescendo as the tree in the middle of the formation suddenly vanished, in its place a shimmering line appeared, a division in space, an impossibility and yet it multiplied over and over again until it formed the vague image of a man
They all knew who he was and they all feared and respected him, "bob" the man in the blue coat said to the apparition, the vague figure looked in the direction of the man "sorry but it seems I cannot contact you the way I usually do,I am currently trapped in a labyrinth of sorts" the figure said the knights and the man upon hearing this lost their composure "no need to worry I can escape anytime I wish, they seemed to have underestimated me" the figure said
Regaining composure the man asked "who has the power to do such a thing to a figure like you?"
The figure chuckled and said "they're not from around here, they were fleeing from something,and it seemed it has followed them here, they are desperate, desperate for a new home, they think themselves to have outrun what was chasing them, but I can feel it in the air, the corruption is spreading"
"Is there any chance we might get to speak with this visitors for diplomatic relations?" The man asked
"Sadly, they seemed to be hell bent on taking this world as theirs, they believe they can take the lot of you on and that is by no means a mistake on their path, I shall try my best to locate them and request their help as this is not something we can handle on our own" the figure spoke
The people surrounding the figure felt shivers traveling up their spine "something he couldn't deal with?" They thought to themselves
"I do not know if their whereabouts,but be careful they have set their plans in motion, the firsts have already awoken and with them their spawn, to avert this disaster you must find the child of end and the child of fate" the figure said while holding its hand out
Two cuts marred the space infront of his hands and soon thy multiplied to tens, then to hundreds and to billions, while that was going on, the island quaked and groaned, shadows shifted and the sun grew closer and closer, upon noticing this, the knights each brought out their swords and stabbed them deep into the soil, a 49 meter radius around the stabilizing
Whatever bob was summoning, the island did not want it
Figures made out of shadow and twisted wood crawled out of the forest in droves,disappearing upon getting to the 49 meter mark
By the time the items had been conjured the stabilized space was only 23 meters wide
Stretching his hand, the figure gave the man in the blue coat two compasses, "these will lead you to them" he said, the man nodded as the figure flickered out of existence, as if emboldened by his absence, the figures rushed madly into the clearing
The man calmly pocketed the compasses and said "I beseech the 7 of crows, the unwatching gaze, lend this servant of the crown a hand as the crown did you" suddenly a crow appeared in the clearing, it's black pupils reflecting the image of the knights and the man and as soon as It appeared, it vanished and so did the knights and the man
At the edge of the island, a figure with a bulbous head and a long tail seemed to be struggling with something and after trashing around for a good while it was finally free and jumped down into the abbys, where it had left a hook with a finger stuck in it
lay on the ground................ motionless