[RAW]Dark Exodus -- Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I awoke in a dry, arid chamber.  Somewhere, I could hear a cold wind blowing.

Blinking dirt and grit out of my eyes, I sat up.

An ancient, crumbling teleportation pad rested below me.  The brown stone was filled with cracks and fissures; I was shocked it had even worked.

“Must be an abandoned pad,” I muttered to myself as I spat out some grit.

The teleportation pads were a relic of an early age.  Spread across the world, Yulon, they allowed people to move huge distances in a single leap.  City states and kingdoms had grown up around them, becoming centers of commerce and transportation.

Wherever I was, it appeared to have been forgotten, which suited me fine.  I had countless enemies across Thure, not just Marcus and the Alleria Kingdom. The farther I was away from them, the better.

The room around me was as old and decrepit as the teleportation pad.  Illumination came from enchanted crystals, which glowed with the last dim vestigates of power.  If I remember correctly, those kinds of lights were meant to last for thousands of years.

There were statues along the edges of the pad, depicting bowed, shrouded figures.  I didn’t recognize them, which I took as another good sign.

I was just about to stand and leave the room when I felt a rough tug. It gripped around my heart, pulling me back.

Turning, I saw the cursed sword sitting on the pad.  The blade growled again.

“Right, can’t leave you behind, can I?” I snarked.

When I had been the Alleria Kingdom’s Hero, Marcus and his family told me I could never leave the sword behind, that I had to carry it with me everywhere. They claimed that its magic protected me from assassins and cultists, all the forces of evil arrayed against us.

That, of course, had been another fucking lie.

With True Sight, I could see the dark tendrils binding me to the blade.  They appeared like spectral chains, stained in blood like the sword itself.

Picking it up, I sheathed it across my back.  I had no idea how to deal with my Cursed status, or how to separate myself from the blade.

Exiting the teleportation chamber, I realized I was in some kind of ancient temple.  More statues ranged around me, arranged in huge tiers that rose toward the ceiling.  Cold rays of sunlight punched through the holes in the slanted ceiling, revealing the desolation that had claimed the structure.

“Glad I packed food and water,” I said to myself, before shaking my head.

It took me a while to pick my way across the room, climbing over fallen columns and broken statues. As I did, I looked for signs that could tell me where I was, but there was nothing.  Time and exposure had destroyed any papers or books that had been left behind, and the murals painted along the walls had faded to gray, incomprehensible images.

My World Walker passive granted me the ability to instantly understand any language of Yulon, but it was clear there weren’t any clues around telling me where my reckless escape had taken me.

There was a massive door at the end of the room.  The stone slab was ajar, and cold, clear light shone in from outside.

I was only a few feet from the door when something hissed at me from the shadows.

“Really?” I sighed, unsheathing the sword from my back.

Two rat-like, twisted creatures appeared to block my path.

Kobold Warrior Lvl 42

Kobold Scavenger Lvl 39

The Warrior was carrying a primitive stone ax, while the Scavenger bore it claws.  Both were wearing simple armor made of cloth and tanned hide.

I leveled the blade. “Get out of my way.”

The Kobolds blinked, clearly understanding my words.  But rather than listening to my suggestion, they both charged. I guessed they didn’t have Analyze and didn’t realize the massive level disparity between us.

Not that I would spare them.

I hacked the sword through the Scavenger’s outstretched arms. The cursed blade easily sliced through flesh, and bone.

Twisting, I allowed the Warrior to hit me across the shoulder with his ax.  The stone weapon broke against my pauldron. I drove my elbow into his gut, feeling bone shatter at the blow.

He was thrown prone, rolling across the floor.

The dismembered Scavenger tried to get up, but I stabbed him through the skull.  The sword shrieked in triumph as the creature died.

Without thinking about it, I called upon Blood Drain.  Blood rose from the corpse and flowed toward me.  The crimson energy flowed into me.  My HP was full, but the stolen vitality restored my stamina, empowering me.

I took a deep breath, enjoying the sensation.

When I had been under Marcu’s control, he had hidden that Skill away from me, denying me its usage since it would have ruined his ruse.  But free from his control, his lies, I had decided to use my Skills to its fullest.

The surviving Kobold wheezed.  Blood flecked its snout; when I had shattered its ribs I must have punctured a lung.

I crouched by his side.  “I can make your death quick. Just tell me where I am.”

“Fuck you, human!” he spat, his words sibilant and harsh.

I shrugged. “Your choice.”

Rising, I plunged the sword into his chest.  He squirmed, pinned in place, as the cursed blade drank in his suffering.  The ruby glowed brighter and brighter, until the Kobold’s struggle finally ended.

“You enjoyed that, huh?” I asked.

From the depths of the gem, an eye appeared. The pupil was a black slit, completely inhuman.

The sword shook in my grip. Whatever was trapped in it was awake, and it was angry.

“Right, might as well get this out of the way,” I said as I stepped outside.

The sunlight was blinding.  It took me a few moments to find my bearings.

I was standing atop a step pyramid.  A rough staircase led down to an endless, gray sand desert that stretched out in all directions.  Snow blew across the dunes, grit mixing with frost as a remorseless wind howled.

In the distance, I could make out more pyramids, but they looked as abandoned and broken as the one I had emerged from.  There was no sign of civilization.

“Whelp, I could have ended up somewhere worse,” I admitted.

The sun had jumped across the sky, making it late afternoon. Wherever I was, I was sure I was nowhere near the Alleria Kingdom, let alone Thure.

I wouldn’t be able to witness the downfall of my enemies, or hear about the death of Marcus and the other royals, but that was a small price to pay for my freedom.

The sword shook in my grasp.

“Right, right,” I grumbled.

There was a small plaza at the top of the stairs.  Walking to the edge, I planted the sword in the stones.  The eye within the gem regarded me with open hostility as I stepped back, then took a seat.

“My name is Theodore Brask,” I announced.  “I was born on Earth, a different world, a different reality. Those assholes in the Alleria Kingdom kidnapped me.  They summoned me from across time and space, ripping me away from my home, to be their Hero.”

I had been fourteen at the time.  One minute I was asleep in my bed, the next I was in another world, surrounded by wizards and knights.  Marcus had come forward and greeted me, proclaiming I was the prophesied Hero, the one destined to save his homeland.

That’s when the brainwashing must have begun.

“They handed me a sword – you, I guess – and claimed your name was Escalon, the Holy Sword of their goddess, Alleria.”

The cursed sword howled in rage.

“Yeah, figured you felt that way,” I replied.  “I’ll cut a long story short.  I spent the next sixteen years as the Alleria Kingdom’s champion. They told me I was a Hero, that I was defending their people against monsters and demons.”

In truth, I had been slaughtering enemy soldiers, men and women just defending their homes. My obscenely high level was thanks to the sheer number of people I had killed. Most professional soldiers only hoped to reach level one-hundred by the time they’d reach old age.  I was barely thirty and I was approaching level two-hundred.

I had been one of the most powerful people in all of Thure.  Only the Sun Champion and his cohorts had outleveled me.

Marcus had kept my mind bound in illusionary chains, ensuring that I never understood the level of depravity his nation had sunk to, or how many innocent people we had murdered.  Country after country fell, absorbed into the kingdom.

The Alleria royal family were smooth operators, I had to give them that.  Their wizards, spies, and assassins always managed to generate a reasonable pretense for war, framing their enemies as inhuman monsters.

I had slaughtered humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, harpies, and beastfolk, it didn’t matter.  Under Marcus’s control, I was just a weapon.

For a moment I wondered if Princess Grace had ever really cared for me.  We had been lovers for years, but that relationship had been another form of control.

I shook my head.  “Anyway, that’s all in the past now.  Both of us have been freed from their control, and I have zero intention of going back.  From this point forward, I’m living life for myself and myself alone.”

There was no question about going back home, back to Earth.  Even if I could figure out a way to return, my old life was dead.  I could barely remember my parents; I was sure I had been declared dead ages ago.

But for a moment, I once again cursed Marcus and his family.  Their downfall and deaths would never absolve their sins.

I regarded the sword.  “I have no real clue who, or what you are.  Demon, elder god, horror from beyond the stars, it doesn’t matter.  You and I are stuck together.”

I held out my hand.  “Do you want to be friends, or enemies?  The choice is up to you.”

The eye regarded me for a moment.

“I require blood.”

The voice had been surprisingly feminine.

“Blood?” I repeated.

The eye blinked.  “I am the avatar of madness and slaughter, of violence and death.  Long, long ago, I was sealed away, my essence bound to this blade, this prison!”

“I can sympathize,” I replied with all honesty.

The eye blinked.  “You can, can’t you? Interesting.”

I jerked a thumb at the pyramid door and the two dead Kobolds.  “If you’re looking for blood and carnage, sticking with me is your best bet.  Even freed from the Alleria Kingdom, I imagine violence is going to follow me wherever I go.”

“You are tainted by my nature,” the eye admitted. “Even if my consciousness was sealed by those pitiable liars, your strength was fed by me, empowered by the tribute you reaped with my edge.”

In a world of Warriors, Wizards, and Thieves, I found there were no other Cursed Knights of Bloodshed.  Whatever broken Class I had unlocked, it had been because of the sword.

“Just out of curiosity, what would happen if I managed to remove my Cursed Status and split from you?” I asked.

“You would die,” she stated flatly.

“Yeah, that makes sense.” It was possible the sword was lying, but I imagined even if I survived the separation, I would lose my Class.

And in a world full of monsters and madmen, that was a death sentence.

“How about we continue our partnership then,” I suggested.

“You would offer me blood and murder?” the eye demanded.

“Offer? No.” I shook my head.  “This would be a true partnership, we’d work together, as equals.”

“I am a force so primitive, so powerful, that the false gods tremble upon their stolen thrones,” the eye snarled.

I kicked a stone, which bounced off the black blade. “You’re an inanimate object.  I could leave you here.”

“You would die!” the eye replied.

“I’d die free,” I answered as I got up and walked to the edge of the stairs.  “I’ve spent most of my life as a slave. I will not escape one master to become the captive of another.  We either work together, as equals, or we both suffer.”

The eye remained silent.

“Fine,” she finally agreed.  “Continue on your bloody path, reap the lives of the worthless, and I will lift you to heights unimagined.”

Stepping over to the sword, I drew it from the stone.  “It’s a pleasure to be working with you.  Just call me Teddy.”

“Teddy?” She sounded incredulous.

I sheathed the sword, ensuring the gem was facing over my shoulder. “It’s what my parents called me.  Nobody here has used that name before.”

“Teddy then,” she agreed.

I glanced over my shoulder.  “And what should I call you?”

“Your mind cannot comprehend my true name, it would drive you to madness and cause your brains to leak out of your ears,” she answered.  “If you must address me, then call me Kritallenu, The Madness Behind the Stars!”

I mused for a minute.  “Right, Kitty it is.”

“Kitty!” she sputtered.

I began walking down the side of the pyramid.