6 Chapter 6: A withered rose one golden

Once upon a time, in our world of Vaelia, the ten high races reign supreme, they forged alliances and borough about heroes of immense might.

A presence stirred within the darkness and solitude of the dark abyss, a place worse than hell…

In the black abyss stood a figure, shapeless and man-shaped at the same time, a body of swirling grey dust bound by black rays of darkness.

"I remember not where I came from…" he thought to himself.

"Or what my form once was… or did I have one… surely I did…"

"What I remember is my legacy… I was a hero of legend… I was a guardian of justice and the protector of the weak…"

"I can imagine it… it's not clear… but I can remember…"

(many many years ago…)

The sun was shining upon the beautiful city, with bricks like gold and rivers of crystal clear water, with trees a vibrant amber colour contrasted by the red bark.

That is where he stood, he wore large plated armour, silver, with a gold rim. Large shoulder pads, large enough to make an average man fall to the ground, on his back a large war hammer, a golden beast of a weapon, enchanted with a powerful flame spell.

"Sir hero!" the people called out to him, the villagers, the guards, the women of the various inns and brothels.

What the hero didn't see were the slums hidden out of sight, the hero slew dragons, protected the lords and kings from assassins and rescued many a princess from many a tower.

The hero stepped into the great hall of the castle, the rainbow of lights littered the floor as the light entered the throne room through the stained glass windows.

"Ah, hero! You have come!" the king said, the many gold chains weighing his back down, the many gems he wore almost blinded him.

"Yes! It is I the great hero of legend! How may I be of assistance?" the hero asked, his deep bellowing voice was the definition of hero-like.

"Great hero, won't you silence a rebellion in the east?" the king asked, and without asking anything else (except for his compensation) the hero rode off on his grand horse, wearing golden armour towards the east.

The hero was met with a despicable sight, the many men, women, and children living in ruins, the fields were ash and their goods were 'tribute' to the king of the hero's land.

A child, one of the people, a race also forgotten by time stumbled their way towards the hero, "are you the great hero of legend?" the child asked.

"Indeed it is I, the great hero!" he responded.

"Could you help me find my mommy and daddy?" the child asked, the sorrowful look was seemingly overpowered by the presence of a hero.

"Of course, child! I shall help you" the hero said, making sure he was loud enough for all to know,

"Thank you! Come this way!" the child said as he led the hero past the many destroyed homes and fields, "Say, where are you leading me?" the hero asked.

"We need to find my mommy and daddy! I already found a few parts." the child said.

"What do you mean by parts?" the hero asked.

As they turned a corner, the hero was faced with two decapitated heads, one of a man and one of a woman.

"We need to find the rest…" the child said, their eyes were empty, blank.

The hero turned back, he threw up somewhere in a corner as he ran. What the hell was wrong with this world he thought to himself.

Storming into the king's hall he marched up to the throne where the king sipped on fine wine.

"You are back already, just as expected from the greatest hero in the world." the kind said,

"A-… thank you, your highness. I'm here to ask about the-" the hero was interrupted by several women bringing in chests of gold and gems.

"Your reward, sir hero!" the kind said, as the hero turned to see his treasure a grin appeared on the king's face.

"Is there something else you wanted to talk about?" the king asked.

"N- no, your highness…" the hero replied, as he was getting acquainted with the ladies who delivered his treasure.

"Great, then when you're done, we have another job for you.." the king said.

` "Great hero, the mightiest of them all! You must journey east again, we fear they plan to attack our country soon!" the king said in a concerned voice.

"Attack?! Your Highness, they are in no position to attack!-" the hero tried to say but was interrupted again.

"I see, in that case, I will make sure that everyone knows that the hero chooses to stay neutral in this war." the king said, with a sigh. In reality, the king knew exactly what would happen next.

"No, I will stand with our men!" the hero said proudly.

"Great, I believe our tactic will work great!" the king said with a slight chuckle…

After a quick journey east the hero was greeted by a general of the army. "It's great to see you here hero. I'm sure the men will be encouraged by your presence." the general said.

That day the hero gave a hollow speech, about the importance of peace, and how killing is evil, except for when it is for the kingdom, but if you kill for a kingdom that isn't this one then it's bad. The soldiers ate it all up.

After this, the general stepped up, "All right, now execute the prisoners!" the general commanded, all chained up, several men, large muscular and scarred were led into the front.

"Are these the rebels?" the hero asked.

"Indeed, all terrible people." the general scoffed, before escorting the hero to his quarters where he was provided with several entertainers and wine.

After many hours of entertainment, the hero left for a stroll against the advice of the entertainers.

What he saw was not the execution of the hardened men, but women and children, even the sick and elderly.

"I'm sorry you had to see this hero… We know you're not fond of these kinds of events…" the general said, he was drinking wine from a golden chalice,

"What is this?!" the hero demanded.

"This is reality." The general replied, "Welcome to the real world, it seems you're late!" the general said laughing.

"I- I won't take part in this!" the hero said.

"Sure you will, the king will toss in another sack of gold and a bottle of the good stuff and you'll be happy to slay another rebellion, and another hundred children will die of starvation, and another five hundred will die of disease." the general was laughing manically.

"No… I'm the hero!" the hero cried.

"Does a hero slaughter starving men trying to provide for their families? Does a hero wash his guilt away with women and booze?! Does a hero wear golden armour while the orphans he created steal to survive?" the general taunted, "Because if so you're a hero all right, the greatest hero of them all!"

This was when the hero's fear and sorrow and regret changed to hate.

"You're right, I'm no hero… I'm scum. I have no excuse." The man in golden armour said.

"I'm glad you understand." The general said.

He heard a loud clank behind him as he turned, it was the man's expensive golden armour, on the floor.

"I'm no hero, I can never atone for what I have done, but if I can stop this, I will burn in hell for an eternity gladly." the man said, now without armour, and with his weapon in his hand, running past the general and toward the execution block, that night he slew his own men, he let the few imprisoned people free into their land.

"It's too late… you can't save any of them now!" the general laughed, the hero stood bruised, bloodied and with several gaping wounds, the large war hammer he used to prop himself up after hours of fighting supported him.

"Look behind you…" the general bellowed.

The hero turned to see a crack appear in the earth, the entire landmass of the country which up until now he fought was sinking into the black abyss and before he knew it the hero was on his way down to the abyss with a spear through his chest as well.

Surely this was the end, his death, would he be remembered as a traitor or a hero, both ideas disgusted him for different reasons.

But to his surprise it wasn't death that awaited him, it was something worse.

Breathing felt like his lungs were filled with shattered glass, he could see around himself, the floor was darkness, it was like thick air, so thick that he couldn't 'swim' down. Every muscle felt like it was being pulled apart, temperature seemingly didn't exist.

His flesh turned black, and over time he started finding grey dust on his body, he would later find that the dust was his eroding body.

He saw the cracked landscape of the country, its plants were already dying, there were some strange lights off in the distance.

Without a way to tell time, the man was floating there for what must have been weeks. Before he was approached by a strange figure, it looked like no living creature he had ever seen, a tall, elongated pear-shaped body, with three eyes, what would have once served as legs was now just grey dust circulating around the creature.

The creature placed one of it's remaining appendages on the man's shoulder, and out of nowhere he heard a voice in his head,

"You are in the abyss, no you are not dead…" the voice seemed melodic in a sense, the creature seemingly read his mind and talked directly to his mind.

"It seems you cannot pass away, too many emotions are holding you together, I'm afraid that his will only get worse… but I see that the regret and shame are holding you down the most…"

"My name is irrelevant… and incomprehensible to your kind, but I was once like you, I live up top back when there were three hundred countries."

"When a population of a county's original race drops below a certain number, the country dies and falls down here."

"I will teach you how to survive here because I see a piece of myself in you…"

The creature taught the hero many important skills, he explained movement, the importance of not losing track of time and letting your body fall apart, the importance of sanity and some tricks to prevent insanity, a few individuals to look out for and a general run-down of the state of living things in the abyss, and most importantly, nothing can leave the abyss, only suffer for eternity.

The creature also though the man about the potential of one's soul, a weak soul will become twisted and endure even worse agony, there are those who wonder the abyss who call themselves keepers, they let the suffering beings in the abyss into their soul, providing them with a peaceful existence, at the cost of the keeper who will feel the pain, suffering and memories of the people on top of their own… some go mad.

The creature left the hero there, and the hero regained the ability to move and speak, he then made his way towards the country which sank with him, the many men, women and children that litter the streets were a disturbing sight, some of the children began to lose form this early, their hand becoming twisted, it was a town and city of agony, one after the other, where you either wallowed in emotional pain, cried out in pain every single moment, or try to endure it in silence.

The hero walked up to a small family consisting of a mother and three children, the father must have been killed before, he did exactly as the creature from before told him, he extended his hand to them, and in a few moments they all saw the light and walked towards it, he felt the spirits of the women and children at rest, in a dream-like state of bliss, they all imagined a similar reality, a reality where they were a happy family, the man saw this and despite the pain being terrible, he managed to do something seemingly nobody else in the abyss did in a long time, he smiled.

And so for hundreds of thousands of years, he wandered the abyss, finding many strange civilizations, some resembled him, some were so old, they resembled clouds of ash.

Each one he kept in his soul, every single orphan, murderer, thief, corrupt politicians, kings, queens, princes and everything in between.

(Present day, about when Vincent and the party got arrested…)

"That's right… I'm no hero…" the man said, "But I will carry every last burden until we can all make it to the surface… and we can all… get out lives back… even if we have to destroy those who cast us down to this hell!" the man cried.

What stood before him was a massive tower, a tower of his making, created from the ruins of cities, homes and mountains, there are advantages to this new body of his…

For the first time since then, the man saw for just a moment, a single second, a single, tiny, weak ray of sunlight.

Meanwhile, Eirwyn the prince of humanity sat in the large wooden chair, decorated with hanging silk and soft pillow like seat.

Eirwyn sat at the front of the long table, various lords and dukes sat at the sides of the table.

Eirwyn sat with a tired expression, bags under his eyes and a defeated-looking smile.

The dukes and lords whispered amongst each other, "Such an impressive ruler, staying up all night to help deal with the issue!"

The prince only had one thought going through his head… "I'm never going to drink again…" the prince was recovering from a night of heavy drinking.

The long bearded man entered the room, his balding head hidden by the large wizard's hat he was wearing, his long blue robes dragged behind him. "Greetings, my name is Erius, and I am this kingdom's royal wizard." the bearded man introduced himself, everybody in the room remained silent.

"I'm glad to see that you are all here-" Erius said but was interrupted by a red-haired nobleman, judging by his body type, he wasn't like so many other 'all etiquette and no brass' "Why are we here wizard?" the muscular man demanded, not quite yelling but clearly raising his voice.

The wizard sighed "All right then, I'll cut to the chase… are you all aware of the threat of the demons?" Erius asked.

The men nodded.

"Then I hope I need not remind you of the consequences of hiding one from the eyes of the church or the council…" the wizard said, his already old eyes squinted as he looked at Eirwyn.

"Who'd be stupid enough to trust a demon?!" the same red-haired man stood up, "Why did you drag me out here at a time like this to give me a lecture about demons being bad?!" the man demanded.

"Calm yourself, I'm aware of the events taking place in your land, a nasty flood I believe?" the wizard asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Exactly, that is why I should be back in my province helping with the repairs!" the man yelled.

"Well then, go ahead and help your countrymen and women, whilst the rest of the world burns," Erius replied dismissively.

The red-haired man fell silent and sat down, his fists clenched.

"Now then, you are aware of the existence of the abyss, correct?" Erius asked.

All the men nodded.

"Well, in that case, you know that no living thing can ever escape the clutches of the abyss." the wizard said.

The men nodded again.

"That is why it worries me to say… we have received a messenger from the emerald forest… the elven messenger told us that their scouts spotted an anomaly in the abyss, an incomprehensible magic presence, unlike any other." the wizard said calmly, although his hands were shaking as he held onto the wooden staff he used for support.

"You don't think it's a demon?" Eirwyn asked, suddenly a part of the conversation.

"Indeed, I do," Erius replied stroking his beard.

"From here on, we are starting a full-on crusade against the demons, we must slaughter every last one…" Erius said to which the men all agreed.