Sign Here

I awoke to the sound of applause.

Loud whistling and shouts were all that surrounded me as I gained consciousness. My blurred vision started focusing on the crowd before me. These were the people in line just some moments ago. How long has it been since then? My head felt like a wreck, and a pounding pain coming from behind my left eye made things even worse. I was in a kneeling position, my head forced to face this audience, cold gauntlets gripping my messy dark red hair, and in those moments I could see why they were all celebrating.

I was on the execution platform. Another Oath Taker, speculated or not, put on display for everyone to see. A powerful being, capable of killing thousands, stripped of power and decapitated before them. Some celebration right?

My dizziness subsided a bit, and I started looking around me. Knights surrounded every corner of the wooden platform. Each one of them had their hands on their swords, ready to strike any person foolish enough to try and approach them. Through the avid cheering and whistling, the crowd looked tense. Like they expected something even greater to happen. But somehow, I could make out one calm face among them. It was a man, probably in his mid-forty's. He wore a gray coat and a thick scarf. He just eyed the platform slightly as he stood in the middle of the crowd. Our eyes met and he let out a sigh. I guess he's used to seeing executions and was getting quite tired of them. Or is this simply the pity he felt for me escaping his breath?

"Citizens of Trinst!" The voice of my captor sent a slight chill through my arched spine. Slowly she ascended the platform and stood right beside me. Her red armor gleaming a vivid crimson as the crowd watched. The knight holding me up let go of my hair with a jolt. My head still dizzy bobbed up and down. "Here we have another vile practitioner of the forbidden art!" An uproar from the crowd emerged, and anxiety was replaced by rage and anger. Fear started to fill me as I watched their eyes glow like embers, each one of them focused on the platform.

"Today is the day we see the last Oath Taker die!" She exclaimed loudly, her arms raised as the crowd grew wilder. Screaming and edging on the executioner as the ground shook with the power of their voices, they chanted words of death. The Circle would always say that when they had caught someone, that this unfortunate soul is the last Oath Taker. But time and again they would be proven wrong. That the last Oath Taker would be hiding somewhere else and when they do catch him, there'd be another one. Sickening of a routine as it was, people always looked forward to it.

But this time, it didn't feel that way at all to me. I felt like I was alone in the world. That I was indeed, the last one. That no one would save me. That I would, definitely die this time. This statement, "the last Oath Taker", was never said for the people to be relieved of their fear, nor for the Circle to conclude that peace was finally achieved. It was said for us, the accused, to lose all hope and withdraw all strength to struggle or escape.

I looked once more to the crowd as their deafening cries continued. I could feel the heavy steps of my executioner approach me, the slight sound of something heavy being dragged across the wooden floor. I spotted the man I saw earlier. His face, still solemn and calm, was looking straight at me. I let a small smile emerge from my lips. "This is it." I thought to myself. "No more running this time." And I closed my eyes waiting for my death.

Silence. It came so sudden that the fear inside me grew even larger. My mouth trembled as I looked again towards the crowd. Everything had stopped. Everyone was frozen in place like time just crept to a sudden halt. Is this what you would call the last moment of your life? Did everything stop for me just to make things even more anxious? I scanned the crowd again, but something was off. The calm man who saw my final smile was moving swiftly through the living statues in between us.

He reached the base of the platform in no time. His cold blue eyes studied me. And with a breath, he said in a powerful voice, "Indeed young man, there is no more running this time, today is the day you start fighting." As soon as he finished, everything around me vanished. It felt like I was flung into another world. Everything was dark, but I could see myself and the man perfectly well.

"Kross, am I right?" He said sternly as his eyes focused on me.

"Yes..." I said quietly, still wondering where I was and what I was really doing here.

"It's called the Waiting Room, young Kross." Well, I guess that's one way to prove you can read someone's thoughts.

"Why am I here?" I asked this time, quite quickly.

"Are you an Oath Taker, Kross?" He asked back, stepping closer. I noticed that he wore metal boots that peeked out from under his large coat.

"I... I'm not sure..." I replied sheepishly. "My father was one, but I don't know if I am... I've never really made a contract with a spirit before." It was true. Mother would always tell me stories of how an Oath Taker would find the greatest spirits and forge contracts with them, thus binding them with an Oath. But, with all the running I had been doing, I never thought of trying this out myself.

"Well, I think I had mentioned a while ago that your running is over." The man said as he reached into his coat and pulled out an old parchment. He walked closer to me and held the ancient piece out. I suddenly found my arms unbounded and reached for it. Opening it slowly, I carefully read what was written on it.

I am the soul of the living shell.

I am the spirit of armor and sacrifice.

I am the headless.

The spirit Dullahan.

This is the contract that shall bind us Oath Taker.

This is the promise that shall keep our spirits attuned to one another.

Uphold honor and self-sacrifice above all.

Take your blade and protect the meek.

Engulf the enemy with the flame of his fears and we shall be one.

Ravage the battlefield with the thundering footfalls of my boots, swath through seas of enemies with my ax and send men to their knees with the anger that burns through my eyes.

Commit to the power of armor the power of absolute protection.

Commit to the Dullahan.

At the end of the parchment was an emblem. A shield in flames and the blade of an ax behind it. My name suddenly appeared beside it, and I was awestruck with what I had read.

"It requires your blood that will serve as your signature." The man's voice had changed somehow, it felt detached from him, in a strange way. I looked at him again, and this time, I almost dropped the parchment in shock.

In front of me was a being clad in silver armor. His right shoulder plate resembling a small wing, while his left shoulder plate had a curved spike emerging from it. His boots ended with spikes as well, one at the end of each foot and one on each of his knee guards too. A white tattered cape hung behind him as I could see a massive ax slung across his back. But, what was most notable about this knight was not his armor, it was his head. It wasn't there. In place of his head was a bright red flame that emerged from inside his armor. What was even stranger was, I could still see his face in the flame. Not that it was consumed by it, but like the flame actually shaped itself into his face.

The man smiled. I could definitely see his face formed from the flame now. "Well, you're quite calm about this." I really wasn't but I didn't know how to react. "No matter, all you need to do is sign there beside your name and we have an Oath, young Kross."

"Huh?" I was still in disbelief. An Oath? Today? I really am an Oath Taker? It was all still surprising to me. And now if I do think about it, this all happened because I was stupid enough to get caught by the Circle.

"Like I said, young Kross. Today we stop running, today we fight." I saw a devilish grin form on his flaming face as I placed my hand on the parchment once more. My finger somehow pricked itself on the paper. A droplet of blood soon marked the space beside my name. And the paper vanished.

"The Oath is made, young Kross. Good luck." The Dullahan said as he vanished as well, the flames still glowing as everything returned. My vision blurred for a fleeting moment, and a familiar sight glimmering with anger greeted me.

I opened my eyes and I was back at the platform. The crowd was still cheering as the knight pushed my head down on the chopping block. But this time I was not afraid. I knew what I had to do.