Awakening

The sun had set and the moon in all its splendor was shining proudly high in the sky, illuminating the landscape, but it was not just any moon, no, tonight it was a moon painted red due to the massacre that had just taken place in Oasis; one whose devastation took hundreds of thousands of people. On the plain in front of the silent walled city was a scene of terror, hundreds of beasts were currently feasting on a feast that could only happen once in their lifetime, aerial and terrestrial monsters and all scavengers from miles around were gathered in this unprecedented event and even the sand could no longer be seen at this moment and the only thing that could be observed was a thin layer of red liquid that was covering the entire ground and on it was a myriad of dead bodies, some severed, others mutilated, crushed, stabbed but most of them with much of their flesh half-eaten and organs scattered around them.

Inside the city, the scene was no different, high on the ramparts were more corpses than a person would see in a lifetime, even as a mercenary. Some of the corpses of people quite corpulent, not to say that they gave the impression that being alive had been people of great weight, because at this moment they had no less than ten birds of prey each, similar to crows but with 3 eyes, which were with their beaks sunk in their stomachs, which made noises that anyone who heard them would lose their appetite, noises that meant that those birds could not wait to eat more and more of the entrails, among them was that fat merchant, who died with a face of fear and despair; It was quite obvious that in his last moments he witnessed something that probably scared him to death. In the streets you could see rows of dead people as if they were going to the gates of hell, waiting their turn to enter; those people who when they saw the coming calamity and tried to flee, could not get very far, because most of their corpses had wounds on their backs, a sign that they did not hesitate twice to abandon their posts and run..... Run and not look back hoping to be fast enough to save themselves, but that did not happen.

And that was how that imposing army of thousands and thousands of nightmarish monsters made of bone, left without leaving a single trace, as quickly as they appeared, but not before claiming the lives of thousands of people for reasons unknown to all. Surely more than one person asked themselves at the moment of death: Why, why me and why now? Unfortunately, they would never have an answer to their question, as it was something that only that beautiful woman with bright green eyes and long white legs that would give any man the most perverted fantasies, knew; although no trace of her could be seen anywhere, probably, once her goal was accomplished, she left the city, being as mysterious and beautiful as the red moon in the sky.

Returning to the plains, a beast resembling a six-legged lion whose mane was not composed of hair, but of small, wet tentacles that gave a sensation of being very slippery, which would make any person nauseous just to look at them, stood with its snout sunk in the pool of blood that was the battlefield in front of Oasis. He was one of the beasts that had been farthest away from this area, but even so he had perceived the irresistible smell that attracted him to that place, however, being already late at night, the hundreds of hungry scavengers had already done their work and had already marked their feasting areas within that sea of bodies, visors and blood in which they found themselves. That lion-shaped creature, unlike what many would think, was at the bottom of the food chain in Infernatum, so he preferred not to get into areas dominated by entities stronger than himself, so he looked for a slightly isolated area where the main predators had already passed and so he could eat what was left, even the remains of this place he could consider as weeks of food at another time, since at the end of the day, in a place as challenging as the desert, abundant food was a luxury for most creatures, especially those solitary ones that did not have a high position in the food chain.

That beast was biting the remains of the skull of what looked like a person, while its teeth gnawed the flesh of the slippery surface and its tentacles on the neck entered through the holes and pulled out remains of gray matter, blood and other disgusting things, suddenly his eyes fell on something that looked like a treasure. At the moment he quickly dropped that half-eaten skull and quickly advanced to another corpse that was about 10 meters away from his position, he discovered it was the body of a young man who was face up with his eyes closed, with a calm look, if the beast that was slowly approaching had a higher intelligence, surely he would find this uncommon, but at the moment the only thing that was in his primitive brain was eating that juicy delicacy that, although it did not have too much meat and showed a huge hole right in the middle of his chest, it was a practically intact corpse; other beasts probably skipped it because the carcass did not have a significant amount of flesh compared to the thousands around it. Who would listen to an almond when you can eat a whole apple?

Spat.... Spat.... Spat... (Splashing sounds) With each step he took and got closer and closer, the Lion salivated and got more excited, his tongue ran his red muzzle from side to side and his saliva was already dripping down the sides as a sign that he had found a succulent meal that he couldn't wait to try, not being totally confident due to the tense situation he quickly glanced around, making sure that no one was fighting for that delicacy that was in front of him; When he reached the corpse he gave a quick sniff to the hole in the chest to make sure there was no toxic or counterproductive substance for his health, probably thanks to that careful nature was that he managed to survive in this dangerous environment, but just when his nose was a few centimeters from that hole in the chest of the malnourished young man, something happened that he would never have foreseen; a stream of blood came out of that area and hit directly in the face of the beast, which could not help but take a few steps back due to the force of the momentum that the flow of blood had, surprised, the animal quickly noticed that he was in trouble, because although he could not see anything since that torrent of blood had impacted his face while he still had his eyes open, he could feel how it quickly began to spread from his face to his neck, that blood seemed to be more viscous than normal and to tell the truth it looked like a living creature devouring a prey because of the way it moved so fast, by the time the Lion began to rub itself on the ground and try to scratch its own body with its legs and tentacles in a desperate attempt to free itself from that disturbing situation, the blood had already covered the entirety of its body, even the blood from the surrounding ground seemed to be slowly being sucked towards that desperate creature which, with each passing moment, saw its movement and breathing more and more reduced, after five breaths had passed, the body of the beast had completely disappeared and in its place was a kind of sphere completely made of blood, without any movement on its surface, which gave the impression of being a solid structure instead of liquid, momentarily everything was calm until there was a slight change, and that structure of a meter and a half high became smaller and smaller until it was the size of a bowling ball; no trace of movement could be seen from this curious object, as if a beast had not been enclosed inside it moments before, everything remained silent for a few seconds when, on the apparently solid surface of the sphere, two completely black circles could be seen, if a person paid attention he would realize that these circles had a strange feeling of being able to observe inside your soul, as if you were in front of a judge of the underworld waiting for your verdict, as if with just a glance it could reveal your darkest secrets, eyes blacker than the night itself, eyes darker than those of the monsters of nightmares? Eyes that were looking directly at that young slave who was motionless in the middle of the sea of blood and corpses, watching him in a way that seemed as if he was pondering something deeply.

The sphere of blood at some point had a change, it began to melt and disappeared as if it had never been there in the first place, while in the vicinity where the corpse of the young man of calm expression lay, a scene that to many would seem strange began to occur, all the blood from the surroundings began to flow as if it were a river, converging in a single central point which was precisely that wound in the chest of the young man, which seemed to be a black hole without limit as more and more blood poured into it; even the creatures that were eating miles away were surprised, those with less intelligence ignored this event completely while the existences with an intelligence close to that of humans decided to be careful about it and preferred not to inquire about it, moving away little by little from the direction where the blood was being sucked.

An unknown amount of time passed, after having been impaled by that creature with four spikes instead of arms and thrown into the unknown, the young slave had lost his consciousness, he could not feel pain, neither sadness or happiness, there was nothing, simply in his mind resounded that last useless will.... "Defend yourself." At this moment he found himself alone, surrounded by complete darkness, looking around him with those red eyes that characterized him, looking for some clue that would indicate where he was "Could it be that I'm dead?" He asked himself, as he walked slowly, with each step he took he could notice that the floor was extremely wet, but because such was the darkness that enveloped him, that it was hard to see his hands even if he put them in front of him, he couldn't tell the kind of liquid he was stepping in.... Lost and aimless, he was moving in a random direction, it had been quite some time since he had awakened in this mysterious place Could it be that my spirit was lost and now I have to wander in this place for eternity? Worried, he began once again to look around, to his surprise something had changed and at some point in the distance he noticed a crimson light shining in this sea of darkness, without thinking twice he ran at top speed towards the source of this strange phenomenon, fearful of losing the opportunity to find out what caused it; after all no one would ignore a potential exit from such a place.

When he reached the source of that light, he was impressed by the scene in front of him, because it was a sphere of blood which shone with a strange crimson light and made everything around it an intense red color, that object was floating a few centimeters above the ground. In his curiosity, the young man with torn clothes extended his hand to touch that sphere, as if something was calling him and just at the moment his fingertips touched the viscous surface, the circular shape of that object changed so quickly that if someone blinked they would miss it, giving rise to a humanoid figure; strangely this figure had the same physical features as that young man with his hand extended, same height, same messy hair, same skinny and malnourished body... Everything was the same except for two things: His whole body which was completely red, and his eyes, those eyes that had no pupils, you could tell they were completely black from the emptiness they represented, giving a rather chilling scene, and before he could do anything, that reddish figure began to speak and his voice was as if it were his own, his words echoed in the mind of the shocked young man "We are united by blood, I am you and you are me".

The sun was beginning to rise on the horizon, the first rays of light illuminated the plain in front of the merchant city of Oasis, in the outskirts, a strange scene could be appreciated, thousands of corpse remains were on the ground, mostly all were just a pile of bones with minimal remains of flesh still attached to them, Even some small insects could be seen scavenging among those bones for small remains of food they could find, the strangest thing of all was that, even with that terrifying scene, many would assume that there should be traces of blood somewhere but that characteristic reddish color could not be seen anywhere. Somewhere on the plain stood a calm looking young man, looking up at the sky as if he were asleep, if anyone were to look at him they would think he was having a very happy and peaceful sleep, but, just at that moment his eyes snapped open, those red eyes that a day before had had no brightness or will to live now seemed to have a crimson fire glowing brightly within them, a look full of will.

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Thank you all for the reception the novel has had, it may not be much but I appreciate the hundreds of people who have taken the time to read my work, thank you all, I don't want to be just another author, I want to be more interactive and give you the opportunity to have a hand in the novel so don't forget that your opinion is very important.

I am constantly looking for grammatical and continuity errors so I sometimes edit certain parts of the chapters after they are published to make it a better experience for all of you. If you notice anything don't hesitate to say so :)

It seems that things are finally starting to get going... Who or what was that bloody entity, will that dark place have some meaning, what will happen from now on?

I wonder too-Axe