Chapter 48: Echoes in the Abyss
Chapter 48: Echoes in the Abyss
"Aww, don't tell me you've passed out or something? That's no fun, but I suppose I should end this now." Blade says, slowly walking over with a vicious grin, sword raised high ready to strike down. Only for one of the chains supporting him to strike upwards blocking the blade.
"Oh? Still have some fight? Good! I want to see you bloody and broken before I finish this!" She yelled as she started putting more speed and strength behind her strikes only for him to stand on his feet, hunched over as the chains proceeded to block each strike in a flurry of sparks lightening the room upon each strike.
"Interesting, I never thought I'd be in a flesh suit, well more flesh than suit, this shall take some getting used to, but it's merely due to the fact I would be better suited for this given the circumstances. Do be a dear and hold on well I try to get used to these new sensations, admittedly I'm far more used to the feeling of not feeling, not to mention the sensation of blood pumping and the need to breathe is rather uncomfortable, how do you humans do it?" the voice, now far colder and jaded asked, no longer sounding like Braedon but rather far rougher and hoarse, a cold dreadful feeling radiating off him causing Blade to take a step back, her eyes far harder and on guard, the playfulness from before evaporated like water touching the sun.
"What the hell did you do?" She cautiously asked, gripping her sword and with a flash splitting it into two smaller but far more deadly looking blades, their edges no longer large, jagged points but rather thin and small hook-like points littered their form facing both towards the handle and the tips, their sole purpose clearly meant to rip flesh from whatever opponent was unlucky enough to make contact with them.
"Oh? Well, this is where you expect me to monolog or something, well sorry not interested, but I suppose we should do like you said and end this now, Master John may be a bit upset when he learns I'm going to do this and I have no doubt it will take almost all the energy this body currently has but it will be worth it in the end and will just require a good rest, oh interesting, I wonder what it is like to 'rest'" The horse voice says, his hooded raised as he held his hand in front of him, seemingly trying to figure out how to move his own fingers along with the rest of his body before giving it a small wave, towards the corpse pile at the one side of the room, as if given some kind of unheard command the two chains pointed there tips towards it, slowly weaving intricate symbols and runes into the air in a beautiful display, weaving and burning into the air yet causing the temperature in the room to slowly drop, the speed at which the chains drew increasing, before suddenly stopping and swinging over them all, one by one the runes and symbols seemed to dissolve into the air as he lowly chanted unknown words, a subtle pulse from each one before the final one also vanished, the chains falling in front of him once more to help keep him on his feet.
Looking around and even more on edge Blade waited, expecting a strike form somewhere before slowly lowering her guard and laughing boisterously.
"That's it? You change your look and voice and then perform a show for me well making it a little colder? Was that supposed to scare me or cause me to back off or something? I waited for you patiently but that was all you did? Oh, I know you made yourself half dead in hopes I would go far easier on you. Well sorry but in not that kind of women, time to end this!" She says, anger and her desire to kill evident in her tone as once more she lunged forward, her new swords swinging at speeds the previous one could never hope to reach only to be blocked by the chains as he stood unsteadily on his feet, a small smirk visible under the hood.
"I'm glad you liked the show, but it wasn't for you, rather it seems they needed a few moments to wake up, hmm possibly due to the nature of this world or it could be due to lack of materials." He began to mutter as the chains kept blocking, slowly being forced against the wall once more.
"Die!" Blade yells as she swings one blade down and stabs with the other only for a body to rise and take the blow, shredding its body upon the stabbing sword, its arms swinging up and gripping the blade, its head leaning towards her but without a face, only a large leach-like mouth trying to get at her.
"What! What the hell did you do? What is this!" She screamed trying to get some distance between them well doing all she could to force the creature off the sword, resorting to having to press her foot upon its face and force it off as she ripped the sword out of it taking large chunks with it. On the floor, the creature seemed to wriggle before trying to crawl towards her.
"I haven't done anything, this young one was created by you, or rather from your actions, but don't worry he isn't alone, but you can probably feel that already. I must say they are really interesting, not exactly to my taste but should still prove useful" He finishes with a horse Laugh, his tone amused as he slowly walked forward to examine the former human body, its form still human except the head where it had a leach mouth and its hands slowly stretching out and becoming sharp and jagged bones, almost broken in appearance as the skin and flesh began to melt away.
Before Blade could respond to his words or try to strike again bony hands seemed to come from the ground grabbing her ankles, but rather than to try and pull her down into the earth, they seemed to be trying to pull themselves up out of the ground. She tried to slash at them, each strike managing to destroy a hand but more kept coming, so focused on the hands and leach creature she never noticed the corpse pile bloat and swell, seemingly fusing together to give shape to two large demon-like creatures, their skin brown like soil, their face almost pig-like but still faintly humanoid with 2 large tusk-like teeth poking out the sides of their mouths, one with a pair of slightly curved horns and the other with only a single intact one with the other broken, their bodies large and bulky making them seem overweight and yet it was, in fact, strong iron-like muscle, their arms covered in thick matted fur, one wearing simple black pants and a bloody chef's apron well the other had just a pair of pants and a torn-apart top.
Slowly they lumbered silently behind Blade, a quietness such monsters had no right to have before they were directly behind her, each with a mighty swing of their fists, one from the left, the other the right impacted her form both sides causing her to scream as her arms seemed to break from the impact and dropping her swords, but surprisingly still alive from suffering such a monstrous blow.
Falling to her knees from the pain only for more bone hands to come out grabbing her. "My my, I didn't expect you two, admittedly I thought it would be a big, bloated corpse beast that came from that pile, instead, you two seemed to force your way through, where you bored or just felt you were needed? It's perfect either way, I've
always wanted to examine the pair of you." the horse voice asked tilting his head to the side again, hints of glee almost palpable in his tone only to receive a grunt in response as they grabbed Blade by her broken arms raising her up off the ground, the hands scratching her as she's forced from their grip only to be slammed down into them.
"Mercy! Please, show mercy." She begged though broken teeth, blood dripping form her mouth as she looked up at him, "Oh my, dear you don't deserve that, but I am lenient, I won't kill you, put her in that cage please." He tells her before turning to the pair to finish his sentence getting glares from them as they looked at each other and seemed to debate if they should listen to him or not before dragging her over to an empty one and roughly throwing her in.
"You girls with the fierce looks, I'm going to be outside, but I'm going to be letting the ones with a fire in them out, since all of you have been here together your captives in arms, use your own minds and feelings to pass judgement onto this women, also choose a leader among yourselves for a discussion about a very big opportunity for all of you here, but I won't force any of you, those who choose to leave and go there own way are free to do so." He tells them as he walks slowly and unsteadily out of the room with the help of the chains, the bone hands disappearing slowly into motes of light along with the leach creature, the two large demon-like beings, though seemed to follow after breaking open the doors of the cages that were pointed out and each picking up a fallen sword.
"Wait! Who, who are you?" a timid voice of one of the female captives asked in a trembling voice, the horse voice stopped for a moment and turned to look at them, "Hmmm, I suppose the whole 'name' thing is a requirement, After all, I'm not the master John nor am I that know-it-all book worm Braedon." Tapping his chin for a moment. "Lesh, yes, I suppose you can call me Lesh." He tells them calmly slightly happy that he could give himself an identity as he leaves the room.
What followed were loud pain-filled screams as Blade no doubt received her just punishment from her captives. Lesh though didn't care at all, rather looking at the pair.
"So, Butcher, Carnage, how does it feel to be in physical form in our master's world?" He asks, his tone amused but clearly tired as he sways almost falling forward only to be held by the pair of chains. His only response from them being a few grunts as they sat down, placing the swords in front of them and then proceeding to each stab a hand on one of their tusks and letting the blood flow over the blades.
"Not talkative huh? Well, that's fine, hmm taking your will and forcing the blades to become you own tools by using your blood essence? Risky but admirable, I don't know though if it will work as the laws of this world are different from the various realms and plains, but then again with how there crashing and fusing anything should be possible." Lesh says sitting down, looking at the starry sky.
"Truly this world has become a blessing and a curse, it's what the master desired but holds pain for him, He's paid enough through his life through his hardships and loss of good karma and then losing his family, his arm and even damaging his soul, then going further to even take time he would need to prepare from him, even if we can now play active roles in helping him what more is this world going to take from him to balance the cost of having us? I know his will is strong but even mountains crumble down to pebbles when worn down enough." Lesh solemnly says, his horse tone filled with sadness and pain for his master.
"No, we will make sure things get better for him, he will have all he could ask for and more! He will thrive! We will make sure of it! He will live, not just survive anymore!" Lesh says almost roaring to the sky as his tone grew louder.