East Beheld

[Swgrclan 2682]

“For you have not come to what may be touched; a blazing fire, a darkness, a gloom and a tempest.”
- Hebrews, 12:18
 

~:;:~

The land above was a shattered ruin; viewed as a wasteland and crumbling visage, whereas it was bountiful the years prior. An ancient enemy had laid siege to the homeland of Urguan, and he tore it to pieces - undoing the vastness of Athera with a ravenous hunger to swallow the world. Whatever the beast was, it broke the land in two - both above, and below. The baleful worm sought to swallow the world, but it did not yet swallow it’s fire.

The ancient prison of Dhurzumkal stirred with the rattling of its cavernous walls. Everpresent was an incandescent flame within the subterranean chamber’s center -- a distortion of life binded with raging embers, keeping it alive and well and keen. This was Dhurzumkal himself -- the nameless one, the demon of dwed, the ascended khorgul. This entity laid nestled within the precipices of dark, tucked away and hidden from the ruin above. Yet, the dwarven enemy could still feel his heat, and thus brought upon Dhurzumkal the shaking of the earth. The worm came as it had for others, and little time was to spare.

“A͟͡w҉a̶ke͝n,̴̸ ͟͜d̴̷á̧̕rk̵l̸͟i̶̴n̕g̀.͟͏”

The flames whispered a cacophony of voices and tones that melded together as if one soul sown by many. These syllables were terse, yet kind. They were urgent, yet calm. Dhurzumkal’s words roused his slumbering apprentice; one cloaked in black, whom had been imprisoned alongside him for days long uncounted.

“Th̢́è ͘oļ̴d̡ ҉̵͝e͟͡nè̴m̨y c͜҉o͏ḿ̀e̡s.̕̕͡ Thę̨ d̀o͜o̸҉̸r ̧̧͠ş͞h̸͘͠ą͜l̡ĺ ̴́s̕͟h͠á͟t̕͠t̛̛e͞r̴̨͡.̕̕”

The dark one rose with a groan of old, rusted armor and the crack of dried old cloth -- rippling sneers drifting from the maw of it’s helmet, a crown of black jagged iron and spiteful design. Rusted and broken, it stood weak, but coherent -- gathering the suggestions of his apparent, ascended master with a prolonged silence. It’s movements were twisted and rigid, as if a statue that had just learned to walk; abyssal form turning in the shadow of Dhurzumkal’s flames to witness a crack split through the Door of Omens; that which kept him prisoner for ages, and by his own accord. Even his ruses did not succeed in freeing him earlier, the being mused - the monarch of men would have fallen easily into his trap. But such opportunities are long gone and passed.

The shaking continued. The massive door, once an impenetrable bulwark of stone and runes, began to fall apart and show the way above.

“Y̶͡͝o҉͜u͞ ̕̕s͠t͏̛̛an̢͜͞d ̵̧a҉͜͜t͟ ̸͞ą̕ ̷́f͝o̧̧͞rḱę͜d͠ ṕa̶t̢̡h̷̛ t̵͜͠h̀a̧ţ ͠t̨͜͠w͠i̛͡s̨͞t͏̴ş͞͠ ìnt͟o ́a̧ c͠͝ì̛ŕ̷̨cl̸ȩ͡;̵̧͟ ̀̕͜t̢h͢e͞r̀͟ę ̧lie͘͞s̀ ̨́n͢o̴̕ ̶c̕͠léa̷r̀͢ ͡ę̢x̴i͟͝t̸͢ ̡͜͝ám͟i͘d̨̛s͝t̸̢҉ ̨͞ţ̸̡hi͠s͟ ̴̛͞ŗ̧͠u͢i̡͜͡n͘a̶t̡͏i̢ó̸̕n͏̛.̶̴̛”

Hesitant, the dead lord offered no response; simply departing from his decades’ long prison wordlessly and upon a limping gait, leaving behind the mentor of fire and shadow that displayed unto the Wraith vestiges of history long lost and yet to be found. Up, up it went through the cavern - trailing toward the light that laid at the end of the tunnel. Each shake of the broken earth made it hasten its steps; every step fueled by desire for freedom, to know the burn of sunlight upon his wretched coil, to know the world was its again. And then, finally, a bright flash -- and a warped visage before it. What was once Embermoor was ash, dying fire and upturned soil; a dead region in a dead land, where the accursed worm had afflicted the worst of its ravenous deeds. Dhurzumkal spoke truth, no true exit was laid before the Gravelord. All boats departed long before his escape, leaving the abyssal being to look toward other sparse options.

Even as the dim sunlight bit and scorched its ethereal, robed form, it trekked upward and climbed the highest hill that remained, yet to be devoured by the enemy-who-knows-no-satiation. It looked North, it looked West, and then South; no paths lingered before it. And then, it looked East.

Gravelord Nimdravur stared on, beholding the distant eastern seas; and then the Wraith spoke, finally replying to his mentor that burned below the trembling earth.

“Then I will walk through it.”

( Raw documented copy here (with images): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RckgTLbBkX69AVtMmCuWjyFF_0JE1Ig_fgSIpclagQw/edit?usp=sharing )

[Huh 91]

Moved to the Archive. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.