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The Coming of the Face (Fidelis, Private)

Timestamp
Middle of the Darkening, 12th brightening, 2nd Cycle of Immanis, Winter Era XV PF
Location
Sheradine Cosmopolis (Dream)

Veleraen

Titan of Aslan
Veleraen
June 6, 2008 04:51 PM​

The Coming of the Face (Fidelis, Private)

Middle of the Darkening, 12th brightening, 2nd Cycle of Immanis, Winter Era XV PF


The air within his lofty bed in the barn behind his home was silent, only the crackling of a dim fire in a corner within a oil lamp. Inside the fire, a battle raged between nature and the primal energies of the rippling waves, the flames eradicating molecule by molecule. It was not the only battle being waged that darkening.

Within the bitter cold air, the heavy breath of the Knight Veleraen rose steadily in the darkening as he laid within his cot. His chest rose and crested like a wave and fell as the air escaped his lungs. Dark orbs behind their shields, frantically flicking left to right as they tried to find meaning, meaning for the horrors that had appeared before him.....

~

Cold. It was freezing and as his breaths escaped, more and more clouds escaped his mouth as if he was creating the weather around him. A cloudy hazy of gray surrounded him as he found his feet. The Giant's boots crunched against hard grass chilled by Carmelya's unrelenting touch. A shiver ran up his spine as his eyes opened from the prick, the air slowly moving about him. It was dark out, the sky, usually filled with stars was blanketed by a haze above him, they weren't clouds...no, these looked different, it was a dream, a vision he'd never seen before.

His eyes narrowed in front of himself as his foot took a step forward. The crunch of the grass was consistent and as he moved, the haze moved with him in a radius, always surrounding him. The plain he was standing upon went on endlessly, the fog clouding the horizon as far as he could see.

Looking down, he realized why it was so cold. He was shirtless but he had ragged and torn pants, steel lining his touch. In his left hand, his weapon appeared but it could not cut through the barrier that had formed itself around him. Silence enveloped him as he peered into the mist, not knowing what to make of such a dream. They were usually so meaningful, usually to the point, short but sweet, this however, this was a purgatory, a state beyond any other realm he'd seen.

"What is this....?" His voice echoed and literally drifted away as the fog carried his words into oblivion.

He outstretched a hand and waved through the haze. It was a conundrum, why was he here? Why now? Had he brought himself here? All questions buried deep within the sands of mystery.

As he looked deeply within the mists he could see something forming but it was too blurry, nothing but a shadow buried within the darkness. His muscles tensed as he readied himself as he always had within his dreams and nightmares. They were plagued with the undead, the demons who sought to rip him asunder and drag him from this world screaming but he did not give them that pleasure. They may have overpowered him but he never gave up, never died.

"Who is there? Show yourself." The Giant stood there in vigil, his head high and eyes focused. Suspicion and curiousity abound, the haze took him in, only revealing that which it wanted to show and that which needed to be seen. It was the coming of the face, a face so shrouded, hate had consumed it entirely, its mouth agape and moaning before it closed and disappeared leaving nothing but the mist once more. Nothing but silence and his own thoughts surrounded him.

Its presence was overwhelming and the Knight could feel something approach.

Something was coming. Something unprecedented, something he did not want to see.​

Fidelis Meridius
June 6, 2008 05:50 PM​

The air was cold, but not the kind that chilled skin and made the physical form shiver. Instead it licked at the soul, filling the Giant's heart with an eternal emptiness; one that could not be described by words... true nothingness. The frozen blades of grass gave way to the weight of the giant as he tried to survey the surroundings. Although his eyes could not validate it from under the veil of fog, he could feel that somehow the dream's landscape seemed to stretch on forever... An infinite void. Nothing existed here; Only the Giant's concious form traversed the prison in his mind... Or did it?

Suddenly, an unreal blackness seemed to take form through the haze. As the Aslanite laid eyes upon it, a sinking feeling tugged in his stomach. From the form before him the sadness of all of Telath seemed to radiate, hitting Velerean in waves as the darkness grew larger. It stretched into the dense fog like a unreal flame... It was growing closer.

As it decreased the distance between it and the seemingly tattered warrior, the sorrow it emanated grew until it Velerean's senses seemed to overload with it. It was terrible, but not in a phyiscal way. It was uncomforting to the point of restless agony.

Slowly the Giant could feel a fire within him... It grew and consumed every ounce of his thought. Rage and malice crippled his mind. The only thing that existed was an unreal hate... but for what? Why had the devout warrior come to endure such a nightmare?

The darkness before him began to swirl into a winged shape, but it was not of anything he had ever seen. As the form before him materialized, the oversized warrior was hit with a shcoking surge. The flash filled his mind with images of a dark figure slaughtering countless men. Then the images came as waves just like before. In every image the same figure was there, ripping through victim after victim with a rage similar to that tormented the Knight of Aslan. One after another, images from all accross the empire flooded in: Riparia, Tearsfall, Terramarique, a great battle upon the Sherian coast, in Temples, in caves, in city streets. The demon seemed to consume all, but no answers were given to the dreams purpose yet. It was nothing more than a night terror unlike anything beyond the minds imagination. Just what exactly was this before Velerean?

Veleraen
June 6, 2008 09:13 PM​

Fear had a face.

He could feel it pulsing within the veil of fog as he stood there, devoid of feeling; his soul being dug at by wave after wave of hard, cold sadness. His head twitched in pain as he looked down and to his left, his mind being pinged by thoughts of horror and being overwhelmed by a sudden flood of raw emotion.

"Argh!" His forehead creased, his brows furrowed, his teeth gritting in pain. It was so abysmal, so degrading, it made him want to collapse to his knees as he felt the rush. The shadow reached out for him and the Giant realized that the hands of Aeternia were creeping in on him again, but this time...this time it was different. They did not approach from where they could see, they were shrouded, the figure, the shadows, all concealed in a thin lining, impenetrable by the naked eye.

Sheer hate ate away at him until nothing remained and the Giant collapsed to his knees, the cold tinge of the grass striking his knees. The plain stretched on for eternity, seemingly encompassing all of reality as he knew it. The pain grew in intensity and as he thought he could not bear any more, the figure became more clear, flashes now, dashed in front of his very eyes, giving him glimpses into another life, another point of view.

Swords flung through the air for a split second, people being cut down, it made the Giant stare into nothingness and tears started to draw down his face like a forced rain upon a barren land. The sorrow took over him and he wanted to crack, but the Knight knew he was stronger than that, so much stronger.

"What is this madness!?" He cried out as he clawed at his head, trying to make it stop. The figure kept appearing, cities, familiar locations appeared and disappeared, blood ran steady down city streets, down stone and steel. Horrifying did not begin to describe the images that flashed before him. Sven had told him once in the mountains of Arium that the dreams, the nightmares would not stop now that Aslan had taken him within the light, now that he was a true warrior of Aslan; such sorrow would not stop, ever. It was terrifying to see such things, even with the things that Veleraen had seen in his life, the sadness that emanated from the dying men, women, children...It beyond comprehension.

"You seek to kill innocents! Kill me! Come face me! You lurk in the darkness, you hide yourself, come! Make me your victim, make me a memory! Show yourself!" He pounded his chest and erupted from his kneeling position, weapon swinging and hitting nothing but fog as the large blade cut through the veil seamlessly hitting nothing but air. The large frame of the giant heaved up and down as his breathing became laboured, his face swelled with the curse of the dead. How was he to escape such a nightmare when he could do nothing but kneel, listen and witness the pain of a million people dying in unison?

Torn inside, flames raged within, a thousand fires burned in unison but he tried to quell it, tried to dampen the spirits within, calming his soul. A fire still resided within, he needed to let it burn, let it die down and let the images fade away before it had gone too far.

Fidelis Meridius
June 8, 2008 03:16 PM​

But the rage didn't wane or fade. It burned and burned. It consumed his mind to the point where his only obsession was to satisfy it. Filled with malice, Velerean wanted nothing more than to destroy the source of this pain and suffering.

Velereans challenge fell silent as it echoed through the endless cloud that shrouded his world. It seemed that his foe hadn't to courage to show himself. Or did it? Suddenly winds came from all directions, and it moved in to consume the Giant. Whirling around the Aslanite, the fog seemed to be funnelling itself towards the sky.

Within seconds the fog had given way, and Velerean's eyes could finally seen what he had already know to be true. He was standing upon and endless plan. It was filled with frozen blades of grass, and only the moon provided him light to see. To his direct front the shadow still existed. But now the thing that the dream seemed to be centered around was only about fifty paces away.

As the Giant watched on, the ground began to shake, and a pile of corspes began to rise from the earth. The stench was horrid as the pile continued to grow as it reached for the sky... like a great mountain jutting from the landscape. Maggots and flies feasted upon decaying flesh as Velerean was able to notice a common observation. Each and every corpse carriend the colors or sigils of Athernian's, of honor, of justice.

Finally the quake subsided and the mountain of dead had reached its pinnacle. From its zenith a howl peirced the darkening. Standing in the sphere of the moon, a wolf paid hommage to the night. Looking down from the sky, it turned his attention to the giant. Its eyes flamed with an ethereal fire. It spoke to him, but not in auible words. Instead, it's voice stung inside the Aslanite's mind.

"Your soul will join them! Damned is the path of honor..."

Veleraen
June 9, 2008 07:33 PM​

Torturing his mind, lifting him up, only to drop him into a pit of despair, the fury raged on inside him. It threatened to bring him to his knees and did so as the Titan crashed into the frozen plain with both knees, his weapon striking nothing but the empty air. The fog swirled about him and surged forth past his frame and into the moon lit darkening.

His challenge rang through the air as an unbound roar, not chained by the shackles of his own inner discipline. It was raw, filled with the hate and anger that filled the air and as he realized what he was saying, he quickly restrained himself as he knelt on the cold, grassy ground.

The moon offered no comfort, only sending its reflected light down towards his face, making Veleraen look towards the horizon. As soon as he thought the pain might relent, a horrifying sight appeared in front of him. As if sprung from the depths of Aeternia itself, a pile of corpses rose from the earth, taunting him as if to bring him to the edge of madness and beyond.

"What....What is this treachery!?!" It was clear they were holy men of his own faith and other similar ones. Priests, knights, clerics, warriors...All slain by the shadows that confronted him that moon lit darkening. It made the Giant stay kneeling and look in horror, not wanting to believe how such a thing was allowed to happen.

"Die they die in vain? Did Aslan give them an honourable death? Were they not spared the pain and suffering?"

Perhaps their Lord could not have intervened but comforted them on their way to Sonos. He could definitely wish for less to happen to the fiend that did this to them.

A piercing howl cracked the darkness and two burning eyes stared down upon him. No actual words were spoken but sound entered his head as thoughts flooded in. "Damned is the path of honour..." It made Veleraen squirm in frustration but he calmed himself as he got to one knee and then stood again, still weeping internally at the sight of such decimation and destruction.

"Damned is the path of such destruction and death. There is no honour in your eyes...You have abandoned that long ago it seems." He stood a little taller, a tear falling for those who lay dead at his feet.

"Who are you!? Why do you crave so much blood? Why does the slayer of the pious swear down the name of the World Bound?" Whether or not he would receive an answer, it was not clear. He could not make head or tails of what was happening. His world was spinning and this was no longer a regular nightmare. No, this vision had brought the seams of reality into the fold of a dream realm. An evil lurked here; an evil that crept through the cracks of the fallen and those about to do so. Suffering leeched into the air from its breath, its appetite hungry for devastation and ruin.

Only the Named could stand against its might.

Fidelis Meridius
June 17, 2008 09:18 PM​

The Wolf stood sentinal in the night air as eyes of flames continued to watch the Giant. It made no movement from its throne of dead as Velerean shouted in defiance. But then the voice continued.

"Honor..." The voice gave sinister laugh as it continued. "True honor does not exist to those who where the cloth of the World Bound... Any being who has sworn fealty to Aslan has bound themselves to certain death!" Suddenly the wolf dropped his head back, letting out a long howl. The sound carried accross the plain to the giant, sending a shiver down his back.

As the demon's ode to the night ceased, the ground began to rumble once more as the howl was repeated by an unseen chorus. From all sides of the festering heap of decaying dead, wolves made their way into view. With a quick count, Velerean would see six in all.

"Now you will join them... Even you, the strongest amongst them shall be forsaken." As the voice faded, the five subordinate wolves began to creep down towards the giant. They're jagged fangs dripped with saliva and blood as they honed in on their next victim. But they did not attack.

Instead, they encircled the Aslanite. Their eyes of fire locked on him as they waited. Suddenly the leader burst forth from his throne, and charged at directly at Velerean. Dream or not, reason seemed to tell him it would probably be a good idea to defend himself.

Veleraen
June 18, 2008 01:37 PM​

Songstamp: Disturbed - The Night

The red flames burned into his mind, searing like embers as they pierced through the night sky and down at the Titan, their fury emanating power, frustration, anger; anger for all the honour-bound that had fallen at its feet.

The beast's disrespect and hatred for his kin made Veleraen swell with an unrelenting anger but after a few deep breaths, his chest may still have pounded with that spirit but his breath did not carry the malice and contempt like the wolf's did.

"My fealty and honour to Aslan is the only thing that has kept me from turning into something like you, demon!"

The chilling howl emitted by the wolf made Veleraen freeze in place upon the dark plain of solitude that he stood upon. It echoed and was enhanced; tuned in by a chorus of other screams of pain and anger all frozen by the dark lord's embrace.

"I cannot deny the saviour in front of my eyes. I will not disappear into the darkness like you have. You may tear me down, but I will always be there. I will always be what you could not." The ground shook around him as he made his final stand against the tyranny that surrounded him. The faces of the wicked glared at him but all he could do was stare back and show that he was not afraid.

"My brothers may have fallen before you, I will not! I shall not!" His weapon twirled around his enormous frame but he realized he was not complete, not without his armaments. A steel polearm and his undying fortitude was all that protected him amongst the shadows; amongst the decaying dead on the silent plain.

They crept towards him like the tentacles of death, crawling and inching forward, all six of them but Veleraen stood strong, he stood proud. He had soon realized the dream was no longer just a dream, it was a sign, a sign of things to come and all he could do was let it come, let the face of the devil come at him and face him; warrior to warrior. Holy or not.

The wolf upon the dead and decaying corpses of his former brothers charged and he could feel its power, feel its fury. Veleraen stood, one leg back, weapon drawn but down behind his figure, right arm embracing its strength. Left hand forward and clenched, it opened slowly, fingers curling and releasing with a silent calm.

"Yes! Come! Your time of destruction has come to an end! Haaaaah!" With a single thought, with a single reaction he brought his weapon up in a sweeping strike towards his imaginary foe. As shadows mingled with the faint light of the moon, honour and hatred collided; a meeting of teeth and steel would decide their fate.

Fidelis Meridius
June 22, 2008 12:42 PM​

On the edge of nothing, upon a plain of non-existence, Veleraen readied himself as the being of his torment was finally making himself known. As the lead wolf leap at the Giant, he would soon realize that it was not an attack, nor was his weapon within striking range. The wolf actually leapt clear over the Aslanite; it was a trick.

In the wolf's deceit, the others attacked without hesitation. Their teeth sunk into his arms and legs, dragging the massive humanoid to the ground. Pain shot through his body as he fell backwards. Even all his might could not rip his flesh free from their bloody grasp as they drug him prostrate. As the Veleraen struggled, he found that the wolves didn't continue to attack, but their were holding him captive.

Twisting and writhing the Giant did not surrender to the pain or the demon's administering it. As he fought on, the lead wolf made it clear of what was about to happen. It sat a hundred paces away from the warrior, eyes ablaze as they pierced into the his mind. Then the voice returned into the Giant's head, but this time in the form of laughter. It echoed, as a cackling laughter reverberated throughout all of his conscious thought. It was menacing to the point of madness as the ground began to shake once more, and the dead continued tumble upon one another growing towards the sky. But this time, the dead erupted from everywhere. As far as the eye could see, dead erupted from the ground... even under the giant and the wolves.

It was more than just a hill of corspes. It was a sea of dead. As the entire scene played out before the tortured Veleraen, the wolf approached. Step by step it grew closer, and the laughter grew louder. As the demon moved within fifteen paces of the Aslanite, its eyes of fire grew in intensity. Suddenly in a burst of fire that moved from head to foot, the beast transformed into a human. The transition happened mid-stride, within the blink of an eye.

Clad in black, there was nothing extravagant about the onyx cloth that seemed so dark it absorbed all light that fell upon it. Platinum tresses of hair bounced off the demonic visage of the demon as it locked its gaze upon Vel. Eyes of emerald held the same piercing gaze as before.

Suddenly everything stopped, and the ocean of corpses grew silent. "You have decided your fate then. You shall join your brothers!" The demon spoke as a flash of metal appeared from behind his robe. With ungodly speed the being leap into the air, this time the flash of metal fell back towards Veleraen.

Just as the blade would have sunk into the his chest, everything exploded into flames, as fire licked away everything in seconds...

...But the message was apparent. The hounds of hell were loose.. and they were coming for Veleraen.
 
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