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| "I am Abaddon, but I have many names; seducer, abuser... destroyer." |
Where am I?
Now awake, I open my eyes and attempt to survey my surroundings. However, some presence, some influence keeps me in place, preventing me from rising. Fear rises within, and my heart continues to beat faster the more I move about my position. Struggling and straining against the unknown phenomenon, I find that to my horror, I am bound to a small stone altar, and no matter how much I writhe, I find that my efforts are in vain. Looking up, I can see the reddened sky, the sun still shining as it begins to dip. To my left, I look down at an endless chasm, sinister yellow fog rolling and chundering within, sometimes even spilling up the rocky walls. The sight is same to my right, but in both cases I could see the fog shift within certain spots, as if there unknowable things lurking under the evil ocean.
"Enjoying the view?" asked a nearing voice.
"Who are you? What do you want with me?" I replied.
Answering neither of those questions, whomever spoke strode towards me, footsteps getting louder until at last, he stood above me, peering down with a wicked grin. The man was roughly the same height as me, wearing a nondescript blue robe fit for a man of worship, save for the small crimson pentagram upon his chest. He was perhaps forty years old, grey stubble and shallow wrinkles betraying his age, and upon his hands there were burnt small ovals, each glowing dimly with unknown energy. Upon his waist, he had a plain leather belt with various pouches, but what drew my attention the most was a small sleek scabbard, and within, a curved fit for carving... or gouging.
"My name is not important. What I will do and your purpose here, is." said the man.
"Do you know what lies sleeping underneath this valley? Of course you don't - you are young, too young to know of what once walked upon the earth before our race stood for the first time.
I was once like you. Naive, foolish.. and ignorant of the horrors that still stride in the darkest depths and the highest mountains. Perhaps ignorance would be the preferable state of mind - but fate had other plans for me. You see, I heard Him. I heard His voice speak to me when the night was at its peak and the trees were hushed. I heard His plans for the world and how He would carry them out. But to do any of that, He needed help. He needed a human agent, an agent to find someone, anyone, and bring them to this altar for His ascension. Only then would He rise once more into the world of men."
"Is he a god?" I asked.
"Not a god...
a demon. And you shall be his first offering."
Struggling once more, I attempted to free myself, as the man withdrew the knife from his scabbard. As I tried to free myself, it seemed that he was almost mocking me, knowing he had all the time in the world as long as I remained bound. Withdrawing his knife, he readied himself to plunge it into my chest, but I had other plans. Lurching suddenly to my left, keeping the altar between me and him, I broke free of my bonds and fell down near the cliff's edge, mere inches away from falling into the depths below. Hearing the knife slam down onto stone, I saw my chance. Charging at him, I jumped onto the altar and tackled him to the ground, causing the knife to skid away from the both of us. Swinging a hard right, my fist impacted flesh, yet he was unfazed. Soon, it was him that was in control, and as he readied a bolt of arcane magic on his right hand, I grabbed him and pushed him against the altar, giving me space to reach for the knife. Leaping towards it, I manage to grab it, but my small triumph does not last long as the hooded figure hurls bolts of fire at me. In one fluid action, I skirt to the side, only just avoiding both fireballs, before attempting to stab the foul sorcerer straight in his chest. Instead of impacting him, the knife hits thin air, and before I could turn, I was impacted by a fireball, knocking next to the altar with the energy taken out of me.
"Any last words?" sneered the sorcerer.
Before he could ready another spell, I tripped him up with my legs, causing him to fall face first onto the altar. As he lay dazed, I managed to pull myself back onto my feet, when he soon began his offense. Throwing a wayward punch, he drove me back a few steps, before I sent him sprawling onto the stone shrine once more. Lying on his back, he gasped in shock as I drove the knife into him, holding on like a madman possessed. After a few seconds passed, I withdrew, the blood spurting out and pooling on the floor. Bleeding out, the sorcerer managed to utter a few last words before he died.
"What - What have you done?"
He would never get an answer to his question, and soon the life faded from him.
Before I could turn to leave, I could feel the ground rumble under my feet. Soon the rumble grew into a tremor - many tremors in fact, and as I struggled to stand, an almighty silhouette rose out of the yellow mist, towering over me as if I were only an ant.
Looking up at it, I was utterly, completely dwarfed by the menace this sorcerer had helped to raise.
A mountain stood in front of me, awakened and angry. Rotting, slender legs supported a heaving, rattling chest; upon its left there was present a foul turquoise heart, shining with a phosphorescence both appalling and alluring. Veins carried ichor from the heart and into the arms, reaching the hands and illuminating small elliptical shapes along the palms - similar to those upon the late sorcerer's hands. Great angelic wings stretched out from the beast's back, both as dull and bleak as the yellow fog of the canyon below. Its fingers were tipped with wicked claws, each one longer than a grown man was tall. Atop its head, two great horns stretched into the heavens, both crooked, twisted instruments of death and destruction. Yellowed teeth clicked and clacked as five red eyes shone through the mist, beaming red light shining upon the now-crimson altar - only for them to shift their gaze to the dead body upon it. Raising one palm, the slit upon it opened, revealing a bulbous eye that shimmered in the manner of a flame. Looking into that eye, I could see many things, horrible things too profane and unholy to describe, yet if only for an instant it was not me that stared into the eye; the eye was the one staring into me. Soon switching focus, the eye turned to the sorcerer.
The body rose into the air, the same turquoise energy that powered the daemon's dead heart now streaming from the dead man into the beast itself, withering the fresh corpse in a matter of seconds. Soon enough, the body was dropped to the floor, withered and desiccated beyond recognition. Those same red eyes now turned towards me.
"At last... I am free." said the daemon.
"I am Abaddon, but I have many names; seducer, abuser... destroyer. You were never the one to be sacrificed - I needed the soul of someone ready to give their life for me. Now I am free, and ready to return to the waking world once more.
Thanks to your efforts, you are the one who has at last freed me from eternal imprisonment - that is no small feat. Just this once, I will allow you to run from the end of the world as you know it.
If you do not... pain will be the absolute least of your worries."
"I am not afraid of you." I said.
"And I will stop you, no matter the cost."
"Hah!"
"I am older than oceans and greater than mountains. I am the Insurmountable.
I have conquered kings and broken heroes, shattered hopes and swallowed dreams; there is no one, living or dead, that can dare to challenge my might!
Your bravado will prove to be your undoing. For many, many years, I have remained imprisoned, shackled by those too ignorant, too fearful to realize that change is inevitable. Someone has to be the harbinger of a revolution - and I am that, and much, much more. Now, I cannot be stopped. I will not be stopped. And before you know it, all that you know and all that you love will become that which you walk on... dust."
And with that, the daemon's wings unfurled to reveal their full, overwhelming might. Beating downwards with the sound of thunder, it shot up into the sky before setting off, bloodthirsty and vengeful.
Feeling the ground rumble once again, I was knocked back by a sudden, horrifying emergence. I was even more shocked to witness incalculable shapeless shadows flit out from the fog and into the skies, only for me to realize they were not shadows; they were the demon's own wretched spawn, ravenous and ready to scour the earth of life. Though they were small, they were numerous, and their screams blotted out all other sound, to the point where I could not hear myself think.
The onslaught did not stop, and it seemed that with each passing moment, more of these would pour out from hell's mouth and into the waking world.
Father, what have I done?
Source of image:
http://www.deviantart.com/art/Demon-Ceremony-Final-377000184
