An unrelenting battle echoed throughout the night within the hollow prison.
Where Zero dominated all three undead, was Akito who fought with his whole self: with each dodge, attack, block a piece of himself fell off, sometimes hair, sometimes flesh, sometimes a piece of his innards.
His blood painted the battlefield.
The more the battle went on the more he looked like a thrall,
At one point he spaced himself; he looked even worse: His skin was now a visible dark decaying green, his skeleton was visible, hair reduced to strands, his jaw was unhinged as if it had been broken many times, broken piece of his own humerus was sticking out of his arm, and his a piece of his brain was showing.
A chunk of flesh bone was gouged out of Akito's leg and it wouldn't heal. So Akito had to drag or swing it out wide in combat, his open eye was pale in colour as if he was actively losing himself.
They fought back and forth and both bonewalkers continued to brutalize Akito's form, without a second thought or remorse.
They're not even teaching me for Chaos sake! They have just been tearing me apart.
Though he still used his hands fine as he tried to charge in, staff held high.
Both bonewalkers stopped and stood there silently watching Akito limp over to them with all he could, the silence was mocking enough—Vescoroth then dashed in without warning, and effortlessly deflected the staff; the shock made it slip from Akito's grasp, which in that moment Brocker swerve in between them and slammed a gauntlet punch straight into Akito's face.
The punch destroyed his nose and cracked his skull, blood splattered out, as Akito wrapped both arms around Brocker's arm desperately, trying to squeeze it till it popped off.
Brocker simply grabbed the head of Akito lifting and slamming his head deep into the ground, the stone crumbled as Brocker embedded the thrall's head into the stone beneath them, and took steps back standing next to vescoroth.
They both just watched as blood pooled through the cracks of the broken rocks.
Remaining eerily silent. His head still in the rock he thought
They have been beating me so severely, for several hours…none of this hurts at all. I don't feel pain anymore. The only thing that hurts is hunger, I am fighting off the urge to devour mortal flesh, I can't let this become who I am. I must retain my integrity. I am not a mere monster.
Akito with all his might pulls his head out of the ground, now sitting slouched head facing the ground he could see his whole body shoulder down, sadness overcame him gradually.
"I am an abomination…I don't even want to see my face." he muttered to himself.
"I wouldn't worry about eating those prisoner janitors, you may be weak at the moment but even if you were to invigorate yourself it wouldn't take away how miserable you are at combat." Vescoroth said.
Akito, deeply growled, anger sparking within him, as he got up with all his effort lifting his fits Brocker was about to step forward however Vescoroth shoved brocker out the way
"I want to try to fight him like this." he muttered.
Brocker shoved him back "that's not what we agreed on!"
"Pick up your staff janitor!"
"No, don't listen to him!" Vescoroth shouted
"Pick up your staff janitor!"
As they shoved each other back and forth bickering.
Akito's eyes travelled between the two, his head leaking blood.
Suddenly mana flickered around vescoroth, pushing Brocker to ground his sockets then shifted to the akito who didn't even realise as in one quick succession Vescoroth closed the gap and sliced Akito completely in half.
Two halves parted and slumped to the ground. Leaving him stunned for a few seconds.
Brocker just lay on the ground, in silence. Vescoroth kept looking back making sure he stayed that way.
Akitos pushed off from his arm on both halves, sticking himself back together.
Vescoroth kept his sockets on Brocker laid on his back as if processing what just happened.
Akito sat on his butt.
Holding his stomach, he gritted his teeth.
"Get up janitor, quickly let me fight you quickly." Vescoroth said fist tightening on his sickle.
"Guys we have spent all night training, from which you both spent tearing me apart repeatedly. Can we just take a break—I understand as undead we don't need rest, but surely you guys are bored."
"Excuses!" a voice came from behind Vescoroth
"No—no i swea—" before Akito could finish he was hit across the room, into the wall, on the other end of the room.
Brocker stood beside vescoroth who held his arms up to block, but nothing came.
He lowered them.
"No punch back?"
"I will let it slide."
They both went quiet, Akito didn't get up, dust and debris curled from the wall.
"I think we should take this time to get to know him." Vescoroth said
"what do you mean? We were told to keep going until he wakes." he said, voice full of irritation
"If you think about it, this guy is going to be fighting by our sides for an eternity."
"True but what's your point?" Brocker crossed his arms,
Akito's corpse is now visible, his body embedded into the wall.
"And we are not the top of the hierarchy anymore, now we are akin to normal soldiers, just like him, unless the master gives us a high rank we may as well use this time to get to know him"
Brocker nodded in approval as they both ambled closer to Akito.
"Wait a moment…doesn't that mean we should apologise about killing his parents?"
"Ooooh we did do that didn't we…Yeah I think we might have too." Vescoroth replied.
They kept chatting, getting closer to akito.
Akito raised his head, his stomach rumbling "you can't be serious, another round?"
He felt weak, growling echoed from him, and his vision was blurry.
I am about to die for the second time
I have only just acquired this opportunity, and I can't survive the first training. This was a mistake!
He could barely keep his head up seeing two blurred figures "mummy and daddy?"
A raw meat ball was then thrown.
Akito's nose caught a whiff and he turned on instantly biting it without a thought, munching as he swallowed his body and vibrated with power.
Akito pulled himself from the wall, and in the process fell to the ground instead of landing on his feet.
The food wasn't enough, he was still in a messed up state.
Brocker and vescoroth bore down on him, as Akito shuffled through the rubble, like a disgusting slime filled worm, his juices flicked around the place.
Both the bonewalker just watched, in silence.
After all the wiggling and moving around he finally sat up with his back against the wall.
"Thank you so much." Akito now spoke deep growls, spit coming from his unhinged jaw.
"How repugnant" Vescoroth abhorred
"Indeed" Brockers soul shuddered.
They both abhorred Akito's abominable existence.
Akito growled some more.
"Anyway you detest the creature." "We are sorry for killing your parents' janitor" brocker said in unison.
Akito's pale eyes widened in surprise for a moment,"its ok, it happened 3 years now and i have seen alot of death ever since i was young. That reminds me my father used to dig graves around the war times for the town we lived in and when i helped him i saw alot of of it. he wanted to smile but couldn't.
"Brocker, can you make out what he's saying?"
"I think he said he forgives us and he said something like he has seen a lot of death."
"I mean no wonder he saw a lot of death. He lived in this prison; many mortals die everyday." they both cackled.
Brocker was about to speak but Akito cut him off. Trying his best to speak with. "I—Howe—er i d—o—Ant to know—hy you killed the— I have left that in the past. However, I do want to know why you killed them."
Vescorth just stared at his tongue smacking off the roof of his mouth, as his jaw hung at the bottom.
While Brocker leaned in to listen.
…
"I would say that's a great question, but it's a confusing one. I think he wants to know about our past vescoroth"
Vescoroth snapped out of it.
"For what?"
"Well so he can understand why we killed his parents."
"Alright then i will start"
Brocker sat down next to Akito but kept his distance.
"So it all started in 1340, i was assassin but before that i was a war veteran who joined the army at seven years old, it sounds unheard of now but before it was the norm, they gave me weapons and rushed me into battle with bunch of other children forcing us to fight for cause we didn't even know off. I remember a lot of blood, the agonizing sounds of helplessly wounded men and women, the suffering of the supposed innocent and spells of all types scorching and whizzing through the battlefield like moving stars.
"You may think differently but those times were very fun and they taught me the most about myself and the world around me."
"Anyway after serving most of my life that war died down and I decided to leave to do other things with my life. The war ended up starting right back so I left the place entirely and once I settled somewhere else I decided to become a murderer....
Akito growled loudly "What in the chaos, what did I miss."
Vescoroth just continued
Then i realised i needed money and decided to become—
"Wait wait" brocker said, pausing him "you need never explained why you became one"
"Oh well i tried to live a somewhat quiet life and try something different but i had so many i had many violent outbursts, that ended killing few people and i actually liked it weirdly enough, to the point were i decided you know what i should just become murderer"
"Thats not reasonable at all! What kind of sense is that—do none of you have any integrity at all!" Akito growled
Brocker just nodded along
"Back to what i was saying i decided to make money by becoming an assassin and by the great chaos did everyone want someone killed. I got paid handsomely for ending lives, sometimes multiple times. It was a great time. Delightfully, the money gave me the option to indulge in whatever I pleased and I got to do what I love. My life was great…..
Until she appeared. Vescoroth tone went grim.
"I had finished killing multiple targets in one night and then she appeared. As if she knew I was there, she began trying to goad me into joining her and I obviously refused. Who would want to become someone's servant? And on my refusal it went black and I was resurrected as her first undead."
"See, you are not the only one who gets forcibly killed and turned into an undead. I will give her credit i was so much more powerful than before and now I am grateful looking at what I could be summoned as." Akito blinked slowly, his eye ball slightly dislodged.
"I would have appreciated more at the time. if i could still feel things, because i used to glory in killing but now I feel hollow after every kill, even when I try to make it exciting, once I died everything became meaningless to me. This reduced me to being an obedient servant to her which i believe till this day she took away my feelings on purpose because brocker kept his!"
"Well she didn't take them all away from you, she took away your pleasure of killing." Brocker scoffed at him
"Once she turned me, she used me to tell her where the person who gave me the contract was, then we hunted the contractor down, making him spill information which helped us find another target which was connected to a specific informant she wanted to find."
The next target was Brocker.
Vescoroth looked toward brocker who gave a nod.
Vescoroth looked back to Akito
"Brocker was born into a community of felons, yet a lot of people grew up like that in those times, almost everyone. But Broker was the most ruthless ruffian you could get.
"Who eventually became the chief of one of the largest gangs at that time and most well connected bands of gangs at that. Everyone knew them, 'brockdem' they were known for getting things done well though their methods were loud and unconventional. That's why they were so well connected."
"Long story short, Vivian burst in with me and we massacred his whole gang in a matter of hours. I forget how many. At the end she ended up doing some type of ritual thing with him and it made him into what you see now."
Akito and brocker listened.
"Now out of the two of us brocker hated vivian more because she stripped everything away from him that mainly being companionship he had with his gang which a good majority of them he knew growing up, and she replaced them all with mindless thralls which made him more angry he couldn't take it out on her because of something to do with the ritual. Yeah I was irritated at her for taking away my ability to enjoy killing but also didn't care enough to bother about it."
"Brocker hated her for taking away his companions and everything he built, he didn't care about the power."
Brocker nodded, "Enough tell him about Jerry."
"Now finally we have lich or now you know him as Jerry, Vivian used Brockers information like me to find the informant. This wasn't just any informant, it was an informant that was deep in the web of Viscura darkness. Using him she not only found her last target but used it to attract and found out where Jerry would be at a certain time."
"Jerry Lindhelm is his name, a powerful man and someone we were nothing in the face of, just pawns in his plans even as allies. He knew every informant and knew every contractor. Jerry Lindhelm was the one who orchestrated everything behind the scenes. Most wars, skirmishes, he created a system which allowed him to do whatever while staying invisible."
"He had sway over multiple gang especially brockdem and probably was the one who told the contractor who contracted me to kill those people that night."
"This is the guy Vivian was trying to find; she wanted to use him to gain a tighter grasp on Viscura's state."
"Now you will be really intrigued in what she actually did to trap him. After using the informant to find his whereabouts, she pretended to be a helpless girl, who had just escaped an attack. Jerry, when he stumbled upon her, began thinking of all sorts of machinations in his mind of how he will use her in his plans, so he took her in and gave her shelter. Vivian on other hand played along, her goal was to create a bond with him that's what she told us and we were to keep tabs on Jerry the whole time.
"A few days passed and Jerry had a vivian set with a safe shelter, clothes and food to eat. Jerry at the time tried to keep his distance so he could remain in the shadows and began sending messages but Vivan wasn't done. She made big excuses for him to keep coming over to her new home, after this happening continuously he looked as if he would kick her out before she could even get close to him."
"Luckily, soon enough Jerry was ensnared by her beauty and you would think it was a charm spell but it wasn't Jerry himself even went home to check and he wasn't one to give into these types of affairs in truth Vivian, from what I remember she was the fairest of maidens I had seen. reminds me when I first saw her that night I was surprised by her beauty…
"You can move on now…" brocker said, growing bored.
"Ok. Once he realised her beauty, he changed his behaviour to distant to, buying luxurious things, he was softer with her as before he treated like some kind of useless wench and he spent more time with her."
"From here Vivian began to feed in it too, and he ate it up, thinking they were getting closer. The end result of the plan was quickly approaching, she continued to block his big advancements, and with each rejection it frustrated him deeper, we once saw him destroying a whole dining room over it. who knows what type of carnal thoughts he was thinking during this time." Vescoroth shook his head
"yech," Akito said
"Exactly so he then changed his approach and he properly asked her out, she said yes."
"This was the end of her plan"
He set up the place scented candles, wine, and everything at a house far away from all other settlements in that area and in the middle of nowhere.
Vivian decided that this was the night.
Vivian entered and they dined together, ate, laughed and drank wine, vivan allowed all his advancements until the final moment when he was about to press his lips on hers.
Finally after all this time I can have her!
A fist flies in hitting his right cheek, sending him flying into a bunch of wooden tables and chairs.
He groaned in pain as he tried to stand from the broken pieces. Suddenly he was grabbed on the neck and shoved on the wall.
He saw a hooded bonewalker, his horns sharp and gauntlets tightened on his fragile neck.
Where did it come— froth came from his mouth as he was being choked.
The bonewalker threw him through a wooden wall and into the dining table, plates breaking, cutlery scattering under his weight.
He landed head first, half the table smashed the other half crumbled from instability.
His eyes searched for Vivian, he couldn't find her "Vivian get out—"
A sickle descended from above he rolled out the way, got to his feet immediately and mana swirled within his hand as he fired a mana bolt the figure slipped out of the way of the bolt as it exploded on the wall.
And the figure hit Jerry into the wall pinning both hands on the stone wall, one with a dagger the other with a fiery sickle. One hand bled, the other burned.
Jerry grunting in pain.
Brocker just stood from a distance watching and vescoroth just stared in his direction both unmoving and unflinching.
Then Vivian walked forward with a cold stare on her face, red wine glass on her lips, taking elegant sips.
She stood in front of him as a chain manifested from her chest and his connecting.
"What is this VIVIAN! YOU TRICKED ME!?"
She remained quiet
"GET ME OUT OF THIS RIGHT NOW, YOU WILL RUE THIS DAY VIVIAN, I WILL END YOU I HAVE CONNECTIONS."
She finished her wine, and cascaded the glass to the floor.
"Vivian we had something…"
"No we didn't" she caressed his face
"You're not the one I desire. You are not my purpose."
"THEN WHO! I GAVE YOU CLOTHES I GAVE YOU SHELTER"
It was all a lie, you are too gullible. Did you really believe you would fall in love so easily in a place like this? You more than anyone should know that—you control it. She chuckled
Jerry's eyes widened in fear.
"To think, the way you were going to use me, was the same way you fell. How pitiful."
She then began a ritual transforming the Jerry linderhelm into a lich.
From then she began her takeover.
"Now you see why he was in so much fury why we all were?"
"I get it now but why did you kill my parents" Akito growled
"What are you guys talking about?" Zero said, yawning.
He wore a thin black coat that draped down to the floor with the front of his bare chest open, his also wore cotton bottoms, and his feet were also bare.
Both bonewalkers kneeled. "Master"
And
Akito, still sitting, lowered his head. "Master"
"They were telling me about their past." Akito growled
"Indeed sire we were about to tell him about the necromancer's curse that was placed on us." Brocker confirmed.
"Oh I see. Let me finish off then."
"First and foremost the curse is not called 'necromancer curse' ; it's called the curse of Hiraeth or in other words the curse of eternal yearning and spiritual longing. It's an unrevokable curse by anyone except another necromancer who takes authority and only revenants can be cursed with it, not a normal void spirit."
"What are those?" Akito growled
"To keep it brief revenants are souls who are anchored to the living by a necromancer, and allows mortal souls to inhabit the bodies of undead summons instead of void spirit which don't retain previous lives, they are just spirits made for the purpose of serving the necromancer."
"All together revenants are more competent: they are smart and experienced from the start and if very powerful or have high potential from their old life they could be very powerful undead."
"The only negative is that they have free will so they can betray the necromancer while void spirits can't go against the necromancer they can disobey but they are incapable of going against the necromancer completely. It's not their nature."
Both bonewalker listen attentively not knowing this prior along with akito
"Back to what I was saying, I have obviously not experienced the curse of hiraeth however it is described as a 'permanent melancholy' for the necromancer revenants betrayed."
Akito looked at both bonewalkers
These guys suffered too.
"Sir if i could add: it feels like longing for a home—a person that you cannot return to. The bittersweet ache for what is lost, something that is unattainable." Brocker said.
"Vesecoroth do you want to add on as well."
"Brocker put it simply but i would say this: it feels like to finally do something you wanted but instead of gratification you punctured not on your body but straight to your soul, and that puncture spills out creating an endless pit of emptiness within you that feels better whenever you're reminded of her or do something pertaining to her."
"At the same time it forced us to lurk places she did and remain within areas she used to be. Then we made this place, gathering all that we could scrooge from our old compromised layer and we used connections the lich had before hand to set up. This place was originally a prison. We had rooms made here to mimic the exact other layer she used to walk, like this room, other secret places, the one you slept in master her own abode. Some special things and other preserved things like the piano were salvaged and a lot of her books were salvaged to put them here." Brocker continued
"It helped us survive. The constant sorrow and pain, constant bone breaking feeling for someone you thought you hated or despised the one you conspired against now haunts you in your undead life for eternity." Vescoroth added.
"This is why we kept her body and the main reason why we killed your parents. We learned that you have something to do with her past, so that's why we did it and kidnapped you. We wanted you near Akito at the time. We almost couldn't control who we were." Brocker finished.
Akito nodded. Thinking to himself for undead that feel nothing, these feelings are pretty graphic.
"Alright you two can stop reminiscing now, you are under me."
"Sir!"
"Come along, I need you two."
They all began to follow Zero.
Akito got up immediately
"Back up akito." Zero kept moving, not turning to face him.
"What why? Is it not time for me to train?" he growled
"You look terrible if you're going to be in my army within these ranks you need to let go of the mortal side. Your undead now act like it."
"What are you trying to say!"
"You may come back when you have eaten sufficiently. Only then will I train you properly."
They all walked away as AKITO gave up protesting.
Akito limped through hallways, he fell flat on his face several times on his way to find his first corpse.
Eventually he reached a row of decaying bodies and dropped to his knees the impact snapped his femur on his good leg causing his fall on top of the body.
He lay there yet he didn't take a bite.
I will just eat this one and it should do me, its ok akito just eat this one and he will train me it should be enough it should be enough it should be enough…
He repeated in his mind as instinctual buried his face into the corpses back
This one and that's it. No more
As soon as he ingested a little bit, Akito arms swung down on the corpse and began to gouge flesh and rip it off, blood dispersed and body parts scattered everywhere as he began to devour the corpse uncontrollably
As he ate his body began to recover, and grow with power gradually.
He ate the entire corpse but it wasn't enough he went forward and devoured each corpse each one boosting his regeneration
His jaw went back to normal, his skin was still dark green but he was completely whole again and fully functional but his hunger grew and didn't stop.
More!
He ran down the corridors searching for corpses and eating each one,
Continued to eat, and eat his body shifted from a green to greyish colour then his teeth and claws sharpened, along with his body which healed and reformed to become more muscular and durable.
Then Akito looked back hearing a heartbeat he crawled toward a cell, his body now resembling a ghoul, he screeched at the prisoners as he ripped the cell bars away and lunged inside tearing each of them in a frenzy. They screamed in agony as they died,
Akito came out of the cell with a dismembered hand in his mouth, a horn now jutting from his left forehead scar, the horn was twisted weirdly and was in the form of a zigzag with the end pointing forward, his lich eye was open.
He was a true monster now.
He was about to hop to the next cell.
But he grabbed his horn gripping tightly and pulled hard on it then slammed his lich eye shut.
He breathed in and out as his monster-like features faded, his hand fell from his mouth.
His skin is now permanently grey.
He fell on his back.
Closing his red he finally said "this better be worth it Akito." Akito opened his eye again and burped.
…