Mortuus Lux, The World of Decay. This was the name of the world where I was born, a place of death, pain, and darkness. Billions of demons suffered on this desolate world, on this godforsaken hellscape. There were no stars in the sky; there was no light. The only thing keeping us from total darkness was the Flickering Heart. No one knew what it was; well, maybe some of the kings did, but the fledglings, such as myself, would never dream of understanding. All I knew was that it flickered with a red glow and that it shook the very sky each time it did. It was also the only reason we demons could survive here. From the Flickering Heart, a waterfall of deep crimson blood flowed. And from this blood, I was born.
I came to this world like every other demon, by dragging my newly formed body from one of the many blood oceans. That was where my story began, in the ocean of Relictus.
My vision flickered, my eyes burned, and all I could see was black. My body ached, and it felt like it was being ripped apart and put back together.
Where am I?
I felt as if I was floating, or maybe sinking. I couldn't really tell. Everything was a blur, and my senses had abandoned me. The smell was rancid and repulsive; it reeked of death. I was in some liquid, but without being able to see, I wasn't sure what it was. All I had left were my instincts, and they were screaming at me.
I needed to live. If I didn't move, I would die. I would be devoured before I could even try to live.
The liquid I was immersed in began to swirl. A force was trying to pull me deeper. I tried to focus and search for a way out. My eyes unblurred, and my surroundings grew clearer.
Everything was red. I was in a deep crimson liquid, and it seemed to go on forever. I looked down, and all I saw was darkness. There was no floor in sight, and the depth may have been endless.
I looked around, trying to orient myself in a way that would give me a better chance at escaping the red liquid.
Instead, I saw shapes. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of shapes.
Shapes?
No, those weren't shapes. Those were like me.
I sensed we were alike. Were they my family?
I found the closest one to me and observed it closely. It was built like a beast, with three tails that broke through the water with ease, flowing up and down to keep it stationary. It had two crystal-black horns that curled from its forehead; they seemed almost unbreakable. The beast had four hoofed legs, and its torso was giant.
This was my brother?
I looked at it and then at myself. We had nothing in common.
Now that I realized it, we were all different. Some were built like birds, cats, dogs, or hippos. Some even looked like me, but they were rare, and many had obsidian horns, while I had nothing. We were all unique.
I turned my gaze back toward the bull-like creature. I observed it, trying to see what it would do.
Suddenly, my senses screamed. Fear gripped my heart, and my entire being told me to run.
I looked around, trying to figure out what was so terrifying, but I couldn't find anything. My bull brother seemed to have sensed whatever it was, too, since he began to swim up as fast as possible.
A giant tide hit me from below, and as if something were sucking in all the liquid, I began to be dragged deeper.
I pushed my legs and arms to the limit and began to swim up. I gave it everything I had, but the current was so strong. It felt like I was getting ripped apart.
I looked around, hoping for someone to help me. Unfortunately, all I saw were several of my siblings in the same situation. We were all getting pulled deeper and deeper into the liquid, our effort almost meaningless.
I pushed with everything I had, flailing my arms and legs, trying anything to get away from the sense of death. My ears rang, and the sound of my beating heart blocked out my muffled screams.
I felt my arms and legs stop as my body gave out, and I sank toward my almost guaranteed death. I closed my eyes, letting the darkness engulf me. I went numb, and everything went silent. No heartbeat, no ringing, no sound of death. Only the feeling of getting pulled deeper.
I accepted it. What a pitiful life. I really hadn't accomplished anything.
I drifted deeper into the liquid, my mind becoming fuzzy.
Maybe I would get another chance? Maybe I could be born somewhere nicer next time... Was there a next time?
I opened my eyes. My skin was so smooth, so shiny, so pure. My body was slim and beautiful. I wasn't tall, but I certainly wasn't short. My white hair flowed in the liquid. How was it not red? How did it keep its pearl-white colour?
I didn't care. It was so beautiful.
I was beautiful.
My life was beautiful, and I deserved to have a chance.
My body felt broken, but I was not going to give up on my life. I would fight for it until the bitter end.
The pull grew more powerful. I fought with everything I had, and I kept pushing even though I was still going lower into the liquid. The force grew stronger and stronger until I was finally low enough to see what was pulling me down.
The sight was maddening.
It was a creature with a long body and a mouth the size of a black hole. This beast was trying to devour us all. It sucked in thousands of gallons of this red liquid, trying to pull my siblings and me down with it. It had pure black eyes. It was almost like staring into a pit of pure darkness, but that wasn't its most terrifying feature.
Those were its teeth, the size of trees and as black as the night sky.
This beast was on another level.
Growing out of its head were horns, massive horns that could pierce the heavens. On its body were tentacles. Fucking tentacles. They were giant, and there had to be dozens of them.
Why in hell did a monster of this size need tentacles?
I tried to get away from this thing, but I couldn't escape the whirlpool it was creating. I looked down and saw my bull brother. He was closer to the monster than I was.
Once he was within a few dozen meters of the beast, it began to move. Its mouth closed, and a hole in its head opened up. The pull disappeared almost instantly, and I felt like I could finally move freely.
With no more pull, I began to swim away from the beast. I knew if I stayed, I would die. I swam as fast as I could, trying to cover as much distance as possible.
I looked down and saw my siblings starting to do the same. We all began to move away from the horror below.
I saw my bull brother realize, a little too late, that one of the leviathan's tentacles had reached out toward him. He was too slow to avoid it. The tentacle completely ensnared my bull brother.
I looked at my brother and felt pity. We made eye contact, and the fear in his face was painful to see. He was just like me. He had just been born in this world, and there was nothing he could do.
This place was truly unfair.
I felt a connection, maybe hostile, maybe friendly, but we were still connected.
I watched as the tentacle wrapped around him and squeezed shut, crushing him instantly.
My bull brother was dead.
The black, bumpy tentacle brought his corpse toward the hole that had opened on the monster's head. The hole was filled with razor-sharp teeth, which began to spin ferociously. My brother's body was dropped into the hole and shredded instantly, completely devoured by the giant beast.
I watched in shock and fear. I was terrified by the beast's brutality.
I needed to escape. I needed to survive.
I turned and swam at speeds I didn't know I could reach, and I looked around and saw my siblings try to get away as well. They were all swimming away from the incoming tentacles.
I watched in horror as tentacles crushed more of my brothers and sisters.
Around me was a sister with feathered wings and a beak on her face. She was so unique, and just like that, she was squished into a bloody pulp.
Another was a brother who looked like me. But instead of white hair, he had black. He was tall and very handsome. However, he did have a pair of horns growing out of his head, along with wings sprouting from his back.
Why must he die?
The tentacle grabbed his leg, crushing it instantly. He screamed, but the liquid muffled his voice. He stopped swimming, being unable to focus with the immense pain he was experiencing.
Three other tentacles grabbed him, ripping him apart from all sides. His blood poured into the liquid, mixing in with the red. I saw his organs rupture and break as he was severed, his intestines spilling into the water. His heart was flung around and floated past me as I tried to escape.
I saw tentacles fly by, attacking my siblings, and one of them knocked me aside while it went after a dog-like brother.
I felt something, a throbbing pain from the impact, and I started to feel dizzy.
I looked down and saw something sticking out of my leg — a bone, my bone.
Fuck, that hurt.
I bit down, trying to distract myself from the pain. I braced myself and kept swimming.
Why? Why did I have to endure this? This was unfair. What did I do to deserve this torture?
I swam farther and farther up, but it felt as if there was no end. My family was dwindling around me, and I was suffering from my injury.
Another sister above me had her legs ripped off, leaving only her torso to flail around. Her agony was unreal. She floated there, not dying, flinging her arms up and down as blood and guts spilled out from where her legs used to be.
She was in my way as I kept swimming up, and she grabbed my wrist.
She looked at me with beautiful red eyes, but what lay behind them was fear, pain, and madness.
I tried to push her off of me, but she wouldn't let go. Her nails dug into my arm with an unnatural force.
Let go. Please let go. It hurt.
I looked at her with horror in my eyes. She was trying to get me killed.
I kicked at what I could reach. The only thing I was making contact with was her stomach. She tried to scream in pain, but the red liquid flooded her mouth.
She gripped me tighter, not relenting at all.
I didn't know what to do. If I stayed here, I would end up dead, or worse, like her.
I needed to get away.
I used all my strength and brought my hands to her head and clamped down. I pushed my thumbs into her gorgeous crimson eyes with all my force.
She began to squirm and kick, trying to get me away from her, but I wouldn't budge.
She tried to kill me, so I had to kill her first.
Her muffled screams began to emit from her mouth, but I paid them no mind. I pushed harder, begging for her to die.
I felt her eyes begin to squish and spasm. Blood was running from her eye sockets, but she still held on to me.
Please die. Why won't you die!?
She tried fighting back, but with no legs and while being in so much pain, there was nothing she could do. She punched me in the stomach with her free hand, but it had no force behind it.
I pushed farther into her skull, her body spasming even more.
"Pop."
My thumbs collapsed into her skull as I crushed her eyes. Her grip loosened and finally disappeared.
Her body drifted down into the depths, where it was snatched up by a tentacle and finally devoured.
She was dead. Her suffering was over.
I stared back into the abyss, my mind struggling to understand what I had just done.
My hands were bathed in blood and brains; her retinas had been completely severed when I pulled away. Pieces of flesh stuck to me like glue, only finally drifting into darkness when I wiped them off.
I had just murdered one of my sisters, a being who was similar to me, who was born like me.
Why did I have to do that? Was there something else I could've done? Could I have saved her?
The questions echoed in my head, and guilt dug into my very soul.
No. It was her or me. She was already lost to madness.
I couldn't have saved her, even if I tried. I gave her peace and helped her escape this hell.
I turned away from the scene and fled once again.
I swam faster and faster, getting farther away from the beast down below. With each stroke of my arms, I advanced through the crimson tides.
I felt as if I was swimming for hours, barely avoiding tentacles that came to take more of my family.
There were only a few of us now, down to a few hundred. We had started in the thousands, and now we were all that was left.
I advanced, swimming by broken bodies and shattered minds.
I passed a brother on my left who wasn't dead but who had lost the will to advance. He was drowning in his own madness. He floated still, knees cradled into his chest, tears flowing freely from his eyes.
He sat there silently sobbing, eyes bloodshot, teeth clattering, and shivering uncontrollably.
What a terrible sight. He was throwing away the life he had just been cursed with.
I looked back into the abyss. Tentacles still came and went, but their numbers were dwindling.
I had time.
I kicked back and turned toward my brother. I approached him fast, trying to reach him before the next wave of tentacles came for us.
I reached his quaking body and squeezed his shoulder.
He looked up at me. He was smaller than me, and his face was different. He was dog-like; golden-brown fur flowed beautifully along his face.
He was cold. So very cold to the touch.
I brought my hands down and interlocked them with his. They were so soft, yet damp from the red liquid we were submerged in.
He looked so afraid.
I tried to pull him up, tried to make him move forward.
He didn't budge. He pulled away from my grasp and shook his head.
I looked at him. I was confused. Why wouldn't he come with me?
I pulled at him again, pleading with him using my eyes. I pulled and pulled, but he wouldn't move.
I grew frustrated and struck him hard in the chest.
My brother yelped, yet he didn't strike back. He stood there and accepted his beating.
I screamed a silent scream as he drifted away from me.
The last thing I saw was a broken smile before he was dragged to his death and taken from the world too early.
What could he have accomplished if he had a chance to grow?
What an unfair world I was born into.
I looked down at my bone-pierced leg and at the corpses of my fallen brothers and sisters. I looked back on my eventful but short life. I remembered the squishing and collapse of my sister's eyes. The smile of my dog brother, how his tears drenched his gorgeous fur. I envisioned my bull brother and how he seemed to have so much hope, but also the fear he experienced before being crushed into a bloody pulp.
This world had no mercy. There were no friends to be made, and here only the strong survived.
I would survive. I swore it upon my fallen brothers and sisters. I would grow stronger and carry your memories with me.
I pushed forward, stroking upward through the liquid, passing by more corpses and broken minds. I observed the pain around me and added it to my anger.
Tears flowed from my face. The pain of loss and injury almost made it impossible to think straight.
Reaching out, I breached the waves.
My eyes observed the sight in front of me.
For as far as the eye could see, it was red.
This liquid was blood. I was swimming in an ocean of blood.
I turned my head, looking for something, anything, and to my dismay, all I could observe was a giant hundred-meter cliff.
I turned my head around again and saw some of my siblings start to emerge from the blood. I watched as they took in the same sights as I had. I watched as despair began to plaster itself on all of their faces.
There was nothing we could do. This ocean was endless, and there was no way any of us could scale this wall.
I watched a sister with wings take flight into the air, but before she could even make it halfway, one of the giant tentacles pierced the water and rose ominously into the sky.
Its speed was astounding, even out of the water.
It reached up and flung itself at my flying sister. The tentacle grabbed at her, completely halting her ascent.
With her in its grasp, it reeled back and then accelerated toward the wall.
I heard her scream. Not one muffled by the blood. A real, ear-shattering scream.
She was slammed into the wall with immeasurable force, her body rupturing instantly.
I closed my eyes as blood fell from the sky.
The rocky cliff where she had been was now just a splatter of blood and guts.
I watched her blood rain, falling upon my head, drenching me and filling the ocean with more innocent blood.
The tentacle swayed in the sky and began to descend.
It fell toward the ocean, and before it hit the water, the sky brightened.
Red lightning streaked across the sky, and with it, the world shook.
The tentacle struck the water, sending waves of blood rippling. They were massive, rivalling even the rock cliff.
I looked up in fear as a wave brought tremendous force upon me. It pulled me back into the blood, plunging me back into the hell that was this ocean.
I was tossed around and rammed into the jagged wall.
I felt a rock pierce my back, and I cried out in pain. Hot blood poured from the wound, and I felt bones crack and splinter inside of me.
My already broken leg began to bend unnaturally.
The rock dug deeper, ravaging more of my body.
The pain was unimaginable. My consciousness was fading, and my movements began to falter.
Was I going to die after all of this?
This world truly was unfair.
And everything went black.
I felt as if the world itself were crushing me.
My eyes opened, and everything was blurry.
My back and my leg were in so much pain, but I was alive.
I hadn't died after all.
I was alive.
How was I alive?
I was certain that I had been crushed, that I had died. I had felt my bones shatter, my body being torn apart.
Yet I awoke on top of the unclimbable cliff, alive and kicking.
I rolled off my back and onto my stomach, and I pushed with my bruised arms. I heard my bones crack and felt blood oozing from my open wounds.
I buckled and bent, but I fought through it.
I was so abused. My strength had abandoned me, and all I had left was my willpower.
I urged my body to advance.
I shifted my weight and brought myself to my knees.
I gasped for air, coughing from the overexertion. I wheezed, fighting for every breath.
I covered my mouth with my hand and coughed into it. As I pulled it away, blood bleached my pale skin.
I turned away, feeling the urge to vomit. The remaining blood left my lungs as I gagged and spluttered.
As I caught my breath, I steeled myself for the next challenge.
My mind hardened, and I propped myself up higher, sitting on only one knee now.
I pushed with my right foot, driving it into the gravel beneath my feet.
I pushed up. The ground shifted from the force—the sound of pebbles sliding filled the silence.
I propelled up and stood on both of my feet.
The sharp rocks dug into my soles, causing more agonizing pain to enter my body.
I fought through the feeling. I wobbled and was lightheaded. Standing after enduring so much was so nauseating.
I took in a deep breath and focused on my survival.
Looking ahead, I brought one foot in front of the other.
Where would I go?
I wasn't too sure, but I knew that forward was the only way to live.
So I walked, taking my first steps on the land of The World of Decay.