Kiburat (2)

The color bled from the world.

Fresh greens became mottled and dark as they eroded and fell, lying limp in death, as the dirt beneath lay barren and bare unable to tolerate life any longer. The bright sun above was powerless, its rays dim, it no longer had the drive to support such a hollow place.

".…No…"

Unable to tolerate the sight any longer Lyrea bled tears of red as Koel forced her to watch.

"This is the world as it truly stands. Taken out of cycle and twisted beyond repair, shaped by another's hand for greed and malice, to claim what does not belong."

Turning her bloody face towards Koel, Lyrea sought comfort in his bony embrace as his skull lit up with an eerie amethyst glow, powered by her very flesh.

"What is it we do here? Can it be returned?"

"I have waited in torment for millennium, withstanding the grinding of all as they seek to wear me into dust. I care not for such a world and neither shall you."

With a taloned hand, Koel forced Lyrea to look up at him and stare into her own eye.

"We do nothing. You only follow. Demise is coming, none can stop that, and you dear, are my key."

"But.."

"... the deal was bound. Your whims are petty and small, believe me or not. You cannot defy me."

Releasing Lyrea from his grasp Koel dropped her into the dirt at his feet.

"Now follow, I wish to see what measures have been put in place against me."

Unable to resist Lyrea picked herself up from the ground in which she lay as she followed behind Koel, unsure of where this journey would go.

Unsure if she was traveling with Koel or simply being dragged along in his wake.

Spreading his skeletal arms wide, Koel stood before the barren and decrepit earth before him, smiling as his voice rose from his chest and shook the clouds around him, breaking the turbid sky.

"Oh Goddess of Virtue, who demands the faith of all, I have come to pillage and war, to lay waste to this devastation. I come to return the gifts of ruin and torment that you left me."

"GODDESS HEAR ME. I will spread your blood like rain across this land, I will smear you with all the filth that your creations provide and besmirch your existence until even faith betrays you and only the worthless say your name as a curse to ease their own miserable existences. You will suffer until you live no more, and then even death will leave you to rot."

With each word Koel stepped forward, his bony feet shaking and breaking the ground like wrinkled skin as bony hands broke free from earthly confines.

An army was rising, an army of demise as all manner of creatures and animals alike were raised by Koel's presence, by his craving for slaughter.

Lyrea, pure white in body and soul, shook as she stood behind Koel, scared. Where was the tenderness that he had shown before, she had felt the pain that ran through him, a pain of such depth that no matter how far she looked back, she could never find its beginning.

With the dim sun above casting long shadows over demise, the army marched forward, helmed by perfection as she stood before them, offering a small modicum of comfort for those about to be assailed by slaughter and agony.