Awaken

"What... the hell happen." He said, his tone hoarse and crass.

His mind was scattered like bits and pieces, memories spread like dropped sheets of paper, his eyes blurred, sparkling lights turn all around as he tried to fix himself form this concussive state, pangs of ringing sounds resonated in his thoughts.

The last of the memories he could recollect was the light blasting him with numerous rays of brilliance, bombarding his face off to near blindness that oddly didn't hurt, and that he felt he was falling for what felt like eons.

His eyes readjusted, seeing visages more clearly, the gray walls of some sort of building covering his vision as he looked.

He observed the details closely, his eyes growing clearer and able to make out the gray surrounding as a form of aged, bricked walls, some covered with moss and some with large cracks, indicating that he was some sort of ruined structure, the dusky smell and the cobwebs stated this too. 

He shifted his eyes, looking up at the walls and directing his view towards the shattered clerestory, a large chunk of it was missing at the uppermost corner, and at the large gaping crack, he was met with an overwhelming sight.

At the horizon, stars were their illuminating an ethereal glow out at the night sky, a vast landscape of spotlights, gazing at it overwhelmed him and his senses, those vast specks of pure light were the most beautiful things he had seen in multiple millennia, and it hurt to even focus on them.

His breath trembled, heart beating fast and a slight smile was painted in his black face and a quiver at his feet. He lifted his arms letting his emotions take him like the waves of the ocean guiding his body.

He felt a strange feeling that edged his being, it was unfamiliar, but somehow it felt intimate and close to him, like he'd known but simply forgotten from the ages he was imprisoned, and as that feeling grew, penetrating from the black, grim tar of his thoughts, he knew it to be happiness.

He could hardly take his eyes away at those marvels, he had long wanted to see them again, the shining luminous glows that veiled the skies, his beautiful creations that sent wonderment to any who gaze upon them, and being surrounded by this vastness, a sense of knowing filled him in his soul, he was actually free.

The feeling of the chains on his limbs were now gone, the bitter cold, replaced by a damp warmness, and that forsaken black disappeared he hated was no longer on his sights, and to him it was the greatest relief.

Oh freedom, how good you feel.

A trickle of energy suddenly interrupted him at his feet, a feathery mana that strangely resonated with his own, a wispy and stringy force that gave him a strange feeling. He looked down and saw a strange tome, and an interest brewed in him as he went to pick it up, opening it and curiously flipping to its pages. He saw multiple strange symbols that formed the majority of the paragraphs and sentences, but he couldn't understand any of it, a consequence of his imprisonment was he was privy to this world's knowledge.

"GET IT!!" 

Until this rumination was rudely interrupted, as a sudden - and what seemed horrendously terrible to him - scream coming behind him.

He turned back with anger in his stare, and whereupon he saw a group of bandits charging at him with weapons raised high, a pale, ugly hunchback, running at him at the forefront of the band.

"Kill it, hurry!" "Destroy it!" 

They screamed in their judgement calls for his death, threatening to kill him as they ran forth. 

"Nuisance." He said, his voice filled with condemnation for ruining his train of thought.

The pale hunchback, now closer and in front of him, lunged straight to stab him with his short sword, aiming at his heart.

He raised his hand. "Lets try this out." He said, his blackened bones crumbling to ash on the ground, straightening his palms as a large circular sigil bigger than his hand, conjured within them. In the symbol, letters of various qualities rotating and a feint purple light illuminated its entirety.

"Black Hail"

As he said those words, an array of ornately jagged, black spikes came to light, formed and organized, as if from thin air they became reality and were placed directly at the man.

That instant they fired, multiplying to hundreds of splinters, a rain of black shards showered the pale man in blinding speeds leaving him feathered with blood and black fragments and gaping holes prevalent on his body. The body flopped on the floor, the inertia of the previous run made him trip and fall flat, lifeless and bloody, he was dead.

The bandits stopped their sprints, their pursuits halting after seeing their comrade dead on the ground, reduced to minced meat and black glass. Faces of disbelief painted their expressions, and questioning murmurs spread across the band, each of them hesitant to move.

"YEAAARRRGHH"

Another scream was heard at his side, a large, tanned man came approaching, ready to strike with a mace held high and ready to strike.

"Fog Phage"

At his other hand, a sigil of the same nature as the one before conjured again, illuminated by a blue light, and a thick black fog slowly spread to the man and entering into him via his mouth. The man kneeled in pain, his body started to blacken and deep purple veins spread across his skin, growing like vines.

The was fog going in and out of him in every surface available like tentacles, every entryway, every pore that was open was surrounded by the fog. His flesh was melting, all of it now purple, as he turned to a puddle of flesh and bone.

"EVERYONE, STEP BACK!"

He turned to look at the sudden noise, and saw a scaled man and the group of bandits circling him.

"What, are you not going to attack me?"

There was a slight shudder in every bandits movements, they were shook still, not making a move.

"Fine, it does not matter."

He waved his hand, the motion seeping with ethereal wisps of black and another sigil was conjured, flat on his palm. 

"Let me show you my personal arsenal."

The two corpses that were freshly felled, resonated with the sigil, responding to it as they twitched and shook. Their bodies glowed with darkness and steaming with the same wispy black smoke, their bodies still shaking. 

"What the...."

The bandits faces fell into appalled horror, as shadowy figures escaped from their dead members and rising atop, standing on their bodies. Their shape was barely humanoid, and all of them seemed to be equipped with wickedly shaped armor, sharp and monstrous was their design and an abyss of darkness painted them.

They were terrifying adversaries rising out of shadows, monstrous than anything they had ever seen possible.

But none present there could simply ignore their dignified complexion and disciplined motions, as they bowed to the child in reverence. Their image like those of myths and legends, resembling that of heroic knights that serve ever-ready to an almighty emperor, shown in that fallen clerestory.

He spoke.

"Awaken, my soldiers of black."