New Frontier

The throne was oddly spaced, scattered across here and there were materials, which consisted of straw, some were cloth and other odd items, and it gave an impression of a makeshift nest.

And at the center, one that would give the most attention and one that shocked Adaceus, were two little girls, barely reaching three years of age and were sleeping in the pile. He knelt so he could get a good look at them, and as he did this one suddenly one woke up, opening her sleek, slanted eyes, to reveal a deep purple and pink color, with slit irises at the center. The other was still sleeping, which the other one promptly interrupted, as the other violently shook her, making her wake up. Her eyes were different, showing a light orange and yellow eyes, but bearing the same slit irises as the other.

They had on rags, barely passable for clothing, and spread across them were a material of some sort, like thin shards of shattered glass surrounding all around them.

Then they both looked to him blank stare.

He looked toward the light in confusion to what this was, where it abruptly stopped its outpour of energy, and only placing itself on top of the girls, hovering and encircling them like a halo.

What am I supposed to to with this? He thought, directing the question to the light with the gesture of his hand, but the light only flickered at him.

Damn you. He cursed. 

He looked to the girls, and took a moment to gaze at them, and turned and walked away.

This is not my problem, he thought.

I have more pressing matters at hand, and I'm sorry to them, but this is none of my concern.

He tried to walk away and even managed to take a few steps down the stairs, before he felt something in his chest that made him waiver. It was a firm feeling, like his chest was caving in on itself and tightening to a firm grip, and as he took another step, he hesitated. He tried to fight this sudden feeling, but was of no use, and he stopped dead on his tracks and unable to move further, where he turned look to the nest that the girls were. The feeling in his chest was drawn to it, almost being pulled towards it like a chain to a wall, and he couldn't move any further down.

He kept up the fight, until the light dropped down unto the level of his face. This was the last strike, and he relented, going back to the nest. 

"What is wrong with me, why do I feel drawn in, dammit, this is pointless, why am I doing this," he cursed, but still continued, the pull ever so strong.

He stared down at the nest again, this time the girls were crawling about and playing with the assorted twigs around.

He knelt to them, which drew their attention to him, and he stuck out his hand in response. One suddenly grabbed his outstretched hands, and Adaceus looked at her at the sudden touch. It was the purple eyed one; her fingers seeming tiny when compared to the gauntlets he had on. 

"Hello, there." He awkwardly said, but the girl only looked at him with a blank, tired stare. 

Adaceus suddenly realized that he wasn't wearing his mask, but strangely the girls didn't seem to be scared or frightened, only continuing to look at him with that odd stare-which made him strangely uncomfortable. The other, crawling behind, did the same thing and grabbed another one of his fingers-their miniscule hands latching with his. The girl that first held his hand was a pretty looking girl, sleek and sharp, and cropped, silver hair that only reached to her neck. The other was also appealing, soft and large, giving the impression of a gentle innocence, and had very long, gold hair, long enough to reach her feet.

The cathedral abruptly trembled, lasting for a few seconds before quickly subsiding.

As the vibrations ended, he looked to the girls, and then gently took his hand away from the children, before carefully picking both of them up, exiting the nest with a girl on each of his arms. They gave no resistance and quickly perched themselves on him, which gave him relief as he didn't know if it would trigger hostility toward him. Reaching the end of the stairs, they exited out the door, leaving the cathedral behind. 

Then they were outside, meeting the scope of this baleful city. He looked back behind him, and saw the black soldier, following behind them. It slowly dissipated into smoke, disappearing into the wind into nothing, a clear sign that his reserves of energy was waning.

# # # # #

The whole of the city was of black and gray, where nothing but ruination on every path that was laid unto the ground and destruction and decimation were constant in the vicinity. Its streets were filled with dastardly sights, filled with structures made of sharpened wood with skeletons impaled within them. The buildings that were built there were reduced to rubble, where smog from fires of the past blackened the stone and brick, completely barren and empty, uninhabited with no life in sight. 

And at the gutters of the dilapidated alleyway's, the revolting under-city sections of the kingdom of grime, was Adaceus, accompanied by the two girls that also hid with him on the shadow's, entering here via a path the light directed him.

Adaceus continued to follow the light, where it stopped and flickered its entirety that illuminated an entryway, and they entered it.

The path they walked on was dark and damp, only slightly visible to them because of the early morning sun that managed to penetrate through the thin line of fog. And as the dark corridors became visible, the sight that was made visible made Adaceus stare in astonishment.

"What the hell," he said in horror, witnessing the sight he was beholding, even the girls emotionless faces showed evident terror at the sight of this scene.

A massive amount of bodies, laid there in the mud, lifeless and unmoving. All across the streets and the walls were bodies, strewn about. There were multiple piles of them, grouped togother in a grotesque formations, even making one large enough and numerous enough to even surpass the height of the flesh goliath Adaceus faced earlier.

Towers of flesh loomed over them as they passed.

They were all strangely clothed with long robes, making it hard to differentiate a man from women, and the skin that escaped the robes were all gauntly and pale, with large veins of black. Adaceus used his sword to poke a one of them, but no response came when he sunk flesh through one of them.

They traversed with cautious steps, walking above bodies that blocked their path, and after walking for a while, they exited out the alley's, out to the main city streets. To his astonishment the streets were also completely covered with bodies, the piles reaching an even more numerous numbers and some were leaning on buildings, which left the group completely speechless for words.

They continued walking up the road, before the sound of bells resonated the entire part of the city they were on, loud enough that it vibrated the buildings, causing dust and debris and the like to fall.

Adaceus looked about at the sudden chimes, but couldn't find the source no matter how he looked. The bells rung a couple of times, and as a couple of seconds past, ended their sound. At the climax, all the bodies that were on this place suddenly moved, like a horde of moving ants they moved with such irregularity that their movements gave the impression of a manic confusion, all instantaneously waking from their sleeps and the towers moved in waves. Adaceus, startled at this development, hurriedly grabbed the girls and ran, the first tower of these bodies, falling in front of the group, abruptly halted their run. He saw the toppled bodies moving around, like maggots eating a cadaver they all moved all around each other, and it sickened him.

He looked around, and after spotting an empty space, in between two buildings where bodies were thankfully absent of the pale figures, running and going in it and shielding the girls behind him. Adaceus watched as the towers tumbled like sand to the streets, some crawling out the piles and began climbing on top of each other from the compact piles they were stuck to, and all of them slowly started standing up.

Thousands of figures slowly lurched pass him, ignoring his presence as they paid him no mind as they walked, deeply arching to a hunch and their arms hung low, even when he was completely visible by them. Adaceus looked at the face of one of them. One figure that was walking near him, and he looked under the hoods that they had on, seeing a bearded man clearly in his vision, whose eyes were as pale as his face, black marks like veins on his skin, and his mouth wide open and drooling with a line of spit.

Adaceus watched with awe as the man walked pass him, and the torrent of lifeless figure that followed behind him, all going to someplace ahead of this road.