A Mad God's Painting

Now that Haruto was severely wounded, walking that was so hard already, in the unending darkness of the harrowing shore suddenly felt much harder.

The dwarf would've helped but the damn creature was just too short. Besides, crouching was the last thing he wanted to do right now.

For fear of breaking his already aching back. After all, this body was weak and couldn't withstand so much as he had done in one night.

He could've stopped to rest. But that only meant death for the both of them.

It was a huge gamble, but they just kept going north in hopes of getting so far away from the reaches of the black sea before the songs began. Gods! They could've been going sideways. But, trying was better than sitting down and doing nothing.

Turns out their gamble was right.

The dwarf smiled excitedly:

"Look! Light"

Sure enough, as they moved, the darkness started to dissipate, and dissipate, and dissipate. Until it was no more.

Then there was light.

A lot of light.

Enough for the blind dwarf to see again.

But, the scenery was suddenly disturbed by a very loud screech from behind them. Like a cacophony of ruthless strings.

Haruto as well as the dwarf groaned and fell on the floor.

The sounds felt like the joined sounds of a thousand screeching crickets enhanced with hyper speakers. It was so terrible.

It tore through the air like an orchestra of snapping violin strings played with rusted razors.

But, that wasn't the most harrowing part. It was that, as long as the sound went on, Haruto felt himself grow weaker and weaker and weaker until he just couldn't move anymore.

His pain gave in, his vision slowly blurred out. He was really tired anyway. Maybe a short rest would do. He'd not had one in some time.

Soon enough, he gave into the embrace of mother slumber.

***

The sky was represented by a large stretch of cerulean. Caught in a liminal transition, one wouldn't even know if it was dawn or dusk. What's more? It was devoid of stars or any form of heavenly bodies whatsoever.

Right. Haruto sat up, groaning in response to the pain from his whole body.

'This is not Tokyo's

By the time he got a full scope view of his surroundings, he was flabbergasted.

Just to his left, the dwarf was awake and in front of a fire. Of course, though there were no winds whatsoever outside the harrowing shore, the cold was even more. A fire would do a great deal.

He shifted near it, the fire.

"How did this place come about? Surely you've read that in your cryptic book.

They were in the middle of a mesmerizing phenomenon. Behind them was the deep depths of the harrowing shore. So dark and impregnable by naked eyes. In front of the however, if felt like the ragged work of a skillful painter. What's the word? A tapestry!

An eldritch pulse stirred beneath the vast stretch of crimson tapestry, like a living charnel caught in an eternal penumbra. There was a light smoke everywhere. Though it didn't encumber one's vision, it looked dangerous.

Here and there, Haruto found one or two charnel rots, little pools of the black sea…wait the black sea? He shivered slightly. Shades of crimson buried in the cold grounds and spewed on the surface. Blood. How long have these things been here?

There was literally nowhere you wouldn't see massive skeletons of initial live horrors. If so, didn't that mean the blood wasn't fresh? How were they preserved then? If their skin has been rotten of the skeletons. Maybe there was a painter after all, and he just wanted them to see the blood.

Haruto's blood ran cold.

The dwarf rolled his eyes.

"Do creatures from the north not have enough manners to spare a little for courtesy?"

Haruto shrugged.

"I can't even tell if it's morning or night"

The dwarf retrieved a pouch of water from his pouch and drank greedily whilst handing another to Haruto to drink also.

"Ever heard of good day?"

Haruto did not reply.

Sighing the dwarf pushed the woods…woods? Bones…he pushed the bones into the fire. There were no trees. Right now, the bones were life savers.

"Well, there was a war," the dwarf started.

"In archaic times, there was a council of lords. There were just four of them. Lord of the north, east, west and south"

The dwarf paused and wore a grime expression.

"The spire lord was one of them"

The short creature hesitated for a moment before he added:

"He rebelled, and was forced to face the wrath of three of them. Not willing to do so, he secluded himself to an island located deep into the south. But you see,"

Haruto listened attentively.

"Asyrius, The Lord of the north really hated the spire lord and wanted to kill him so badly. So somehow, he managed to convince them. At a cost however,"

'Lord of the north? I'm from the north"

The dwarf continued:

"The Lord of the north and to concentrate most of the forces while the other released minimal. Of course, as a result of anger, malice and revenge. He agreed. And there you have it"

The dwarf pointed ahead and drank water again.

Haruto looked behind at the whole premise. Of course, the Spire Lord had left the blood as a warning. To anyone who dared to challenge him too.

'That's just wicked'

Haruto shook his head.

"So, we're in an archaic battlefield?"

The dwarf shrugged.

"More like a graveyard painted by a mad god"

Haruto chuckled.

Then, he stood up to look at the large expanse of the hollow spire.

It looked like a graveyard just like the dwarf pointed out. But he thought the dwarf had used an understatement.

'Damn!'

Here and there amidst the constantly smoking terrain of ash soil, there were mighty skulls as well as skeletons of horrors.

Haruto even found a jaw bone that was four times his size, if not more. The damn bones formed a chasm!.

It was like a puzzle that led into the terrific terrain of the depths of the spire.

Haruto gulped.

"How long do you suggest we stay to rest?"

The dwarf, who was a reading a book he picked from his pouch, brought it down from encumbering his face and said:

"Wrong question. How short? In my opinion? A day no more. You have a lot of wounds."

The dwarf continued to read his books, he rested on the hind bones of what Haruto suspected to formerly be a four-limbed horror.

Well, after what they went through on the harrowing shore, he doubted there was anything that could scare them again.

The next day, they were going to set off into the depths of the hollow spire. He had to make preparations.

First up, he had to be in good condition. For once, he was so thankful to Mr Grey. All three skill books the man had given to him on a platter of gold had proven immensely useful since the start of his quest.

The last one especially, was about to be very useful.

Haruto sat in a cross-legged position.

…It was time for him to manipulate atoms.