Chronicle Chapter 5 the Greatest EvilWarning! the following chapter describes acts of extreme violence, blood and gore.
you’ve been warned “The theme for this arc is Hero’s of our time by Dragonforce”Alex stands silent on a hill, the wind blowing his hood and jacket about as he just stands there. Finally he nods then motions over his shoulder; looking past him a city can be seen, clearly of human make, like a medieval style fortress, how ever the sound of gun fire is in the distance. He lowers his head, still not saying a word, only snapping his fingers, and now in the market of the town, the city is burning and people scream and run for their lives. Suddenly a creature jumps into the air pulling several black flames behind it, it is almost like it is darkness incarnate its flesh clad in an armor of bone and its flesh itself like pure shadow; with the skeletal wings on its back, it resembled a young dragon. It dives back into the town, unleashing a new wave of black as night shadow fire unto the town, igniting several humans as the flames hit the buildings. Human soldiers take aim at the creature with what look to be early fire arms, and fire, however it is a moot point as the rounds pass though him as easily as if he had never been there. Exposing a pair of shadowy bone claws, the shadowy demon charges into the troop of men, blood flying into the air as it gashed into them, cutting some cleanly in half. It attacks in a flash, arms ripped off, heads severed, blood covering every inch of this once pristine street; these poor souls never stood a chance.
Standing over the only one left alive, the bone clad demon picks him up off of the ground, and bites into the man who screams a blood curdling scream as a large portion of his neck is ripped out. It tosses him back to the ground where he bleeds out and quickly dies in agony. Not a living thing to be seen, the bone clad demon crouches down into the pile of fresh corpses and begins to eat arms, portions of chest cavity, eating anything and everything it could rip off of them; a fresh trail of blood running down its jaws with every bite. It stops only when more men are foolish enough to try and attack it. It turns in a violent flurry of movement and blood as it charges to attack the men who only manage to get a single shot off before it reaches them; blood splattering against the other men in the formation as the one in the front of the group is ripped in half. It is over in an instant, severed limbs and body parts flying through the air as the bone clad demon tears through their ranks. As the last man falls to the ground, dead, the creature takes a moment to survey the fresh kills, but instead of eating it does something else. Grabbing the corps of the last to fall, it latches its claws around the mans head, and with little effort rips it off.
Looking at the freshly severed head, the bone clad demon begins tearing the flesh from it leaving nothing more then a blood covered skull, then after removing the contents of said skull the creature looks it over for but a moment, before sliding it over its own head completing its set of armor. It is unfortunate for them, as a large group of people showed up when they did, they were not soldiers, they were civilians, men, women, and children who thought they could escape the city though the gate that now laid just past the creature. All they could do was tremble and scream as the creature turned to glare at them, its blackened eyes and the blood red slit that made up its iris glared at them from behind the empty sockets of the still dripping skull. In the beat of a heart, the creature tears into the crowd, not showing any remorse or a care of any kind as it indiscriminately killed, starting with a man, then the woman beside him, followed by a child. It was over in an instant, if anyone had blinked they would have died before their eyes opened. The only one left alive, was a little girl, she had fallen on her backside after the creature darted past her to kill her mother. The child had a pure look of terror in her eyes as the demon clad in now blood soaked bones looked down at her. Her fears where just and she cowered against the wall behind her as it lifted its claws to deal a mortal blow; however the strike never came. Opening her eyes, she saw the demons claws inches from her neck but it had stopped in its tracks. Her hair was covering her left eye, in a way she kind of resembled someone close to the demon, and it then scooped her up into its arms, the demons eyes examining the terrified child closely.
The creature finally snaps out of its trance, tossing the child to the ground as it backed off, a trail of blood running from its eyes, almost as if it was crying. Wrapping its hands around its head the creature falls to its knees the blood continuing to flow down its eyes, flowing out of the empty sockets of the skull helmet it wore, then down the skull itself and polling on the ground. The young girl was still terrified, but something drew her to the creature, setting a trembling hand on its arm the creature looked up at the young girl, its eyes no longer of blood, its iris had become blue, a familiar shade of blue. The creature then looked down at his hands, the bone claws escaping the shadow that now made up its flesh, then lifted its hands and took the skull off of its head. Blue eyes looking back at the child it lifted its hand to try and comfort her however it was not to be, his claw barely scratched her however the toxins in his bone started eating away at her face. The child’s skin started to melt, as the necrotic toxin infiltrated her small body, she screamed in pain as her flesh slowly melted away like someone had dipped her in acid; there was nothing to do to save her.
Tears flowed down the creatures eyes as it watched her literally melt away; her screams had finally stopped as most of her flesh had melted, and she fell lifelessly to the ground where within moments there was nothing more then a small pile of bones. Shaking its head violently the creature weeps, before its wings propel it into the sky, it then lets out one last roar before exploding in a massive super nova like explosion which levels most of the city. Once the fire and smoke from the explosion clears, Alex is seen falling from the sky. He lands with a thud on the blackened, Charred ground, where after a few seconds he lifts his head and slowly opens his eyes, and as he looks around he sees what use to be a large human town. He slowly gets to his feet, he watches a few Humans as they run away from him, then looking around the city and sees most of the buildings which are in ruins. He says as he starts to hold the back of his head, “what the. . . . What happened here? How did I even get here??”
He looks back to where the human’s were, only to a soldier as he tries to smack him with a club. Alex doges the swipe only to trip over some rubble, The solider, who has a grin on his face, swings the club at him and hits his left arm. The man tries to hit him again but a black flame suddenly builds in front of him then throws the soldier like he was a rag. Once the shadow takes a solid form it turns to Alex and says, “What’s the matter with you, you were destroying them a second ago now you’re a sniveling little kid again?” Alex stands then asks as he holds his arm, “who . . What are you??” The dark entity says as it embraces the young cub, “what am I? I am you. Don’t you remember what we’ve been doing for the last week hum?” Alex asks as he looks over in confusion, “what are you talking about?” The shadow creature says as it holds its arms out the city burning behind it, “all this, the destruction, the death, the blood. In your grief I awoke So we could destroy these people. You wanted revenge, and I was glad to give it to you, after all they killed your sister didn’t they; they made you hurt?” The Shadow says as it embraces Alex once more, this time its shadowy form clinging to his flesh, “all it is, is eye for an eye right?” Alex’s eyes go lifeless as he nods then says in a slight monotone style, “yes an eye for an eye. They murdered her, now I will punish them.”
As the Shadowy Flame builds around Alex, he grabs up a man as he tries to protect his child. Alex mumbles in a low tone, “murderer” Alex starts to pull on the mans arms, trying to rip him in half, suddenly a sharp pain hits him. He falls to one knee dropping the man who grabs up his son and runs away. Alex feels the cold trickle of blood flowing down his forehead and turning around he sees the last of the towns guards, soldiers armed with what ever they could get there hands on; clubs, boards, butcher knives, rusty pipes. He barely manages to avoid their attacks as the group attacks him. He jumps back as he feels his body start to go numb and as he looks around his vision starts to blur with the taint of blood. Wobbling on his feet, his vision slowly starts to darken, hearing the dark shadow that had enveloped him say in the back of his mind, “Damn it, it seems you’re at your limit and that blow to the head did more damage then I though. I have to get you to safety, I won‘t let us die here.”
Alex watches through his dimming and blood tainted vision as a black flame is emitted from his body and incinerates the men before him, turning them into charred blackened skeletons. He starts to fall as his eyes close.
~some time later~Alex's eyes slowly start to open, looking up at a red sky, feeling a breeze blowing against his fur. He slowly sits up and holds his head, it was sore and he felt strangely drained. Looking around he finds himself on what looks to be a grassy hill, a single tree casting shade on him, the dark shadow that had protected him was no where to be found. He looks at the sky, following a pillar of smoke down to the burning ruins of the city where he was just at. He looks at the fires that still burn with a look of horror, he says as his voice trembles, “did . . . . did I . . . . . . do that???” He looks down as the ground starts to rumble under him, he looks around as the shaking stops then starts again this time much worse then before. He asks as the shaking knocks him to the ground, “now what?!?”
Suddenly an ear shattering sound fills the air, as if a massive plane of glass had been shattered only inches behind him. Once the sound fades he looks around slowly then notices huge cracks forming in the ground. They get bigger and bigger, he watches as they spread forming huge chasms, molten rock seen deep within them. Alex glances over at where the human city was only to see it begin falling into a newly forming chasm. he looks on in horror as one by one the remaining buildings fall in, asking himself as he fell on his rump, “did I cause this?” Getting back to his feet, he continues to watch, but Alex jumps as he hears a dark inhuman voice say, echoing almost if it was everywhere at once, “you were but a key to this event boy, . . . This is my doing”
The voice was dark, and inhuman, it was not the same voice that had protected him before, looking around trying to find the source of the dark voice the young cub calls out, “if this is all your doing then how am I the key to it?!?” The voice speaks again sending chills down Alex's spine, “why, my young cub, because you were the one who set me free.” Alex looks on as strange shadow like demons start to crawl out of the chasms forming a black ocean of darkness. He looks over to a small group of human's who struggle to get away from the chasm nearest the ruined city, and seeing them being chased by the child sized demons, He hurries after them determined to help in what ever way he could.
~moments later~Having been surrounded by the demons a beaten and battered solider tries to shoot one of the shadowy demons with an old looking rifle only to have the shot fly right through it. The little demon then slams into the man sending him flying into the group knocking over a few people. They cower in front of it figuring the end was near but Alex comes flying through the air trying to kick the creature. He passes right through it then says trying to stick the landing, “damn they really are shadows its like there is nothing there . . . how do you hurt a shadow?!” The Shadow readies to attack Alex with its claw's, one of the humans noticing Alex tosses a torch at him with the intent of doing damage to the cub, and succeeds hitting his head then falling next to his feet. The creature, mid attack, stops in its tracks, jumping back to avoid the sudden light, its claw fading into nothingness. The cub grins putting two and two together and gathers the flame in his hands then drags his flaming claws through the shadow before him; the shadow monster bursting into nothingness.
Alex looks over at the humans who stand there some scared some in awe, knowing that now was not a time for prejudice he looks around the ground and starts picking up branches then lighting them on fire. Handing them to the group of humans without the ability to speak their language, he tries to use monkey see monkey do, showing the humans to use the makeshift torches to keep the shadows back. The humans seeming to pick up the idea gather close, the light of the makeshift torches shinning on them all, keeping the shadows from attacking. Looking up however, the creatures disappear, then is a sudden roar followed by a huge gush of wind which kills the flames protecting the group. Now visibly shaken Alex alongside the humans watch as a huge shadow fill the sky followed by a dark sinister laugh. The demonic creature says as it focuses on the cub and the trembling humans near him, “An eon of imprisonment . . . . free at last.” Alex yells up at the dark entity, “who are you!?!”
It says as a pair of glowing green eyes fix themselves on the fox cub, “I'm a creature that was locked away eon’s by the last Keeper. I am the Arch Demon once known as Je'buro, the devourer of souls and it was you who set me cub.” Alex, with a look of confusion, shakes his head, the very air around him and the humans growing darker by the second. He then asks as he looks up at the shadowy being, “I set you free??” Je'buro says as his dark eyes focus on the humans, “well you were not the first step in my freedom, but still a vital part. The first step was the willing death of this worlds hero, the one being who could have stopped me and saved this place.” Alex watches the shadow cloaked demon asking, “who was this hero??” Je'buro says, a particularly evil grin on his shadow wrapped face, “oh you knew her quiet well in fact you use to see her every day.” Je’buro smiles then says as he goes on, “but that's a story for another day; rest assured that the bitch got what she deserved.” Alex continues to look on as the demon goes about its explanation, “The second step was the removal of the blue fox girl from her home, you know the one I‘m speaking of don‘t you, once again a tale for another day my fair cub, and how did I do it you might wonder, easy . . . humans.
The demonic entity laughs a dark and sinister laugh, then says, “So pathetic these creatures, they claim to be the masters of this world . . .but whisper promises of power and wealth in there ears and they will do anything you want them to, the human heart is nothing more then a load of shit!” Alex visibly angered by Je’buro’s words, closes his eyes and clenches his fist as he remembered the look of terror on Crystal’s face when he found her in the hunters cage and the sadness in her voice when she spoke of her home. Je’buro goes on with his provoking by saying, “as for the last seal to be torn open, well this is where you come in my boy. I needed the blood of one million lives to be spilled on this earth and you took care of that for me; with flying colors I might add.” He stops to laugh for a moment before going on,
“city after city, being after being, it didn’t matter if it was human, fox, or otherwise you killed non stop for an entire week, all because I had your sister killed then waved the flag of revenge in your face.” Alex, with tears falling from his face, Clenches his fist which explode into flames, then throwing fire balls at Je’buro, only to have the arch demon knock them away.
He says with a dark Chuckle, “I’m afraid you’re no match for me cub, however I like you and the death that follows in your wake. Here’s what I propose, seeing as you’ve already helped me this far, join me and I’ll spare your life and then you can rule by my side as my Demonic General, I’ll even let you have your sister back, I would enjoy having a pet.” Alex looks down, clearly not buying the demons offer, but a look of thought filled his face. Je’buro getting impatient and looking for an answer to his offer says, “So little cub, what will it be, either join me and destroy, or stand against me and be destroyed with everything else. Alex says as he clenches his fist once again, “you can take your offer and shove it up your ass, I’ll never help you.” Je'buro sighs then says as his shadowy form starts to take a more solid shape, “what a shame, you have so much power, so much potential, now I’ll have to waste it.”
Je'buro lunches a bolt of pure darkness at Alex who doges it only to be swarmed by the shadow monsters. He struggles to get free as the little demons start to hack away at him, feeling his body being torn and slashed; Alex falls to the ground in a puddle of his own blood. Je'buro thinking him to be dead turns to strike at the humans who now flee in pure terror. Alex while close to death hears a light filled voice ring in his head, “ Would to save this world?” Alex responds barely able to lift his head responds as he feels the life flowing from his body, “yes, I want to save it.” Feeling a sudden warmth radiating throughout him, The young cub gets to his feet hearing the lighted voice say, “Very well, allow me to aid you.”
The cub clenches his chest, feeling a powerful burning filling him. Hearing the voice say once again, a slight lighted hue dawns on his fur, “the Flame is not yet ready to awaken, however I can borrow its power for you, Follow my lead.” Je'buro sensing the power turns to see Alex once again on his feet, the slight glow to him, and growls in irritation, “so you’re not dead yet are you cub, so you do take after her then, SO BE IT, You die first!” With a look of anger Je'buro begins to blast away at the cub with all his might to no avail as the shot are deflected by some unseen light; Je'buro, realizing what was going on orders his minions after the cub. Not performing his own actions, The young cub dashes into the dark tide of monsters, fighting them with flaming blows and claws, He then finds himself back flipping away and then gripping his fingers in the hilt of a blade he is yet to see. Speaking to the presences controlling him, “what is going on? I can’t move.”
It says trying to sooth his worries, “I ask you to trust me, I would die before letting harm fall upon you.” Reluctantly he nods, he didn’t know how to fight at such a level, fighting against the thing helping him would mean his death. Feeling his grip tighten he feels himself pull a blade from thin air, the metal was blackened but the blade was engulfed in flames. Holding it in his hands, he felt the heat from the fire, it felt hotter then the sun on a summers day, yet felt comfortable, almost natural, and the sword yet heavy felt like he had used it his entire life, his fingers effortlessly found a comfortable position on the leather wrapped grip. Before he could admire the weapon any further, the demons attack the cub once again, His movements carry him into the fray, but his movements and strikes felt like he had always known them. He starts to grin, he got it now, what ever was protecting him was teaching him, he felt himself learning the steps, the positions, the movements coming to him, and the more demons he destroyed the more natural they became. Looking back at the Demon looming over the sky he smirked, tossing aside the last of the shadows sent after him. The arch demon, clearly having had enough of this, lobs another bolt of energy at the cub shouting as he does, “enough of this! This end now!
He flexes his arms then positions his claws out in front of his chest. He begins muttering dark words in a language foreign to the cub, and as he does the world cracks open more. Alex looks on as all the trees and plants near him start to wilt and brake down around him, even the massive mountain in the distance crumble into nothing. Alex looks at his hands as a flame like veil forms around him, trying to protect the cub from the demons incantation. A ball of light emerges from the broken land, and as the demon reaches for it, Alex finds himself putting damn near all of his being into ball of fire in his hands, the lighted voice saying, “forgive me, but I must risk out life with this attack, he can not be allowed to take that sphere.” The flames in his hands grow larger and hotter, beginning to burn the cub, a sensation he was not familiar with. Then blasting it at the Demon reaching for the sphere, finds that he cant avoid it, it impacts the demon and sets his dark flesh aflame. Je'buro roars in pain trying to put out the fire burning his flesh, “you haven’t beaten me yet!”
As the flames spread burning more of the demon, it balls up its fist and shatters the orb. Glaring at the cub on the ground below, he chuckles then says, “The damage has been done, I won’t be able to claim the power from that orb, but now there is nothing that can save your world, We both have lost this battle now.” Tearing open the sky, the demon flees to recover from his wounds, saying as the tear closed behind him, “you haven't seen the last of me, when the time is right I will return and when I do, you shall regret ever having surviving here, so you’d best ready to be my next meal cub.” Having seen the demon flee, Alex looks around him, the ground was cracking, the sky was tearing then suddenly; Boom. He felt himself violently thrown as the world itself exploded around him. When everything finally calmed down, The young cub looked up and there was nothing but a void of white. He looked down there was nothing, in fact, he couldn’t even tell if he was standing, sitting or laying down; there was absolutely nothing.
Shining before him a figure of light took shape, then bowed before the young fox saying as it took an almost solid form, “forgive me master, I failed. I never thought that, that monster would resort to destroying the world heart.” The young cub, looking rather comical, tries to right himself to what he thought was the direction up, then asking as he fumbles about, “what happened? What’s going on? Why can’t I stand upright?” The lighted figure says clearing its throat, “that fiend destroyed the world heart, its what gives a plane of existence its shape, form, and life, without it, the plane is destroyed and is left as such; a mass less empty void where nothing exist not even the laws of existence such as gravity and direction.” Alex asks looking rather annoyed as he resumes floating around, “then how do I stand upright?” A shadowy figure wraps its arms around the young cub then says as it takes form, “stop dancing around the answers our master wants, all you have to do is declare which way is up and which is down, that easy.” Alex thinks for a moment then says, “so if I said I was upside down then . .” Both entities exclaim “oh boy”, Alex then finds himself falling, landing on his head then flat on his back.
He lays there for a few moment, feeling his entire body calling him an idiot, and his head beginning bleeding a little. He then looks down and sees both beings offering him a hand, which he accepts and stands as they help him up. After a moment to straighten up his clothes he then looks around, nothing but himself, the shadow and the light before him, and the emptiness of the void they now stood in. Alex finds himself asking as he grew bored of looking around, “well then, who are you two why are you the only things still here?” They respond at the same time, saying the same thing with different tones, “because you still exists.” The shadowy being says as it embraces the cub, wrapping its arms around his shoulders, “we are you, and you are us.” The light goes on saying, “to be one is to be the other and to exist is to have both.” They go on in unison with their cryptic answer, “one can not exists without the other, and thus life is both darkness and light.”
Alex looks on at the two beings before him, finally noticing they had a similarity to him; if he was a mass less shadow or a bright light. He then shrugs his shoulders and asks, “ok then, so what do we do now?” The shadow says with a rather snide tone, “get comfortable, without the world heart there is nothing to do and nowhere to go, in short we‘re trapped here.” The cub pouts asking, “there is nothing I can do then? I can’t fix this somehow?” The shadow shakes its head no as it lays back on thin air as if it were in a hammock, the light rubbing its chin for a moment, then saying. “well there is one thing we can do to fix this.” Holding out an orb the light says, “this orb can be used to craft a new world heart, but I warn you, without a god to aid us, it would be very dangerous.” Alex nods then says taking the orb from it, “dangerous or not, I’d rather risk it then sit here and do nothing till I die of old age.” The shadow laughs then says, “Ha, old age, that’s a good one. Time does not exists here, you could stay here for an eon, and not age a second.”
The cub responds hold the orb in his hands, “all the more reason to give this a try.” The light nods and joins the young fox, placing its hand on the orb. Looking up from its position of laying down, the Shadow looks at both of them then sighs, standing up and saying, “fine you win, we’ll give it a try.” Setting its shadowy claw like hand on the orb they feel a sudden energy around them. A blast of light erupts from the orb and expands around them, Alex feeling the orb pulse in his hands almost like the beat of a heart. The process doesn’t take long, within moments there is solid ground under their feet however, Alex isn’t doing well. Looking at him you could tell how pale he was growing even his red fur lost some of its sheen, his hands began trembling uncontrollably even his voice was weakening as he asked, “what’s . . . . what’s going on. .” Both entities place both hands on the orb trying to relieve from of the load off of the young cub, the shadow saying, “damn it all to hell, the orb is sucking him dry, his soul will tear at this rate.” the Light says as it too tries to save the cub, “I told you, without a god this is immensely dangerous! mortals can’t regulate power of this magnitude!”
Every fiber of his being was agonizing as power began to pour through him, he felt weaker and weaker like every ounce of his energy was being taken away. He looked around, the world was almost fully formed, and the orb began to transform as well, but it was not meant to be; The cub felt a snap, then an immense pain filling every part of his body. He went limp, dropping the orb before it finished and it shattered, much to the dismay of the two entities who tried to catch the cub who began to fall, but they faded before they could reach him. He finally landed with a thud, the world tearing itself apart, and explodeing, not as before however. Moving his eyes as best he could, what he saw he almost didn’t believe, it was almost as if large portions where sealed off and rocketed away with the explosion. Darkness surrounded him, he could not move, couldn’t even blink, however he was not alone. Looking up he saw someone, someone who was holding Sara’s lifeless form in his arms. Alex tried to muster any of his remaining strength and lifted his hand, slowly trying to grab onto the stranger, but what remained of his strength failed and his hand fell back to the ground. Moving his eyes lifelessly to watch the figure, the hooded cloak clad figure, held a purple crystal like object in his hands. Alex saw his lips move, however he could not hear a thing, The hooded figure presses the crystal into the young cubs chest, it passes into him effortlessly. Straining his eyes to try and see his face, Alex finds himself being wrapped up by crystalline fibers and some form of glass growing around him. He feels his eyes grow heavy but as the crystal finally encases him, the last blast of air tosses the figures hood off; and as his eyes closed, he told himself, “if, . . I didn’t . . . know any better, I’d almost swear. . . He looked like . .”
He is unable to finish his thought; his eyes shut and the crystal prison around him started to solidify. A hand then presses itself onto the gem, following it back to the body it belonged to, there was a fox, clad in a familiar white hooded cloak. He was the spitting image of the young cub, however with a beard of gray fur on his muzzle, and a scare down the right side of his face, he was clearly another being. A snap is heard, then a familiar voice calling attention to itself, saying. “Looks a lot like me, doesn’t he. Well I’ll tell you one thing, there is a reason for the resemblance.” Snapping his fingers again, the hooded Alex vanishes. The remaining fox stifles a few sobs as tears work their way down his muzzle, then saying as he closes his hand on the crystal, “forgive me, I should have taken care of this centuries ago. It pains me to see that you will have to finish, what I was to foolish to end.” Lifting his hood back up over his head, he begins to cry, saying as he nearly choked on his words, “please, take good care of your sister for me, my Son.”
With that the Fox claps his hands together, and then erupts into a golden light, Wings protrude from his back and begin radiating both power and light. It takes only a moment but the world repairs itself and rebuilds around the large gem now holding the young cub. Once finished the being takes one last look at the gem housing Alex, then begins to fades, having spent the last of his power with this act. A few tears hit the ground as he then vanishes, his life, finally ending, right then and there.
~end of chapter~