He had left the monastery the day the woman had returned to see him. He did not know why, but he felt that he should never see her once more. It was strange, though. He had seen those eyes somewhere before, but for the life of him, he could not remember where. They were young in beauty yet old in wisdom, a gaze to melt the coldest ice or turn flesh to stone, much to the dismay of the beholder, yet always in favor of she. Hazel, they were of a color for eyes of which he had never seen before. His own eyes were black, another color of oddity in this land. Commoners could not maintain their gaze for more than a few seconds before looking away, stupefied. He could not stare at her for more than a few seconds before becoming lost there, seeing his reflection in her eyes. Yet, he saw a side of him he had never seen before, a sort of tamed animal, different from the one he saw in a reflection of still water on a cloudless day. It was as if she saw what he had once been, and felt sympathy for him. He did not want her sympathy; he wanted no one�s sympathy for anything. When his human mother died, the town was shocked as to his emotionless figure. He shed not a tear, nor felt a scrap of remorse. He said not a word at the funeral, and did not mourn for her. The villagers believed he was of the strange type, seeing as he had said he was glad that his mother had passed on into the afterlife. �Life is Hell, sir,� he replied one time. �Why live in Hell when you can seek release into a life unknown?�
He disliked cities and towns, and so opted to live in the countryside. He inquired some passersby�s and found that he was a long way from the town of old. Many of them had not even heard of his escapades there, nor the town itself. He set up a camp near the outskirts of Helderal which housed the monastery where he lay in for so long. The town was known for its great healers who roamed the countryside, helping all those they found out of any situation imaginable. There were stories of how one of them destroyed an entire army of undead skeletons and zombies with only his fist, his foot, and his words of light.
�They must have been a lesser�s summons, it seems. Not only would an army created by me destroy any man alive, they would ravage this earth.� Only then did he remember that he could do so, that he had the power to conjure the bones of beings long gone and restore them to a walking warrior. He felt no desire to do so, as there was not enough distance between he and the city, and so did not want to harm its inhabitants. Looking at a reflection of himself in the puddle beneath him, he felt a strange feeling twinge within him. He did not want to harm its inhabitants? What did he mean by that? He had never cared for others before, but why now? Why did he care now for these townspeople he did not know? What had happened to him while he lay in that bed within that place for so long? He knew he had changed, but did not know if for the better or for the worse. He could only know that this was a strange new feeling, and for the first time in his life, he cared for another human being.
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Several days passed as he hunted monsters that had once ravaged the countryside, terrorizing the people with their destruction. One by one they were slain, all by an unknown person. Rumors spread of a god which had taken human form, intent on making these demons pay for their high crimes with their very life. Others had said that no god would help them in their plight; it must have been a mortal who walked on doing good deeds wherever he went. Still others believed that they were just disappearing, leaving for better plunders in lands far, far away.
The townsfolk spoke of how some being violently slaughtered any demon which he had encountered. One man told a tale of how his horse was surrounded by undead zombies who upon ravaging his steed was set upon by the undead horde. He accounted that a man leapt from the cliff above and proceeded to cut down the pack with his bright sword of red. Upon slaying the last of them, he simply sheathed his sword and left the man without saying a word.
A woman had told everyone she saw of how she had been attacked by bandits on the bridge, although they were no ordinary bandits, but doppelgangers in disguise of humans. She was thrown to the ground as one of the shape shifters took her purse containing a month's worth of savings and began to draw his dagger to silence the woman forever. "Just then," she continued, "A cloaked figure came upon them and utterly destroyed them with some magic of some sort! He said a few words and this bright blue flame encompassed his left and right hands, and it shot out like an arrow into the bodies of his enemies! The two creatures just vanished and he kept on walking, saying not a word!"
All he knew is that he was doing something good for others, for the first time in his life. He was voluntarily helping others, and did not expect to receive anything in return. He was doing good deeds for those he did not know, and he knew that he would never meet any of them every again. He knew that he would still be treated as an outsider, as they did not know it was he who slew these foul beasts that had once ravaged the land. The bodies of his enemies were burned in a magical flame which wrought their souls and destroyed them, and so destroyed their mortal forms as well, destroying any trace of evidence of their terror forever. The only thing these dead demons left were the damages done by their demonic deeds.
~~~~~~~~~~
The snow began to fall.
He happened upon a campsite one night, wondering where from the smoke he saw so late at night was rising from. He discovered that the camp lay in shambles, whereupon the tents were on their sides and gaping holes dug beneath them. He had not heard any calamity all night long, but he was certain that the people were recently present as the fire was still going with a large stock of dry wood nearby behind one of the grey tents.
�What has happened here?� he questioned aloud. He neared the campfire itself, wanting to feel a warmth to contrast the cold that had just recently blanketed the countryside. It was nearing the season of ice as the grass began to die and the trees began to change in their color. Their leaves were of vary shades of red, from orange, to yellow, and even brown and green. Many of the leaves were found no longer on the trees having been torn from their limbs by violent winds that reared their heads in the middle of the night.
�I see not a trace of humanity, yet it was humanity who established this campsite.� He looked for signs of life, and found none. The gaping holes in the ground had a covering of a mucus of some sort, but he did not know what from.
A leaf fell onto the ground behind him as the wind blew harder, if only for a moment did the wind fell a tree.
A rumbling of the earth resounded beneath his feet, causing pieces of earth to be thrown from itself and into the air.
He looked around and saw not a thing, until he looked at the ground beneath his feet. The earth was being torn apart, being thrown into the air all around him as a large worm head escaped from a hole bearing two large pincer fangs. It�s many beady eyes were too many to count, and it�s legs hung stupidly from its carapace so high in the air, not able to do anything outside of the ground. The monstrosity was of an earthly hue with a green undertone, as if the actual color was green, but had turned brown and black with so many years living within the earth, in the soil beneath the very dirt he lived on. It continued to sniff around, it seemed, as it looked for something to clamp itself upon.
He drew his sword, slowly, silently, suppressing the flame which would burst and come forth from it. He stood still as the worm began to pull itself from the ground, apparently to seek food and nourishment as it had from the camp. It had hair all over its back, some sort of antennae for listening and feeling. The wind did not help, as it blew in every direction with its cold bitterness. �You are here,� the beast hissed. �I can sense you, fool! Believe not for a moment that you have escaped by senses!� It writhed all around in its little hole, looking for the man with the sword, and found him not on the ground. �Where are you, mortal? I come for a feast, and I shall render your flesh as my food! Show yourself to me!�
His wings flapped in the wind, struggling to keep him steady in the gusts of wind and gale. The black wings which had come from his back resembled that of a bird, of an angel, of a dragon. It was not a wing of an earthly animal, yet resembled those of some celestial being that had been sent from its lofty realm and had been thrown into the pits of hell, leaving the feathers to burn and turn black with time. Ever so silent these wings were able to keep him aloft, so silent that not even this worm beneath him could find him. The wings began to slow in their procession, slowly lowering the being near the beast�s head. �No, my friend; it is not time for you to feast. It is time for you to die, to rest, to sleep, forever, with no awakening in sight.� The wings stopped flapping as the man readied his sword, and fell to the earth.
The worm laughed a hearty laugh, as one would do at a bar. �You dare jest me, mortal! For that alone, I shall keep you alive within me for ages!� His many arms began to move in a synchronized motion, pushing him back into his hole. The being from above came down like a tempest, removing limbs here and there as he fell faster and faster towards the earth as his wings became not wings but strands of darkness which wrapped themselves around him, and around themselves. It became an armor as it hardened around his body, and a dark glow emitted from his very being. He laughed a shrill laugh, one no human could ever laugh.
�You say it is I that shall die? No, my cousin, I shall send you back to from whence you came!� Four arms now were protruding from this man�s back, like a spider�s legs, carrying him to and from across the battlefield, following the burrowing worm as he could see the path which he dug, the worm so big it pushed up the earth high above it, and left a visible track. The spider�s legs eventually shriveled and shorted, becoming like a scorpion�s stinger upon his back, yet four. He could see the worm encircling the spot in which he stood. The worm shot up with its mouth gaping wide, its saliva trailing down its body as the man jumped towards the heavens, evading what would be a sure death within the belly of this beast. He cast a few spells at it, but to no avail, as the creature�s carapace protected it from such magical attacks.
He landed on the worm�s mouth, using his legs to balance himself on the worm�s pincers, receiving the stare of many multifaceted eyes. �You see me, sah; you see me not!� He dug his sword into the skull of the beast as it reared itself back in agony and pain as a grotesque moan escaped from within its entire being, the pain shooting down its back and spine, apparently hitting a vital part of its body. Holding on for dear life, he grabbed the sword�s hilt with both hands and grasped so tightly his hands turned white as the worm burrowed deeper and deeper into the earth, closer to the pits of hell.
Pulling back on the sword as if to drive the creature back to the surface, they broke ground into a riverbed as the water rushed into the creature�s mouth and lungs. The vile beast continued this rampage of pain on land, smashing and knocking over trees and bush as it flailed in its dying agony. He pushed even harder down, inserting his device of death even further into the creature�s brain as a slippery substance began to escape the wound. The worm began its treacherous tirade once again, heading ever closer to monastery of white as it began to gain speed in a blinding pain.
It reached the stone and mortal wall of the town as it crashed into it, knocking down a good portion of the town�s defenses. He was high above, but he could see that to let go now was fatal, even if he did have wings to save him. The creature�s thrashing would throw him into a wall with such force as to break the bonds that held together the very earth he lived on. He heard the towns people screaming as he cried �Encantus fantak!� his sword bursting into flame upon his hearing his command. The fire spread through the worm, through its body, its shell, its legs, its hair, its lungs, its stomach, its entire being, and began to set it afire from within. The claws now upon his back dug into the worm�s skull even deeper still, finding crevices in which to cause agony and pain to such a vile creature.
He could feel the heat emanating from it, warming the very snow around the two unearthly beings. A house was set on fire by the thing�s tail as it came out of the ground and was smashed upon the ground. More buildings were knocked down, but he could not see from so far up, high in the sky. He felt the creature give one final shudder, and began its decent to the earth. It was an earth shaking shudder, causing a tower of the monastery to collapse upon itself. The very town was shaken at its foundation as the monstrosity slammed itself into the ground and many of the buildings and homes and businesses fell with such the violent quake. It came back up once more, in an attempt to catch the mortal between itself and the ground, but he removed his sword and his extra appendages as his armor unraveled itself, leaving his skin unprotected from the venomous liquids spewing from the body of the worm.
They elongated once more into their celestial wings as he began his decent back down to the earth, elegant, long, narrow tentacles moving in unison to keep the being aloft in the sky. He touched his foot upon the ground, and his wings vanished.
The snow fell no more.