To Conquer Death
Just a short story (note the word short) to take a break from my current story series. Contains violence so if you are particularly young, or of a nervous disposition I advise that you stop reading now.
The sub-zero winds cut through his fur and into his flesh like a thousand daggers. But still he pressed on, unphased and without utterance or a single sign of pain, he had endured too much to give up now. He was not about to fall at the final hurdle. His goal lay at the peak of the Forbidden Mountain where none had traveled before, or lived long enough to tell the tale...
As though sensing his renewed spirit the winds blew harder, causing the snow to blind him as it coated his eyes, but still he pressed on; he had climbed from the base of the Forbidden Mountain, dodging past the infinite rolling boulders of the spiked canyon, passed through the darkness of the God-forsaken cave filled with horrors that would cause mortal men to take thier lives from fear. And he had crossed the fields of fire that were fed from the depths of hell itself. He was not about to fail, he would not let the ice encase him, not after what he had been through to get here. Even before he started to climb the mountain that had claimed a thousand lives, both pure and malicious...
Suddenly snow turned to polished obsidian underneath his paws. And the air became far colder than the raging blizzard ever could. All sound died, as did the warmth and the sense of loneliness he had felt on the mountain. To be replaced by the stench of death, the cold of the unknown, and the sad screams of a thousand totured souls. He pressed on into the eternal darkness, pillars of human skulls rising up to the invisible ceiling thousands of miles above his head were barely visible in the darkness. With each step the screaming grew louder, as though trying to elict a response of fear from him, but he would not submit to fear, it was many a year ago that he had passed the point of fear; terror and cowardice held no place within his heart. The souls of the dammed screamed out to the heavens that they could not embrace, louder and louder. Crying for release from the eternal suffering, he was here to grant them release, which he would do as soon as he found thier keeper. But he could not do this with the noise of a billion souls amplified ten-fold by the invisible temple walls.
"SILENCE!" the black anthro Wolf yelled out into the perpetual darkness.
The order did not echo back, but the screams died at once, leaving only a deathly silence in there absence. The Wolf's cloak made only the most insignificant russle as it gently moved over the back of his hind paws.
The Wolf stood stock still, almost invisible against the surrounding darkness. He spoke softly into the blackness.
"Some call you Mamon, some call you Satan, and some call you Hades." he waited briefly, as though expecting a reply.
"Face me God of Death."
At once the furthest visible tile of flooring errupted into a glow of dark energy, power radiating from the portal, casting a darkness which dwarfed that into which it had entered, out of which rose a hooded figure, cloaked in a robe that was engulfed by a power so dark it made all of it's surroundings positivly blinding white.
The Lich God's voice rang through from every place, emanating from the darkness. Trying to rip into the Wolf's very soul, to claim what he thought was his by right, but the Wolf would not allow it. His goal was in sight, and he would not allow the false idea's of a God to stand in his way.
"You are a fool to come here..." the demonic voice fell cold and threatened the will of it's owner with every word.
"And you are an even greater fool to order a God. I have claimed armies and cities in single days, I am the single promise of life and I come to all -"
"Be silent" the Wolf cut off the Lich God.
The obsidian halls transformed to blaze red with the very fires of hell. The Lich God's robe blew back in his rage, revealing his powerful body, made up of what appeared to be only powerful muscle, adorned with the bones of a thousand men and women to whose souls he had no right.
"YOU DARE TO COMMAND ME!?" he roared in a rage of anger that would kill most men if they merely heard it.
"I said be silent." The Wolf spoke again, the pitch blackness returned as the Lich God backed away in fear, there was something in the Wolf's voice that made even the Master of Death fear for his life. The Wolf continued with a tone of supieriority that boasted ultimate power.
"You speak of your power and your greatness" the Wolf advanced on the God, raising his hand slowly into the air and holding it there.
"But I am Apofis Raxion Necros" the Wolf balled his hand into a fist as if grasping something, and dragged it away from the spot, dragging behind it a blade of fire that gave light to the deepest confines of the dark temple. A light which blazed and vanished as the fire errupted to reveal a silver double edged sword that he had literally pulled into existance.
"I am the destroyer of Gods" the Wolf raised the two handed weapon and leveled it at the Lich God.
"And I have come to destroy you."
"You shall die for your insolence!" the Dark Entity had regained his confidence and was about to destroy the pest in front of him
Without another word or action the Wolf charged at the Lich God, summoning his own demonic blade the Lich God raised it and brought it down, hoping to cleave his insignificant foe in a single blow.
The Lich God simply stared down the length of his weapon in disbelief as it shattered the floor, sending cracks and splinters of obsidian in every direction. He jerked his blade from the ground and swung it around, trying to take off his enemies head, but was met only with the shattering of skulls as it embedded itself within the nearest pillar. The God of Death abandoned his weapon and turned to face his enemy. Raising his arms into the air the Lich God summoned a mere fraction of his power to the palms of his hands in the form of cursed hellfire. Capable of incinerating the body and corrupting the soul, he hurled the deadly projectiles with a surge of hatred for the infidels defiance. The Dark Wolf, reacting with reflexes borne of years of solitude, focus, training and mistrust raised his blade and deflected the fire back at his attacker. The Lich God merely absorbed the fire back into his being. The Lich God tensed his body, straining the muscles as enchanted lightning surged throughout every fibre of his existance, he charged at the Dark Wolf, fists raised and culminating in the deadly storm.
"YOU WILL DIE INFIDEL!" was the Lich Gods battle cry as he brought his fists smashing down onto the Dark Wolf.
The Lich God crouched motionless, the lightning that had surrounded his body dissapated harmlessly into the floor. A calm and deadly voice spoke from behind him.
"Thats what your brother, Zeus said." The Dark Wolf spoke flat and expressionless. "And Posideon, and Aires, and Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Hermes, Hera. And they are all dead by my claws. They wander these halls that you strive to rule over. Screaming out into the darkness, suffering for the control they had no right to take. You are nearly the last of your kind. Power-hungry and malicious, but I shall soon put an end to your tyranny."
"We did no such thing!" the Lich God spat, turning and raising to his feet. "We brought order to the chaos of this world! If not for us this pathetic world would have destroyed itself eons ago!"
"Spare me your lies" The Dark Wolf half closed his eyes and looked down to the floor. "All you did was take that which wasn't yours, this world did not need to be restrained and controlled and dominated, all it needed was for the natural order to restore itself." Raising his dark eyes to meet the Lich God, the Wolf's muscles twitched.
"And now I am one step closer to restoring that order."
The Lich God jarred as the Dark Wolf's sword ripped effortlessly through his muscled body, he jerked with each successive blow and fell to his knees, the blade continuing to slice and cleaves its way through flesh and muscle as the God's knee caps shattered. Knowing what must be done the Dark Wolf continued to assualt the Fallen God relentlessly, with each strike skin and flesh and muscle and blood and bone was torn away from the Lich God. The Lich God could only kneel and suffer the torment that wracked his body with each swing of the deadly weapon.
The Dark Wolf stepped slowly to the front of the Lich God. The God raised his head painfully, gazing up the length of the blade to look into the eyes of his murderer, as the two beings eyes met the Lich God saw warm, gentle, loving blue eyes, not the eyes of a killer. But eyes a being who knew the meaning of valour, the importance of honour. And what it means to protect the one you love.
Without hesitation or mercy the Dark Wolf raised his shining blade and drove it into the place where the Lich Gods heart should have rested. Plunging it though the other side of the demonic body untill it pierced the Lich God's cloak.
The Lich God merely stared up at his destroyer. Disbelieveing to the end, he reached out to try to grasp his murderer with a single skeletal hand. The flesh falling slowly away to reveal muscle and bone.
"H-how!? I-I am... a... a God!" and with his final words the Lich God's body fell to dust, which blew into nothingness on the wind that now blew throughout the grey and silent temple.
The Dark Wolf held out his blade as it turned once again to nothingness, back to it's resting place in the different dimension.
"You were"
The Dark Wolf looked up from the place where the body of the Dead God had vanished, surrounding him countless souls rose from the darkness as it left the temple, none truly looking at him, but they rose into the air with looks of contentment on thier faces as they ascended to the Heavens that they had longed for, hundreds upon thousands upon millions of spirits, now freed from an eternity of torture and punishment were now free to embrace the light.
The Dark Wolf watched the departing souls, feeling nothing at what was now the latest in a long line of victorys. Looking back down to the surrounding Temple the souls of the damned, those who had not earned the gift of Paradise were stood, some simply staring into an infinite abyss of nothing, others shrieking out in the pain and torture they had endured for millenia, and would endure for the rest of time, from the unknown depths of the Temple rose the agonised screams of the former God, condemed to suffer as he had held others to the same fate.
And with that the Destroyer of Gods turned to leave the Temple that had been restored to it's true purpose, to house the souls of the damned, and to hold those who could still prove thier worth of Paradise.
The Dark Wolf felt the marble under his paws become cold and soft, stepping out into the settled snow of a windless mountain. The Dark Wolf would continue his journey, he now had to travel to the temple of Aphrodite, for there remained the last Goddess who had a fraction of control over this world.
Please leave comments as they help my stories to develop and become better. With this I just wanted to try and create something I had runnging through my head for a while, plus it helps set up my Furrsona. So it's also kind of an introduction. =P