Under a Burning Sky
Just a taste of another world I'm building for a series. Hope everyone enjoys. ^.=.^
The world is screaming now.
The sky is painted in the colors of a dying sun.
Apocalyptic winds scorch the land, spreading ashes far and wide.
The oceans boil and rumble, steam washing over the shores.
The heavens are burning.
A figure stands below, staring up.
A man with tattered, bloody wings.
He has a silver sword in one hand, a ruby pendant in the other.
He is clad in armor as blue as the ocean.
As the sky combusts, he murmurs a promise.
The ground is shaking; tremors are felt the world over.
Towers are toppling; the pristine, white marble now charred and blackened.
Statues are crumbling, they no longer bear the image of those whom they were sculpted for.
The man takes a step forward, then cries out his fury to the immolated heavens.
He holds the pendant tighter, sensing his foe near.
Something stirs before him, the ground shifting.
A massive form erupts from the shattered earth.
Its bony head turns to face him.
A crown of antlers adorns its skull, crackling as they sway.
It is a writhing, black, oozing, hateful, malevolent thing.
Its body is undulating, squirming darkness.
Oily black and worm-like, it gurgles and hisses.
Dripping spines twitch in hunger.
It is but one of many of its kind.
Nighmares glimpsed by madmen, dragged into reality.
It slithers forward, as fast as a lightning strike.
The man holds the pendant out, speaking words of power.
The slimy thing recoils, spewing acid phlegm as it roars in anger.
It is weakened, his one chance.
He charges forward, sword held out.
A vertical slash cuts most of the throat; a horizontal sweep separates the skull entirely.
It lands on the ground, beginning to dissolve.
The enormous body loses its shape, oozing back into the soil.
The man can hear distant roars.
More of its kin, more tar-black blood to spill.
He sets off towards the chaos before him.
His rage at this desecration fueling his strength.
There is a fire raging in his heart, a promise that he must keep.
Winged figures are now tumbling from the skies, battered and broken.
Others like him, others that should be alive.
He pledges to avenge them, to see this through.
The war has just begun.