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Ice-cold winds drifted along the peaks of Death Valley, strong enough to make Nightmare’s cloak gently wave. Still, cold did not deter him. He gazed out onto the Land of Moonlight and Murder, the land he was supposed to protect. The moon shined upon it all, reminding him of what truly mattered.
He could hear the scattering of dust from behind him, The Priestess was right on cue. Only 60 seconds were left, so he would have to be brief. This may possibly be his last chance.
“Have you taken your last look at your kingdom?” A vile hatred dripped from her words, but it didn’t seem particularly directed at him. 51 seconds.
“I am merely a guardian, I’m no royal.” He took his time turning around, but when he did, the sight was unsettling. Fresh blood dripped from her hands, stained her clothing, there was even some on her face.
“Whatever you decide to call yourself, it doesn’t matter now.” She had to have ripped apart multiple monsters with her bare hands just getting here, yet she wasn’t even winded. “In a few seconds, you’ll just be another corpse” ...39 seconds.
“May I ask you one thing before we begin? I find your intent confusing.” She didn’t respond, so he continued. “Do you really wish to fight me, Emily? Or do you just seek more violence?” 22 seconds.
“Why I fight is none of your concern.” She reached out her hand, letting her weapon materialize in her palm. In contrast to its owner, the white and gold spear was entirely spotless, it’s blade polished to a mirror sheen. “I was given the power to slay gods. It’s only right I should use it.” ...10 seconds.
“If you seek a powerful opponent…” Nightmare turned around, the sky finally showed it’s first crack. He was right on time. “…Perhaps there is an opponent you’re better suited to.” Two… one…
Before Emily could inquire, the crack in the sky shattered open, sending an intense gale throughout the entire land. Nightmare’s cape fluttered heavily in response, yet he remained still. Dust and debris were flung towards him, a shard of the shattered sky barely grazed his head, being sent directly towards Emily behind him. Still, he did not move.
Finally, the winds and dust settled, and visible high in the sky was a hole; A hole that led to a deep, unending pit of darkness. The Void. Briefly visible in front of the hole was a silhouette of a figure, roughly human-shaped, floating down to the surface.
Emily’s footsteps charged towards him, to which he merely stepped aside. She leapt from the cliff at full velocity, leaving only her bloody footprints on the stone peak. For a brief moment, she disappeared behind another peak before she rose back up again, suddenly sprouting a pair of giant, feathered wings.
As she flew off, another figure appeared on the summit next to Nightmare.
“Are you certain this is a good idea?”
“There are no good or bad ideas. Only ideas. Did you not tell me that, Garreth?”
“Perhaps I did, but there’s no telling what will happen now.”
“Indeed. That’s why I’d like you to fetch Alexandra for our last resort.”
“Is this not the last resort?”
“No…” Nightmare began to make his way back down the mountain. “…it is merely a final test.”
A deep, deep breath of air. It was refreshing to the land’s invader, who’d not had a single atom of air in the infinite nothingness of the void. Ironically, the vast amount of ‘nothing’ was claustrophobic. But here, in these little bubbles, was something.
It was a shame he had to destroy it all.
Still, it was fun to watch a land wither away. Natural beauty giving way to death and despair was a favouite sight of his. The creatures that inhabited the land were especially interesting, they came in all shapes and sizes, personalities and demeanors. Even their abilities were fun to learn about.
Speak of the devil! A creature seemed to have noticed his position high in the sky. Some sort of flyer by the looks of it, flapping it’s big feathery wings just to get off the ground. It was kinda funny to him, it’s not that hard to float, this flyer was just overthinking it. He was prepared to greet it and begin telling it all about it, when suddenly he was pierced by some kind of flying object.
It didn’t hurt, strangely enough, it just kind of lodged itself in his stomach. Some shiny piece of metal, probably never even used by how polished the blade was. Did it come from that flyer? He looked up, only to realize how close it was.
All at once, it crashed into him, breaking his concentration and sending them both hurtling towards the forest floor. As they fell, it ripped the weapon out of him, twisting the handle as it did so. As if that wasn’t enough, it cut a few more slices into him before he hit the floor. Again, none of them hurt in the slightest.
Finally, once they were both securely stationed on the ground, did the flyer decide to get off of him. Slowly, he rose, noticing how easy it felt to move despite having a dozen or so lacerations and a stab wound that went through him. The flyer -- who more resembled a young girl than any monster he was familiar with -- had now lost her wings, and stared at him silently. If he didn’t know better, he’d think it was a real human down here.
“And you are?” He broke the silence. His voice was deep and reverberated through the forest they fell right into.
“To you? Pain Without End.” He couldn’t help but scoff at that, though with his voice it sounded rather strange.
“What makes you think a lone monster can face me? In a little while, the ground beneath your feet will just disappear without me lifting a finger. To me, you’re nothing.”
“Monster? You’re mistaken, there’s only one monster in this forest.” She pointed the clearly-useless spear directly at him. “And I’m about to make it regret existing.”
To this, he couldn’t stop himself from chuckling… no, actually he could.
By laughing instead. He broke into a hearty laugh, because the blind confidence on display here was insanely funny to him.
He was just distracted enough for him to fail to notice her weapon beginning to emanate an ominous glow. Beams of light radiated from the blade in all directions, before suddenly converging on one point in his chest. Instantly, the light turned black, and before he could realize, the spear was in him again.
And this time, it hurt.
Not just that stab, but every wound she inflicted on him prior seemingly erupted into a torrent of pain. It burned and itched and stung all at once, and as she drew back, he collapsed to the floor, groaning in agony.
“...annoying.” She kicked him over before he could cover his wounds and brought the blade down through his neck. Suddenly, despite him wanting very much to scream, he couldn’t. The spear pinned him to the floor, and all he could do is watch as she began reaching for his arm. He panicked and writhed in vain, as she suddenly had it in an iron grip.
It was only as she placed her foot on his shoulder that he caught a look at her eyes. He thought he knew what a monster looked like, but this…
This was much worse.
The forest lay still. After how much time she spent ripping that monster apart, she was out of breath. So she stood there, taking slow, deep breaths, and letting the reality of the situation slowly come back to her
Emily was not just covered in blood anymore, she was soaked in it. Pieces of what used to be a threat to the entire land now lay strewn about the forest floor as if they were discarded toys. The largest piece was the head, though with how mutilated and cut up it was, it could easily be mistaken as just another piece of gore.
“Emily…” Nightmare’s voice came from behind her, he took an oddly gentle tone. “…Are you finally sated?”
It took her a moment to breathe deep enough to respond. It was just three words, but it took a decent portion of her remaining strength just to get them out… but they were the words Nightmare didn’t want to hear.
“Not… even… close.”
She tried to look back at her next target, but was pushed to the ground. A puddle of blood splashed into her eyes, leaving her literally seeing red. All she could make out in front of her were two other figures alongside nightmare. One of them was the one that pushed her over. They’d the first to go, then the other. She’d make nightmare watch while she--
“Emily, you’ve posed an extreme threat to both your land and mine. As such, we have elected to imprison you indefinitetly.” One of the figures came close enough to identify as Lexii, The Messenger. Her Messenger, who was supposed to be Emily’s subordinate.
“I’m sorry Emily, p-please come back as your old self” She couldn’t even finish her message without sobbing, and yet she laid a hand on her head and began to pray.
Slowly, her limbs began to grow heavier and heavier. It first started at her fingers and toes, and began to creep it’s way along her arms and legs. They were sealing her away.
And, she couldn’t help but smile. They were weak. Too weak to kill her. They hope to just hide her away until the end of time? If she had any more breath to waste, she’d laugh. As the seal reached her torso, she turned her head up to look at her former friends, and spoke.
“When I return…” -- she stared directly at Nightmare – “…i’ll make you experience… every agony there is…”
The seal finally reached her mouth, freezing it in a crooked smile. She did nothing but stare as it enveloped the rest of her head, leaving her as still as a statue, curled up on the forest floor.
...Yet still conscious. She could see and hear just fine, despite being as mobile as a rock. Her eyes remained locked on Nightmare as Lexii returned to his side. There were tears in her eyes, how weak.
“I’m sorry Alexandra, it was all we could do.” Nightmare took the same gentle tone from earlier. How weak.
“We’ll need to hide her, prevent anyone from finding or undoing the seal.” Oh, it was Garreth that had pushed her over. Couldn’t even face her properly, how weak.
“The temple in the forest should suffice. So long as it remains undiscovered, she will sleep soundly.”
Weak. Weak. Weak.
She was going to break out one day, she swore it to herself. And once she did…
The weak would have nowhere to hide.