ERA of Challenge #11: Cronox

CHAPTER 1: The Wanderer
Time and Place: Unknown

I remember the clash of steel, the feeling of metal ripping flesh and meeting bone. I remember a sense of urgency, of survival. I remember the feeling of pain. I can barely see, hear, or feel... anything. I feel nothing. I am numb.

I don't remember how I got here, wherever here is, all I know is that I am tired, so tired. I will close my eyes and await death, I fear it is near.

I slowly come to, I am not dead.

I awaken to a feeling of suffocation; I cannot move I am paralysed. This deep feeling of suffocation is like a dark cloud, almost intoxicating. I once again feel the sense of urgency. I try to move but to my dismay cannot. As I am smothered I feel much anxiety.

Finally death has set in. It is my time. It has come. As I start to let go and feel myself slipping I see a light.

My eyes are closed; it must be the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’, my final resting place. As I keep slipping further and further the light blinds me again and this time with a voice calling out:

"Fool! Open your eyes! See that which is before you!"

The voice is booming and it is almost as if it belongs to a thousand people yet at the same time it belongs to one. The voice shouts at me again:

"Wash away these negative oppressions you now face! They feed off your fears until there is nothing left, until you are but a shroud, like them. Stand, Fight! Do not become them!"

I open my eyes, it's hard at first, and it feels as though I have slept for ages lying here in wait. Slowly my vision comes to me and I'm somewhere familiar. I don't have time to think about this now. All I can think is to fight. Fight to survive as I've always done! I look down and see what the voice was talking about. What appear to be ethereal shadow beings stand all around me, some of them smothering my body, sucking the life from my very bones.

I let out a deafening yell, I feel my blood boil hot. Most of the shadows have released me but I fear not for long. No, I can't fear, I will conquer all. They are nearing me now in groups, all of them huddled together, strength in numbers. I'm outnumbered but this is now my time to survive.

I rush the first group with a sense of visceral rage, I have nothing but my hands, my bare hands. That never stopped me before - I was born and bred a weapon. I am a weapon. I keep moving, rushing the first wave with this fury that scares even myself. It's been awhile since I've felt such adrenaline... wait, I remember. That seems like lifetimes ago. I take out the first and second groups with ease. My hands are like swords, cutting and ripping through their shadowy bodies, dissipating them as they flow through these winds.

In doing so, my hands burn hot, like acid eating away my flesh. I look at my skin as it starts to slowly deteriorate to energy. My body aches, I feel pain.

The third group used this time wisely, my moment of clarity now my enemy. They tackle me to the ground their souls bearing down on me, almost like being buried alive.

I throw the one off my back with such force he disappears into nothing. The one to my left I grab by the neck and force to the ground, choking this ethereal shadow. I smash its face repeatedly, over and over, until there is nothing left and its energy is carried with the wind. One more and I've won I thought but the battle isn't over yet. I can feel him feeding off my body, my flesh. I grab it as it struggles, squirming in my hands, one on his torso the other its head. I see red and I feel rage. I begin to rip and pull as it keeps struggling and finally it tears clean, I've ripped its head from body, severing its connection to this world. It took some effort but the body disappears like the rest.

Exhausted I bow to one knee trying to catch my breath. I'm in insurmountable pain but I've won. No, no not yet. In the distance I see three figures these ones different than the others, the feeders. I get up. There’s no time to be tired, I must fight on! Slowly rising to my feet I beckon them, even dare them, to come at me and meet me in battle... and then one of them speaks, his voice a deep dark growl:

"Well done human. You are no match for us, the Shadow Lords, especially in your current state. Fear not your day of defeat and death is not today. Our Master has seen fit to give you grace. Go now and traverse the Dark Matter Zone to The Beyond. Surely you will not survive, your body will have turned to dust, just another spec in these endless sands. "

As soon as they appear they fade into the darkness and I am once again alone. I want to collapse and give in but there is no bone in my body that will allow it, it is not what I am made of. The Dark Matter Zone is no place for a man. The mind can so easily be ripped inside out within minutes, minutes I cannot afford. I do not have time to linger. I must move on, escape this place.

I start to wander in this shadow-land, with wisps of purple and blue energy swirling around me. Dark clouds crackling and hissing with energy - not even affording me time to focus my thoughts. I keep walking, moving, as it is the only thing I know. I need to be free.


I have been wandering for what seems like days, months; years... for all I know it could be a lifetime. It is hard to tell there is no real way to keep track. Thinking of that will only degrade the mind, slowly turning sanity into insanity. My body aches. My flesh is slowly withering away, piece by piece, exposing nothing but energy. I do not know how long I have here. I can't go on any further my body no longer responds to the mind. I thought I was stronger than this but I guess this is my end. Goodbye.

As this realization comes to me I feel an overwhelming sense of peace. That peace is interrupted as the voice calls out to me again. I cannot understand what it is saying and slowly I start to slip away. I hear the voice call out to me one last time:


I close my eyes but not for the last time. I have more to do.

All I know is I am tired, so tired.

Dittos , very intresting so far

CHAPTER 2: The Awakening, Part 1
Time and Place: The Dark Matter Zone

I dream many dreams.

They are of the future. Of what could be. I dream of a life lost. A life I left behind. These dreams flash before my very eyes, replaying over and over in my head, and I am forever lost chasing them. Chasing my mistakes? No, not mistakes - actions! Without these actions I would not be who I am today, I would not be a tool of war. I would not have been a beacon of light or a force to be reckoned with.

What am I now?

All I know is that I am lost.

Lost? That is unfortunately so. I slowly come to, my body full of hurt, of aches and pains, not just physical but emotional as well. I am sick. Is this hell? I hope not as I feel I have more to do. Getting back to once what was, to live my life again. Am I even alive?

The dreams start to fall apart and shatter, I scream and yell to wait for me, but as fast as it happens I awaken - my very bones, muscles and tendons all stiff and raw. That is right. I had an encounter before my collapse. I remember the sense of victory and a voice calling to me, beckoning me to seek it out. Other than that I know not.

My vision slowly returns and my body finally able to move, slow at first but I am able to make it to my feet. I look around and see nothing but desolate wastes in front of me and dark energy storms swirling behind me. I must move on.

Slowly, I move one step at a time. I feel I am moving forward but it is hard to tell in the Dark Matter Zone, there is no sense of direction. I will keep moving toward hope. “Hope”, I tell myself. I will end up where I need to, I will seek out what I need to, and I will succeed. That is the only emotion keeping me alive now.

I will be back to what I once was.

I will return.
I am angry, I am frustrated! At first I thought that hope was the only thing keeping me going yet now I know it was apathy. I have to be apathetic. It is the only way I will not be dragged down by the negative energies around me or I will be damned to die in this place.

I keep wandering, ever wandering. At times I run and at times I crawl. Will I ever be free of this realm? No, that is the doubt setting in. I have no time to doubt, yet it always takes over. I am lost as the eternal wanderer. If this is my fate then I should accept it, for sins past and sins future, I had a lifetime of them.

Where is the voice? Was it even here? Was it just in my head? Am I losing my mind? Very possible, it happened to the lord of this dimension, Exadeus himself. A crazed scientist, I remember, hell bent on using this energy and wielding it for his own purposes!

Again I am frustrated, angry at my situation. I have always fought against odds so great and always succeeded. Here I am nothing but a shroud in the shadows. A wisp in the wind. I yell at the cosmos, at first as a beast, an animal who hunts eats and sleeps, an animal whose only purpose is his duty, much as what my life once was. Finally I find purpose, find aim! I yell at the voice that beckoned me:

“ARE YOU REAL? WHERE ARE YOU? SHOW ME THE WAY, LIGHT THE PATH!!"

Nothing answers back. I keep walking moving forward and yell once more:

“WHERE ARE YOU?! DON'T LET ME ROT!"

Again, nothing answers me back. Crying out I shout:

“HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?!"

A blinding light knocks me down and the voice of a thousand voices calls out to me, answering:

"Fool. You are blind. You have been where you needed to be all along. The negative energies that surround you have left you without sight, behold and step forward, you are here, at The Beyond. Step forward and be free. Come seek me out. You are within hands reach it is up to you to grasp that which is yours - your destiny and YOUR freedom."

It leaves as quickly as it appeared. I am blinded once again by a bright light. My true vision comes back to me and I see before me a bright land similar but different from the Dark Matter Zone. It must be The Beyond. I look behind me, thunderous storms and crackling energy swirling all about, a maelstrom of hate. In front of me a utopia. I step forward and free myself of my chains. I once again feel hope.

As I walk toward it a voice calls to me:

"Welcome Wanderer, you have arrived."

It is the same voice that called out to me earlier but this time not within my mind but before me, booming, echoing across this land. The being is a tall grey figure with eyes of red that glow like stars. His stature is huge and thick, a total mass of what looks like a man. He is wrapped in white cloaks and garments but his body bare beneath it. I take steps towards him but hesitate and decide to ask:

"Who are you? How do you know me? Where am I?"

Not moving, never moving, he stays seated before me and answers my question, his voice never changing:

"I know you as you know me. When you arrived here you called me and I sought you out and showed you a way. It was I who saved you. Now save yourself. You are in The Beyond and I sit at the Edge of Oblivion, a void within these realms. Come Sit, you will have more answers soon."