Diary of a Dead Man (First entry part two)

The second the words left my mouth I immediately regretted them. I had been far too careful to deny my faith before and for good reason. As I gazed around the room I could see priests of every size and shape that had crammed themselves into the Hall of Judgment utter the same thing over and over as if it were some incantation that had deeper meaning. “Treason…..Treason….” they repeated again and again before it had lost it’s meaning entirely. I knew the outcome of my outburst would be my death, but even in that I could not help but smile at the masses of sheep as I felt relieved of the hellish burden for the first time.

“Get it out of here…” The Cardinal muttered over the repeating message with disgust as he waved a hand in dismissal. As expected, not more than a few moments after the motion, my handlers lifted me from my display and forcefully threw me forward towards a door at the edge of the stage. As I exited the chamber I could hear the same repeated voices chime again and again, just as they probably would continue to do for the rest of the cursed night. Scapegoats bring progress, and this night I surely classified.

The door lead into a dust riddled corridor that reeked probably no better than the pulpy mass upon my right side. The hallway was rather void and probably served as a form of ‘stage left’ for various entrances at some point in the past. At the end of it, I could see a large stone door much like that of the one the Undercity used to make their way from the Ruins to the main streets but even with it the empty walls before seemed like a sad waste space. Then again, perhaps the idea was to drain that much more sanity from a victim as they walked either to or from their Judgment.

The two forsaken that latched onto my person threw me to the ground as we reached the ornate stone of the elevator and as the door slowly opened I could see the one at my right unroll the spiked chain he had held upon since I came to beneath him. As soon as the lift had opened I could feel the sting of a boot impact my side and throw my beaten body into it much like a child would throw a rag doll. The jade colored floor met my face and slowly I lifted myself back to my knees, taking in the image of a rather large orc that had probably sat in the elevator beside its activation lever through most of my trial. The green one held the same twisted grin both the forsaken had upon his grotesque face, and to his side lay a large steel hammer that was drenched to the handle with dark brown Ichor. The lad had probably mauled my arm from my person not long before, and it was with little doubt that he would be my executioner if this elevator reached its destination.

It wouldn’t…

This coven might have given me my unlife, but what I continued to live for was waiting for me outside these walls of blood drenched steel and stone. The Kingdom… My Comrades…My wife… For them I had denied my creators, and I would be damned if they succeeded in taking those joys from me…

I returned the grin to the jade goon and began to chuckle as the last forsaken made their way into the circular elevator. The trio glared at me still outraged, but now as if they were escorting the body of a madman tat had long lost the foundation of his sanity… Perhaps I had… I could hear the voice of the chain brandishing forsaken as he sent a strand of cursing along with the same boot he had hit me with many times before. This time however, there was no impact.

I was not unarmed…

My eyes locked to the motion of the boot as it rushed towards me and in an instant, the shadows around me clung to the pulpy mass of ichor and bone that dripped from where my shoulder once was. I could feel the world slow down around me as I forged a new limb from the darkness that encased me, crushing its black digits into the rotting flesh of the forsaken’s leg. I grinned as pain and shock mixed into the rot’s expression and held it as my weapon sent the forsaken into the wall of the elevator with enough force to cause cracks to ring from its body. It seemed as if my figure moved on its own accord, as if my rage had been held back for no other moment than this one. Not even a moment had passed before I could feel my still existing arm bolt toward the orc that had grinned at me not long before, wrapping its bony mitt around the throat of the cretin and sending a mass of choking gags into the dusty air. My own Cheshire smile widened as the lust of battle began to take my soul and in the twinkling of an eye, I had silenced the gags with the movement of a newly formed arm of shadow as it passed through the creature’s frail stomach…

I watched in pleasure, almost as if I was a spectator at a bird’s eye, as terror struck the final forsaken followed by the same unbridled rage that coursed through my own coagulated veins. The rot reached into the folds of his coat and ripped a long Kris, not much different than the very one I had carried, from it. My smile widened once more as I saw my final oppressor leap towards me, blade outstretched. Unlike my previous actions of instinct, I enjoyed every motion I made against the final forsaken, be it mind or body. The shadows around me reached out rapidly as the dagger approached my person and quickly the dark tentacles found their target:

The orc’s hammer…

I wrapped the tangible extensions of my mind around the steel handle of the barbaric weapon and lashed out at the decaying guard, pinning his cracked body against the side of the elevator door. His blade fell to the jade colored and now bloodstained tile and I grinned as he attempted to pry the weapon away like a poster would a tack. I began to chuckle as I watched him squirm under the weight where the corridor met the lift, and slowly I placed my hand upon the small lever that the hammer’s owner had stood by not long before. My grin widened one final time as I eyed the terror wash over the dead man’s face.

Ever so slowly I pulled back upon the switch…

I could hear the mechanism above my still squirming oppressor give way and I let out another chuckle as the giant stone door came down upon him, crushing him beneath it’s ton of stone. I took in a final breath as the rush still lingered in my veins and forced myself to a calm, dispelling the countless shadows that flowed around my being. It was over…

As the elevator began it path down, I placed my hand against the pulpy stump that was my shoulder and began to channel. The shoulder cracked and whined as it slowly began to reshape and searing pain pulsed through every inch of my battered figure. It was not an enjoyable process, but it did not take long for the joint to reshape out of the crushed stump it had been left as. Once the heal had finished, I slowly made my way over to the body of the first forsaken I had thrown into the wall of the lift with quite a bit more force than I had originally intended. Quickly I removed the Neonate’s robe from around his cracked body and placed it upon my own, throwing the long hood over the top of my jawless head for good measure.

As the elevator began to slow, I glanced down at my empty sleeve where not more than an hour ago an arm would have hung. My eyes narrowed and I slowly glanced back at the forsaken I had disrobed not long before. I found myself thinking for a moment on half a dozen conversations I must have had between a countless number of people about the condition of my previous limb and slowly a grin crossed by face. I allowed the shadows around me to grip my figure once again and gently I reached out for the right arm of my now dead oppressor. Slowly I placed my own boot against the forsaken’s rib cage, much like he had done to my person before, and pulled. The arm left its joint quickly as the tendons around it tore free and for a moment, I found myself staring at the severed limb in twisted ecstasy. The elevator I stood within finally came to a stop and with the same grin I had kept through my entire trial I weaved the arm through my newly acquired sleeve and channeled energy into, healing the torn tendons to my own.

Slowly the massive and ichor drenched doorway creaked open and I strolled out…