Living Lightning

I am Viktor. King of Yarathvi. Husband of Azarel. Son of no one. Savior of Yarathaans.

I ride on a horse, amid a forest that is deadly silent. I ride beside my wife, amid our wisest ministers and strongest soldiers. We ride on, for a peace treaty with a king, rumored to be a god. Rumors that have led to our hearty laughs in the past couple of months.

I woke up to the sound of a screaming laughter today. A laughter I sought, in the middle of the night, only to find an old stranger. He asked me a question. Do I live for myself or others? Does my meaning weigh heavier than the lives around me? I snickered and laughed it off. But somewhere deep within me, a resounding, echoing scream.

Amid the sounds of hooves and mud and roots and rock, she calls my name. Her voice gently asks whether I am okay. I smile and nod as I look into her curious, worried eyes. Eyes pour out love. I would give my life away for her in a heartbeat.

I hear a scream. Then another. Then, another. Screams on top of screams, pour into my ears.

I look above. The moon begins to cover a part of the sun and from the edges of both fall creatures. Creatures I have only ever heard of in tales of Azarel's grandma. Red, horned, wielding spears made out of god-bones. It rains demons. 

I pull out my sword. I leap above. Spear made of bone reaches inches from her head. I sever the hand wielding it.

Falls a screaming demon and upon it… Viktor.

Past_

The freezing cold of the snow is all I feel as I walk amid the forest, with a bloody arm, robbed of memories. Who am I? I hear howls in the distance. Food for the wolves. That's who. I understand them. Must be hungry. I envy them too. They're gonna get a delicious boy. And I get air and bleeding lips and a broken, bloody arm with a numb tongue and shaky legs.

Darkness consumes everything in an instant. My face hits the snow. Sounds are getting close. I lose consciousness.

Consciousness returns. I feel warm. Cozy. Hands caress my face. Eyes open and… Green eyes, a warm smile, a crooked tooth. A beautiful face, showered by the light of fire above me. "I am dead, aren't I?"

She chuckles and my heart melts and molds and is remade. Everything changes.

Present_

Green eyes. A dagger slits open a throat and a sword plunges into another's heart.

Blood spills upon her serious face. She looks cute when she is serious.

I hear the screams of our ministers and I leap away. Sword slashes arms. Fist cracks ribs. I carve my way through as she follows behind me.

Past_

Together, we run forth. Wielding blades that sever arms as her kicks break ribs and my fist cracks upon colliding with armor. I whimper and sever a head clean off. The head of Yarathvi's head. A man who is more monster than human. Cheers echo in the hall as she breaks chains. I stare into the eyes of the dead. The pouring blood reaches my shoe. She grabs my face. Our lips meet one another. We become the Queen and King of Yarathvi. Saviours.

Present_

The moon covers half the sun. Red skinned demons turn blue. Their fists hurl, my armor cracks. Their weapons bleed and our weapons crack.

Is this an ambush? A thought at the back of my mind, as the back of my head hits the tree. It bleeds. The minsters scream. Through the swarm of demons, I see the severed head of Yudhista, our minister of defense. The screams bleed into silence. A spear pierces through my gut, nailing me to the tree and a fist shatters my senses.

Darkness consumes me whole.

Voice of the old man reverberates in my head,“ Meaning or lives?”

I fall within a dark abyss. Body hits the rocky ground. Eyes open. Lava flows up. A growl comes from my left. I turn my head to see a throne. Steps leading up to it lie cracked.

I rise. I am in my world again. A world that has haunted my dreams for decades. Falls another from the sky. A child falls before me. Something is familiar about him.

Present_

I lie on the ground as I hear her grunts. A broken spear through my gut. Blood pours down my mouth. I hear her breathe heavy. I lay in the shadow of her and a demon. Rage.

World within_

I stare into lava.

I pull out the spear as I rise. A mace made of bones reaches inches from my face. My skull cracks. I stand between her and the demon. My body trembles. God-bones, drenched in my blood, pierce through the demon skull. Emerges out a third horn. A bloody spear.

My soldiers roar. I turn to see her. Without an arm. A bloody, beaten up face. A smile as she sees me.

No…. 

No. No. No. No. Please no.

Gods died a century ago.

World within_

I fall to my knees. The old man walks behind me, his hand upon my shoulder. The child stares at me. I was that child. Within his eyes, lay sadness.

Present_

I hold her, as I lay upon my knees. I look above, into the sky. Darkness consumes the sun. Total eclipse. "Please live..." I hear the roars of our soldiers turn to screams. I hear the screams within the laughter of the demons.

World within_

Eyes of the child hold grief and pain. Rage and powerlessness. Terror. My eyes hold the same. The old man speaks, "Do you remember his pain?". I don't care. Pain swallows me whole.

Present_

Her bloody hand caresses my face. Shadows of the demons loom over me. The last scream of my soldier ends in a painful eruption of laughter that halts within mere moments.

She is dying.

World within_

I stand in the mind of the child. Within a mind I had lost. Within a boy who died along with his memories.

I stand amid fire. I see a bloody sword, made of bones. God-bones, wielded by the King, rumored to be a god.

I see a face. Face of a woman. I feel love and hate and affection and joy and a deep desperate need for her approval as I look into her eyes. My mother. The sword raises and I run forth. I need to stop it!!!

Present_

"I love you." Her last words. Dead silence, followed by thunder. Nothing matters.

The voice of the old man whispers into my ear, "It was an ambush."

World within_

Within the mind of a child, I am dragged away. My eyes transfixed on her severed head. Her eyes look into mine. Her lips uttered "I love..." as her eyes stared into mine, tear filled, pouring out love. In a way they never did throughout her life.

Helplessness.

I struggle and scream and roar and bite and with the taste of blood, I run through fire to reach her. A fist cracks my skull. A metal shoe upon my chest. The bloody sword made of god-bones touches my neck. Chains of fear bind me as he opens his mouth. "Your mother betrayed me and died for her sins. You will be next if you think of anything funny. Understood, son?"

I can't breathe. Tears burst out. I lose consciousness.

I am pulled out of the child's mind.

He falls to his knees. I fall to my knees.

Present_

The sound of thunder reverberates around me. All I hear are the words of my mother, words of my wife.

Lightning pours down from the heart of the eclipse, tearing through the darkness of the moon. Lightning rains around me. Lightning bolts burn and tear and consume the demons around me. Lightning ends the swarm. Lightning bolts dance upon burnt corpses as the trees around set ablaze. The demon killing lightning pours into me. My body burns and bones crack and break. I feel nothing.

World within_

We kneel in a silent world. There lies no lava around us. I look at the throne. The child rises. The old man whispers, "I made a promise to you on the day you escaped the bloody clutches of your father. I promised you a path towards power when fate shall break you. An opportunity for..." 

"Vengeance." Says the child.

Lightning bolts burn and tear and consume me whole. Every last part of me burns away and turns to nothingness.

I am reborn, in lightning. I clench my fist and feel the strength of all the demons, within lightning that is my body. A roar held back for decades pours out my maw. A thunderous roar.

Living Lightning sets ablaze a forest entire as it shoots above into the sky.

Far away_

A party in the garden of a castle. Sits alone the king, amid the bustling lives around him, waiting for a body to be brought before the eclipse ends. A god who slew his own kind for a life eternal, and a throne to lord over mortals. His eyes stare into the eclipse.

The moon slowly moves to the side, revealing more of the sun. Then covers the sky, a bolt of lightning. Blinding every mortal around. Only the god-king witnesses the bolt of lightning. A bolt of lightning that morphs into a man.

The castle breaks and shatters and emerge out the bones of a pantheon. Bones fly and morph around the last god who leaps above as the ground beneath cracks. The shock wave erupts eardrums and cracks bones.

A gigantic fist made of god-bones, drenched in the blood of every mortal who stood in the way.

A fist of lightning, the hope of the dead. Tales of vengeance from past and present intertwine to forge a fury that cracks open mountains from the tremors of its thunder.

Fists clash!

Mortals beneath erupt in blood and bones. Hundreds die within an instant and above them, beneath an eclipse, shatter millions of bones. Tearing through the last of a pantheon, the fist of lightning reaches and tears into the chest of a god.

Falls the last god. Dying, with a hole through his chest, ablaze in remnants of lightning as the being of lightning begins to fade.

The world within begins to crack and break. The child sees the mother. The man sees the wife. They both say,

"I love you too.”