The Dark World

Chapter one: Beginnings

Third pov

Before the universe there was nothing. Gods and goddesses were the only beings that had always existed, like the blackness of nothing had always existed.

Aphrodite and Prometheus were bored of the same old existence. It was nice living in the heavens created by Zeus, but it wasn’t fun or interesting anymore. Together, they decided to create beings that would look like them but weren’t.

These beings would be named humans. For a long while the two enjoyed watching the humans grow and learn and create more humans, the gods even added other creatures known as animals.

Prometheus wanted something more magnificent for the animal kingdom and created the first dragon, this creature was huge and powerful with talons for claws, and it could breathe fire and fly the skies.

It was Zeus who put a stop to their creations and told them not to interfere with this new world they had created anymore. So they watched and learned that though they had created these humans, they did not stay the same.

The humans grew and learned and changed. Some could do magic, perhaps an echo of the power of the two gods leaked into their creations? Who knew? They called themselves mages and witches.

But most interesting were the dragons, they weren’t like any animal at all. They could talk and communicate telepathically and had an intelligence that rivaled even the humans so much so that humans would seek them for wisdom.

The other gods were not pleased with the attention the dragons were receiving from the humans. Humans were starting to worship gods less and dragons more and so when a human committed the first sin this is when the gods decided the perfect excuse to forsake the human race and the world fell into chaos, but it seemed it wasn’t just the humans that displeased the gods’ oh no, there was so much more to this story.

Ezekiel finished listening to the three women telling their story about gods and looked around the room again. He was lying in a wooden bed in a small hut. The only light in the room was a makeshift fire the women had made so he couldn’t make out much among the many shadows dancing across the room.

He looked back at the three women, old and haggard each one had one white filmy eye, and they all wore red cloaks with the symbol of a snake letting him know that they were not just women but witches, witches of the serpent coven to be precise.

“What happened to me?” He asked, sitting up in the bed slowly. One of the women came and kneeled before him. “You died fighting the spider king. Good news, you can’t die in this cursed world.” She cackled at that before continuing, “the bad news, he is still alive and has sent his best knight to hunt you down.”

He rolled his eyes and stood up. He knew what knight she was referring to. Cairn, he had been part of the spider kings Covenant for as long as Ezekiel could remember. As part of the serpent queens covenant he had fought against the spider kings covenant many times and succeeded until Cairn.

Sworn enemies he and Cairn had fought one another so many times he had lost count over the decades, neither one able to defeat the other making them all the more determined to try.

He always wondered why all three witches had one missing eye, but he knew better than to ask. As helpful as the witches could be he knew they could turn in a second if you insulted them, and they were dangerous foes to have.

He went over to the mirror that was stood across the room from the bed and looked at himself. Black short straight hair fell into his green emerald eyes, his face looked somewhat dirty, but then it always did during his journeys.

He was around six foot five, the body underneath the armour nothing but muscle, for you had to be strong if you wanted to survive this desolate world.

He was glad to see he still wore his armour all silver except for the red cape at his back with the crest of the serpent queen on it. Cairn was almost identical in armour except his cape was blue with the crest of the spider king embroidered on it.

Ezekiel looked around for his helmet and gratefully took it from one of the witches when she produced it in front of him.

It covered his entire face so he didn’t put it on, or he knew he’d be sweating wearing it during the long walk that was ahead of him. He thanked the ladies for their help and left.

Upon his journey he fought with himself about what he was planning to do. Many had tried to do the same and failed in horrifying ways. He planned to defeat the dark lord Esmariah, a being who lived in the darkness.

Ezekiel knew he would have to travel into the dark which would mean grave consequences if he could not fight the things that lived inside, if he lost he would become one of those monstrous things.

As he fought with himself to keep going and be brave he reminded himself that with the ever growing darkness spreading across the lands more and more that it wouldn’t be long until they were all consumed and turned into unrecognisable creatures. So what did he have to lose at this point.

He looked out at the land before him with sadness. Buildings that had once been huge and beautiful towers, homes, and towns were now ravaged and falling apart, nothing but broken bits of stone. The earth was mud and dying grass, no flowers grew here, no insects, animals were scarce, all killed off by the monstrous creatures that now roamed these lands. Children didn’t really exist, they were rare to come by.

Neither dead nor alive humans could not create more life and nor could they escape their eternal suffering with the sweet bliss of death.

Ezekiel knew this was hell, hell on earth. If you died from sickness you awoke only to go through the process of dying from the sickness all over again. If you died in battle like Ezekiel had many times now, you kept the scars.

Ezekiel had scars thick and marred all across his body, you could barely see the flesh underneath. His face he had managed to save so far, cairn, however, had a thick rugged scar running down the side of his forehead all the way down to his cheek and another smaller scar across his top lip, both had been given by Ezekiel.

Ezekiel’s very soul ached with grief, he wished for death and to be rid of this faithless world, his bones ached from the burden of having to carry on aimlessly until a month ago, when he had decided he would endure this no more, he would find the dark lord and slay it.