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Erased history from before the Age of Horrors
🕑 Added 2022-12-22 12:01:01 +0000 UTC“Why are you still smiling? Are you still confident in her ability to see past this test?” asked the woman.
Seth nodded and said: “She was ostracised her entire life without even knowing why, but she kept her will strong, even if she was just a little girl. She was ready to throw away her life for just a chance to get rid of the meaninglessness of her existence when she met me.”
“She recently found out her entire life was a lie, but she picked herself up in a few days and used her misfortune to grow stronger.”
“She now has a path, a will, and a purpose. That is everything you will ever need in life, and she has found them all. She’ll never break or falter no matter what you or that sword throw at her.”
“Do you think an endless path and some molten lava is enough to make her give up?”
The woman looked back at the image of Henrietta lazying on the path and asked: “If she’s not giving up, then what is that?”
Seth chuckled and asked: “Didn’t you hear her the entire way? She knows I’m watching and is throwing a tantrum, hoping I will come to pick her up. Give her some time, and she’ll realize there must be a reason I’m not coming.”
The woman fell silent, and they continued observing Henrietta. As Seth had predicted, two days later, she stood up from the path and looked towards the sky.
“Fine. I’ll find my way out, but you owe me. An entire week you’re just mine. Remain silent if you agree.”
Seth turned towards the woman with a wry face and asked: “See?”
She sighed with a nod and looked back at Henrietta.
---
After five minutes of no answer from Seth, Henrietta smiled brightly and said: “Good. It’s a deal then.”
Her smile disappeared, and she looked back at the path under her feet.
“So it’s a trial. Forward is not the answer; backward is not the answer. The lava is not the answer, and staying in place is not the answer.”
“There are not many things left I can do...”
“Is there maybe a key?” she muttered, looking back at the path and the lava. “But I haven’t stumbled upon any marks I left on the path, so there’s no way I’m supposed to search such a huge place?”
After thinking for a while, Henrietta again destroyed a part of the path and waited patiently next to it. Not even an hour later, the path was completely recovered.
“So it does recover. Which means I’m most likely going in circles. Let’s try searching for anything of the ordinary. Since I’ve been walking the path for so long, the only place to hide it would be in the lava.”
With a plan of sorts, Henrietta dove into the lava and started swimming around, covering as much ground as possible.
---
The woman sitting across Seth sighed and shook her head: “You were right, but she will never get out at this rhythm.”
Seth remained silent and continued watching as Henrietta swam through the lava. No matter how deep she dove, how far she swam, it was like the lava was endless, and there was nothing even close to resembling a key. Searching through the lava took her one week, but she still didn’t find what she was looking for.
Returning to the path, she sat down in frustration.
“This is stupid. It’s a trial, so what are they supposed to be testing?”
“My ability to swim and find a random something in this place? No, it must be something else.”
“But that lizard said I’ll never be able to find it. There is something I must find.”
“Is it the exit? Is it a key?”
“But I’ve searched the path, the lava, everything… where could it be hidden?” as she spoke, she looked down at her own feet, and her eyebrow rose in doubt.
Seth’s smiled as she watched the look of realization on her face, only for his smile to freeze when he watched her next move. Even the woman’s eyes widened as she asked: “What is she doing?”
Seth closed his eyes with a sigh: “She figured out half the answer, but you might want to avoid your eyes.”
The woman frowned and shook her head: “No way. I need to supervi - “her words stopped when she noticed what Henrietta was doing.
Moving her head to the side, she fell silent and gave up on commenting. Henrietta had started masturbating to loosen herself before putting her entire hand inside, searching for the ‘answer’.
Even Seth was somewhat surprised at her dedication and could see the golden sword starting to wriggle in its spot. Chuckling, he said: “That’s your next wielder. Better get used to it.”
The sword wriggled a few more times before falling silent. After searching her insides, Henrietta pulled her hand out with a red face and a frowning expression.
“There’s nowhere else where it could be hidden, so it must be inside me. Maybe my other holes?”
As she spoke, she wet her hand and started moving it towards her backside. Seth’s face twitched when he noticed the golden sword shine brightly before rushing inside the lake’s depths.
The woman was stunned as she watched the sword react. “Don’t tell me….”
Seth chuckled and continued watching the show.
Just as Henrietta was about to put her fingers inside her behind, a swooshing sound came from above, and a golden sword stuck itself right between her legs.
Henrietta’s face turned purple as she moved backward and asked: “W-what is this?”
“You foolish woman. How can you do such blasphemous acts in front of me? I should kill you here and now.”
Henrietta’s brows rose in surprise as she said: “You talk? Like that lizard?”
“Get out of this place. You have failed the trial. Leave. Begone.” The sword spoke again, its voice containing unrestrained anger.
Henrietta created some clothes for herself before nodding: “I agree. Show me how and I’ll leave.”
“You lowly woman. The answer is inside you. The key is inside you.”
Henrietta also got angry and said: “Then why did you stop me? What do you think I was searching for? Are you a retard?”
Seth and the woman were watching the show, the woman being wholly stunned and Seth laughing his ass off.
“She called it a retard. Haha, I knew she was the right one.”
The woman sighed and shook her head: “I can’t believe you brought someone like her….”
Seth smiled and said: “But she found the answer, didn’t she?”
The woman shook her head and said: “Found the answer? You must know the answer.”
“When you feel lost, when the path in front of you seems endless, and hope seems too far out of your reach, look inside you, and your heart will give you the answer.”
“There was no answer in what she was doing….”
“True, but the sword answered, so it also saw she would have eventually found it.”
The woman sighed again and shook her head: “I’m sure it just got annoyed and broke its own rules. Well, all is good anyway. It found someone at last.”
“I guess that’s goodbye, seat of destruction.”
Seth’s smile faded, and he stood up from his chair. Bowing again, he said: “You’ve kept guard over humanity’s heart and fire for too long, Hestia. The world might never know your sacrifice, but I do, and I thank you.”
Hestia’s eyes reddened, and she bowed back: “Seat of destruction, I entrust the heart of the human race to you and your companion. Keep it safe and never let it fall into his hands.”
As her words ended, her body slowly faded until only a tiny red orb was left. The orb slowly cracked and broke apart, disappearing from before Seth.
Seth sighed and stood straight, his eyes just as red as the woman’s before, and he disappeared.
When he appeared next, he was watching Henrietta argue with the sword. His appearance made both of them stop arguing, and Henrietta rushed to Seth, only for the sword to block her path again.
“Form the pact, brat. She is gone.” Said Seth, his eyes just as red as before.
Henrietta was confused, but the sword immediately said: “No way. I’m not forming any pact with this foul woman. I’ll just let myself die.”
Seth nodded and appeared next to Henrietta, grabbing her hand: “Fine. Then we’re leaving.”
As Seth spoke, space started breaking around the two. Just as they were about to disappear, the sword spoke: “Wait.”
Seth raised an eyebrow and watched as the sword slowly floated toward Henrietta.
“Foul woman. Put a drop of blood on me.”
Henrietta frowned but didn’t say anything as she turned to look at Seth. Seth smiled and nodded, signaling her to do as the sword said.
After dropping a small drop of blood on the blade of the sword, it shone brightly, almost blinding Henrietta, before turning into a thin golden mist that flew to her hand, transforming into a tattoo over the back of her right palm.
Henrietta looked at the tattoo before turning towards Seth.
“What’s with you and marks? Also, are you going to explain to me what is going on? Who is this rude sword?”
Seth nodded and sat down, allowing Henrietta to sit on his lap as he said: “I will.”
“This sword is the heart of the human race.” Seeing Henrietta look at her tattoo confused, Seth continued.
“You know what was before the age of horrors?”
Henrietta shook her head, and Seth said: “Before the age of horrors, following the world’s creation, there were three more ages.”
“First was the Age of Desolation, where the entire world was formed, and there were no sentient beings and no life on it. It was just a massive rock floating through space.”
“After that came the Age of Darkness, energy started flooding our world, their wills binding together, forming different strange entities. That was the age where the horrors appeared, followed by the council members, even if their forms were quite different back then.”
“What followed next was the Age of Life, where finally life started appearing along those entities. The first ones to appear were plants and animals. The energy entities all had different reactions to the apparition of life. The horrors sought to destroy it while the council members embraced it, their will fusing with different animals and plants.”
“Both the council members and the horrors were aimless wills following their instincts. After fusing with those weak life forces, the council members began running from the horrors since the fusion weakened them. They now had a physical form and could die.”
“Next to appear were the humans. With the apparition of humans, the spirit pool was finally linked to the world, and souls started flooding it. Energy no longer sought to fuse and form entities of will but was attracted to the human souls.”
“The horrors found a new target and started chasing after the humans to consume them while the council members wanted to protect and learn from them. Still, they were too weak, so all they could do was help humans avoid the horrors and allow them to increase their numbers.”
“After the Age of Life was the Age of Horrors, where the human population grew large enough that they couldn’t hide anymore. They were being consumed, corrupted, and fed upon everywhere in the world.”
“In the Age of Horrors, the council members had also managed to get rid of their weak form and took human ones.”
“They had grown stronger as well but had no choice other than to fight back. They fought the horrors seeking to sacrifice the human race in an endless war, but even with their increased strength, they were still mortal.”
“They were known back then as the Guardians of the human race. They kept fighting the horrors and trading their lives to protect humans.”
“As the guardians kept falling in battle, the human race, in their unity and desire to survive, gave birth to a set of treasures. More like their will did.”
“These treasures, wielded by a few select Guardians and a single human, showed their power, and they started fighting back the horrors.”
“The war was slowly turning in the human race’s favor. That is when the dark side of the human race showed its face. Seeing they were winning, they became complacent and started desiring the power of the Guardians.”
“With this, they sought the losing horrors’ help in getting that strength.”
“The horrors used human greed to sap the treasures of their power. They also discovered a way to use human sins to create new horrors. That’s when the blood race was created.”
“With the treasures losing their power and the appearance of all sorts of strange horrors, the fate of the entire human race once more hung in the balance.”
“As the tides started to turn once more, the Council took a drastic measure that would end the Age of Horrors. Using their cores, the central part of their existence, they sealed the horrors inside those cores, away from the human race.”
“To make sure no new horrors will be born, the council leader then used the power of the treasure built out of human dreams to turn the truth of the Age of Horrors into a dream and erase it from the conscious human mind.”
“This made it harder for the horrors to fight back as they stayed sealed, but to prevent the humans from remembering and opening pandora’s box prematurely, The Council also turned themselves and the horrors into a taboo in human consciousness and isolated themselves outside the continent before sealing the entire continent.”
“Well, not all of them. Some of them remained here to guard the human treasures. Hestia, the guardian of fire, was one of them, and she was the one guarding the treasure born out of the human heart. The sword you had just seen is that treasure.”
“Since she remained here along with her core, the seal placed on the continent also worked on her core, and she had to rely on the human heart to continue surviving.”
“With the treasure of the human heart leaving and finding a host, her core shattered, and she died….”
Henrietta was amazed as she listened to Seth’s story and looked at the mark on her hand.
“So, what does it do? This treasure, I mean.”
Seth smiled and said: “It is now weak and is recovering inside your body, so it doesn’t have much use other than preventing the horrors from ever influencing you or swaying your heart.”
“It will also catalyze human will. As long as humans believe in you, it will grow stronger and share that strength with you. The mere sight of that sword will also inspire awe into whatever human lays his eyes on it.”
Seth sighed and kissed Henrietta’s forehead. “When it recovers her strength, it has the power to do something only a true divinity can.”
“Kill a horror entity.”
