Chapter II: The Pentagram

Ahran'Ikai displays his power.

  I held the scythe behind my back, one end pointing up, the other pointing down. Slowly, the pentagram necklace started to pulse, and the same blood red mist flowed out of it and into the scythe.

“Blood is a weapon.” I said menacingly, the blade now glowing. I called out for the universe to bend to my will. “Spiked Vessels.” Immediately, the dead bodies convulsed and rose into the air. They arched their backs, and each individual blood vessel grew into along, sharp needle, covering the corpses from every direction. I spun the scythe, and slammed it into the ground. Each dead body spun rapidly and they flew around the arena with dizzying speed. They turned the walls red, and the center into a blender of flesh and cold, red liquid. Then, my pentagram necklace stopped glowing. In an instant, the cold, pale bodies fell to the ground, all the blood removed from their bodies. Everyone in the arena was dead.

The necklace was no longer a red pentagram, but was a light silver circle. Instead of menacing, it now seemed pure. This didn’t last long, however. From every corpse rose a light grey soul. They listed about, before being drawn into the chains around my waist, each soul adding a new link. The blood from the corpses flowed through the air, being absorbed into the necklace until it was once again the feared red star. The scythe dissipated into red mist, and the stone walls slowly lowered back into the ground. I heard a voice. Well, Tom heard a voice. At the moment, I was not Tom. I turned at the voice, the newly formed chains flaring out to my sides, and the pentagram shining a bright red. “Tom… What… the f*****g… hell.” Alex was terrified. The chains slowly lowered.

“Alex…?” In a burst of red mist, Ahran'Ikai was gone, replaced by Tom; with a bullet hole in his chest. I slumped forward onto my knees, clutching my chest. I saw Alex rushing towards me in the seconds before I blacked out. I had another dream.

I was back in the field. Only this time, Jayce was not there. I had new memories of this field, the memories of my new self, of Ahran'Ikai. This was my home, Ashran was my home. This was hell. It seems so much more menacing now... There was nothing anywhere, or so it seemed. Then I started to hear a voice inside my head. “Grandfather...?” I said, confused. Genitor, the creator of the universe, my grandfather, was not known to intervene. He spoke to Tom, not Ikai.

You were human once, but that is no more. You renounced that life. You now serve as Death to the human race, and they are in need of a vast genocide of this group called the Equinox. I cannot allow this plane to fail where so many other have. You alone must succeed. You were human once, in a time before. Now you are human no more. But your old life you must defend, if you seek to be human, in the end.

“Why must you speak in riddles, grandfather?” I asked, the voice fading.“I thought I became human when I sacrificed myself!” I called angrily. “What is this!?” But he was gone. And so was my time in Ashran.

I came to in a cave in the forest behind the neighborhood. I had a vague memory of what had happened, as if I had been controlling someone else. I looked around, realizing I was alone. I tried to sit up, but winced. I grasped at my chest, and then the realization hit me. Ikai doesn’t get hurt… I told myself. But I do… I winced. Just my f*****g luck… Just then, Alex came back into the cave. “You f*****g b*****d!”

I looked at her oddly. “What?”

“You blocked me out! I couldn’t see you, hear you, or, most importantly, kill anything! What the f**k!” She yelled at me.

“I… I wasn’t in control of what I was doing.” I admitted. “All I remember was that there was a lot of blood and, and spikes, and…” I got an idea and smiled mischievously.

“And what?”

“It was fun.”

Alex gasped and punched me. “You’re a dick.”