Prolog Cry for Eternity (the power of the Belmond)
It seems as if the battle is won. Charlie Belmond and Lances Jacob have traversed a hundred world and gathered there allies on all of them for one last glorious battle against the Nothingness, the multivurse itself has seemingly stud up and declared the Independence from tyranny. All the warriors form all the free world’s now stand at the gates of Cravixs last stronghold: Yggdrasil. And from the grate tree spills the endless hordes of monsters under the void mages command.
David Jazzmen, princes to the realm called Dis, walks forth and pulls his sword on the hordes at the gate demanding “I am David Jazzmen, the man called Devil, is there one amongst you brave enough to do battle with me?!” he waits standing between Charlie, Jacob and the army “No?” he charges recklessly into the fray engaging the battle “Very well, then I will fight all of you!” Jazzmen's fences is inspiring, Belmond's allies from a hundred worlds fallow the demon-princes into battle. Jazzmen calls back as he slashes his way across the battlefield “find the worthless son of a snake and send him to meet my father in Oblivion.”
Charlie call back in high sprit “it will be done!” in the mist of mayhem quickly Lances and Charlie are able to sneak to the front of the ranks, but there charge is not unhindered as a face the have come to know well steps into bar their path.
He is called Harm, son of Akash goddess of blood and pain (she called him Sindaquil, but no one seem to remember that name, it’s all as the same though the meaning remains.) the vampire with the blades growing form his crown holds his arms out in welcome of his longtime nemesis. With a smugly chuckle he greats them “Jacob, Charlie, Belmond's. Are you ready to join your parents in Styx?”
Charlie draws his mighty Souleater and Lances his Crossbow but before another word is mumbled a celestial howl shatters the air. A trail of flames chases the paws and tail of the great white wolf Hetatsubachi-una, the white hound thrust himself onto the vampire throwing him to the ground “Go mighty ones! Leave the flesheater to me!”
“But... I can help you.” Charlie protest
“Nonsense, your battle lies ahead. It is you that must kill the demon sorcerer. His peons are mine. Now Fly!” Jacob takes his leather clayed friend by the arm and charges forth to the obelisk at the base of the mighty Tree if Eternity.
A wall of souls rises forth to protect the door. Lances Jacob reaches around his neck drawing forth the Jesuit Cross and in a flash of divine light the wall of lost souls are banished to another world by the clerics grace. Charlie playfully slaps him. “good show old man.”
As the exalted hero’s from the world called Red Twilight begin there climb up the tower the sky goes dark and the mouth of the void opens the voice of the avatar of Cravixs calls down from atop the tower “Fools!, all of you! You come here! To the holiest of holy places! With your blasphemies thoughts and dreams! You stand in the shadow of Your God! Behold my boundless power.” With that the moon burst into flames and falls form the sky, a wall of dust no less than four miles high flies across the sky blacking all sight as the earth shacks and cracks, fire spills from the ground, the power of the demonic Adam Crow nearly kills the world itself in a fit of rage leaving only the onyx tower untouched and the endless garden beyond.
Charlie shakes his head in disbelief glancing back at the battlefield; there is no sign of life. “No…” he shakes again “How…? Why…? Lances, there is no one left.”
“Find your courage. The final battle is at hand, we have chased the demon to his lair: my eyes see only valor, my ears hear only glory, my hart screams for victory. Do not allow there suffering to go unheeded, my boy trust in you, in me, in us, and Victory will strike again.” Lance places his fist to the wall pushing Charlie forth for several steps.
For a time the gallant pare are unhindered as they approach the summit of the monolith but one final barrier drops between them. A wall of lightening thrust the two of them apart, Charlie lands against the door, Lances nearly is knocked down the steps. Lances finds his footing and charges forth only to be smitten by the crash of lighting again, the heckling of the void worshiping Necrophights can be heard coming up the steps Lances calls to his traveling partner “you must endure.”
The facesless ghostly demons called Necrophights stock up the steps and encircle Jacob. Jacob stands ready, his eye stone and determined, the battle across worlds has filled Jacob with a vingfull holy light so great that the vary touch of his flesh to monsters so corrupted as the void worshipers if fatal. Somehow unaware of their pray the nearest of the monsters dashes at the old priest. Jacob grips the monster by one arm and the forehead and flames roll form every whole in its body howling as it is slain by his grip. Charlie cheers Lances on, Jacob offers one last nudge of encouragement. “to Glory old Friend!”
The door at Belmond’s back leads him to a great glass and opal cathedral he walks in boldly he Souleater in hand “Crow is here, I can feel it.” He whispers to himself. But Charlie never sees the monster’s face as he is struck from behind, the moon shaped blade of his sinister reaper emerges from his chest. It takes a few moments for Charlie to understand what has happened as he reach one hand up to touch the blade and feel the blood hammering from his chest, the reality of what has just happened only truly dawning on him as he hears Crow whispering in his ear.
“Did you really think you had what it takes to fight me? I am the king of Tamriel, the Avatar of Cravixs, Fillios-mammon, and Your God.”
“I don’t understand…” Charlie mumbles
Crow pulls the blade hard to the side ripping the rids form Charlie’s chest, with his dying all the magic Belmond had absorbed in his journey burst form his body in a tremendous flash of glory blowing the top floor from the tower. Crow stands unharmed by the attack with insurmountable power of his own “ow, such insistences, all the blood on your hands and still your hart burns of childish warmth ‘Pleas, I don’t understand, help me Crow, what does it all mean?’ Let me help you sweat child of mine. All your work was for not, your powers meaningless, your valor unbecoming your end. Nothing has changed, my hunger goes unsettled. Your world will be my next morsel.”
Crow turns to the exit to seek out Lances Jacob, the last of the warriors form Red Twilight. His search is short as Lances awaits Charlie’s victorious return but instead sees the face that had ben burned into his nightmares, the silver skin, the burning eyes, the oily black hair. Cravixs, the eater of dreams, and of worlds stands before the cleric in all his regal splendor. Jacob howls in disbelief his hands mounted on his head, eyes wide in horror “NO!!!”
“Hello again priest. The Rapture has come” Crow grips Jacob by the cheeks and the old man turns to salt and crumbles out of existences. The mad beast holds his hands off to the side and dances around the crumbling remains of his world “I Live Again.” He glances about “made a bit of a mess it would seem…”
* * *
Much to Belmond’s shock he awakens an unknown time later, his wounds are closed, his heavy coat folded neatly by his side. He looks down to himself noticing the hole in his black tee-shirt where the scythe pierced his body. At his back there is a tree of a size nearly inconceivable: so thick it’s ends cannot be seen, so tall only its lowest branches can be seen casting there shadow across the world on which he stands, it fruit so grate they look like moons in the sky, and its roots so hefty they look like islands in the distances.
Charlie walks about a short time stupefied. He calls out to the open fields “Lances! David! Tatsu! Is anyone out there?” he gets no answer. “Where am I?” he ask rhetorically only to his shock he gets an reply this time.
An old man in a Ido age medicinal rob calls to him. His heir is wavy and whit, his eye glow like blue lighting, his clock is tattered. He sits on a pile of rocks looking out to an ocean that is a strange calm. “You’re still in Yggdrasil believe it or not” his voice is young and chipper by comparison “the valley of Laith overlooking the waters of Epheron. This is the far end of Eden beyond the hills of Tamriel.”
“I kind of thought Crow destroyed this place”
“he certainly tried didn’t he?” the old man looks to Charlie “come sit.” He request “Eden and Laith or forever beyond Crow’s reach” he goes on.
“Who are you anyway?”
“Just the gardener.” He modestly looks out to the water
“What are you doing?”
“waiting for a day that will never come.” He breaths hard and looks to Charlie again. “you fought bravely, you brought honor to your family.”
“but I still failed. I was there, I should have beaten him end ended this war of his.”
“if any mortal man was going to defeat Crow I do think it was going to be you.”
“is Crow unbeatable?”
“Crow? No. but he is 1/3 of the most horrible monster to ever be. Of his three parts Adam Crow is the weakest and most venerable.”
“What is he anyway?” Charlie asks as he rest back on his hands looking out into the endless water.
“That’s a bit of an abstract. Don’t you think?”
“I had it all: I was right there, in the den of the beast and somehow messed it all up. I couldn’t have saved anyone, couldn’t change anything.”
“You did what you thought was right, no one ask anything more.” The old man sighs.
“But still, I feel like this isn’t the way things were meant to be…”
The eyes of the gardener turn to the biker “do you want to try again?”
Charlie is puzzled as he lifts one eye asking “what?”
The old man sparkles with electricity as he explains “I can send you back, to anywhere you want to be. But you can only bring your memoirs with you, everything will be as it was, only you have the power to change anything.”
“You can put me right back in that tower to try again?”
“Are you in that big of a hurry to die?” the old man looks perplexed “I send you there all the hero’s you gathered will be dead by the time you arrive.”
“You’re serous?” Charlie leans forward as if straining his eye to spot something in the distance
“Think about it. We have all the time in the world.”
With a sharp exhale Charlie thinks about his life “I charged in halfcocked, right form the get-go there was no plan. We just kind-of thought that the good lord would protect us, It was exciting. Vengeances is Hot, Sexy, Lances asked me if I knew what I was doing. I told him yes. Does everyone live two live, assume I’m dead.”
“Not many people live though what you have seen.”
“I need to go all the way back, to the bar where I resolved to fight this battle.”
“Antebellum.” The old man nods “I’ll be watching you Charlie, Good-speed my friend.” Belmond is wrapped in a web of lighting and engulfed in a blue-white light, Charlie’s arms reach four the heavens as he falls to his knees howling