2025-05-09 22:25:23Rhok could feel nothing. He wasn't sure why he could, but he knew he wasn't dead. Not really. He also knew he wasn't alive.
It was a weird sensation. Neither dead nor alive but conscious enough to know this. He flickered his eyes open and saw nothing.
Well, this wasn't surprising to him. It's what he has always imagined death to be. A null endless void that would slowly eat at his soul, he would perish in loneliness for all eternity until his ran mad and slowly faded into nothingness.
'So much for Heaven and Hell,' he thought.
But he felt like doing something, he wasn't sure that he could, but floating around doing nothing didn't suit his persona.
He righted himself up and stood. To his surprise, he was standing. He was still blind enough to not see anything.
He rubbed his eyes furiously and blocked furiously, but nothing. There was no reflective surface or light to bounce off rays of light into his eyes, Thus his blindness.
He took another step forward and was amazed at how firm the ground was. He stomped hard on it, it felt stronger than concrete. More solid than the earth itself.
Regardless, he began walking around aimlessly. Better than floating around like a ball of turd in a toilet.
[WELCOME DEAREST MORTAL.]
“What? Who was that?” Rhok spoke, turning around in a hurry. He still couldn't see anything, but more than ever he felt cautious. As though he were about to be attacked.
His years of experience and instincts kicked in, he crouched to the ground and reached to his shoe to pull out his dagger he always kept there for a good keeping.
It was then, and only then did Rhok realize he was completely naked.
'The fuck?'
This seemed like something the organization would do just to mess with his head. Could I really be alive, or is this all a hallucination?
[OHH THIS IS REAL ALRIGHT.]
'Huh? I never said anything with my mouth.' He thought to himself.
[YOU DON'T NEED TO. I'LL JUST READ YOUR MIND FROM HERE ON OUT.]
'Why?'
[BECAUSE I DON'T TRUST ANYTHING THAT COMES OUT FROM YOUR DAMNED LIPS, RHOK.]
'Busted.' He chuckled a bit. He was surely going to lie just for the sake of lying and whatever was speaking to him certainly knew it.
'So, am I dead?'
[VERY MUCH SO.]
'Can I see you then? I think I'll feel much more comfortable if I can see who I'm talking to.'
Rhok waited for a brief moment.
[IT WAS MY UNDERSTANDING THAT HUMANS WERE VERY CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR... NAKEDNESS. BUT AS YOU WISH.]
'Shit.'
The lights came on. It blinded Rhok almost instantly, but not in a painful way. His eyes adjusted quickly by no power of his.
[WHAT A LITTLE WIENER…]
Rhok unconsciously covered himself up. 'Do you mind?' he cursed at himself.
Rhok cleared his thoughts and looked around. He tried to understand where he was, but he… couldn't.
The place he stood certainly felt solid, but was also transparent. Completely see through and worse than that. So was everything else.
It was maddening. The more he tried to understand, the more he felt his mind being stretched endlessly. He knew it in the depths of his thoughts.
There was no end to this place. No beginning either. It just went on and on eternally. How could such a place exist?
[THINK TO MUCH AND YOU'LL BREAK YOUR MIND. FOOL.]
Rhok immediately turned to his right, there he was a man of petite stature. His hair was white and long. It flowed out in waves with every movement he took.
Although there were no winds here. But Rhok had come to the conclusion that nothing here made sense. Absolutely nothing.
He was shrouded in a mass of shadows, covering his body from the shoulder down to his thighs. His feet, half way standing, half way dangling. He didn't even bother.
But his face….
He was beautiful. Probably the most beautiful face he had ever come across in his entire life. His eyes were a deep violet. Skin as supple as a baby's bum.
His lips. Damnation his lips. He had never seen such perfect lips in all his life. Was it even a man? Or a woman?
The way the shadows gently wrapped themselves around him. In a way, it revealed parts of his body, yet covering them.
[GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER. GODS, YOU'RE SUCH A MESS. CAN YOU EVEN SURVIVE WHERE YOU'LL BE GOING.]
'Where I'll be going?'
[YES. YOUR SOUL HAS BEEN CHOSEN FOR ANOTHER CHANCE AT LIVING. REINCARNATION.]
'What?'
Rhok took a step. He was really dead. The reality of it weighed down on him. He had hoped he could survive. Love long enough to kill those bastards.
Fifty long years they used him. Sucked him of everything he was worth, and finally, they dumped him.
But that only meant that the other retired soldiers had been sent out before him, all faced the same fate.
He sighed. The growing resentment in his heart couldn't be quelled. He didn't blame them, but he hated being used.
He hated not being able to do what he wanted. He yearned for freedom! The one thing he has never gotten.
[BUT THIS TIME. YOU MIGHT BE FREE.]
Rhok looked at the strangely beautiful man, but he wasn't there anymore. He was behind him. Whispering into his ears as he caressed his body.
Rhok couldn't move.
[I FEEL YOUR HATE AND RESENTMENT RHOK. YOU DO A GOOD JOB OF KEEPING IT HIDDEN BUT IT'S USELESS TO HIDE YOUR DESIRES FROM ME.]
Rhok simply sighed. He was tired.
[DO YOU WANT TO LIVE AGAIN?]
“YES!” he said out loud eagerly. He wasn't sure why either, but he didn't want to die. He wanted to live and be free.
He knew dying was anything but freedom. It didn't matter if he couldn't get his revenge at the organization, but if he could get a chance to live again?
He would happily take it.
[SO BE IT, RHOK.]
He embraced Rhok's naked body from behind him. He felt her warmth. His skin rubbed against Rhok's back. How he caressed him so intimately.
Rhok smiled a bit, then pulled away. It was his first time ever being hugged. It didn't feel so bad. But it was from a man, a pretty man but still a man.
Shadows wrapped around them. Sealing the both of them in an endless torrent of darkness. He felt an immense pressure weight down on his soul as something stranger seeped in.
He felt the touch of the man let go. He tried to reach out to him but couldn't.
[MY NAME IS THE ABYSS ENGINE AND WE SHALL MEET AGAIN SOON.]
Then Rhok felt nothing. He saw nothing. He became nothing and from then was something born from him.
Suddenly, he was a light ahead of him. It looked like a path to escape. He heard voices calling out to a crying woman.
Rhok felt himself being pushed unwillingly toward the little hole where the light seeped from.
“You can do this. Push harder!” A feminine voice screamed. A louder agitated scream followed.
'No, no no. It couldn't be. I'm being given birth too?’
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Chapter 110. Sword in the Smoke
The warfront smelled like ash and old prayers.Everywhere you looked, there was smoke, cooking fires, burning tents, scorched wood from buildings the Church had cleansed. The soldiers kept their heads low and voices lower. The ones who still wore their insignia did so out of habit, not pride. And in the heart of it all, Saint Varn stood untouched, his robes still a perfect white.He didn’t speak much, but he didn’t have to. His sword did most of the talking. It was the kind of silence that made people obey.The Church had taken over fully now. They didn't even pretend to answer to the royal camp anymore. The banners of the Eight fluttered next to the royal crest, but only one actually mattered now.Sir Dave had returned from his mission two days ago. He barely had time to breathe before he realized what had changed.“What the hell happened?” he muttered under his breath as he and Ferrin passed the main camp. “We were only gone for a week.”Ferrin looked away. “They're calling it a pur
Chapter 109. Saints with Teeth
Back at the warfront, the camp wasn’t the same.The air felt heavier.After all, Rhok was gone.There had been no funeral, no body, no real proof of death, but the word had spread fast. Soldiers whispered that he had fallen into a volcano. Others believed he had vanished by his own choice. Either way, he was off the map.The Church didn't wait long.Three days after the news reached them, an official decree arrived.It was posted on every wall, every post, and carved into stone where there was no wood."By the will of the High Sanctum and under the authority of the Eight, all persons, knights, mages, and soldiers found to have aided or allied with Rhok, the Heretic, shall present themselves to be judged and questioned under holy law. Refusal is considered treason against the divine will."They called it a simple inquiry, but everyone knew better.Saint Varn arrived the next morning but he didn’t come alone.Four saints came with him, cloaked in silver, shiny swords, and cold faces. Be
Chapter 108. The Black Tablet
Rhok didn’t leave the ruins.Not right away.The further he walked, the more he realized how deep the temple really went. The halls turned into tunnels, the tunnels led into chambers, and each chamber told a different story. Stories older than time itself. Stories no one was supposed to remember.He found carvings of symbols he didn’t understand, but they didn’t feel foreign. They felt familiar in a way he couldn’t explain. Like dreams that almost made sense.Aby stayed quiet for most of it, only flickering once in a while to light the way.She didn’t interrupt, she just watched.Finally, Rhok came across a different room—one smaller than the rest.There were no statues, no altars, no crowns.Only one thing.A flat black tablet in the center of the floor.It was shaped like a coffin lid, long and smooth, carved from a single stone. The surface shimmered faintly, like it wasn’t stone at all but something older. Something alive.Names were etched into it. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds.
Chapter 107. Ghosts of Gods.
Rhok didn’t die.Though he came close though, but he didn't die, you would think that killing a body close to a gods would take so much difficulty.He had fallen into the volcano on purpose, let go of the ledge without fear or hesitation. It wasn’t just to escape the Church, or the whispers growing in the camp, it was to breathe. To disappear from everyone and everything, even for just a while, to grasp the eternal grasp of death if only for a moment, and yet that grasp almost took him.The world believed he was dead now.That was fine by him.He crawled out of the volcano three days later, burned but not broken. The divine flame inside him didn’t do any abnormal things this time, it welcomed the fire around him like an old friend. It healed him from the inside out, soothed the wounds before they could scar. His clothes were half charred, his body aching, but he was alive.The sky above was wide and gray. There were no signs of demons, no voices, no searching troops.'Good.'He walked
Chapter 106. Dead Air.
Three days had passed since Saint Varn left the war camp, but the air hadn't gotten any lighter.If anything, it felt heavier.Not from the weight of battle or even the sound of steel being sharpened for war, but from words. Words that were whispered, preached and repeated over again."Heresy."It came from the church tents near the east wall. A cluster of white robed clerics had arrived not long after Varn. They weren’t warriors. They weren’t healers either. They were speakers. And they only had one sermon:'Rhok is not divine. Rhok is dangerous. Rhok must be watched.'They never said his name outright in public, but everyone knew. The soldiers heard it during lunch. The wounded heard it in the infirmary. Even the cooks whispered it while stirring soup.And as for Rhok... He heard every word.He didn’t fight it, didn’t argue, he didn’t even try to defend himself. He just listened, nodded when he had to, and walked on.But inside, he could feel something building. Not anger or sadness
Chapter 105. A Decision Not Made.
The room emptied slowly after Saint Varn left, but the tension clung to the walls like a fog.Prince Caelan didn’t move right away. He stood near the war table, one hand resting on its edge while his other rubbed the bridge of his nose. Maps were still in front of him, battle lines sketched in red ink and tiny flags marking troop positions. But none of it mattered right now.The Church had made its first move.And the game wasn’t going to stay on the board for long.Sir Dave stood near the entrance with arms folded, his face hard but unreadable. Ferrin lingered a few steps behind him, unsure where to stand or even if he was supposed to be here.Rhok stood alone by the window.He didn’t look out at the camp or the horizon. His gaze was somewhere else, somewhere deeper. His arms hung loosely by his sides, his shoulders slightly hunched. He looked like a man thinking about walking away from it all.Finally, Caelan broke the silence.“I don’t know how to explain this to my father.”Sir Da
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