Abyssal Awakening

Chapter 810: Wrath



How long have I walked this path?

Steel clashing against steel, screams overlapping screams.

Pleading, shouting, vengeful curses. All melding into one.

To stand against the rising tide of Eclipse cultists… To carve a road of blood through them with my hands.

Hands…

My hands, bloodied hands. Soaked, nay, bathed in the corpses of countless.

Can I still even remember… The gentle touch of my son's hand against my palms…

No…

I know only the weight of the sword. The sword that hacks against bone.

How long have I butchered my way through hordes of people without break?

How many faces must I split open, how many guts must I spill?

How many more eyes will stare back at me in hatred, fear and loathing.

How long have I bloodied these hands I wish to hold my son…

Am I even qualified to hold my son? To taint him with these hands?

Am I even qualified to hold my wife? To pollute our house with the smell of blood?

"Is your son even still alive?"

Yes… of course he is! He's waiting for me! Waiting by the swings, laughing, smiling as always.

He'll be there, asking when I'll come home from my next expedition.

He would be there…

Wouldn't he?

"Does your wife wait for you?"

Mariel? Of course. She will always wait for me in our home.

She will…

I'll finish this march. I'll finish it!

I kill all the b*stards of the Eclipse! I'll make sure they can never reach my home, I'll make sure the fires of war never reach my family!

If these hands must be soaked in blood then so be it!

If I must fight for a year so be it!

A decade! Centuries! I'll accept it all.

So long as…

So long as I can come home.

So long as I can eat my wife's stew once more. Lift my son into the air…

"But that's impossible right?"

"Why?

They're waiting for me at home. I just need to finish this march. I just need to-

"Look around you."

I just need to finish the fight. Once this fight ends, I'll go home.

I'll go home.

"Look around you."

Lucan is still waiting for me.

Mariel is still waiting for me!

"Look around you."

I won't ask for more, just let me go home.

"Are you still marching off to war? Pitiful pale knight."

"Go on, march. You have no son waiting for your return."

"Go on, run. You have no wife agonising in the night, wishing you'd be safe."

"Go on, shout. You have stripped him of his life with your own two hands. Your bloodied hands have finally spill the blood of your son."

"Go on. See the wife you love so dear burned to ash, slaughtered with the hands you vowed to protect her with."

###

"SYRION!!!" Griselda shouted, slamming her fist into Syrion's head and throwing him back.

"Huh? What's…!!!" Syrion froze.

Behind Griselda, Gwen was pale.

Her neck wounded and bruised. She was throwing up in pain, tears streaking down the side of her face.

Griselda was glaring at him. Anger, frustration… pain.

He glanced down at his own hands.

These hollowed hands were trembling.

Was he… about to strangle her to death?

Why? What was he doing?

In a flash, Syrion saw his own blood soaked hands overlapping his vision.

Shaking his head, the vision disappeared as he forced himself to stand up.

"I… Sorry, let's stop sparring here. I need to think about something." Syrion sighed, making his way over to the swing set.

Griselda glanced back at Gwen before back at Syrion.

Split between choices.

"Take this time to rest, I'll see what's going on."

After saying this, she ran after Syrion.

Syrion lowered himself next to the swing. His hands gently brushing the seat.

For a moment, he heard a giggle. A laugh bubbling with joy.

Lucan asking Syrion to him higher…

Syrion choked on his breath, his hands trembling.

Then, as he turned to the swing, he saw a seat of bones, chains of flesh.

"Argh!" Pulling hand back in a panic, Syrion panted heavily in fear.

But it was just a hallucination.

There was no seat of bones, no chain of flesh.

It was just a normal swing.

Clenching his fist, Syrion covered his eyes and let out a deep sigh.

"Accept it."

A voice rang out in his mind.

"Accept the fact that they are gone. I know who you are, who you really are. Pale knight who wanders. Accept that there is no one left waiting for your return."

"You killed them. You did. With these bloodied hands. With the sword you're so proud of, you cut down your son. You cut down your wife. So why deny the reality? Go on, march."

"Walk this path till the end. Walk the path of blood, the path of murder. Kill, kill! Kill some more! Keep killing until the b*stards who started this senseless conflict are wiped from the face of this world!"

"Syri-"

As Griselda tapped Syrion on the shoulder, his crimson eyes shot towards her. His hands snapping at her head before he even realised what he was doing.

*BANG!!!

As the fist collided with Griselda's head, cracks spread across her puppet shell, revealing the hollowed insides.

"!!!" Freezing in shock, Syrion widened his eyes.

But Griselda didn't shout, she didn't blame.

She gently reached out and held his head.

"It's fine. I am the Apostle of Immortality, I don't die." She comforted with a soft smile.

Syrion wanted to say something but no words came out.

What could he even say?

"The war is over. It's been over for a long time. You don't need to fight anymore. You can let go of that sword. No more marches, no more blood." Griselda whispered.

Syrion held her arm.

His frame trembling with emotion.

He wanted to cry yet he had no tears.

"Mariel… Lucan… They're both… gone."

Griselda listened silently.

"They're gone. And I… I cut them down. I cut them both down. With these hands… I kill them both."

Syrion clutched his own head.

"It wasn-"

"It was! I could've restrained them! I could've brought them back! I could've had you transfer their soul to another vessel! But I cut them down! I could not bear to see them disgraced in that filth!" Syrion interrupted with a shout.

That day, when he saw his son trapped in the husk of that body, why didn't he bring him back? Why didn't his sword hesitate? Why did he rush to kill his son without thought?

Why?

Syrion gritted his teeth before standing up.

"That day… I felt sorrow. But compared to my rage, my fury! It paled in comparison. Because I knew! I knew I had been abandoned by the God I worshipped!" Syrion clenched his fist.

For the first time, his killing intent erupted like a tidal wave of hatred.

Even Griselda had to take a step back.

The centuries of anger boiling within that hallowed armour.

Syrion clutched his chest, where his heart would've been.

"Lumiria had abandoned me! In her name I charged towards the Eclipse! In her name I butchered the countless! IN HER NAME! I THREW MYSELF INTO THE FIRES OF WAR!

"But all I got in return… Was my family thrown into a pack of wolves. THAT was my reward! I wandered, I walked. I slaughtered all those in my way.

"Not in search of home. Not in search of the family I killed with my own two hands. But in search of the goddess who betrayed my trust! I walk with the intent of slaughter! I walk with the intent of deicide!"

Summoning his sword, Syrion reversed his grip and plunged it into his own chest!

A malevolent energy erupted out, corrupting his armour as obsidian shards coated the pristine white plating.

The false moon hung above him, its radiance darkening.

Raising his blade, Syrion pierced the moon, shattering its image.

And through the cracks, blood began to pour over Syrion's body.

The abyss trembled, energy coiling around Syrion.

Strands descending from above as dark clouds loomed over Syrion's home.

It welcomed the arrival of a weapon of vengeance.

Of wrath incarnate.

*RUMBLE!!!

Lightning crackled, a torrent of Abyssal energy tore through the clouds and flooded the space around them.

Griselda was forced back.

She could see the transformation of Syrion veiled within that energy.

The transformation of his soul… vengeful.

A soul so consumed by anger that it began to warp the very shape itself.

With the descent of such a large source of energy, the swing next to Syrion shattered apart, as did the tree.

The advent of a new Lord.

"Griselda! What the f*ck is happening!?" Alice rushed over with Gwen, both in shock at the sudden surge of power.

"Lordship. Syrion has remembered everything that happened in the past." Griselda bit her lip.

Alice widened her eyes.

If Gwen has to hunt a lord…

"Gwen! Are we doing it!? Are we fighting now!?" Alice shouted.

If they're going to fight, they have to do so with the intent to kill! To put their life on the line!

Gwen hesitated.

Within the calamity of energy, Syrion turned around, blood red eyes staring back at Gwen with killing intent.

"Gwen! Alice! This will be your final lesson! If you stand before me now, use everything you have learned to kill me! Destroy my core! End the burning fires that is my fury! If you cannot muster the will to fight, then leave! Watch as I burn down the wrecked order that is the moon!" Syrion shouted, stomping down as the world around them began to change.

Alice could see the seventh star manifest above Syrion's head.

He had attained Lordship!

[Syrion, Abyss Lord of Wrath - ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦]


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