Treasure

A storm brews inside you; a great tempest that seeks to tear you away from who you truly are…

He stood on the outcropping of rock, overlooking the vast field. He had not planned on coming here. In fact, he had tried to resist it. But the irresistible pull of energy that pervaded the plain had urged his steps to come here and look upon the vast army that moved his way.

… You must not pay it any heed, young one. You must not listen to whispers within the wind…

Dressed in cloak and cowl, he stood there as his midnight blue garments billowed in the breeze. All he could feel was the wind. Both outside, and within. No sorrow. No hesitation. No fear. Only the tempest…

You must not follow where it blows you… It will tempt you. It will make you lose yourself in a kaleidoscopic blur...

He was alone, save for the voices of ghosts that now echoed in his mind. Alone he stood; a sentry standing firm on the edge of an assault. They were coming closer now. Dust roiled in the wake of the damned as they pushed forward in their unholy crusade through the sweeping field… and he was in their way. He was in the way of a force thousands-strong that blighted the earth as their numbers swallowed the landscape.

You have always owned a rebel heart. Distant calls will merge into tribal cacophonies as they call you… beckon you… but you cannot give yourself away to that power…

But he did give of himself, all of himself… He harkened to the call that compelled him here, and he had come willingly. Alone; to stand against this scourge that surged forward without rest, without restraint, without remorse… and without its reckoning. He would serve it…

You are needed in this broken world, young sorcerer. A resonance to the tone of the world is a sound that most would mute for the sake of their own ignorance…

He was listening. He was paying attention, but the world was not telling him… to wait…

… you must resist the power…

No. He would not.

He raised his hands. He could see them now – scores of undead horrors and demonic servants. Legions of evil, barrelling down towards him. Burning a path to the innocents who lived in the kingdom at his back. But they would not pass… he would not let them. Not this time…

…let silence be your teacher… for in that silence lies your peace…

He had no much use for talking. Not now. Only action. His cloak fell away from clawed gauntlets, through which arcane power veined to glow on the edge of his fingertips… The air trembled, as runic symbols seared themselves into it, burning intensely as it spread forth in front of him…

…Serenity serves to steady the thoughts that soldier on through a mind at war…

There would be war… but it was no longer in his mind. He had resolved himself to kill those demons off long ago. The mage anchored his stance, and gripped hold of the power coursing through him… In the line of the charging army, the runes had expanded across the field and had starting ripping up the earth over which they hovered. The ground was shaken with a steady magical thrum that was swallowing the sound of the relentless approach of the army…

…Do not lose yourself to that power. Whatever you do, resist it, and treasure the deeper force within you…

That deeper force he had found long ago. It whispered to him, through the layers of power that he had subdued; through the layers of power he now had to acknowledge to grasp that true force that lay inside him… and made him who he was.

…wield it, and let it be the woe of your enemies…

Oh… he was planning to. Lightning cracked through the irises of his eyes, crackling in wild and uninhibited power. It flowed through him, rocking his solid stance and making the very wind around him pick up in strong gusts. The land moaned as magic rocked its foundations. The reach of it stretched for leagues in front of the twilight army, erecting a violent barrier of chaotic energy that threatened to tear anything in its path asunder.

…you must control it...

No. But he was about to unleash it…

As the voice of his old keeper was deafened by the dim of magic filling the air, Tystnad released the pulsing barrier of arcane energy that had erected itself in front of him and the army on the other side. The magic crashed forward, breaking the bedrock and shattering the soil… until the shockwave unleashed havoc within the ranks of the dead…

And for the first time in a century, demons started to fall…

Inktober #21