//------------------------------// // The Cost of Failure // Story: Anima Mea Tenebre // by Nixus //------------------------------// The night sky felt cool upon Shishiro’s skin as he stood at the mouth of the cave. Weapon drawn, he cut through the the air against the targets his mind created and grunted with each swing of his blade. It was a rudimentary style he had taught himself when he had taken up his path of vengeance. There were no artful twirls or complicated attacks that would be accompanied by a long chant of that specific attacks name. Such things left a fighter open and wasted breath that could be put into another swing. No, his style of fighting was simple and had worked in tandem well enough with his natural skill. There was no artful display, just killing intent. He managed another series of blows before he unleashed a yell as he imagined his blade connecting with an exposed Felid stomach. The thought satisfied him. His imaginary foe in the shape of his one true enemy crying for mercy as his life spilled out from him. Yet the sweet satisfaction faded immediately as reality pulled him from his battle haze. The scowl on his face returned just as he caught Mileena emerging from the mouth of the caverns they had fashioned into their hideout. “Fighting your imaginary friends again?” She asked coyly. “Are you not bored of doing the same thing every night?” Her eyes began to run up and down his half naked form and a seductive smirk began to appear. “I can think of a few things we have and haven't done yet.” Shishiro spat on the ground and sheathed his sword. “I'm not indulging you again, Mileena. That was one mistake too many,” he said, retrieving his shirt from a nearby tree. The night was still fresh in his mind, along with the aches and pains she had caused him. Mileena shrugged and brushed a strand of blue away from her face. Despite her appearances, Shishiro had no doubts she was the stronger between them. He had seen her take down all sorts of creatures in their time together, most often two to three times her size. Her strength however, was matched only by her volatility and cruelty. He had seen her go from jubilant to berserk at the smallest slight and was well aware of her tendency to slowly pick apart her opponents rather than finish a fight quickly. A foolish person would have said they were thankful she were on their side, but he knew better. An ally of Mileena was just as likely to suffer as her enemies. Turning his thoughts away from the past, he quickly slid his shirt on. “You obviously have a reason for coming up other than to comment on my training. Anything else and you would have waited.” “How very astute of you,” she replied, her yellow eyes flashing with her grin. “It's Dagon, I'm sure you've noticed it too.” He nodded and grimaced. He remembered the night he had first met the Diablon. Hollow faced and skinny, the man had seemed uninteresting and Shishiro had initially been inclined to ignore him. He would have done so until Dagon had claimed he knew of Shishiro’s past. That had earned him a sword tip pointed at his throat. The only thing that stopped it had been Dagon’s promise of power. You seek vengeance? Good. I know of a set of artifacts that can grant you power beyond your wildest imagination. All I need is your help in obtaining them. He had reluctantly agreed only after Dagon had explained what they were supposed to do and his theory. Receptacles of pure demonic power that would enhance his natural abilities a thousandfold. He had heard legends of such items used by warlords and became convinced when Dagon had been able to show that the same three artifacts had been the very same ones in the tales. After that, he had been at Dagon’s command ever since. “What of it?” The draconic woman furrowed her brow at him, obviously displeased. “Don't be ignorant. You've noticed it too. The way he acts? The attack? Now he's asking us to collect and assemble some suit of armour and corpses? Dagon has changed and I do not fancy following someone half mad.” “It is not my place to s-” “Not you place to say, of course,” she retorted. “You're far to loyal to someone who neglects to even tell you what he does when he creeps off in the dark.” Reluctantly he agreed. Mileena had a point. Dagon’s attitude had not changed until they had been attacked and transported to this place. Since then, they had caught him whispering to himself and acting increasingly paranoid, complaining about voices no one else heard. Then it had manifested in their attack and defeat at the town when that strange Diablon had almost obliterated them. Since then, all paranoia had vanished and Dagon had seemed to return to his normal self. Before he could say so, the sound of wings flapping caught him and he looked skyward. A shadow soared above them, though no wings held it aloft. The vaguely human shaped figure then dove toward them and Shishiro gripped the hilt of his sword just as it touched down. “My methods are beyond you, much like my powers now,” Dagon said as he pulled the hood of his robe back. Black and red eyes gazed at them, smouldering with arcane power as the spectral wings sprouting from his back unfurled and began to disappear. Shishiro felt his body instinctively step back against his mind’s wishes. He knew Dagon would not do anything to him as long as he proved his usefulness. Yet the power Dagon now possessed made even his trained mind falter. To him, a new aura surrounded their leader. Black and fathomless, it could reduce one to a gibbering mess. Dagon had become fear incarnate, and no one could defend against fear once it had wormed into their hearts.     Mileena appeared unfazed, or at least was able to put on an unaffected face. “Whether or not you have new powers, I refuse to be lead without knowing what we are doing,” she retorted defiantly. Shishiro stared in awe of her sheer stupidity, but Dagon merely stepped towards her until they were face to face. Still Mileena did not budge and stood proud with her hand on her sword. “I know I may not be able to win against you, but I can definitely give you a few painful wounds that would definitely hurt for a long time.”     Dagon did nothing, but continued to stare at Mileena, subtly examining her as spectral tendrils crept out of his back. Then, as suddenly as they appeared, he relaxed and let them fade away. “You are right Mileena, you would die, but that would do more harm to my plan,” he said. “I’ll tell you this however, continue to question me and I will put you through such suffering that even you wouldn’t be able to come up with.”     Mileena relented to Shishiro’s relief and dropped her grip on her sword. “Fine. So what is our next move if you care to enlighten us?”     “Have you brought me all the items I asked for?” he asked in return. When they both nodded, he continued. “Our gambit in the north failed. Ravenn is dead and two of the three relics are in our enemies hands. Our efforts are now to focus on retrieving them. This is why I commanded you to retrieve the materials I require. Now show me to them.”     They led him back in through the mouth of the cave and down a series of twisting passages that had been carved out using some of the lower demons they had been able to summon. While weak, the demons had proven tenacious and carved out a subterranean network of passages, quarters, and various facilities that now housed their forces. The efforts had also proven fruitful with a discovery of ore veins within the mountain. These precious materials had gone to the ores deeper in their fortress, ready to be processed into the tools their forces would need.     As they continued, Shishiro found himself biting back a question as he pondered the revelation Dagon had told them. A moment of hesitation passed as they kept walking. “Dagon, you said they had two of the three relics. What happened to the third?”     Dagon spoke without even missing a stride, his voice echoing down the empty passageway and off the claw marked walls. “Ravenn was experimenting with Shrieker eggs and how to augment them using the relics. Two proved useful enough in creating obedient auxiliaries that would have aided us. One was implanted in our captive Erdgeist, and the other Ravenn used to control the hoard and its queen.”     “I understand that, we were all there when you gave him this task. But if he had all three, then how is one missing? It is not as though a relic that gives off so much energy would be easily missed.”     “It wasn’t misplaced, just misused. From what I found, Ravenn captured that Dwarf and used him as a test subject. The experiment fused the Dwarf with the power in the stone, but it could not be controlled. It broke loose and rampaged, killing Ravenn and the Shrieker Queen, before it escaped into the wilds. Now it is out there with our stone and every moment we waste will make retrieving it all the more difficult.”     Shishiro had the distinct feeling that Dagon was withholding a few details, but wrote them off. He did not wish to deal with the inevitable refusal and its accompanied threat, but he would find the right time and place when he could. For now, he would keep his mouth shut and focused on the task at hand, the one which would pit him against his desired enemy.     They entered and stopped in an isolated room at the far end of the tunnel network. It was small and the smell of incense smoke hung in the air, making it hard to breathe but masking the scent of what lay in the confines of the room. At the centre of the barren room was a wide stone plinth carved out of the floor. Glyphs and runes littered the ground around it in a circular pattern, with straight lines aimed towards the base of the plinth. On top of it sat a mass of scrap metal, broken pieces of bones, and putrid rotted flesh that leaked gore and filth over the edges and onto the floor. For an entire week, the lesser demons had scrounged the wilds around their underground fortress, collecting these pieces from graves, refuse, and even the occasional animal that had been caught unaware. All had been deposited here on Dagon’s orders, waiting for when he would make use of it.     “Perfect,” He said as a morbid grin crossed his face. Shishiro swallowed hard and held back the urge to vomit as Dagon moved forward and gently touched the materials. He inspected them carefully, as though they were fragile treasures and not pieces of broken metal and meat. Around him the glyphs began to glow in a devilish purple light that hurt Shishiro and Mileena’s eyes, forcing them to squint as the light cut through the haze that began to coalesce around Dagon who continued to admire the pile of refuse. “This will suffice.”     “The man is insane,” Shishiro heard Mileena say as she watched in disgust. Despite his faith in their leader, Shishiro had to agree. Watching a man he respect sift through bones and corpse parts did little to improve his opinion, and Shishiro watched grimly as doubt began to grip his mind.     Dagon turned to them, fixing his hollow black and red eyes on the two of them.. “Acharon, whom forced the world to its knees, was known to have a force of hunters unlike anything a mere mortal mind could dream of. Monsters of metal and bone, driven only by the sheer rage they felt towards a singular target,” He turned back to the pile and extended a hand towards it. At the same time, a small wisp materialised in his palm and began to collect the smoke in the room. “They did not need food, water, or even rest. Their pursuit was relentless and the only reprieve was death. Theirs, or their targets.” Shishiro sucked in a breath as the mound of flesh and metal began to shift. An unseen force, as if powered by the now brightly glowing runes on the floor, seemed to mold the metal scrap into thick pieces of armour that melded with the wriggling pieces of flesh. Leg bones that were once exposed, fashioned themselves into raptor like limbs of fused flesh and steel. Armored arms, one ending in a wicked set of talons and the other in a large serrated blade wrapped in chains, joined to the large torso where the wisp had vanished into. Yet his disgust at the sight of the creature assembling itself peaked as the head was the last to form. Though it was a twisted reflection of its bearer, he recognised the agonised face before it was encased in a tusked metal helmet. “You used Ravenn?” He said shakily before he looked to Mileena to see her pallid face.. If this was the price of loyalty to Dagon or whatever now possessed him. He began to think that perhaps siding with her may not be a worse fate. “This is the price of failure, Shishiro, remember it. There are worse things than death, and until I give any of my subjects leave to die, they will continue to serve me until I see they no longer prove useful,” Dagon said. “In Ravenn’s case, he created a rabid dog. As such, he will be the one to hunt it down for us.”