• Published 13th Dec 2019
  • 3,706 Views, 144 Comments

How Death Lived - Crimson Wisp



The son of a demon and a necromancer is thrown into Equestria in his darkest hour. Will he find the peace he so desperately seeks, or will he not survive long enough to tell the tale?

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Chap. 11 Time for a story! part 2

/////////////Azazel//////////////

To my unpleasant surprise, Saros shrugged off my hand and rose to his feet. He turned to look at me, his body now surrounded by a swirling mass of frost. The air around us began to grow colder as we stared at each other in silence. The wind around him began to grow in intensity, and soon, I was blinded by the freezing fog that enveloped us both.

I wrapped my wings around myself in a vain attempt to shield my bare chest from the freezing air. When the magical haze dissipated, my wings parted to reveal we were left standing on a slope surrounded by what seemed to be a barren wasteland, shrouded by dark clouds. There was a strong, dry wind throwing up dust and dead twigs into the air.

I looked around and saw nothing other than myself, the odd dead tree scattered about the barren wasteland and Saros, who was seemingly unaffected by the sudden change in scenery and temperature.

"Where are we!?"

I asked, using my arms to shield my face from the dust pelting it.

"We are standing on the outskirts of the crystal empire."

He stated, turning face and walking up the slope. Before I could ask what the "crystal empire" was, a loud explosion that shook the earth beneath my feet resonated from somewhere behind the hill. Squinting my eyes in skepticism, I made my up way to the cold "peak".

Saros had already reached the top, and I was not prepared for what I saw next. As I walked towards the summit, I could see a massive crystalline tower looming in the distance. Drawing nearer towards Saros' side, I could hear the sound of... wait... Is that screaming!?

I quickened my pace and once I stood beside my masked companion, I gazed upon a raging battlefield. Ponies clad in armor similar to that of Celestia's royal guard clashed with even more diminutive, multichromatic horses that wore a strange black and red armor with menacing helmets covering their faces.

Unicorns engaged in duels of magic. Pegasi soared above and around us like a wyvern scuffle, but a lot less... vicious. And earth ponies brawled, pushing their superior strength to the limits.

"Five years after the events that you've witnessed, a pony who's heart was consumed by greed and a lust for power waged war on Equestria. A monster who's very name represented the darkness that corrupted his soul. A monster we inadvertently created... The self proclaimed ruler of the Crystal Empire, King Sombra."

Saros explained, pointing a finger somewhere off to his left. Following his finger, I saw a grey unicorn wearing black armor, a crown with three large spines and a red cape standing a short distance away from the slope we were on.

He had slitted eyes with red irises that were indicative that he was the supposed evil tyrant my masked narrator was talking about. Because anything that resembles dragons or demons is evil by default in this realm. Fantastic... More prejudice to deal with....

The ashen unicorn trotted forward with an unamused expression and a confident stride. As he walked, golden clad ponies from all sides tried to rush him. Just as I believed they would dogpile him, He rose a considerable distance on a rapidly ascending pedestal of mulberry colored crystals. The ponies that rushed him were promptly thrown back from the small shockwave of magic, effectively avoiding certain impalement.

"When Sombra's forces were driven to their capitol city, a decisive battle for the crystal empire took place. Sombra fought by his soldiers, the inhabitants of the crystal empire who had been turned into mindless slaves through enchanted helmets that controlled their minds."

As Saros spoke, the army of soldier's belonging to Sombra began to disengage from their current opponents and began stampeding towards my right side. Following their trajectory, I spotted the diarchs of Equestria and a near identical replica of Saros fighting an incoming horde of ponies.

"The boy had given Sombra far too many chances to change his ways in the dream realm, but his friend was long gone. Amiable Dusk was gone... and only Sombra remained... If Sombra wanted war, he would get it. After many months of bloodshed and a lot of convincing, Celestia allowed the boy to fight for his home. The boy told himself that his would be the day he would make his mother and her kingdom proud. No longer would the ponies mistreat him and ignore his mother. They would revere both him and his mother like they so rightfully deserved."

Celestia and Luna fought in perfect harmony, protecting each other above actually killing those that would harm them. Meanwhile, the other Saros would use blasts of thunder magic to repel attackers from the rear. The diarchs of the sun and moon would send waves of the horde flying into the air with a flaming golden halberd and a silver sickle that radiated astral power.

As the soon to be dead forces of the crystal empire swarmed the trio from all angles, threatening to overwhelm them, I learned why the boy was called a "stormcaller". He raised his hands and yelled something I didn't quite understand over the roar of the battlefield. The dark clouds of ash and smoke looming over the hellscape we were standing on began to spiral above him and my skin began to tingle.

An unexpected and unnerving silence drowned the area surrounding us for a second before powerful bolts of lightning discharged energy into the human. I reflexively wrapped my wings around my body and hunkered down to protect myself. Once it stopped, my wings parted for me to see Saros' apparition standing in the center of an awe struck crowd of baffled warriors and two very startled looking princesses.

With bolts of raw energy coarsing through his arms and chest, I could see the two star like eyeballs scanning the crowd before him. He extended his arms forward, and the entire field became a light show of blue, teal, and turquoise lightning that leapt from pony to pony in a fraction of a second. Followed by a deafening thunderclap, a blast of wind knocked me off my feet and I rolled down the slope. I fail to understand how within a dream one can experience pain. Then again, I was at the mercy of a dreamwalker.

After the painfully loud crackle of lightning stopped, I rose to my feet and walked back towards the summit.

"Damn..."

I muttered to myself in morbid awe as I saw the charred bodies of hundreds... no... thousands of ponies. Both sides had been struck down by a fury akin to that of a god, A carpet of gold and black corpses lay dead around the princess of the sun and moon. The king of the crystal empire could only watch in horror and awe at the massacre that had just transpired.

"Y-you... I WILL DESTROY YOU YOU TRAITOROUS MONSTER!!! I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO DESTROY MY KINGDOM!!!"

Sombra shouted, summoning a growing sphere of magic just above his horn and levitating off of his crystalline pedestal. He hovered there, charging up a spell of dark magic while surrounded by a black aura that surged with purple and green bolts of malicious energy.

The princesses, who had finally come to their senses, focused their magic and cast a domed shield. With a warcry of pure hatred, Sombra unleashed a gargantuant beam of magic on his enemies. The bodies that were in the spells path were immediately desintegrated, while those nearby were cooked and singed to the point where my nose could pick up the stench of fur and metal being subjected to... necrotic energy?..

My eyes widened in shock at the prospect of the princesses facing a necromancer, especially a competent one. Time suddenly slowed down and came to a complete stop with the exception of me and, as I would find out in a few seconds, Saros.

"You seem distracted."

He stated, cutting through the deafening silence. I snapped out of my stuper and looked over to see him looking at me. I couldn't see his face, but his eyes spoke volumes.

"The smell. It reeks of necromancy. The aftermath of a putrification spell to be precise."

I explained. Saros' unamused gaze turned to one of disbelief and... horror?

"Necromancy? But that is not possible. The dark arts were outlawed centuries before the..."

He stopped mid-explanation wide eyed as he seemed to have discovered something he hadn't thought of before. He then looked towards the unicorn tyrant, frozen in time.

"Saros?.."

I asked, now a bit concerned. He said nothing for a long before slowly raising his right hand, snapping his fingers. Right on cue, time resumed once more.

The spell Sombra had charged slammed against the shield and assaulted it relentlessly. The shield cast by the princesses held, but it was beginning to splinter and crack under the pressure. Celestia and Luna poured everything they had into the shield, but it was evident it would not be enough.

"The evil of Sombra could only be vanquished through team work. Putting aside their differences, if only for a few moments, the diarchs and the boy fought Sombra in a duel for the fate of the Crystal Empire."

Saros' doppelganger placed his hands on Celestia and Luna's shoulders and began to pour magic into them. The rulers of the sun and moon's bodies began to surge with electricity while the masked human's celestial wraps burned with purple, blue, and white magic. The princesses eyes, along with the human's glowed like stars as the shield folded out and in on itself to then produce a beam of equally destructive energy.

The streams of magic collided and destroyed everything in the near vacinity with a massive shockwave. Refusing to be hurdled off the slope again, I crouched and hunkered down with my wings wrapped around me.

With my talons firmly buried into the ground, I braced for impact. Surely enough, there was a very large and powerful blast of magic and wind that made the air get noticeably ho- wait... WHY IS THE AIR SO COLD ALL OF A SUDDEN?!

"The battle between Sombra and the Diarchs of Equestria drained the verdant valley that surrounded the Crystal Empire of all it's ambient magic, forever condemning it to the wasteland of ice and snow that exists north of Canterlot..."

Saro's stated just after my ears stopped ringing. I unfurled my wings and looked towards the aftermath of the magical duel. Luna, Celestia, and the other Saros lay on the ground to my right, while Sombra was shakily getting up on my left. A smoldering crater and a pillar of slowly dissipating ash and debris.

"Sombra, nearly depleted of all of his magic and at the end of his time as king, let his pride guide his actions to the very end. Sealing his fate... and that of the Crystal Empire..."

Saros stated coldly. His hood now removed by the wind, allowed me to see his head. Something about him caught my eye, his hair was a snow white, while the one the was now struggling to get on his knees beside an unconscious Luna and an exhausted Celestia who clambered almost drunkardly to her hooves had jet black hair.

The odd detail perplexed me until Saros suddenly move towards me. I took a step back in apprehension, but he was already upon me. His arms crackled with magical electricity as his hands latched firmly onto my horns. Before I could even react, I was overwhelmed by pain as he electrocuted me.

"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!"

I roared in agony as bolts of magical energy ran through my entire body. When the pain finally stopped, I opened my eyes to find I was standing just behind Luna and Celestia. I tried to open my eyes further in confusion, but they would not obey.

I was instead a passenger in my own body, or rather, the boy's body. I knew as much because he looked down at his arms and saw that the constellation ridden wrappings around his arms had been burned and heavily damaged, exposing his singed and bleeding arms.

"The Stellaris, wrappings made from a living tapestry of stars , was a weapon created by Starswirl the bearded. A gift that would grant the boy the power to save his beloved mother."

I heard Saros' voice reverberate in my head as Celestia hurried to Luna's side. She was unconscious, mostly likely driven to it by fatigue.

"Seeing her sister laid low made something within the princess of the sun snap. A monster of hatred that burned as hot as the sun was breaking free of it's chains within her. The boy... knew not what was happening to her, but soon he would."

As my guide spoke, I saw Celestia's eyes turn a dark amber brown and her pupils become sharp slits out the corner of my eye. My sight shifted towards Sombra, he was looking at us with an angry weariness that made me admire his persistence.

"You have lost Sombra! Surrender and we will show you mercy!"

Celestia proclaimed, though I, like Sombra, could tell she was lying. She sounded mildly annoyed, but the anger with which she seethed was felt like the sun at high noon on the hottest day of the year.

"Never! I am the rightful ruler of the Crystal Empire! NOT THAT USURPER AMORE!!!"

He exclaimed angrily. The boy looked down at his arms and shut his eyes. I felt a strange tingling in my arms before my eyes opened again. The boy's arms had been completely healed, only the blood that stained his damaged wrappings remained.

"You will release her from the stone you are holding her in and surrender! You are outnumbered and outmatched! Do not force us to destroy you Som-"

The boy was cut off as Sombra fired a blast of magic his way. He outstretched his hand, and formed a crude shield that barely held against the vicious attack.

"ENOOOOOUUUUUGH!!!"

Celestia roared as from her mouth, came a focused blast of fire, not unlike a fire drake. Sombra cast an opaque mulberry shield of magic that crackled with dark magic. The boy lowered his shield and could only stare at the display in shock.

When Celestia could no longer hold the flames, she fell to her knees and coughed up smoke from her cindering maw. When Sombra dropped his shield, the boy ran and got between the rulers of Equestria, and the dark sorcerer. Seeing this, Sombra let out a growl of frustration.

"If I cannot rule the Crystal Empire! NO PONY WILL!!!"

He proclaimed, transforming into a looming pillar of darkness with vibrant green eyes and red irises that radiated purple malice. The pillar bolted into the air and headed towards the massive tower of crystal.

The boy turned around to find Celestia with her ears pressed against Luna's side. He then, ran towards her and knelt down. He ran his fingers through her hair moved his left hand just shy of her nose. I felt warm air hit the back of it, and I felt a wave of relief wash over the boy.

"She is still breathing, stay here so that I can-"

She began before the boy interjected while standing back up.

"No. You and mother are in no condition to be fighting."

Celestia flinched as if hurt, her eyes now having reverted to their original state.

"You seriously cannot expect me to-!"

She tried before getting cut off again.

"To protect your sister!? Yes! Don't be foolish. Now get her to the barracks so you two can receive medical attention! I will stop Sombra."

The boy stated in a very annoyed tone. Celestia looked absolutely livid, and her hair began to writhe like fire as her eyes began to retake their malevolent appearance.

"I will not be insulted by a snob nosed child at a time like thi-!"

She exclaimed indignantly, rising to her hooves and her horn flaring up with flame like magic. The boy, refusing to be intimidated, got in her face, the area around his eyes being enveloped in a blue haze and my loaned ears could pick up an electric buzzing and crackling.

"AND WE WILL NOT LOSE HER BECAUSE OF YOUR DAMNED PRIDE!!!"

He roared angrily before continuing. Celestia's anger turned to fear the instant he started screaming, her eyes turning back to their normal appearance.

"We will stop Sombra. And if our mother is not getting any treatment when we get back..."

He stated with an unnerving calmness as he glared at her with murderous intent. He let his words hang in the air before turning around and walking towards the crystalline monolith.

"I will have your head."

He stated darkly, giving her a sideways glance before disappearing in a powerful lightning strike. As he soared off into the distance, I felt a mind-splitting migraine take over me as my world turned to white. I was then granted control over my body as I fell on my back.

When I could finally think coherently and my body stopped aching, I realized I was in my own body; exactly where I had last left it. Looking myself over, I reached up to see if my horns were intact. Fortunately, they were; though they were very sensitive to the touch.

Saros, who now loomed over me, stretched out his hand for me to take. After being subjected to that obscene amount of pain, the word "apprehensive" would've been a gross understatement for how I was feeling.

"Forgive us. But we had to show you... You needed to see it through our eyes."

He stated, gesturing for me to take his hand. My eyes went from his hand and back for a bit before I made up my mind and decided to trust him. He hoisted me up and helped me to my feet.

"See what?..."

I asked hesitantly.

"The darkness in Celestia's heart. That was the only first time it has manifested physically..."

He answered, looking at me with his pleading, turquoise eyes. He wanted me to believe him, and frankly, I did. Not Because I wanted to, but rather because it made sense.

Every pony I had met up to this point was, by my world's standards, worthy of entry to the heavens. But Celestia and her guard? She had noble intentions for sure, but... I knew there was darkness in her. From the first time I saw her soul, to the last where she...

"The darkness... is it Sombra's doing? Can necromancy truly corrupt the soul of an alicorn?"

He asked. I could tell he was scared of the notion. I am well versed in the art of necromancy to the point where I know enough to know that I know close to nothing of it's true extent. However, I do know that souls could not be corrupted in the manner Celestia was.

I began to dig around my mind for an answer, and then I remembered something Celestia said a while back...

"...it was A NECROMANCER WHO ROBBED US OF OUR PARENTS! I REFUSE TO LET HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF WITH HIM!"

The alicorn's voice reverberated like a faint echo in the distance growing louder and louder until it eventually could be heard by my physical ears.

Saros, who had left wanting an answer, took a step back in shock. Not being able to see his face did not impede me from reading his body language. To say he was horrified... would be accurate...

"She attacked you... didn't she?..."

Saros asked in a conspiratorial manner. He sounded... hurt? No, it sounded more like indignation. It took me a bit to speak, but eventually I did.

"Yes. That is why I am in the Everfree forest. I was running from her."

I stopped myself from asking anything else to ponder something that popped into my mind. How was this human even in my mind in the first place?

"Where is my body now?"

I asked firmly. Saros seemed irritated, but answered my question in a sullen, yet polite manner.

"You are in the ruins of what use to be my mother's and Celestia's home. Did she attack you?"

He pressed. The memory of the attack came to mind, and my own anger began to rise.

"One of her soldiers tried to kill me. When I attempted to defend myself she prostrated me. I broke free from her magic and caused a diversion for me to escape. However, she has captured my... caretakers, and I know not what has become of them."

I explained. Saros looked away from me and towards the large crystalline city the lay in the distance. He seemed to be mulling over what I'd told him, but before I could ask anymore questions, he raised his hands and clapped them twice.

The now familiar sensation of vertigo came and left in an instant as we now stood on the roof of a building just shy of the massive crystalline castle. On the streets just infront of the monolithic castle at the city's center, Saros' younger doppelganger was fighting Sombra in a duel that resembled his training with Starswirl.

"We could have ruled together you and I! We could have made the Crystal Empire a land where every creature could live freely! AND INSTEAD OF A PARADISE, YOU CHOOSE A PRISON!?!?"

Sombra roared as he fired bolts of magic at the nimble human, sidestepping and leaping over the unicorn's attacks.

"A kingdom ruled through cruelty and callousness?! That is not a paradise Amiable!"

The human countered verbally and physically when an opening presented itself. Firing lightning from his outstretched hands. The human's attack was caught in the telekinetic grip of the evil king and promptly deflected to the side.

"THAT NAME... MEANS NOTHING TO ME ANYMORE!!!"

He retorted furiously, casting a continuous beam of dark magic the flared with green and a deep purple fire. Saros' dopple rolled out the way just in time to avoid the incoming beam, which then cleave through one of the pillars holding the massive structure up. The castle shook and debris fell from the roof and a small rock about the size of my fist hit the other Saros on the head.

He tumbled to the ground and skidded to a halt, a small amount of blood began pouring through his right eyehole from the impact. Sombra then turned his attention to a heart shaped jewel that radiated with magical energy hovering in the center of the large area underneath the elevated castle.

"If you and the princesses refuse to make this kingdom a place worth living in, THEN I WILL DESTROY IT!!!"

He exclaimed firing a spell of dark magic into the crystalline heart. The injured lookalike saw this and immediately got to his feet.

"NOOOO!!"

He yelled, firing a hasty blast of raw electricity at Sombra. The ruler of the Crystal Empire was struck by the bolt and hurdled across the air while convulsing in a pain I was all too familiar with. The boy ran towards the rapidly spinning heart and looked at it in horror.

"Sombra had infected the Crystal Heart, a construct of crystalline love, with hate. With the Stellaris damaged, he could not purge it from the darkness in time. It would rupture and decimate the entire kingdom... That is, of course, until the boy got an idea..."

As Saros spoke, the boy charged his arms with a magic, but instead of lightning, it was a turquoise, purple, and teal magic like that of a pony's. He then poured magic into the heart.

"The boy thought of his mother... He though of the happiness she brought him and the love he had for her. That love gave him the power to change the fate of the Crystal Empire... forever."

Saros explained with a serenity that pulled at my heartstrings like an angel to their lyre. It was then that I saw Sombra stand up and try to approach the Saros' dopple, but something was wrong.

The intense light from the crystal heart was burning Sombra like the sun burned vampires. I could see him struggle to keep his form as the light grew stronger. The dark crystals that had grown everywhere around the city began to disintegrate as the radiant light of the Crystal Heart burned away the impurities in the Crystal Empire.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

Sombra wailed at the top of his lungs as he was evaporated like water over a raging fire as the light consumed everything in sight. I shielded my eyes as a magical hum soon overpowered my ears and I was forced to cover them.

When the humming stopped, the ground below me suddenly vanished and I began to fall. My instinct took over and I hurriedly tried to gather wind pressure onto my wings and take flight. Much to my horror, there was nothing for me to take, as all the air around me was gone as well which made it impossible to even breathe.

I fell in dead silence for about five seconds before a powerful gust of air slammed into me and made me spin uncontrollably. I fell for about ten more seconds before I hit the ground, hard. My entire body was in pain, and I genuinely wished I was dead.

When the pain seceded enough for me to lift my head up from the sandy ground below me I saw I was inside a massive crater that went on for miles. I could only look in horror as I weakly clambered onto my haunches and remained seated.

"The boy had altered the spell to transport the crystal empire into the aether rather than to destroy it. Magic born from love would give the crystal empire another chance to return and rebuild itself. Unfortunately... Celestia did not see it that way."

Saros stated, appearing seated besides me seemingly out of nowhere. Before I could ask for what he meant, five shadows flew over us and landed a short ways away, raising a small torrent of debris. When the ashen dust settled, I saw Celestia without her battle armor and bandages wrapped around her barrel and forelegs with an entourage of pegasi clad in golden body armor and saddlebags.

As I gawked at the ponies before me, Saros stood up and dusted himself off.

"Come, the final chapter of our tale is about to unfold."

The masked man stated with an outstretched hands. Taking it, I rose to my feet and hobbled behind him as he followed the diarch of the sun down towards the center of the crater.

After walking for a few minutes, the dust filled air had finally settled to reveal the sky above us. The clouds overhead were that of stormclouds, an omen of the fate that would await this wasteland.

We all came to halt a small distance away from Saros' double, who stood at the epicenter of the massive crater with his back turned to us. He had his right arm out stretched with his palm held skywards, as if waiting for something to fall into his palm.

His hood was removed, and the snow white hair on his head mirrored identically the masked story teller. My guide and I circled around the group and stood so that the double would be to our right, and Celestia would be to our left.

"The ruler of the sun approached the boy when he was weak, and let her fear dictate her actions. The boy knew this betrayal would come sooner or later, but a punishment so cruel... he did not expect."

Saros stated as Celestia drew six gems that glowed with power from the saddlebags of her escort. The gems began orbiting her with the exception of the largest one, seeming to be an amethyst, star shaped focusing matrix.

Her eyes had transformed into their malevolent form and for the briefest moment I could've sworn her mane and tail were made of fire. As the spell charged, the boy turned around to see his assailant all too late. The boy was then enveloped in a rainbow of power which blinded me for a few seconds.

"NOOOOOO!!!!"

The doppleganger screamed before he was drowned out by the deafening humming of the spell being cast on him. When the spell ceased, I lowered my hands from my face and saw the boy had been turned into a statue that displayed fear...

Celestia fell to the ground along with the gemstones, that were now slightly dulled in color. As I stared in disbelief at what I had seen, Celestia's guard helped her to her hooves. They hoisted the petrified boy in a mint green magic and began to walk away with him. Saros and I were left alone

"This act of treason would weaken Celestia and the Elements of Harmony, Equestria's most powerful weapon, forever... The Elements would only be used once more by Celestia, before rendering them useless in her hooves as the darkness within her would deharmonize her connection to them."

Saros stated while he clapped his hand, and we were transported into what seemed to be a massive vault or storage room. As expected, I was assaulted by a wave of vertigo, only now I barely recognized it even happened. I looked around and found the room barren, with the exception of a stone pedestal that rose up to my knees.

"The boy would be deep inside the castle of the two sisters, imprisoned inside his own body for over a thousand years... Never to see his mother again... Never to see her beautiful night..."

Saros stated from my left, walking slowly towards the statue. He then turned to look at me while hovering onto the pedestal.

"We have been trapped here for so long... We believed that all was lost when mother... was consumed by the Nightmare... A new city was built years later... and this castle was abandoned. We believed we would remain here alone... forever... Then... you come into what remains of our abandoned prison. You can set us free... You can help us set things right!"

He proclaimed with a hopeful joy that concerned me greatly. A soul enduring the things this human has would have driven him to insanity. Not to mention that there is a risk that everything that I've seen from him is a lie.

If I was to get answers, I'd have to interrogate him while free of this dream. I'd use my amulet of lies to determine whether he could be trusted or not.

"Let us suppose that I trust you. How exactly do I benefit from this?"

I asked firmly.

"I have seen your memories, demon! I know of the cruelty you've shown those who would harm you."

He stated with an accusatory finger pointed right at me. I did not welcome his implicit hostility, and I reciprocated it with a low growl and by bearing my teeth.

"I also know that you show a ferocious loyalty to those you care about. Celestia has imprisoned your caretakers, and will likely use them to draw you put of hiding."

He continued. If he was afraid, he did not show it, but he did become much more... polite in tone.

"If you set us free, we will help you save them. We will give you a chance to have that which you've been denied of since you came to this world."

I squinted my eyes at his offer. He is the second creature to have delved into my mind. I'd have to look into how to shield it in the future.

"And pray tell, what would that be?"

I asked skeptically.

"You want to keep your family safe. Those that you care about were taken from you... We cannot undo that which has been done... but we can help you start anew..."

As Saros spoke, memories of the night my parents died flashed before my eyes. I felt nothing... nothing but rage as the bastard that killed them came to mind.

"Free us... And we will help you save your family..."

He promised in an ominous sounding whisper as he took a familiarly frightened stance and slowly turned to stone. I was left standing in that room with sinister whispers whispering sinister sounding nonsense into my ears.

I covered my ears to make them go away, but they just got louder and louder until my hands could no longer stifle their incoherent ranting. As I became disoriented by the loud and painful ringing in my ears, I found it difficult to stand.

I staggered and fell to my knees from the fever rising in me. I collapsed onto my back and shivered in agony as the throbbing pain in my head ravaged me. I felt... cold.