Chereads / Black Swarm / Chapter 2 - Beginning of the End

Chapter 2 - Beginning of the End

A large spatial rift appeared over a small world, ejecting the lantern and promptly collapsing. The lantern started to fall through the atmosphere, and after several minutes the lantern fell into a forest with a loud bang. A young man was gathering herbs nearby, startled by the large noise and shock wave of dirt. This young man was 16, he had blond hair, green eyes, and a thin build. He was a serf of the white dragon lord, a ruthless lord in the Talenar kingdom. This mans name was Yuvil, he was gathering herbs to meet his monthly quota, else the tax collectors threatened to take his sister.

Curiosity took hold, as the man walked towards the point of impact. In the remains of a large oak tree laid a large jade blue lantern, small cracks and symbols were scattered around the surface.

Oh bless the heavens! I have come across a treasure, they aren't just legends. I must not let anyone know about this, lest I lose this heavenly treasure.

Yuvil quickly grabbed the lantern, stashing it in a thick cloth bag he was using for gathering herbs. He quickly ran home, as he didn't want to attract the attention of any beasts. After a couple hours he got back to his shack, hiding the lantern in his room. He lived with his sister and mother, his father was killed in a war, leaving him to take care of his family.

Once Yurvil had finished eating with his family he started towards where he stashed the cloth bag with the strange lantern he had found. Once he took the lantern out he noticed a strange white wisp coming from a crack in the lantern, which quickly dissipated in the air. At that moment he suffered from a bout of extreme anger, images of the tax collector played over and over in his head. He rapidly clutched his head, screaming in agony. His vision turned bloody, all that was in his head was the tax collector, doing unspeakable things to his sister, beating him, and all sorts of twisted scenarios.

Yurvil suddenly started sprinting with the lantern in hand, believing the only way to relieve his conscious would be taking his anger out on that man. While he didn't know much about the man except for his profession, he was getting desperate. After nearly 60 minutes of frantically searching the nearby town he couldn't take it anymore and took his anger out on an old man in a decrepit alleyway. Lunging at the man he swung the lantern, knocking the man to the ground. The old man responded by crying out in fear and covering his face, unfortunately that wasn't where Yurvil planned to strike. Swinging down, Yurvil smashed the lantern into the old man's chest, immediately cracking the man's ribs. The man tried to gasp for air, but one of his lungs were punctured, causing the old man to gasp out in pain.

Yurvil continued wildly swinging, leaving the man a bruised and bloodied mess. Blood dripped from the lantern, which had a strange glow to it. Observing the lantern with bloodied eyes caused a great panic in Yurvil, great terror gripped his heart as he looked upon the lantern.

An instant later a dark red tendril of mist shot into Yurvil's brain, instantly shattering his soul. Instead of collapsing Yurvil's body started madly twitching. Sac like pores started forming in the limbs, birthing black creatures. These creatures were excreted from their sac-like chambers, who started moving towards the deceased old man laying nearby. The creatures started injecting an unknown fluid into the body, causing it to stabilize its condition. Over the next couple hours the old man started morphing into a breeding chamber for the creatures, his soul had already been shattered after his brain had been morphed into a network node for the creatures. This node helped direct actions of the creatures, it would gather information and perform the most optimal actions necessary for propagation and survival.

The lantern couldn't direct that actions of these creatures yet, but it did gain enough power to create and subtly influence them. As their creator the lantern had designed them to work towards freeing it, it couldn't help due to its restrained state. The blood was used to form a blood virus, as it had leaked into the lantern. This virus was implanted into the young man, allowing for the creation of these creatures. The effort of creating the virus had expended a lot of spiritual energy due to the heavily restrained state of the being inside the lantern. There was no expendable spiritual energy due to the nature of the lantern, so the being had to convert parts of itself into the energy needed. Until it is freed, or the creatures are threatened with extinction will the being act.