A ring of mountains formed a circle enclosing a large plain within. The mountains were all covered with ice at their peaks and a rainforest growing outwards from their base. Within the ring of mountains from its base to the center was a vast death zone.
For miles as far as the eye could see littered corpses in their thousands and millions. A sight so terrible it would quake the feeble-hearted. One so awful it would frighten the weak.
Various villages littered across the ravaged plain were all burnt and razed to the ground at the very center of this devastation. Nothing left but the wrecks of their identity.
There at the center, a once mighty city stood. There was no description to be given of it as there was nothing but debris and the leftovers of charred stone. The city walls were half toppled and its gates gone the only signs of what was once the majesty of this former great place.
Yet it was the destroyed castle sitting within that put things into perspective. Tall and huge, walls made from stone cut out of black polished marble. Its topmost section was gone leaving a gaping hole where it should have been. Most of its walls were crumbled and most of the still standing towers were razed. A memory of what once was.
A dried-up moat separated the city from the razed castle, and half broken and shattered wooden draw bridge caved in at the center lying within the deeper-than-usual expanse.
Bodies lay strewn about in every corner. There was so much that finding a place to set one's foot would have been registered as impossible.
Here standing at the edge of the dried moat stood the one now called Nameless.
* * * * * * * *
My first attempts at walking were met with resistance not just from the two structures called legs but from a heaviness that tried to pull me from behind.
While I ignored the stiffness of my legs I made a glance behind catching sight of something that at first made no sense to me but slowly appeared to be as normal as my hand.
From within the tatters of what I'll assume to be some sort of armor, I was still adorned in a muscular appendage. The growth was almost like a really beefed up arm but even larger. It narrowed out as it reached a point past what my shoulder blade where it then extended onwards to a solid twelve feet.
It looked like a bone with flesh wrapped around it.The bony leftovers of what should have been a glorious wing Now it was just a bony flesh, muscular but featherless. Featherless. For a moment I pondered if it had in anyway looked like Feather's wings.
Speaking of Feathers, the black little thing had long gotten up. For some reason it now stood there staring me down. Atimes it would hop front then hop away, not getting any closer but refusing to leave either.
I've been ignoring him as i did everything.
After looking away from what was left of my wings I refocused upon the environment. My eyes going to the corpses strewn everywhere.
As I glanced from one to the other checking out their different peculiarities intently another sound like the first echoed in my head once more. Then a set of runes popped up in my vision.
-Skill learned -
Observe - Lv 0 - 0/50 exp (Locked)
-See through the weavings or construct of whatever you stare at.
The words confused me. Seeing through their weavings, what weavings?. Feeling strangely irritable at the word whose meaning I didn't know even after getting an understanding to somethings I focused on the line above it.
Lv0 - 0/50 exp. (Locked)
What was exp and why was it locked . While curious I was glad I knew atleast what locked meant. Like the runes understood my sentiment the symbols flickered before changing.
Observe Lv 0 - 0/50 exp (Locked)
-Seeing the information or details of whatever you stare at as long it is lower leveled than you.
Cost - None.
(Locked) - You cannot earn any experience yet.
I was more interested in the new wording than in the fact i couldn't earn experience, whatever I was supposed to do with experience or the runes failed attempt in being eccentric.
'Ah I accuse it of using big words yet I use them myself' I shook my head at my actions before refocusing on the current matter.
Understanding the new description of this skill. I looked to a body right at me feet. A flicker happened and then the runes changed.
-Orcling-
-State : Deceased-
Looking at another corpse the runes flickered again before changing.
-Lycan-
State - Deceased
Like that I began going through the corpses around me.
There were. various names that I didn't know what they were yet all had the same state. Deceased.
After going through ten corpses I remembered something before turning to look at where I rose from. Lying there was the eyeless buddy. I could see his complete form now and it was horrendous. Twisted in a form so gruesome I shivered.
My thoughts failed to realize that I barely knew what gruesome meant, all i knew was I got a tingle in my scalp looking at buddy. I remembered the pain I had gone through while out of the zone and i wondered if it had to do with this. Did I suffer such an equally horrific fate?.
Shivering I made the scan just before looking away.
-Angel-
-State - Deceased-
Like I assumed from the bony wings on buddy's back he was an angel too. His stumpy looking wings crooked in a position that I knew was just unnatural even without thinking. It made me suspect even more that I had been subjected to the same cruel fate.
Regardless, I moved on.
At this point I had already ignored everything I thought of or saw. My mind and body now turning to face inwards where a castle or atleast its ruin stood. I was already realizing that my mind, or probably body was trying to shut out all other mundane things to focus my attention on something else.
I did it again. Used a word i didn't even know its common meaning.
I found myself moving towards the castle. The weight of the wing stumps now acclimated to my steps. Slowly, I made my way to the looming structure that cast an eerie gaze upon me.
As I neared it's dominating presence I couldn't help but ponder on many things.
I died. Right?. Or was I just so horribly injured that I lost consciousness and my memories. Looking back to buddy I shivered again. No. No way I survived that.
Which answered my first question. And brought me to the second. How was I alive again?.
Why only me?.
What happened here and why?.
Most importantly though. What was so important within the oppressive ruins of the black stone castle that my body ignored all things to reach ?. And what effect would it have on me?.And why the hell was I just walking there senselessly?.
Knowing I died. Remembering the pain I had felt even while out of the zone. I knew that I cherished this life already. Why?. I didn't know. But i did. Probably cause I didn't want to feel that pain or the sense of between again Which meant dying again was a no no. Finally i got to the edge of a huge moat.
As one feet stood on the edge of the broken drawbridge the other hovering above the empty space, I looked into the depth of the dried moat and I realized for some reason that this life would be very dangerous. Yet I was certain if not sure that my mind and body had already decided.
Since I already survived or lived after whatever happened here. I would survive yet again whatever would come next. Like this decision was a chain holding me back my body dropped unfettered and without hindrance. Above me as I plummeted into the moat the sun dipped behind the rings by the mountain chains a shadow casting over the already eerie ruins. The night was coming.