" Well? " it asks, its voice infantile. " Don't tell me you have forgotten already? " It questions, tilting its head to the side as it does so.
Gritting your teeth, you bridle yourself from letting your emotions take over. You drop to your knees, ears ringing and heart pounding. This... Thing morphed itself to look like your son.
" Human," the entity next to you calls out. " You can not win this fight. No matter how much you try, even with my power, you will not win."
" Daddy? " A disembodied voice calls out, the fear discernable.
You look up, the entity still stands there yet you sense something different. That voice seemed genuine yet you remind yourself what it is you are fighting for and what stands before you.
The memories of your family, friends and even adversaries of a long forgotten age reveal themselves. They appears as though they were projected onto an invisible.
" That was your child's voice, wasn't it?" The being questions. " It is, was unique."
What does it know about family? To it you must probably be nothing more than an experiment.
" What is your name? " You hear it ask.
This catches you off guard. It wants to know your name? Or could it be that it was merely testing you and simply wanted to hear you say it?
You rise to your feet, never looking away from the child like entity as you rise. Your name. It has been so long you can no longer recall it. The only name that you remember being given to you by your victims was equivalent to that of a monster.
This causes you to chuckle. Something which you haven't done in a very long time. There are many things you have not done for a long time. Some of which you can hardly recall.
You've done nothing but engage in senseless slaughter, chasing an aeonian goal. But now, standing in front of you is the very last obstacle to overcome and yet, you can not.
For a while now you have lived a lie, a facade.The truth was that you were afraid, afraid of forgetting those you lost, afraid that you would forget them and you could not bear to live like that.
You sought revenge for those who were taken from you because that was all you could do. They took everything from you. Why not do the same to them? You become the very thing you fought long ago to destroy. You became a monster.
And for what reason? To never forget the memories, to never forget the looks on their lifeless bodies as the flames consumed them. You accomplished that in the end.
You look at your hands, dried blood is all you see. You remember them, only through the pain and suffering. You can't think back to a happier memory of anyone.
" Do you now understand? " The entity questions. " You lost the moment you sought to remember them only through hate and anguish."
They were right and you knew it. Even if you were to be victorious you would still lose in the end for you would forfeit the only memories you had of them, fueled by hate or not.
Why did it have to be you? Why didn't fate settle on you to perish but rather them. You drop to your knees, defeated and lost. What would they think of you if they were to lay their eyes on you.
You destroyed an entire nation just to achieve a selfish goal. Something wet hits your forearm. Water? Another hits, then another, and another until your vision begins to blur. Tears roll down your face and you did not realize until now.
You cried before. On the day everything was taken from you. Those tears were of hate, pain and destructive resolve.
" Do you remember anything other than their deaths? " The being asks, its voice soft and soothing.
You try to think to an earlier memory but you can't. This revelation further proves the god's point. Suddenly a jolt runs through your entire body.
You feel light headed. Your memory feels hazy, as though a blanket of mist has been unrolled. You try to stand but your legs give underneath you.
You summon your blade but nothing happens. You try again but nothing happens. You feel weak and sick. The truth hits you like a runaway log.
Your payment is due. There is no way to prevent this. Your memories gradually begin to slip from your grasp yet you refuse to give up.
" Tell you what," the child says, " I'll answer your questions about why you lost everything."
" You survived the massacre because I chose you to survive. You were not some special hero but you had potential. And so I chose you. It is as simple as that." The entity clarifies.
" This is not the first time you and I have met. No matter how many attempts were made at separating you from your family and friends, you would always find a way to find them again."
And so you spend the next few minutes trying to remember your family and friends. Unfortunately all you can remember are the last moments of their days.
One by one, they fade, fade into oblivion. Then finally, you begin to forget your family. Your only reason for doing all this dissipates.
You no longer have a purpose. You turn to the god, the being that granted your its power for all but a brief moment. It looks down at you, all of its skulls gaze down at you.
You do not know how but you see it bow, bones creaking as it does so. This is the end. You can no longer perform any ethereal arts and can't remember anything about your past.
The being made of nothing but skulls begins to turn to ash yet it never takes its gaze off you. Soon there is nothing left of it. There's a buzz as the field around you falls.
" Do you remember what anything from a few moments ago? " A new voice questions.
You look to the source of the voice. A humanoid entity devoid of all facial features seemingly made of gold.
You experience a sense of deja vu. You feel as though you've seen this entity somewhere before.
You rise to your feet. You stand in the middle of a field, the entity a few feet away from you. You look to your side and see a strange object.
It's a ring, made out of what you assume to be bone with a blood red stone held by 6 prongs. You feel compelled to take it and you do. The stone brightens for a moment as your fingers touch it.
The entity simply watches the entire thing in silence. Rays of light bounce of its body, adding an eerie shimmer to it.
" You've been through a lot, " it speaks. You rather not dwell on how you can hear it.
" Do you know who you are? " It questions.
Now that you think about it, you can't recall your name. The entity takes a step forward, you respond by quickly rising to your feet, arms in a defensive manner.
" I do not wish to harm you," it says. " Let's start from the beginning."