Chapter Ten: Pain of Perseverance.
In the faint light of dawn, the town was silent and tightly packed with medieval style buildings, some children of ten year old walked down the cobblestone street with calm, steady steps.
Some were gathered around old houses while whispering and pointing at a location. Many people stopped on their tracks and stared at a scene so harrowing that some girls shrieked.
The focus of their eyes was on a young boy, walking with staggering footsteps, his robe was so tattered that it resembled a rag.
Blood steadily dripped on the ground as this figure walked down the street. His body was the home of all sort of injuries that made the young children feel a shiver down their spine.
The figure was like a grotesquely carved portrait of a disgusting and harrowing nightmare.
With each step that he took, bloody imprints of his footsteps attached themselved to the ground, like monuments of the figure's passing.
This boy was naturally Dusken, he had walked across the desert throughout the night, not willing to give up.
His willpower was firm, his gaze was calm and his heart was steady like a mountain.
He paid no heed to the murmurings of the children nearby and they all moved away when he passed their location, which made his journey easier.
Pain, intense pain, mind wracking pain was what filled his senses, not fear, not regret, only pain. He walked down the maze like town, turning left, sometimes right.
This town were built due to the joint effort of the people from the real world. Every child of eight years old, were made to memorize the town like the back of their hands.
So even if Dusken was only here for the first time, he was familiar with every twists of turns of the town, since it had not been changed.
Soon, he came across a path that winded upward, with the town as its base. The cliff was in a weird shape, it was triangular, and Dusken was in front of a road which led to the peak of the cliff that the god's palace stood.
Step. Step. Another step. The steps of Dusken were slow, but he persevered, against the pain and against the sharp winds.
Other children were also ascending the elevated path to the cliff top. They all pointed at Dusken as fear was written all over their face.
Time passed, and Dusken only took one step at a time, his vision was beginning to blur and he felt death approaching.
He had lost too much blood and so, the hands of death were stretching, wanting to pull him into their cold, eternal embrace.
But Dusken persevered with gritted his teeth, by now the sun had fully risen and its heat, though not as burning as it was in the desert, was glaring at his injuries.
Dusken let out a pained groan as the heat of the sun bore down on his wounds, his left lap had been stabbed twice and walking was almost killing him.
But he refused to give up, with clenched fists, he moved forward.
'Ashahell, Ashahell, you will pay. I will make you pay,'
This thought kept on appearing in Dusken's mind, making his jaw steel with determination. As he ascended the elevated road of the cliff, pain shot through him.
The road was an upward slope and thus, his muscles screamed with every motion he made, coupled with his injuries, Dusken felt like he was reaching his end.
It was then… it was then that he finally stepped on flat ground. All the while, Dusken's head was dropped, as he stared at the ground. But now, he raised it and saw that he was finally at the peak of the cliff, a short distance away, was a huge and large building.
A palace, there was no gate, no courtyard, nothing, just made from strong, ancient stones that radiated a presence of greatness.
The sun didn't shine in this area, grey clouds locked it's angry glare from descending.
Many children, numbering in the hundreds to thousands were walking towards the palace.
Dusken, also moved, as he walked, surprised appeared on his face, the more steps he took towards the palace, the more the surroundings transformed.
Soon, he found that the scenery had completely changed, he was now in a beautiful area, green grass sprawled in the area, a huge fountain was also present, but Dusken didn't mind it all.
After his initial surprise, he just kept on moving, his footprints left bloody marks on the ground, tainting the beautiful scenery.
Step. Step. Another step, as he approached the huge door of the ancient building, many children in the area moved away while murmuring as they stared at Dusken.
Children who approached the ancient door would vanish when they touched it, but no one was surprised.
That was the only way to enter into the god's palace. Dusken approached the door, with wavering steps, as he swayed.
His vision was becoming blurry, but he was relentless, pain surged through him with every step, but he refused to relent.
This pain served to show that he was alive, this was a pain of perseverance.
His bloody hand raised while shaking from the wounds received on it, he placed it on the door of the ancient building.
Children moved away from him, due to the suffocating stench of blood he radiated. Nothing happened when Dusken touched the door, no sign, no light, just nothing.
But then he just vanished without warning.
***
Dusken's vision became blank, but soon after, he regained his senses and found himself standing in a huge, vast and endless hall.
Touches could be seen lighting the area, and many statues stood on either side of the hall, so many that at the end of Dusken's sight, all he could see were statues, they were simply uncountable.
Dusken felt different, there was no longer the pain that tortured his senses, what replaced it was a calm and soothing feeling.
His eyes suddenly blazed with surprise, as he inspected his body, his wounds were gone, and his tattered robe had also been mended.
He let out a breath of turbid air.
'I didn't die,'
This thought brushed his mind, as he smiled slightly. The clamour of people woke him out of his reverie.
In the hall, he wasn't the only one present, there were others and some chatted with each other.
Caution flashed in Dusken's eyes, as he observed his surroundings in wariness. He knew that he was a target that was on the list for elimination, so carefulness was imperative.
He observed hall's characteristics with a grim expression on his face, the air was stale, and breathing it was uncomfortable.
The marble floor was smooth to match, the soles of his shoe brushed their surface without hindrance.
Around the vast hall were pillars that rose to the very high ceilings, straight like swords piercing the sky.
Behind him was a huge magnificent door, that gave out an imposing presence, children were constantly appearing in the hall, and many of them had blank expressions at first.
The eerie shadows casted by the touch, refused to communicate with Dusken, no matter how hard he tried.
They didn't respond to the call of their child at all, these shadows of the hall were aloof and proud, and wouldn't communicate with him, but he could still see through them, which was slightly enough.
Dusken immediately trembled when he laid his eyes on a nearby statue.
A statue, completely clad in armour was standing to his right; an odachi was held in a firm grip on its right hand.
Dusken recognized this statue as the god of battle from the southern mythology of the 40th century of Earth in his previous life.
The statue stood on a pedestal, and on the pedestal were ancient words graven on it, these words were taught to Dusken by his clan, this was the language of the Ethereal Land.
The ancient words read: The god of battle.
Dusken's eyes sparkled, his vision moved away from the god of battle and gazed at the another statue nearby.
He recognized it once again, from the southern mythology of his past life, a perfect body figure, a caring smile, with one hand on her chest. The goddess of medicine.
His gaze moved down and on the pedestal, the same words were written. His stare moved once again to another statue and when he recognized it, he gazed at the pedestal to confirm, goddess of wind.
He tried the same thing multiple times with different statues, and he recognized them all as gods and goddesses in mythologies of his previous life.
Dusken immediately came up with a dark plan, since he recognized all the statues, then he would just choose the strongest one to bind with following the memories from his past life.
If he could choose the strongest statue of a god to bind with, doesn't this mean that he would get the strongest god legacy of all time?
Dusken eyes burned with menace, as a cold calculating expression appeared on his face, he stared at the endless statues around the hall and his sight moved towards the endless corridor ahead.
There was a saying that good things always comes last.
'I will reach the end of this hall,'
Dusken thought, he suspected that all these statue's legacies were nothing compared to ones down the hall or even at its distant end.
With this motivation in his mind, he moved, but his expression instantly changed.