I arrived at the dungeon or fortress finally and my normal, human legs had returned. After I was
done screaming in pain, I looked around and saw nothing but land and a river cutting through
the land.
"Did I..." I fell on my knees, "Did I misread the map!?" I cried out. I then began to cry harder
than I ever did before. I thought that I had misread the map and ended up on the wrong side of
the Roman Empire. I thought that all my suffering was for nothing. I thought that my path led to
naught; but in the depths of my sorrow and despair, something, or someone, directed me to the
correct spot. The spot, on which I knelt, suddenly started vibrating. I paused my tears
momentarily and gazed down to see what caused the ground to tremble. As I stared, I heard
screams and wails of agony; I heard how a familiar voice was screaming for help, mercy, and
love. Was it hell? I became scared as I thought I was hallucinating. 'That voice... it's so
familiar' I thought to myself, 'Who could it be!'
I stood up and ran forwards to escape this strange occurrence; yet the closer I ran to the river,
the louder the screams got. I reached the riverbank and threw water on my face. That did
nothing and the screams were still there. I was continuously throwing water on my face and I
noticed something in the water. 'A rock? Perhaps gravel or a fish of some sort?' I thought to
myself, 'It cannot be...' I saw a handle, a handle to a trap door. I became ecstatic!
"I found the dungeon!" I shouted, "I found the ruins of Nox Eternus!" I was jumping up and
celebrating but then it hit me: 'How was I going to reach it?' I was clothed in a heavy robe with a
blade on one side of my hip and food on the other; and I wasn't particularly good at swimming. I
considered abandoning my heavy robe and my food and enter with only my blade but I was
afraid of thieves. I didn't even know for sure that was the nox eternus; I was taking a leap of
faith. So, because of this, I thought that I would actually take a leap of faith and dive into my
current state. I would either make it to the door, open it, and do what I must, or drown and be free
in death. So, I wasted no time and dived in. I was under the water and could see naught; I didn't
even know which direction I was going. My weight (along with my cargo) was speeding up my
descension and I thought I would drown. I positioned myself as an arrow and my head hit
something hard. It didn't feel like rock, sand, or gravel, it felt like wood. So I grabbed that
wooden handle, which was damp, and pulled as hard as I could. The handle broke off because
it was wood. I was shocked and petrified but also angry. Adrenaline kicked in and I unsheathed
my sword and slipped it where the handle should've been. I then proceeded to use my sword as
a handle and I pulled as hard as I could. The water made pulling very hard. My arms were
ripping and my veins were sticking out of my forehead but I kept going. I felt as my head
became lighter and lighter as the water started to overwhelm me. I didn't give up though. 'I
didn't come this far to die in such a silly way! If I die, I die in battle!' I thought to myself. Perhaps
it was my survival instincts speaking or I was undergoing a metamorphosis. I wanted to die
beforehand but now that death was at my door, I didn't want to open the door. I glorified dying
and I saw death as such an escape, but now that it was here, I didn't want to die. I kept pulling
and pulling and the door finally started to crack open. Water started to creep in through the door
which made it slightly easier to open. I pulled and pulled and pulled and finally ripped open that
damned bronze door. As soon as I opened it, I was dragged in along with a lot of water and
hit the dry floor. It wasn't a large fall. Though I was tired and to the point of death, my human
instincts were still present and I climbed the ladder that led to the door. I threw my robe off and
my cargo to climb faster. The water had reached my knees at that point and as I kept climbing,
the water got higher. I was now back in the water and I grabbed the door and pulled back to
close it. It was much easier this time. I pulled and shut the door closed. After I shut the
door closed, I fell off the stairs into the water that had filled the little, cylinder-like tunnel. I quickly
woke up and saw another door that led to a bigger hall I opened it and all the water
distributed into that hall and it was ankle-deep now. I sighed a sigh of relief before passing out
again.
Five hours later, I woke up and realized what had happened. I was in the Nox
Eternus, the once mighty fortress that was meant to defend the empire's westernmost point;
was now abandoned and lost in history, it was forgotten. Such an extraordinary place was
forgotten so easily. It took so long to build its fame, to build its reputation, to build the fortress
itself, yet it took just one battle to ruin everything.
After I realized where I was, I stood up and found my heavy, now wet, black robe lying on the
ground. I decided to leave it in the water and equip it after I left. I also saw my food and water
supplies which were now ruined and amongst them was my sword which survived. I picked it up
and sheathed it. I then began to scour the fortress. I walked into the first hall which was covered
in paintings of ancient, legendary soldiers who were honoured in the Roman Empire. The
dungeon was covered in moss and vines which seemed to dance and leap on me. They
wrapped themselves around my arm, pulling me closer but I would rip them off. The fortress
had a strange aura to it. It was dimly lit by dying torches scattered around the walls and the
ceiling was cracking along with the marble floor. It smelt like rotten flesh and blood and you
could even taste it in the atmosphere. The walls felt wet and malleable and so did the floor. I
could hear rustling and faint prayers and the occasional screams. At that time, I had no
knowledge of where to go in the fortress and I just walked forward. As I kept advancing, It got
colder and colder to the point where my breath was visible and my nose, cheeks, and chin had
turned red. My lips had turned blue too and I was also wet as I had laid in water for 5 hours. I
could sense as the water from above pressed against the dungeon itself and it made my heart
race. I saw a door in the distance and I tried to run to it but the ankle-deep water and my icy
temperature didn't allow me to do so. I reached the door and the water was clogging at its
entrance; if I were to open it, the water would leak into the next room too. I pulled back as hard I
could on the handle and I didn't know it was wooden; the handle flew off. I punched the door as
hard as I could and broke my hand. Straight after I broke my hand, my first mutation occurred:
My broken left hand turned into that of a lion. I had the hand of a lion and the ability to use
claws. I was flabbergasted by this yet I couldn't utilize the claws like I did the wings. I picked up
my sword, which I dropped in pain, and started kicking the door. The door was bronze and
wouldn't budge. Suddenly, my paw moved by itself and scratched the door an endless amount
of times. I felt the claws grind against the bronze door. Eventually, I made a hole in
the door and I started kicking that hole. After endless kicks, the door finally fell and I reached a
labyrinth of passages, doors, tunnels, and entrances. I was dumbfounded and irate. I had no
clue where to go so I started circling the place. The labyrinth was warm and it heated my
body once more. It was covered in golden idols and paintings and it had treasure chests in
every corner. Unlike the previous room, the lighting was exuberant. Yet something was still off
about it. Spiders were everywhere and their webs too. It still had a weird smell of flesh and
blood and you could still taste the iron of the blood in the atmosphere, it still had an eerie
feeling, a feeling of liveliness, a feeling of pain. It had these long curtains covering each
entrance to each one of the doors. There were doors on each side of the room and tunnels
leading to more doors. In between those tunnels were more tunnels which led to more doors
which led to storage rooms, meeting rooms, engineering rooms, prayer rooms, dormitories, and
eating rooms. The moss and plants, which covered every square inch of the labyrinth, jumped
at me at once and I quickly unsheathed and sliced them; yet they kept striking and striking over
and over. I kept slicing and slicing yet it wasn't enough. Every bit of vegetation then flew straight
to me. My heart was in my throat and I didn't know what to do. It was way too much for me to
slice and there was no way to dodge, so, I saw a well right in the middle of the labyrinth and I
ran straight for it. I opened the lid and jumped in, closing the lid after myself. I escaped the
vegetable attack. 'What have I done!' I thought to myself. I had just jumped down a random well
I saw in the middle of a random fortress. I thought that I would surely die at that moment. It was
a great fall but then suddenly, my paw moved by itself and it held onto the wall. My claws dug
into the wall which stopped my fall! I then slowly jumped down bit by bit and landed
safely. I thought that I would land in a pile of water and drown but the well was empty and dark.
It didn't have any vegetation, any spiders, any bugs for that matter, any light, and any sign of life
was gone. I was stuck. I had no food on me and my claws were all damaged; which meant I
couldn't climb back up. I laid down and rested my head on the wall; this was the only time that I
could properly rest and think about what I was doing. Why was I doing that for? Why was I
fighting so much? No, I shouldn't ask why, but for who? Who was I fighting this battle for? For
myself? For my mother? For my dead wife? I was about to cry but all my tears were used up; I
was out of tears, out of tears to shed for myself. My eyes started to close and my vision was
slowly abandoning me. Out of the blue, my paw hands transformed back into human hands.
The excruciating pain was enough to wake me up and I had energy once more; 'But for how
long?' I asked myself. My brain then started thinking of ways to escape: 'Wait for a wing
mutation or a monkey mutation and climb?' I thought to myself,
"Perhaps, I will wait for a gorilla mutation and smash through the walls!" I shouted out loud
sarcastically, "Goddamn it!" I continued, "It's all your fault Mother! It's all your fault! You were the
one to poison me you wicked witch of a woman!" Up until that point, I held back cursing my
mother for I tried to understand why she did what she did, but that doesn't justify her actions.
That doesn't justify trapping her son in a random fortress on the westernmost point of the Roman Empire. That doesn't justify causing suffering and pain to her son!
"How dare she! How dare she do such a thing! Did she not love me? Did she want to get rid of
me? Did she hate me too? Did my life not have any value in her eyes to the point where she
thought that killing me would be the best course of action? So, then why would she give me a
map to the cure!? Why lead me to this hell of a place!? Oh, my dearest Artemis! Oh, how much
I miss you, I am about to join you in your death, my love. Have a bit more patience and I shall
arrive my princess!" I screamed these words in agony and pain. I brought up Artemis once
again. She was the best thing that had ever happened to me. She was my sunlight, my burning
sunlight. She was my wicked treat that I would enjoy all by myself. She was a torch to my dark
tunnel. If I a god, she a goddess. She was the love of my life and I
thought that I was about to join her at that moment.
In the fit of my rage and despair, I slipped and pushed against the right side of the well. When I
did so, the well wall (if that's what you call it) collapsed and I was in a room with, what seemed
like, tens if not hundreds of statues. The room had lighting that was even better than the
labyrinth and it had curtains above each statue and on these curtains were depictions of the
statue that it was above when they were human. At the end of this hall or room of statues, was
a large, thick, bronze door which seemed to have a tiny, small, wooden handle and a small
window to peak from right at the top of that door. The floor of this room was made of marble and
the ceiling was in good condition. From that door at the end of the corridor, an emerald sparkle
was illuminating and it intrigued me. This room also had no webs or spiders or bugs and it
looked like it got cleaned regularly. Unlike the labyrinth, it had no signs of moss or vegetation
anywhere. It was as though someone, or something, regularly maintained this room or corridor
or hall or whatever on God's green earth it was. I quickly grabbed my sword and crawled into this
room.
"What the fu-" Before I could finish what I was going to say, the statues started screaming:
'Free us!' 'Wake us up' 'Release us' 'Help' 'Kill me' 'Let me taste the sweet fruit of your blade
across my neck' I thought that I was having another strange vision but no, this was real life! The
statues then unsheathed, what seemed like, swords of darkness, and some other statues
equipped their bow with arrows of darkness. They then came at me all at once: arrows were
flying at me and swords were being swung. I ran back into the well and tried to cover the hole.
At that same moment, both my legs turned into those of a gorilla. Somehow, I was still holding
the wall when I was transforming and no statue or arrow hit me. I then kicked the wall open,
sending a lot of statues flying back and making them shatter. My legs started moving on their
own and they took out as many statues as they could. I tried to slash them with my blade but
my legs were doing all the work. However, I was deflecting the arrows. I kept kicking statues to
bits and deflecting arrows. Along with my legs, I took out every statue but one. My legs returned
to normal after I beat the statues. I was on the floor in excruciating pain (during the
metamorphosis) and the final statue came up to me, and raised its blade high in the sky,
"No!" I shouted, "Please! Show mercy!" I added.
"You think I don't want to?!" The statue replied, "I cannot control myself! I want to help you but I
cannot!" It added. Its arms were shaking as though it was trying to overcome them or
something. Its teeth were gnashing as though he was resisting something. My human legs were
back and I stood back up and drew my blade,
"Kill me please!" The statue said,
"What do you mean!?" I asked, "You want me to kill you? Is your life not precious!?"
"I am trapped in this body and I cannot control anything but my speech!" The statue replied, "Do
Do you think this sort of life is worth living? Do you think I want to be like this,"
"But you have to try-" I tried to say,
"Release me, man!" The statue shouted with an agonizing tone. I tried to run away but the
statue finally overcame the man's consciousness and initiated a swordfight. I wasn't the best
swordfighter but this statue was.
"I told you!" He shouted, "I told you to kill me when you had the chance! Now you must die and I
will forever be trapped!" The statue then knocked the sword out of my hands and I landed on
the ground. He was driving the blade to my neck and I could feel the blade's breath down my
neck. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my blade, lying there. Before the statue's blade
could pierce my neck, I rolled over and sprinted towards my blade. The statue ran after me
and swung its blade. I jumped down and grabbed it but the statue reached me again. We were
in the same position except I had a blade this time. The statue pushed the blade down towards
me, and I pushed my blade upwards towards him. We were in a stalemate. However, I felt my
arms giving up and the light was fading. I looked to my left and saw Artemis, her beautiful, blue
eyes were more sparkly than ever and her long, dark hair was as majestic as a waterfall
dancing to the howls of the moon. Her hair was flowing like wine. She had a faint smile
spreading on her beautiful, thick lips. Her eyes were soft yet sharp and her eyebrows showed
me tender love and care. She was wearing a pulchritudinous, long, white dress with her
shoulders and ankles exposed. She wasn't wearing anything on her tender, little feet, and her
hooked nose was red with love. She made her way towards me and for every step she took, my
heartbeat slowed down a bit. I looked at her and was crying, I didn't even pay attention to the
statue that was pushing its 'darkness' blade on me. My strength hadn't gone away, I was still
pushing the blade against his at full force. Anyways, Artemis knelt in front of me and stroked her
hands through my hair,
"Your hair hasn't changed one bit," she said, "has it, my love?" Her voice was even more angelic
than it was when she was alive. She had a strong, Greek accent yet it was delightful to hear.
Her voice echoed through my head.
"Am I... dying?" I asked her.
"You will soon!" The statue said, "You should've killed me when you had the chance." I wasn't
talking to him.
"No, my love," Artemis replied, "Fight, my dear, fight and you will be free. Death is not destined
for you yet. It is not your time to die. Continue living, continue fighting, continue loving just as
you loved me,"
"Never!" I shouted, "I shall never love anyone more than I loved you!"
"Let me go, Lazarius." She said with a single tear dripping from her cheek and landing on mine,
she wasn't a figment of my imagination, it was her.
"But I lov-" I tried to say,
"No," She replied, "You loved me. I am dead now, you must let me go and be free!"
"But your tear landed on my cheek! You must be alive my love!" I shouted with my tears
returning and streaming down my face. My strength was slowly returning.
"Those weren't my tears," She said, now sobbing, "That was your blood, your face is cut!" She
cried out. I hadn't realized but an arrow had grazed my face during that battle. Luckily the
darkness didn't infect me but it did cut me. I wailed in agony and cried for help, mercy, and love.
Artemis slowly started to fade away,
"No!" I shouted, "Don't leave me again! Artemis!"
"I love you forever and I'll always be with you," she said "But you must move on!" she added.
"This is my parting gift, Lazarius." She then let go of my head and pushed the statue, from
above me, onto the ground, shattering it to pieces. I immediately jumped up and tried to grab
her but she continued to fade. She then faded completely. I was abandoned once again. At that
same moment, I realized that the familiar voice that was screaming and wailing in agony for
help, mercy, and love, was me. The voice I heard whilst kneeling above the fortress, that voice
was, it was mine! But how? I heard my voice from the future!
"What are you!" I shouted, "What is this place!" I was astonished. I heard my voice from
the future! I continued screaming and wailing and crying for Artemis. I rubbed my cheek and
saw she was correct. It wasn't her tear, it was my blood!
Eventually, my tears dried up once again and I made my way to that large, bronze door I saw. I
reached it and grabbed the damned, wooden handle and this time it didn't break. I tugged and
pulled and it opened fairly easily. I expected it to be nearly impossible to open, like essentially
every other door I opened, but it was easy. There was zero light in the room and it was peculiar
because, for some reason, the light from the statue room didn't light this room up. I entered and
the door banged shut before me. I ran to it and tried to open it but failed to do so. There was
only one light source in the entire room, a single, cylinder-shaped, emerald color laminating
from an altar at the end of the room. My heart was beating fast and the hairs on the back of my
neck got aroused. The blade was trembling in my hands as I made my way to the strange light
source. My bottom lip was trembling and my eyes were widened and alert. Suddenly, a bat flew
in front of me and I swung my blade so hard that it cut him clean in half. I was dying of hunger
at that point because the only thing I ate on my six-month-long journey was bread, fruits, and
vegetables. They were enough to keep me big and healthy but I was craving meat. I picked up
the bat that was split in two and I sat down on the ground and ate it. It was disgusting, slimy, and
wet. I felt as if its hairs got caught between my teeth and how its guts and intestines slithered
down my throat. Suddenly, my arms became the wings of a bat! I couldn't control them and they
started flapping all over the place. I was now flying into the room and banging against the walls. It
made me throw up all the food I just ate and after I threw up, I landed and my arms returned.
After my arms returned, I made my way to the altar and picked the potion up. As soon as I
picked the potion up, the room lit up, and on every corner was the head of a soldier with light
illuminating from the mouth. I was petrified. The preserved heads of soldiers were scattered
across the room! They were not statues or paintings, they were real heads! They were
illuminating a dark red light and therefore the room was dark red. I looked down to see what I
was holding and I saw a green potion. 'This must be the cure,' I thought to myself. I ignored the
petrifying lights and 'decorations' and opened the bottle. I raised the bottle but didn't drink.
"The only reason I am here is because of my mutations. My mutations love me more than my
mother does. When I ate the bat, which would've probably killed me, my mutations made
me throw it up and it saved me. When I was to be killed by the villagers because I was accused
of witchery, my snake mutation helped me. When I had no horse, my cheetah mutation helped
me. When I had no cheetah, my eagle mutation saved me. When I was about to kill myself, my
eagle mutation saved me. If it wasn't for my mutations I would've died falling in that well. I
would've been killed by the statues if not for my gorilla mutation. Sure, they disadvantaged me
sometimes, but never to the point of death. But they saved me many times from death!" I
screamed at no one. I hesitated to drink the cure. Was it a cure though? All it would do
was get rid of my mutations and I would have no way of climbing back. I didn't want to lose my
mutations.
"Now I understand why you did this, Mother. You wanted me to let go of Artemis and move on
for she is dead. If she was alive, I would continue to love her and nourish her forever; but no,
she is dead. I must accept that and I must accept that I am a mutant. There is no cure to my
own self. These mutations are no longer mutations!" I screamed, "They are a part of me!" I
added, "and I will gladly accept these mutations!" After saying that tearful and majestic speech,
I raised the bottle to the gods and threw it down to the devils. The potion splattered on the floor
like stepping on a dead bug. As soon as that happened, I felt an overwhelming sense of
happiness. My eyes lit up with light and a beam of light shot out from my mouth. I was
then raised through the fortress and through the dirt, back onto the same patch of grass on
which I knelt on. I opened my eyes and saw where I was. All my wounds had been healed
except for that cut on my cheek, that cut that represents the tears of Artemis.
This time, my mutations didn't occur randomly, I could now control which limb turned into what
and it was no longer an excruciating process, but a swift, quick metamorphosis. On the topic of
metamorphosis, I underwent one myself. Not only a metamorphosis of flesh but a
metamorphosis of the mind. I had finally accepted who I was, and I had finally let go of Artemis,
physically anyway; I never let go of her mentally. She was always on my mind till death. I
never married again but I never let Artemis get in the way of my personal life again and I
learned to accept who I was. I then transformed my arms into those of an eagle and
started to fly. I didn't feel any pain whatsoever and I flew smoothly. As I was flying, I looked
down and saw a short, blonde woman. It was my mother! I was shocked that she was there,
sleeping under a tree. I flew down to her and walked over to her. I woke her up.
"Mother!" I shouted, "Awaken!" My mother then jumped up, screaming. "Control yourself, mother,
It is I: Lazarius." I said. My mother then broke down and I quickly went back to human arms and
caught her. She followed me for my whole 6-month journey!
"I am so sorry my innocent, little boy!" She cried, "I am so sorry that I put you through this."
When I accepted my metamorphosis, I also forgave my mother for her sins, "What have they
done to you, my boy?!" She asked. I continued to comfort her and hold her in my arms. She
drowned me in her tears.
"It's all right Mother," I said with tears running down my face, "Let us go home,"
"But how!?" She asked.
"Mother, I accepted who I am" I replied, "I can turn into anything, you blessed me with a curse!"
My mother continued to cry and apologize.
"Let's go, mother," After saying this I stood up and showed her my eagle wings. She gasped and
laughed with excitement. She then went and caressed my wings,
"Stop playing with them Mother," I said chuckling, "Let us just go home."
"Ha-ha, let us go home my boy," My mother replied. I then grabbed her small, little body and held
her like a baby whilst I was flying. I was going upwards and after I reached a good distance I
began to go straight.
Dusk was at hand and we saw how the beautiful sun arose. We arrived home that same day as
I didn't have to go on horseback or stop at villages or rest; I just flew. In the distance was a
witch, Seraphina Mortalis, chuckling:
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha It's just as I expected," She said whilst looking up, with a glimmer of hope, in
the sky, "Lazarius Renovatus did indeed find a cure to something."