A Radiant Tome is Found within the crypt of the Church.
Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:41 pm
Since I will be gone all day tomorrow I'll post the last of the stories I wrote for my Paladin today.
(This book is heavy and full of odd runes, many of which are far beyond mortal comprehension. It appears to be a written account between two people as the words are spoken)
*A flash of a tall figure wearing robe and with a light but focused demeanor on his face, he bears the symbol a pair of white hands bound at the wrist with red cord and a bit shorter man glowing, with a heavenly light and a pair of beautiful white wings.*
“Hello, you have done a excellent job in completing your task. Artheneus, we of the Triad are quite proud of ordeals…*the man hesitates a bit*…but there is a much more of a ordeal to be dealt with here?” Said the tall figure.
“What might that be my lord?” I said.
“Have you ever heard or read of the Scything of the Righteous?” said the man.
“I have not, I was reading up on some of the older events and passings of the divine and gods, but never got to the Scything of the Righteous, is it important?” I asked.
*A small pause* “Yes…..it is, but I am not surprised that you never have. It is a old event, only the gods know of it and the oldest beings and wyrms of the realms know it. I can only guess that not a single of the oldest surface wyrms know of it.” he told me.
“Yes, I see……now what is the importance of this event?” I asked.
“Well…..young one, the one with powers granted from the divine……..it was a grave mistake made by the gods…..a thing we mostly of the Triad are constantly worrying of…..your ordeals here are not only for the bettering of the realms……but….it was all to truly see if you could withstand a great, evil….burden that…..we cared through our own ignorance and naïve nature,” the man said.
“What is it you ask of me, I shall stand to whatever task you put before me!” I told the man with fervor and enthusiasm to prove myself once more.
“That is good, my son…..but the last thought the same way…..and passed the trials as you have, but not with such skill and drive……but still faltered and become a mere twisted reflection of the upright man and knight he was only meant to be.” the man told the winged figure with concern in his voice.
*A small bit of doubt and concerned passed over the winged man* “Yes…..I see my lord……what is it you ask of me, I am sure that I can stand up to whatever task it may be you put me up to.” I told the man with that bit of doubt but a sense of duty in his voice.
“Well……I shall tell you of the Scything of the Righteous my son. It was in a time when the gods where young and the power that be here now are still learning of the ways to control thing and focus their overwhelming amount of power. The demons to were new creatures as well…..but since they didn’t have as much power to focus as the god they come to understand what they had much quicker. Here….let me show you son, *The man places his frail small hands on the winged figures forehead and he slowly enters a trance* I can hope this…..makes our mistakes….more clear *the man slowly closes his eyes*”
(As you see the image of the man and the winged figure fade away, it comes to a wide open field. It’s heavy with powerful rolling thunder clouds in the sky and lightning and raining like nothing you have seem, as the view pans over the field you can see it is a fierce battle between many demons and humans. All of them seemed to glow with a bit of the righteous and honorable about them, all knights of some manner. The view changed the come a across a trio of gods, in their heavenly thrones and stations.)
“We are in need of quick action, fellows. The demons are gaining hold, and with the knowledge of their powers that we do not know of yet is a thing we can not have right now. We must use our powers to do something,” said a young stern man bearing a right-hand gauntlet upright with it’s palm forward.
“Yes you are correct, but you know as well as both of us that if we do such things it could create a horrid thing. Something none of us could truly control……only contain and even if that……I doubt there is such a mortal that could purify the tormented after we set lose the being,” said another figure, with a firm bread and a fatherly look about him, bearing a symbol of a balanced scales on a war hammer on his armor.
“That is indeed the case….but we are in need of something, this men are fighting all they can and putting up a fight…..but they will fall….and we all know this, the mortal know very well their limits and fight with passion that will not be seen for ages and millennium to come. They fight against beings, by very nature more powerful then them, only the most driven and committed can best them. Time has not given them a chance to truly tap their power,” said the final third god a younger man bear the same symbol as the one speaking with the winged man from earlier in the reading.
“We know of this…..but the risk of what will come of the realms should we combine our power without knowing what we are capable of now will only cause suffering and horrid things to come,” said the man bearing the symbol of balanced scales.
“If nothing is done the demons will push forth their reach of the realms beyond that what is meant and turn the material plane into a true hell that wasn’t for the place to begin with!!” exclaimed the young man with the right-handed gauntlet symbol.
“Let us see how the battle rages, my fellows” said the man with the wrist bound in red cord said with a sense of loss in his voice.
(The view changes from the focus of the three god to the raging field of battle in which the demons and mortal knight are pitted, the demons are slowly gaining ground upon the knight and approaching their goal the archway to further extend their realm’s reach.)
*The view comes to a stern king who took up the charge of his god’s call upon the realms, a time when the gods had a much more active roles in the mortal planes*
“They are coming men, ready yourselves. Our lords have called on us for this endeavor, we will not let them down. For the RIGHT!!” cheered the old king with care, wisdom, and determination in his eyes.
“For our lords, for the right, to OUR DEATHS!!” said the knights behind the kings.
*As the king and his knights stood strong and tall, the demons approached. Three of them, each at least twice the size of the largest of the opposing knights*
“MUHAHA!!! Such small frail little things, this shall be fun a little sport never hurt us!! *grins across the demons faces*”
“Ha! You truly do not know the drive of the right, we may fall here but the name and honor our deed shall go on forever, you can not extinguish the flame of righteous duty!!” The king told the demons with his knights raising arms behind him in honor to fulfill their god’s will.
“Come demon I shall strike you with untold fury and wrath that shall be sung for AGES to come, wicked thing!!!” the king told the demon that looked as if he was the one in charge.
The king charged the demon and with his great sword as it slowly began to glow a heavenly light, a gift from the planes above in his battle against the tides of chaos that are ever present in the realms. The king swung his blade as a streak of white energy followed behind, the demon barely dodged the blade and hopped to the side. The king quickly anticipated the move and swung horizontally striking the demon in the chest as a black thick substance came flying from the wound and splattered across the kings armor.
The demon fell to his knees and quickly got up, infuriated and raging.
“HA!! I told you demon, the wrath of the righteous is something not to be taken lightly!!” the king told the demon with grim conviction and duty filling his voice.
“I shall show you the true pain of the HELL!!! Mortal!!!” the demon said with rage and anger in his voice as he grasped the wound”
The demon charged the king and pushed his dark twisted claws forward to the neck of the king, but the warrior nimbly dodged to the side, the demon huffed a great ball of flame from his snout and redirected the attack. This time he pushed forward with all the black hells at his back and drove the claws through the kings top left chest and through his armor, blood spurting out and running down the armor of the king mixing with the black blood already finely coating the king. The dark creature raised the king to his face and spoke, mocking him. Blood continued to flow from the wounds on both combatants.
“Heh, as I told you mortal you are no match for us,” grinning the demon told the king with a bit of pain in his voice.
“You still do not understand, you may fell us and spread us apart but you can never truly beat us. We shall only return to finish what we have LEFT!!” and with the final word spoke the king in all his remaining might drove the great sword in it’s glowing fury through the demons chest piercing it’s black heart and exploding outside the back of the demon in a jet of horrid blood and gore, finishing with a side-swipe to the left cutting a giant wound causing even more blood to black the ground and his protections.
The king fell to the ground with the demon’s claws still in his chest, as the king slowly removed the claws in a slow and agonizing pain. He heard a towering footsteps behind him, as he turned around the king was at the incoming anger of one of the demon lesser subordinates and a scything claw across knightly king’s face and upper chest spreading even more blood and death across the land has soaked too much as it is, the king fell to the ground. Blood pooling out and spreading from the kings body, oddly enough small flickers of silver and gold can be seen reflecting in the liquid as it pools out.
*The knights had managed to fell one of the three demons as the king battled and killed what seemed to be the commander, as the few knights remaining saw their lord, their provider fall a new sense of honor and commitment over took them. The three of them charged the one demon remaining, not knowing if they will survive…..but not caring, only to the charge given to them by their lord and their brother, Kross.*
As the knights charged the demon in a brilliant flash of red light called upon his whip, and struck down one of the three charging knights, in a streak of red flame and blood shooting from the knight as high as the demon stood. The knight fell and the other two remained pushing forth, the demon then draw his flaming blade and readied himself as the knights came to him.
As the knight came just within reach, the foul demon swung horizontally and struck the knight across the lower torso and cleaved right through the armor and sent it flying as a mass of blood and gore flew from the knight as yet another of the righteous fell to the wicked perverse powers of this demons.
The final knight then charged and jumped with all he had at the demon yelling “For the RIGHTEOUS, the FALLEN, and the GLORY OF TYR!!!!!” with the blade inclined downward the demon managed to catch the blade and fend off the knight sending him flying back through the air. The knight landed on his feet, blood coming form a small wound caused by the blade as he swung. Wiping blood from his mouth the knight, stood once again and raised arms, telling the demon, “Unto the death of the wicked, may my sacrifice bring light to the innocent and clean what deeds of the tainted you have done” The knight made one final charge and not caring of himself only of the things that may come if he failed in his task, ran and jumped at the demon, tilting the blade downward.
But in his wrath he focused only on the attack and the demon ran his dark flaming blade through the knight as more blood sprayed from the knight and he coughed up blood he pushed forth and as the demon rose the blade in victory over the knights, the final one fell down through the blade and drove his sword, dubbed “Justice” into the neck of the demon and then with his final breathe spoke to the demon in his ear, but a whisper, “May Justice find you peace as it did me, foul one!!” As black blood oozed from the wound the demon slowly fell to the ground, though not killed. Gravely wounded, the demons had won this battle.
(With the life of the final knight snuffed the view once more changes and pans out, battles like this one are taking place all over the field. Flashes of these battle happen before you, all manner of wicked battles, battles with the demons winning, ones with the knights, and all to common one with all ending up dead or one remaining; critically wounded. The ground is covered in the blood of the righteous, but here…..the blood is different, as the ground slowly is crept with the blood it has small flecks of what looks like metal. Gold and silver sparkle as the lightning flash across this battle. As the battle of right and wicked continue to flash…..it appears as if the knights are holding strong, but the demons are slowly overcoming them, and it’s only a matter of time before they fall to the wrath of the wicked.
As the battles continued the focus went from the battles back to the gods above, worried about what to do turn the tides of battle and stop this action against the fates of all.)
“It appears as if the knights are not going to win this battle, as we thought from the beginning……are we to do as we knew from the start…..the consequences may be great in our lack of knowledge of our own powers,” said the man with the balanced scales for a symbol.
“I think we must…..for if we do not far wickeder things may come, but the power of this…..we….know……we have to, for the mortals. They have fought here to help us, we owe it to them, *slowly nods* I am for the choice of bring the Divine Knight to be,” said the same man with the bound wrist symbol.
“I see, only after all this slaughter have you come to a choice, I am for it as I was in the beginning,” the stern young man with the right hand gauntlet symbol.
“Very well, fellow. Let us bring forth the Divine Knight…..in all his fury and glory, I can only hope we have not damned his soul for all eternity cause we do not fully understand our powers. *closes his eyes and slowly nodding*,” said the man with the beard and the balanced scales symbol.
(As the view slowly panned out to the gods, the stood up placed hand down upon the table and begun chatting and focusing their divine energies. Slowly as the chanting became more heavy and incomprehendible white, glowing balls and small streaks of light floated around them and flashed greatly. As the chanting continues the blood that has covered the ground …all the golden and silver flecks of what looks like…metal began to sparkle and lightly move.
After even more chanting the little flecks of the faith that was in all the slain knight slowly rises and begin collecting in the middle of the battle. The demons felt the overly righteous and pious nature of the odd force, slowly came to it not all but a few ran towards it and started attacking it in all their fury, but the blades and whips and all attacks just merely passed through it.
As the flecks gathered more and more at the center, the demons felt a great fear in that a bane to evil was surly being born that day. Just as the final commitments, drives, honors, words and all that uphold the righteous form into this ball from the blood of the right, the gods above collapsed. And in a flash of great white light a glimpse of a winged man, adored in great armor (similar to a certain paladin) then returns back to the small ball, the demons around the ball are just gone in the blast of holy light.)
A white ball now stood in the center and at the blast radius of the flash, the ground was cleansed of any blood and fallen knight that may have occupied the now green fertile land. The glowing small perfectly spherical orb just hovered there with brilliant arc of white light streaming across the surface of the ball.
The demons merely turned a grinned, “It’s only a small white ball, only had one bit of power and that was just used……destroy it wicked brothers,” said a demon.
The Divine Knight in his new birth, just merely stood there…..not knowing what was in fate for him and his future. As the demons approached small floating ball and great ripple of white light rode across the surface of the ground and cleansed the blood of the fallen within it’s radius, also stunning and dazing any wicked demons that may have been in the radius.
As the demons stand there stunned, the white form speed with god-like speed and burst right through the demons’ chest and bore a small hole through them, killing them all in a violent bloody gush. The Divine Knight had made quick work of the stunned demons, but something was a bit different about the small white ball. The perfect little flecks of white light……some of them where slowly…..turning black, twisting….becoming corrupted, just as the gods had feared.
(Further images flash before you as the small white ball makes quick and effective work of the remaining demons, boring a small hole through their chest finishing in a bloody burst out the back as the demon fell to the ground and vanished to nothing before even hitting it. But with the final demon, the commander of the whole onslaught.
The white ball approached and flash the image of the winged man in the armor and charged, just before impacting the commanding demon the ball flashed as the Divine Knight and struck the demon in one mighty swipe from his glowing divine blade and felled the beast all to quickly. With the battle won and over….the white ball floated above where the commanding demon stood, but it wasn’t white anymore……but the ball shifted between a dark crimson black and a pure holy white, covered in black arcs of lightning.)
*One of the small number of surviving knight approaches the small ball of black and white, with black arcing energy*
“Thank you, for it wasn’t for the answers of the god we’d surely be all dead,” said the knight bowing to the mysterious power.
The ball merely floated there, and shifted colors from white to the crimson black and dashed through the knight and his armor creating a small hole and blood just seeped from the wound as the knight fell to the ground.
(More images of violence sway across your mind, but this is of the white ball…..the Divine Knight, tormented by the blood he spilt of the demons colored crimson black killing the knights. All in the same manner, but as the crimson black ball approached the final knight surrounded by the bodies of his few remaining comrades, the ball just stood there……the knight looked just as Artheneus does, tall, charismatic and holding a bit of hope for all that walk this earth. The now tormented Divine Knight just entered the body of the knight……the knight grasped the spot where the ball entered and fell to his knees….a dark, sullen look over came his eyes, a wicked grin across his face……a dark torment, confusion, a nature that was not meant to be hidden within the righteous justice.)
*With that done the man bearing the wrist bound in red cord symbol removes his hands from the winged man and slowly open his eyes, the focus has returned to the beginning of the story*
*The man looks to the winged man, with a sad, compassionate look.* “You can now see our error…..or mistake, the thing that can possibly damn all the realms. It was a foolish thing to do…….,” said the man with the wrist bound symbol.
“This is a serious matter…..what happened with the knight….at the end?” I asked.
“He ultimately fell, the corrupted nature of what we created that day, ate away at him from the inside he became one of most wicked villains from the light to walk the earth……..lucky he still had his heart of the knight, and gave himself in a final act in hope of forgiveness for carrying our mistake to properly devise a means to contain the wrath and anger that was seen that day,” the man with the wrist symbol told me.
“Well, then why are you telling me this and why am I needed, if there is a way to bind and contain this intention gone wrong my lord,” I told the man.
“Because the bindings only last so long….they are not permanent, being that this entity……creature, was created from our very essence, it truly can never be bound forever. In still has our power in a manner, it is our raw strength in a uninformed nature. Without the discipline and teaching that we learned after this event, the entity was easily corrupted by the foul blood that it endured to ensure the boundaries of the realms was keep safe. It cant not be bound forever….well only he can do that and he seems to think that it is our problem and out fault….but that it was. There is only one way to give us a permanent solution….but ……,” the man bearing the wrist symbol told me trailing off worried about what we speak.
“What is it? I must know, would there be anything I could do to aid,” I asked him.
*Slowly nodding* “This….is actually where you come in my son….the only way to solve this problem….is to place the knight’s essence, our untaught essence into the body of a mortal. A righteous knight in hope of purifying the knight from what we cursed him to so long ago,” the man told me.
“I see…..,” I told him, thinking a bit afterwards.
“Now here in the higher planes, you have been granted through your trials new powers and insight, you are now one of our brethren. While not a god, you are a celestial, you indeed now carry a spark of the divine in you. Your trials have also granted you the strength and power of a [Holy Knight]. But even we god must obey many rules…..and I we are not so sure that these powers will be passed on to the realms of mortals when you return. We know that you will no longer be celestial when you return to the mortal realms, but you may retain half of the gift, if any all at. We do not know, these things are beyond our control, but the insight and strengths you have as a [Holy Knight] shall be gone as well,” the man told me with a dire need of concern in his voice.
“Is there anything else, my lord,” I asked, slowly nodding thinking heavily on the matter.
“Yes…there is more, as that you will not retain much of your actual strength that we have blessed you with……you will have no recollection of the Divine Knights presents in you, you will merely have vague dreams and flashed of the wicked things that the Knight has been corrupted to do. You will have to focus and drive your energies not only outward to the world, but inward to calm and purify the Divine Knight. Sadly if you prove to weak or in a moment of falter, the knight may over take you and you shall do things……quite horrid, they range from the three knights that have overtaken this ordeal. But needless to say, they are wicked and violent, and the matter that you will not know the knight lies within you…..only makes it worse,” the man said calmly shaking his head.
“I understand…..and you are in need of me, it is the least I can do my lord, you have already done more then enough for me, I shall undertake this ordeal. Any such knight would be proud to undertake a ordeal such as this,” I told the man bearing the bound wrist nodding proudly.
“That is great my son, in the case you manage to cleanse the knight and teach him the righteousness that we couldn’t in our infantile power…..he will become a great boon to the cause of good and right, but I must warn you……should you falter…..there may be no coming back. The time spent on the mortal realms, we will be able to reinforce the containment……and hope that other may charge several millennium from now. But I feel that you may be it my son, you have shown fervor and drive that has never been seen before, lets us go to the chamber of the Divine Knight,” the man said bearing the bound wrist extending his hand forth motioning me to move first.
(The winged man and the symbol bound figure walk away and a flash of a great divine room housing a ornate clear sophisticated containment field with a small ball described earlier hovering in the field, the field is worn and cracked about to fail. The man turns to the winged figure and exchanges a few word and the winged man slowly nods and the bound wrist figure begins to chant and the vision fades to white and the story ends.)
(As you flip through the last ends of the book on the inside of the back cover there are odd shifting runes, divine in very feel and odd sensation as you run your fingers across them. You can feel if they are riddle, a word games to unlock the powers of the book, but you are lost in the shifting letters, that you feel you will never know. But this book is different, it carries a harden sense of divine duty and justice….the very fact that you read this book is a honor….for the ordeals and events contained for not known by ordinary mortals.)