VI - THE FINAL DAYS OF BRONZE
Unknown
The man, clad in his silver heavy plate armor, sat in the middle of a small forest clearing; he rest upon a dead tree stump, meditating. His eyes were closed and to an unaware observer, would have appeared entirely alone. But before him, invisible to all others, an array of souls swirled around him like a small tornado. They shouted out to him, or perhaps at him, in a horrific chorus of emotion; sadness and grief, rage and hatred. Among them were famous individuals such as the Scholar, the Scribe, the Smith, and the Sailor. But even their names were lost by now, consumed in the man’s growing inferno of nihilistic ambition. But the man, still meditating, paid no attention to their cries. His mind was not only elsewhere, but at another point of time entirely.
He stood amidst soot and smoke, embers dancing in the air around him, atop towering ramparts of an ancient port city. Below him he watched as droves of civilians fled through the city’s gates, once built to protect them from threats outside its walls. But their attempt at escape was futile; what they ran from within the walls now was outside their gates. The danger was all around. The man observed now to the towers above the ramparts and watched as one exploded, collapsing down onto the cityscape below, crushing six homes and no doubt killing or wounding dozens of civilians.
The man leaped down from the walls, falling nearly forty feet to the ground. Though he landed with a distinct thud, still clad in his heavy plate, none of the fleeing civilians seemed to pay him any attention. It was as if he wasn’t even there in the first place. He looked up toward the sky, seeing only grey clouds, ashes, and embers filling what was once a beautiful night sky. Even stars fell from the heavens as meteors upon the planet, leaving behind craters and untold destruction.
The man opened his eyes, cutting his vision short. Suddenly, and without a single word, the harrowing chorus of souls was silenced.
“Something has changed in the east.” The man claimed calmly, heading tilting in the direction of Tobusekai. He stood up, heavy plate clacking as he picked up his rune blade and sheathed it on his back. He began to walk, ever so slowly, toward the forest again; his gait carrying with it the sound of heavy metal plate clanking as he walked.
“Going so soon? Did you not want to see more of the forest?” A second mysterious voice sounded from behind the treeline opposite of the man’s back. A voice that was distinctly feminine in nature but somewhat demented, as if a darkness crept up from deep within her mind and made itself known through nothing but her voice. In the darkness of the forest her figure could be barely seen, cloaked in shadow; her frame was lithe and feminine. Strands of golden hair dripped down past her shoulders above a dark shroud.
The man turned toward the voice for a moment, turning his head slightly as if to peer over his shoulder before turning it back toward his objective. Though he did not respond to her question, he made it clear he acknowledged her presence. “Soon I shall seize the reins of fate once more, my friends. And when I have, even the stars will be scorched in my conflagration.” She followed him quietly, moving through the brush and trees./font]