Night's Assailants: Kallissius Rising

Night's Assailants: Part Two
Kallissius Rising



Prolegomena: Neutrality

Kandred felt pain, and, remarkably, joy. His body was covered from head to toe in scars and lacerations. He did not bleed, but instead, a light blue substance seeped from his wounds and into the light that was this realm.

It was a huge cube of black steel, polished so smooth that it was like walking on a cloud. The cube-world was suspended in a seemingly endless void of light, which was so neutral that it seemed to glow, absorbing and giving off light at the same time.

Kandred wore a toga, and dark, blue, feathered wings replaced his usual wings. His hair was a vibrant orange, and his eyes the colour of his wings, which glowed a loomed, mimicking the realm he was in.

And although he new of his completely new appearance, he was not surprised, for he was now informed that it was normal to look different from the body and state-of-mind that you would normally be accustomed to. He was calm, but enraged. Happy, but in a world where calm was rage, and where Happiness was grief, everything was seemingly neutral, as if everything had become used to a new form in an instant, and this was what made Kandred more happy than grieving, more calm than enraged.

As he stood up, or what his mind seemed to think was the action of standing, he thought, (or, again, was what his mind thought was the act of thinking), about what he had learned in the previous life. But now everything seemed to be proved false in this world of neutrality. Almost as if it was grey, not black, nor white, and any mortal would think that grey was a dull colour; but because it was neutral, it was very exciting aswell.

His mind reeled with possibilities – but it also seemed to be empty, like the world Kandred was forced into. Yet he found that he liked being forced now; position and circumstance where undecided by any being, but everything that came in between, before, and after, was up to any being that was forced into the position and circumstance, just as Kandred was now.

He ran a finger over his skin, which seemed to be silky, but rough at the same time. His skin was normal, no longer covered by the map he used to have engraved on it. As he upturned his left hand, he saw on the palm, a small segment of the map their.

But as he ran his finger back up his arm, he found he was wearing a white robe, and that his skin was just silky now.

He felt just calm not enraged. He felt happiness not sadness. He felt excited not dull. And as his neutral emotions divided and split, so did the realm he was in. Circumstance and position changed, and the black cube became white, blending in with the white void around it. The outlines of people and halls and doors appeared around Kandred, and the realm finished changing and became the Dome.

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Kandred laughed. Kandred jumped with joy. Kandred screamed with enjoyment and leapt into the air, flying in loops.

“Haha! Yes! Yes.” Kandred landed, trying to contain his emotions.

Kandred. Kandred turned to see a man, wearing a black suit, which wrapped around his body, giving him a sleek appearance. His face was covered by a white masked, with slits over its mouth, and holes for its eyes. Through the mouth-slits Kandred could see a maw, covered with serrated teeth, with a black tongue at the back. Through the eyeholes Kandred saw small eyes, inhumanly round, but humanly barbaric and kind. Yet they seemed old, not old in a proper sense, but worn and over-weathered. They looked so human, but so old that no human could live long enough to obtain eyes that looked so ghastly and saddened.

“Who are you?”

You must come.


“What are you?”

You must come.

Kandred ran. Kandred sprinted. Kandred ran like he was facing the most gruesome thing ever known to the universe, like he would never see daylight again.

He grabbed the doorknob of a random door, which would not open, so he spun around to run some more. But, unfortunately, the thing was standing face-to-face with Kandred, and laughing maniacally. It tilted its head back. Nothing came for a second, but then the shrill of it’s cackle rose to the very top of the Dome. It tilted its head back to Kandred, who stumbled back as the door somehow opened behind his back. He landed on grass, under the shade of an elm, which looked very much like what we would call a Dutch Elm. A foot behind him there was a small lake, which was unnaturally blue and bright. Kandred could se, over its shoulder that the door back into the Dome was gone. Kandred screamed. Kandred screamed as if the feeling of ten thousand volts were passing through his heart and that the pain just wouldn’t stop. But the pain couldn’t stop, because the pain wasn’t there.

OoC: Please criticise, and read , too.

Chapter One: The Telling

Shut up, you screaming fool! It swung its hand in an ascending arc, back-handing Kandred on the face.

Kandred shut his mouth, and stood. He reached for where he normally kept Thrinmoore, but then, he noticed that the sword was no longer there. He stepped backwards, becoming dangerously close to the lake. “What do you want with me?”

I want your heart! It jumped forward lashing out with its left arm. Kandred was grateful that the thing did not have claws, because the momentum was enough to cripple any opponent. But then, to his dismay, Kandred saw shining spikes of raised bone at the end of each finger. One word passed through Kandred’s brain before he stepped back again. Crap. Kandred stepped back, and fell into the blue water behind him.

It swiped and missed, clawing at nothing but the now empty space before him, where Kandred had been just a moment before. Ghaarrrgh!

Kandred saw the thing splash into the water. Its eyes were angry. But something told Kandred that it couldn’t be angry. He watched as the man, if it could be called that, pull something from a concealed pocket on his back. It was a small urn, which – when opened – unleashed a gas-like substance, very similar to the energy that had seeped from Kandred’s wounds from earlier that day. The energy raked the water and the ground beneath it, and everything began to change shape and colour. They were now in the realm that Kandred had been reincarnated in, standing on the black cube of steel. “Why are we here?”

I am here to do the telling, and you are here to do the listening.

“So I shall listen to you tell me, but what do you propose to tell me for me to listen to?”

I shall tell you about the Five Realms of Alignment. This is Tar’Thiyal, the Realm of Neutrality, where you shall come to dwell on all emotions at once. This is the most powerful of the Realms. I am the Keeper of the Realms, and you should not fear me. I am here to guide you through the Realms.

“And by what name other than the Keeper of the Realms may I call you?”

Derithmias. Now, I shall show you the Second Realm. Again, Derithmias pulled the urn from behind his back, and opened it. This substance is known as Æther. It is the Element of Magick. Tar’Thiyal changed into the forest that they had been in before the telling. This is Awothr’q, The Realm of Peace and Tranquillity. Here is where you can find inner peace in times of Hatred.

The world changed into A vast sea of silver water. This is the Third Realm, Bari’Açh. The Realm of Spiritual Healing. These waters can heal you in times of great need.

“So, I am to come to these realms when I need their qualities?”

Yes, you must come at those times. Now, the Fourth Realm. The world formed into a corridor of grey and rusted steel. At the end of the corridor there was a door. This is Re’Thiyal, the Realm of Pain. Come here to train in harnessing your Hatred and Pain. Through that door lies the Realm, but this, the Corridor, is the most contorted and demented part of the universe. Only enter that door once you have mastered the Knowledge of the First, Second and Third Realms. Derithmias’ voice grew tense and sinister, and he whispered into Kandred’s ear, as if to withhold the information from eavesdropping ears. Then move on to the Fifth.

They now stood on a barren plain of rock, covered in ash, and laden with cracks which held magma. It was so hot that it was like staring across a barbecue, everything too far away hazy and unidentifiable. This is the Fifth, Not the Fifth Realm, just the Fifth. It can’t be called a Realm. It is the Fifth Hell. Derithmias pointed forwards, into the distance. See that? What was once the hazy endlessness of the wasteland in the distance were now two high towers, a mile apart, and a bridge, which seemed to go over a moat of magma. In the ver middle of the two Towers there was a small speck of black. That is the Castle of the Fifth Hell. A huge castle rose into the air at the other end of the bridge, made of black and red marble. That speck is the Guardian. He guards the Castle… and the Towers… Derithmias’ voice seemed to be distant, slowly vanishing. Do not try to pass him, not yet… Derithmias disappeared, and the Fifth changed into Awothr’q, and the door back into the Dome was there. Kandred stepped through, pondering on the new knowledge he had received from the Telling.