-The year 1244, Spring, The Dusk – Beauty Blooms in Death-
Gazing at the old mirror beside my table, the time had been too kind to me. No wrinkles nor age spots could be seen.
My looks were the same as before I led the exodus of the last remnants here.
But so as my feelings for him.
My yearning heart still burning, full of incandescence.
More determined than ever to safeguard what he had left to me.
I promised myself to live his share till the last.
Counting from the fall of the last bastion, 49 years had already passed and only a few things had changed.
Life continued for me, the remnants - and the beast outside.
Though the number of encounters and skirmishes with the beast horde was starting to dwindle fast. Aside from the few preys falling to our traps and ambushes from time to time, there was none.
It’s a piece of very welcome news for everyone.
Still, my consciousness tells me that it never hurts to be more cautious, especially in this era of chaos where dangers lurk in the shadows.
After all, I saw and experienced some events that only a few know.
I decided to write it on this memoir, as a warning to those who would inherit this book, if there's any.
It happened in the year 1227, Midspring of this era.
We were curious and scared of what was happening above ground. After the fall of the last bastion, the information we were able to get from the outside declined to nil.
Information was a lifeline for everyone here in the cave systems, especially in this rapidly changing world.
So I, along with the other leaders and elders agreed to send some scouts for a reconnaissance mission. We commissioned five elites for the operation. Thinking that they could give us a better view of what’s really happening outside.
We called it “Operation Seeker”.
Fully geared and well-supplied, the scouts started their journey to the vast wasteland.
We waited, waited, and waited…
Until one day, they returned from the long journey.
It took three months before they decided to end their mission.
I felt relief deep down since we can’t lose anyone anymore.
We allowed them to take three days of rest so that they could relax while arranging all the information they had accumulated.
And it took us that three days to realize…
That it was a mistake we never intended to make.
The first day passed with everything still fine.
Early morning of the second day came, three of the scouts fell asleep, never to wake up as eternal slumber embraced them whole. Their lifeless bodies covered with patches of violet, creeping like ivies as it entwined the corpses. As fast as we could, we isolated the remaining two. We burned the dead as fast as we could, not willing to take chances. An epidemic spreading around the dwelling would be the last thing we want.
Wasting no time, we decided to seek clarity of what was happening and what did they really see. The two scouts also agreed as colored bruises slithered in their skins.
Narrating what they discovered one by one, their encounters were just what I expected to hear.
Rotting corpses of beast and man alike sprawled in all places their eyes could reach. Caws and Kraa’s of crows echoing in chorus throughout the now lost lands as if declaring their dominion over their new home. They saw towering beast mowing the ruins of civilization as if seeking for possible survivors in such no-man’s land.
They roamed to seek the living only to find death across the land. Yes, even in the last bastion…
Their narration ending with no clear answer.
I questioned them whether they knew what made them sick.
Instead of hearing any answer, blank stares were their response. They didn’t know.
Along with the others, we nitpicked each of the details of the information they gave, none of us even slept even for just a winked.
Yet, the conclusion never came, we couldn't see any patterns nor details that could explain what was happening.
The night came carrying the reaper's scythe as another valiant warrior succumbed, forever loss. His corpse cremated just like the three before him.
The third day came.
Early in the morning, one of the sentries guarding the isolated room called my attention. The last elite was asking for me, claiming that he now knew what was the cause of their current predicament.
My steps light as the wind, I arrived at the isolated room where the man stayed.
The man wished to have a talk with me alone with no barriers, walls nor other people between us.
Respecting his will, I granted it, though with some assurances.
My body shielded by a white aura originating from my divine arts, I entered the isolation room as my slow and deep steps echoed across the room.
I saw deep scratches on the walls tainted with blood, some clipped nails stuck on it.
Looking around the place, an image of a man crouching on one side of the room welcomed me. The man’s face twisted in extreme pain, bulges of veins could be seen all over his body. The violet patches were like a sloth slinking towards his left cheek, his suffering revealed to me in its full glory.
The man took a deep breath and looked at me. He mumbled vague words about a field of white lilies they found after running away from the towering beast. Grating his teeth, he told me to be wary of those flowers. And watch him…
Yes, watch his disturbing suffering…
I asked him why is he telling this story now?
Yet, no answer came.
I only saw him spasming and writhing on the ground as death came to him in an agonizing way. That time I wished to end his suffering fast but he rejected it, shouting the word “watch” unceasingly.
The patches in his cheeks wriggled upwards to each of his eyes. The moment it reached his eyes, I felt his pulse seized so as his pumping heart.
I can’t describe what I really felt that day.
If you asked me I could say it wasn’t anger, pity, nor shock…
…
It was pure, unadulterated horror.
After his death, I saw tendrils of a plant rising up from the ground gently coiling around his body.
Stalks of a familiar plant gently grew and appeared from the now coiled corpse.
In a few moments, a beautiful flower bloomed from its shoots.
…
Lilies, a symbol of hope, purity, and innocence.
It’s beauty, so beguiling.
I felt an extreme yearning coming from my heart as if someone was calling me to give it a light touch.
Hairs all over my body shivered in caution, signaling danger. Knowing the screaming peril coming.
Yet, I was still felt mesmerized and charmed.
Step by step, I strode like a rabbit waiting to be trapped.
I couldn’t help but grimaced in terror and helplessness. That was the second time I felt so vulnerable ever since the fall of the last bastion.
The moment the stalks blossomed, the white aura emitted by my divine art roared in wrath, like a dragon appearing without any notice it slammed towards the innocent lilies.
Awaken from my stupor, I saw a wicked sight.
The white lilies turned black, it’s stems and leaves now looking like patches of innards stuffed together to make a grotesque art. Each of flower’s petals showing writhing faces. There I saw a familiar face, it was the man who just died, his eyes hollowed and mouth opened wide as if screaming to be freed from his curse.
I retched after getting a whiff of the stench coming from it. The smell seemed to be coming from a rotting mountain of corpses with maggots and worms feasting all over it. That was the first time I ever smelled something so abysmal. I felt the acids of my stomach rushing to my esophagus then to my mouth, its sour taste sensed by my tongue.
Alarm bells ringing throughout my brain, I unleashed the most powerful white flame I am capable of, scorching the demonic flower to crisp making sure that none of its ashes shall remain.
The lilies, no – the monster screamed like a banshee on its death throes as the white blaze engulfed its existence.
My heart was still stumping hard as I felt death brushing over me.
…
I now understand what happened to them as silence returned to the room. Only a few flickers of flame continued to burn the ground.
Striding away from the isolated room, I decided to tell the tale only to a few of my trusted men.
For fear isn’t what we need right now.
But hope.
