The morning had dawned clear and cold, with a crispness that hinted at the end of summer. Snow danced, in the air, before falling down, covering the trees, in Zaheer's forest, with a beautiful silver glow. The forest was one of those places which had no palpable reason to exist. It was a creaking shack created by 'nature' to serve as a reminder that things could always be much, much worse.
The unnatural, choking white mist that swirled and sprawled on the forest floor, covering the remains of body parts, was the first sign that spoke of a strange sort of wrongness, in Zaheer's forest.
Ash made no sound however and only parted over the decaying corpse letting the white mist swallow up her bare feet as she marched upon the giant dead, festering eyeball of the forest floor. The sound of mushy and dead leaves whispered from under the skin of the mist. To her, the sight of grotesque body fragments was a common sight, an everyday occurrence in this desolate, forest she called home. The sight of death had lost all of its morbid connotations to her. ''Once you have seen, death too often it loses all it's..hmm I guess it loses its hold on you''. Thinking back to the words, of one of her companions, Ash pauses her steps, before stepping forwards, once more.
'Although death may lose it terror towards you, its an inevitable force of nature, that you can't escape from, one that, one day you will have to face'. In a soft audible voice, Ash's voice drifts through the forest, enunciating the statement, that was never said. One she regrets, not saying.
Walking through the forest, in what seemed to be an indefinite time, Ash stopped in her tracks, to meet a massive gorge two hundred meters tall, with the width between the two snow mountains, being only eight meters apart creating a passage wide enough for a garrison to pass through. looking at the passage, its name came into Ash's mind, along with memories of her journey, through the passage. 'sigh, I didnt think that in two hundred years, I would be coming back to this damned place, again. I bet Julius would rot in his grave if he knew what I was about to do.' Releasing another sigh, Ash began moving towards the passage at a slow pace, before stopping a five meters away, from the entrance into the gorge.
Peering at the sight of charred, clawed and battered faces that made up the walls of the gorge, memories of the fierce battle that took place, within the confines of survoun's gorge flooded Ash mind, as with the emotions of anger and rage filling her heart, like a starved beast that was unleashed, from its cage before running rampant to finds its prey, eventually getting its claws on its prey. Usually, Ash kept her emotions in check; never getting too excited nor overly enrage, in any of the situations she's found herself in her long life. However, now her internal restraints she's kept locked tightly have been broken, no rather she lets go of such controls and has reverted back to her past self.
Standing silent at where she stood, blood crimson colored mist of light began to form, swirling around ash's cloaked body, sounds of banshee's screaming, filled the air as, silhouettes of cloaked, armoured men and women began to congeal from the blood mist, before congealing into tall figures completely clad in crimson cloaks, armours and weapons. The figures stood silently behind Ash, as silent apparitions, waiting for her command, as they once did before.
Looking back to face the apparitions behind her, the rage in Ash's eyes dead down replaced with a pained and downcast, expression; Looking back at many familiar faces, many names came to mind, along with the memories of the time spent together, time spent joking together, times fighting with each other and times spent fighting side by side with each other; Looking at these familiar faces many things that were never said came, to mind. Ash opened her mouth, but the words never came out.
Starring at their hollow lifeless eyes, the pain in Ash's eyes became more pronounced, as she acknowledged the illusion in these apparitions; that these familiar figures are just phantoms of those, long deceased, chained down to this plain of existence by her magic.
'I already knew, that this eternity that I seek is just an illusion, that may never come to fruition..', turning her back to face the apparitions, Ash's eyes became more resolute as she stilled her nerve, 'but if such an eternity is rejected by this world, then I'll destroy this world, that rejects my plea and in doing so I shall fulfill my promise to you all.' lifting her hand from, her cloak to reveal a pale porcelain covered fist, which struck out a fist to the entrance of the gorge. With Ash movement, invisible shockwaves rippled through the air travelling at a brisk pace, passing through the entirety of the gorge. As the shockwaves subsided, numerous mandala of varies shapes and sizes began to form, before brightening up with how gold glow that grew brighter with each passing second. Soon the light from the varies golden mandala began to shine, too that they resembled miniature suns from afar.
Examining the mandalas Ash fixed her eyes at them, not feeling the burning heat of her eyeballs, as she scrutinised each individual mandala, registering their make-up, purpose and effect. Registering every different mandala type, Ash reached for her dagger that she kept in her holster, at the waist of her shorts. Taking out her dagger, Ash took a brief look back at the apparitions, muttering, the word sorry, before taking her dagger, plunging the dagger into the palm of her hands; With her action, crimson blood began to bleed out of the wound.
As the first drop of blood hit the ground, many of the apparition behind Ash, began to melt into a poodle of blood like red liquid, which began to flow towards where Ash blood fell down. Soon a blood red mandala began to form with string-like rivulets of blood flowed out of Ash's hand connecting to the mandala beneath her feet. With the addition of ash's blood, the mandala began to glow brighter at a brisk pace, before suddenly bursting into a bright glow of red light, as the mandala sprung to life. The blood-like liquid that formed the mandala, undertook a drastic change as the blood began to boil, with thousands of tiny tendrils shooting out from the mandala, before clinging themselves onto Ash's limbs covering, her entire arm and leg in blood red light acting as a new layer of skin. A sharp sizzling sound spread, as the threads burnt their way into Ash's flesh, leaving charred flesh, which was quickly covered by more threads later.
Ash remained calm, unperturbed by the scorching pain, that was burning her flesh. The pain that others would find intolerable, was something that she could tolerate. The pain was something she was used to, all her life consisted of pain, pain and even more pain. The pain was her life. A plague that has haunted her since young.