The legend of the Demonic monk

Envoy

He felt his body as hot as a furnace. He couldn't breathe and all his body was hurting. He tried opening his eyes and at first he was unable to, his eyelids being too heavy. The eerie music kept ringing in his ears, infuriating him as always when he was rudely woken up early in the morning.

He shook his shoulders to get rid of the heaviness keeping him locked in place. He heard clinking of metal as he felt stab wounds all over his body getting even deeper. He tried to move his fingers to try to find out if he was still in control of his own body and to see if reflexes still worked under his command. He was finally able to get his fingers to move slightly.

He tried again to open his eyes. And now they obeyed him and slowly opened. He was in an endless darkness. At first he doubted if he really opened his eyes or if he was blind now.

Then his vision started to clear. The shadows were still around him dancing in tune with the music around them. Their spiked chains were binding him and the hooks at the end of the chains were inserted deep into his chest.

He wondered how did he manage to still be alive after everything. He raised his face, looking carefully at the shadows spinning around in the air.

He felt like laughing at his situation as he shook his head. Why would it matter if he was dead or alive? As long as he was in pain, then for him was good enough to prove that he was still alive in some way. After all only the dead don't feel pain. At least he never heard any dead complain due to the painful ways they died on the battlefield.

And, by following the way of his reasoning, he could give it a try to get rid of all the pests keeping him chained like a dog. Actually, worse than a dog.

He inhaled, making the chains clink while the links rubbed against each other. He ignored the pain stabbing him.

"God of Death, hear my prayer! I followed your creed since birth! I know you don't play favorites and everyone is equal in front of the scythe of your anointed! Grant me power to make everyone pay, to bring everyone to the same level of insignificant existence in front of your might! My soul was, is and always will be yours to take at any moment, but don't allow it to be in such an ignoble way."

The prayer was conveyed and for a short time, nothing changed. Then the abyss started to tremble and the darkness started to boil as it rushed into his body once again. This time, the sensation brought him reprieve from pain and discomfort. He tried to inhale and saw that the chains holding him tied up like a dumpling started to crack as the air entered his lungs. The cracks started to get more prominent until the first chain link finally shattered. It was followed by another shortly after, and then another until they started to pop like popcorn. His eyes, that returned to normal until now, started to change once again. The pupils enlarged again covering the entire eyeballs. He felt a burning itch in the eyes.

The shadows that until now were still dancing in tune with the melody, started to shriek as the chains started to dissipate. But, as the chains were about to return to nothingness, they were melted and absorbed into his own body.

The shadows shrieked and broke their formation as they charged at him. A shadow was faster than the rest and tried to grab him by the throat. A foreign force whispered in his mind and he repeated its words out loud.

"Everyone and everything dies. As such, is time for you to return to nothingness!"

He pressed his left palm on the shadow's forehead and felt a tingling sensation that started in his palm and then propagated to the rest of his arm, finally ending somewhere in his head. Then the shadow shrieking in his hands started to emit smoke as it started to melt and enter into his own body. He was a little surprised at what happened, but not too much considering his situation.

The others didn't allow him more time to think about what all of this meant. They charged him, but with the previous experience, the ending was already decided. It only took a little more time to get the job done. With every shadow melting into his body, the color of his eyes grew more intense. After the fifth shadow, the previous grey-blue color became pure light blue. His body also seemed to change its consistency. At first it felt without substance, like smoke, but now it felt more real.

After he was done with a dozen of them, he looked around and found himself floating alone in the middle of the darkness once again. He closed his eyes and tried to remember the sensations he experienced during the scuffle with the shadows. He still didn't know the reason of the power appearing or its rules. Was it really enough to pray to a god for it to answer in such a way? How come all those years of previous prayer went unanswered? And now, just by joking around, this happened! And then he froze. He felt something else was watching him. The previous voice that whispered in his mind returned as he was frozen in shock.

"Of course I won't listen to every little thing anyone has to say! Would you? If the answer is yes, then you're a moron! I don't have time nor patience to be eavesdropping on something I don't care about. As I said everyone and everything ends up being dead, so why waste time when I could do other things more practical like ending lives! I am death and feeding on death. But now you barged into my realm and those fuckers going after you destroyed my rest. And from what I can feel when I looked at you, they're playing with fire and taking me for a fool. Fine, I guess I can join their game. And you are my envoy. And the enforcer of my rules. Those rules consist of a single rule. You played a game with death and you lost. It's time to pay the bill!"

He felt himself being shoved and he fell. But he wasn't sure if he fell down or up.