23rd Tick: Wish Of Pride
1008 Words
The men panted as they seemed shelter in the deeper parts of the forest. The leader, whose physical condition had been reverted, felt especially worse. The soldiers had all run off to safety faster than they could think. The leader slammed the rock he sat one out of frustration. If only he had been in his normal form, he might have stood up to the demon. He shook his head, clenching his fists in shame. The truth was painfully obvious to him and his men, nothing they did would have worked. They lost everything by not succeeding.
They had left promising the purging of one of the demonic towns, and the head of a demon general. They received blessings from their God, they formed an army and went off in search of glory. In the end, they had wasted their time, lost their dignity and pride, they lost their will. All of that from one encounter with a demon.
The leader looked towards his men, they were scared down to their bones, they were the same as their leader.
He hung his head in shame, unable to face anyone in his state. He thought about it, would running away to another town or suicide be better?
“Come one, don’t look so glum.”
He turned around. A boy floated in the air, his eyes staring straight into his own. The leader saw him and was bout to say something when the boy reached out. The boy wore a Chinese JiangShi costume, a slip of paper hanging from his hat. He wore a long head necklace and had beads hanging from his hat and forming a loop behind his head. Furthermore, two black flames with red cores hung in the air around him. The boy touched the leader’s cheek, smiling behind the slip of paper.
The leader could see that he was being touched, but there was no feeling of contact at all. The boy asked, “What are you and your men going to do now?”
The boy was like a God to them, he had granted so many wishes for them that he became a part of their culture. The leader hung his head, saying, “I don’t know.”
The boy leaned back, lying down in the air. He said while looking at the sky, “Don’t you think... that your life is kinda boring?”
“What?”
“Days upon days upon days upon days upon days of swinging that sword.” The boy yawned and looked at him casually. “Won’t that bore you?”
“N-no.”
“Do you really think all that practice can get you anywhere? What can swinging a lump of metal do? It’s boring and a waste of time, don’t you think?”
“Of course not.” The leader retorted. “I have committed my heart and soul into my swordplay, there are no flaws in my form! I rose the ranks to becoming one of the strongest humans in existence, of course it’s not a waste!”
The boy was smiling widely. He leaned in closer to the leader, his eyes seemingly staring through the leader’s soul. “Then tell me, what has all of that done to prepare you for what happened just now?”
“I-”
“So explain to me, great hero, what have you been doing with your life up to this point? Have you actually accomplished anything? Tell me, just who are you and what makes you important. Tell me, what is your meaning.”
The leader paused, his mind processing what he had heard. The boy was right, what exactly had he done? He clenched his fists and said, “I became one of the strongest humans alive.”
The boy looked at him, then laughed. The boy laughed, he laughed, he laughed, the boy had laughed at the leader’s statement. The leader felt his face flush, he wanted to shut the boy up, he wanted to do something to stop the boy from doubting him. Rather, he wanted the boy to stop objecting his existence, he wanted to hold on to what little meaning in life he had.
The boy looked him in the eyes again, and simply said, “People like you are like a drop in the ocean. So many exist that I lost count, plus, I can make more people like you anytime I wished it.”
The leader felt a pain in his heart.
“You devoted your time to a meaningless task, you wasted time and failed to find your meaning in life, so what are you going to do?” The boy asked, laughing before continuing. “Run away like the child you currently are? Return and do more meaningless things? Commit suicide? Hey, are you going to stab yourself right now? Come on, it’ll be interesting to see, do it. Pick up that sword of yours, maybe then you can find out that you learnt to use a sword just to commit suicide. Do it, kill yourself, no one will miss you either way.”
The leader put his hands over his ears, he started to curl up into a ball.
“You better hurry, you worthless leader. Your men have already lost faith in you, run while you can, die while you can. Will you give up? Will you tell me you want to die? Hey, hurry up, you’re useless, you have no meaning, just admit it.”
The leader felt tears flow down his cheeks as he looked the boy in the eyes. He opened his mouth and whispered, “Please, I want a meaning.”
The boy grinned. Not a child’s grin, it was mad, insane. almost s******c. “Gladly.”
One of the black flames entered his mouth, the leader clutching his throat. The boy put a hand on his head, this time, he was able to feel him. The boy whispered, “I’ve been waiting for this.”
The leader opened his eyes and grinned, the boy no longer in sight. He laughed, scratching his arms and cheek, alarming the other soldiers. With one look, the ground erupted, spike protruding and killing all hundred odd men in the vicinity. He hummed a song while continuously laughing, unable to believe his talking actually worked.
“I’ve been waiting for this...” He shouted in ecstasy. “For hundreds of years!”
He dropped his voice, covering his face. “Here I come.”
- Writer
