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My vision spotty and fading I clutched the arrow that had pierced my abdomen. Restlessly disabled, my body had fallen slowly from the wall it thought to be a stationary salvation; I knew my time was nigh upon it's final curtain.

I spattered blood from my mouth, gasping for words of power and sanctity.

The sounds of clashing metal and mortal souls fleeing their earthly bounds rang through my ears, slowly diminishing to a wonderous silence as my eyes closed for the last time. This temple we fought so valiantly to protect shall be my tomb. It's goddess forsakes us all.

With words upon deaf ears I let one last prayer escape my lips, a hopeless plea from a dying fool, "Oh father of the abyss, Tartarus, as a man condemned and tossed aside I come to you in my dying moment. Give me strength," my limbs began to grow numb with the expulsion of blood, "Allow me another day in this world. Bless unto me the powers of your mystical ways and allow me to serve your will."

As you wish

A voice, Deep and deadly, echoed through my flesh sending a great chill throughout my body, bringing back a vigor I thought never to experience again. my pooled blood began to seep it's way back into me.

Forsaken, are you?

The arrow I had been clutching for eons now snapped in my hands and fell away quietly clattering to the marble I thought to be my pyre.

Yes. Forsaken you are. You shall be an excellent acolyte to my cause. Go forth my child. Win this day in the name of me. Your blade will never dull, your skin never pierced. Send these heathens to me. Grant upon them the same destiny that you once feared for yourself.

I stood. rejuvenated almost at once. The words fed me, breeding a new spirit within myself. I clutched my longsword in my off hand, it felt natural when it should have been awkward. I had changed and was alive!

This power you are feeling, it is mine alone to give. You are now my emissary. And you will do my bidding.

The returning sounds of a losing battle alerted me to my task. It is time to make the sacrifice required of me.

"As you wish."

Love it

"This can't be it." I thought to myself. Anger, loss, revenge, all burning through me as I lay atop the ruins that had once been my villlage. My home.

"I won't let it end this way." I feel my body failing, bleeding out from the wound the soldiers left in my chest. I hear my wife and daugher scream and cry for help. They trusted me to be their protector. I had let them down.

But I myself had been let down.

No god had come to my aid, never in my life. Not Zeus not Poseidon. Not Thor or Odin. Not even Raa. The pagan gods? Not found. The Christian god? He must have been otherwise occupied..

No divine intervention when I was an infant and my parents forced from our home. Nor when I was a child and witnessed my parents' gruesome deaths, praying all the while. When I myself faced death on countless occasions, there was no one to help, no one to perform the mighty miracles I had heard stories about.

Only me, and nothing else.

Me and nothing.

Me and the nothingness

Nothing had always been with me.

Now, as I lay here dying, Nothing, my constant companion, was as close as ever.

I reached out to the emptiness that has been a part of me since the beginning.

And prayed for my final time

"Help me"

.......

I hear you, my child

The voice came from nowhere, and everywhere. It filled my head and even my soul.

"Help me" I repeated, desparate in my final moments "Please. I need you. Please show yourself"

I am nowhere. I come from nothing, and I myself am nothing. But I hear your prayer, little one.

A light filled my view...

And for the companionship you and I have shared, I will grant unto you nothing

I stood up. My wound gone. I no longer felt death around me. But I did not feel life. I did not feel weak, or strong. I..... I did not feel. Remembering my circumstances, I strode to the next room, to the attackers around the woman and her offspring. They turned to face me, to attack me. It took not a movement, not even a thought or a will, and I made their bodies crumple to the ground, their eyes lifeless, their souls gone. Not moved on, but... erased. Now they will join the nothingness I had known all my life.

The woman turned to me, and she seemed releived, happy, grateful. But I felt nothing. Though I recognized her, and remembered the love and bond we had, I could no longer feel it. Nor could I feel the sadness that realization should have brought me.

I turned and walked away. I feel nothing, It is now a part of me, and I a part of it. I have not been given a new life, but death eludes me.

In my new existence, I am now keenly aware of the power in the world. The gods are here. I feel nothing, but I remember their dismissals of me. I recall the times they were needed, and did not act.

My child. I have given you nothing. I have made you nothing. And now, we can take everything

I like the vibes of this one, a vengeful void

Thank you 👍

Story: mysterious and ominous Reddit: say happy cake day!

thank you :D

excellent story. I love the way that "nothing" is used to signify an emptiness of one's self. Really good writing :)

Thank you kind stranger.