The New Chapter 1
Van had just left the third village he had lived in, all of which were destroyed in fires, two of which by a “demon-possessed” boy who went insane in his sleep. The boy would start off with quick kills on unsuspecting villagers in the night, and strangely enough, wake up in his own bed, not remembering a thing. Each village came up with the idea that there was a lunatic running around murdering people. When they finally caught the boy in the act, his retaliation towards the violent actions the villagers took against him resulted in the two destroyed villages. The first town Van had lived in, the one with his parents and Emma, caught on fire with no blame on anyone but a nameless farmer, so he thought; the other two were destroyed by his own hand.
Halfway through destroying his first village in his sleep, Van woke up to see his town on fire; he needed to escape, so he just ran and ran until he passed out in the middle of the woods. Found passed out and surrounded by scavengers, an old widow took him in. She had shown him unimaginable kindness for three months. He confided into her the dreams he was having. She found them odd, but continued treating him like family. The one he told her about was reoccurring and different from the dream he had told Emma about; a dream that seemed to only have foreshadow his life. Though that dream had made him feel alone, the one he had during the nights of his unrecalled killing sprees gave him a sense of immense solitude.
When he finally thought his life would be stable for the first time in two years, he destroyed another town in his sleep. This time was different though. This time, he woke up to the woman who had taken care of him and other villagers he had grown to love stoning him. He asked them why. They quickly replied, “Why did you destroy or home?”
Once again, he ran. He ran for seven years searching for someone who could help him with his problem. He knew that his dreams were connected to his actions in the night, be them what they may. He had spoken to many people who told him of a woman who had a connection with the gods, whose sorcery was unmatched. He did not believe that anyone could have such power, but his hope to solve his dilemma is what brought him to the entrance of her cave.
What he expected inside was exactly the opposite of what there really was. He had expected a typical cave, but found it to be absolutely dead. There were bones and decaying carcass’ everywhere. The path ahead of him seemed very straight, so he closed his eyes in fear of seeing something that he did not want to, but like every other time he closed his eyes he thought of Emma and what a beautiful woman she would have been. He remembered a cave they had explored together when they were kids. Emma would always throw snakes at him, and he would throw some spider eggs he had found at her. Even though this brought a smile to his face, his mind drifted back to their kiss on the cliff and how she died that very night.
Van reached a dead end and was confused; is this not the cave the townspeople spoke of? Right when he was about to turn away, a slight groan of an old woman forced him to turn around.
“You there, boy, what are you doing here?”
He could tell it took her a lot of effort just to say such a simple phrase, so he tried to be polite towards her efforts, “I heard you were a great sorceress…”
“I am she…”
“Well,” he said uncomfortably, wanting to get straight to the point, “I have lived in three different villages in my life, all of which have been destroyed by fire, two of which destroyed by me, at least, I think they were destroyed by me. I fall asleep, and usually my sleep is undisturbed, but every night someone dies…”
“In all three villages?”
“No, just the most recent two. My first was typical. You know, friends, family, my mom, nothing out of the ordinary.”
The sorceress pondered how ordinary his first life really was, “Anyway, I had never woken up to the killings. The only times I have woken up is to the smell of smoke from the village that all the survivors are telling me I destroyed; I don’t remember any of it!”
“Well, what do you want me to do about it?”
“I want this to stop!” He retained himself, “I was told you could help.”
“First we must find the route of the problem, what do you remember doing the days these murders and fires occur?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Well, do you recall wanting to kill everyone?”
“No! Well, that’s not exactly true. I have this dream. I usually have it the nights when people die.”
“Tell me about it.”
The pain was obvious in her voice, “All I remember is dreaming about the fires in the first town. Everyone died, my mom….”
“No father?”
“No.”
“Hahaha, fool!”
He ignored her on the account of his assumption that she was probably senile, “I am standing in the middle of the fire, watching everyone burn, except that I am cold. There is a man standing past the flames; He is laughing.”
“You are quite different from normal humans, being cold in a raging fire.”
Not knowing how to respond, he continued, “That is the gist of what I remember, do you think you can help?”
“Tell me more about this laughing man. What did he look like?”
“I couldn’t see his face.”
She clapped, fire lighted the back of the cave revealing, what seemed like, a dying old woman with a cross shaped gash on the front of her chest sitting in front of a crystal ball, “I have something, an experiment. It is quite evident that your dreams of the past are what causes you do go insane in your sleep. I do not know what to say about the man in your dream, but that he was probably the source of the fire. You try and kill him in your sleep and henceforth kill someone else in the real world.”
He stared at her dumbfounded, “I have a sword that is able to harness and control memories and thoughts into a tangible form,” she spat, “It has one more magnificent power. The sword has the ability to draw the soul from a body it has destroyed and then reuse a certain power of the absorbed soul over and over. There may be some consequences, but its ability to harness memory seems to be what will help you the most.”
He was shocked; this sword seemed perfect for him “Sure that would be great! Can I have it?”
“Of course, but,” he knew there would be a ‘but’, “I need you to do me a favor. I shall give you the sword, but in return you must come back here tomorrow with a summon and fight the woman trying to kill me, do you understand?”
All of this seemed so fast, but he would do anything for the sword, “Sure!”
“Good. Take the sword; it’s on the wall behind me.” Her eyes closed; she had fallen asleep.
He walked up to the only sword on the wall and placed the sheath in his belt; he decided to go outside before unsheathing it. Halfway through the cave, he felt an urge to see it, in spite of what he said he would do, even though he probably wouldn’t be able to see it in the dark. He took the blade out of its sheath and stared at the godlike sword; it was glowing a blue aura. He touched the blade; it was warm. Van could feel the power surging through him like never before. Feeling overwhelmed, he put it in back in its case.
The light outside of the cave was bright. The forest was much more alive than the sorceress’ cave. There were many trees, but they were spread out in a way that he could see the sky very clearly. It was a beautiful day out. Life was good, well better; he had a sword that would keep him from killing in his sleep, and all he had to do for it was defeat some girl.
He began to walk deeper into the forest so that he could absorb the soul of a monster, making his fight against the woman easier. He looked around, and noticed that no one was around. At that instant he felt like a child who was given the most perfect band-aid after scraping his legs. He began to run through the woods.
With his sword in his belt, he felt invincible, nothing could go wrong. Suddenly, he stopped. He had a feeling while he was running something was around him, but now that feeling was stronger than ever. After hearing the breaking of a twig behind him, he saw a goblin running quickly at him. The monsters speed seemed unrealistic; Van had never seen anything like it. As fast as he could, he drew his sword and held it in front of him. The numerous times he had to fend for himself in the wilderness suddenly struck him, and he cut the small goblin right across the chest.
After getting over his amazement at the power of the sword, he saw what looked like the monsters soul jump from its body into the blade. Impressed by his accomplishment, he knew that he would need a more powerful summon to defeat the enemy of the sorceress.
Going deeper into the forest, avoiding trails, knowing monsters would stay away from them, he found nothing worthwhile until he heard a barking noise in the distance. He ran over to find a small puppy eating the innards of a bear. He walked over to try and pet it, but the dog turned its head and growled viciously at him; its eyes were filled with hunger and blood lust.
Though it was small, Van thought that its passion and anger would make for a good summon. He drew his sword and attempted to kill the beast. As he tried to cut the monster, it did a flip over the bear and managed to land on his hind legs. He barked loudly as his eyes rolled to the back of his head. His arms grew 10 times their normal size, as did the rest of his body. What Van noticed the most was the increase of size in its claws and its fangs; the angry little puppy had morphed itself into a thrashing wolf-beast.
With a combination of fear and anticipation for the power he would receive from killing the monster, Van launched himself at the beast. He swung his sword to have it almost effortlessly caught it between his enemy’s claws. With his other paw he easily knocked Van to the side. He landed, determined to kill the wolf.
He then remembered the goblin summon he had. Not knowing exactly how to summon the monster he killed, he screamed “Goblin” to no avail. The wolf smacked him around a bit until another idea popped into his head, “Summon Goblin!” Part of the swords blue aura wrapped itself around Van’s feet inspiring an image of the Goblin running around, fast as the wind. When the aura of the sword had disappeared, his speed matched that of the goblins.
He sprinted towards the beast, dodging its first attempt at a blow and then the second. Having an ample opportunity, Van slashed the beast on the arm. In blind rage, the wolf knocked him off to the side. Van continued this pattern of hitting than being hit until it felt as though he could not fight any longer.
The beast walked slowly towards him, blood dripping all over his fur. Leaned up against a tree, Van thought it was the end when suddenly he heard a woman’s voice scream in an overly heroic voice, “Take this fiend!” He saw a short sword go straight through the monster, almost scraping his face. She removed the sword from the monsters chest. When freed from the impalement of the masked woman’s sword he thrashed at her as she hopped gracefully away, dodging the blow, “Silly dog!”
He was embarrassed by her antics but grateful she was helping. The wolf let out a loud growl, and from his mouth came the hint of a flame. It took in a deep breath and blew out a massive amount of fire at the woman. She put up her shield, hoping that it would last longer than the wolfs fire breath. Staring into the flames, Van remembered the towns he destroyed. He became sweaty and nervous at the thought of all the people he killed. Short of breath, he stared wearily at his sword; it was glowing brighter than ever before.
Using it as a cane, Van stood up. Supported now by his legs, he felt a mixture of power and rage course through his body. He stared at the woman trying to fend off the fire; he did not want to have to rely on her. He held is sword sideways in front of him and span in a quick circle. He had no idea what he was doing; it was as though the sword had taken over his body. In the path the sword had followed in the circle there was now a ring of fire. Something possessed him to stick his arm up in the air. When he did, the ring of fire came up into the palm of his hand, combining into a ball of flame. He pointed the fireball at the monster and let out a yell. From the ball came what seemed like an endless amount of fire. It hit the wolf beast, stopping its assault on the masked woman, knocking it off of its feet. Before it could hit the ground, Van stopped the flow of fire from his hand and ran up to the wolf and cut the monster straight in half; its soul was absorbed into the sword.
He took a few breaths and calmed down a bit. He could not understand the sudden rush of adrenalin he had just experienced, but he knew that it was because of the sword.
Van looked around for the woman to give her his thanks, but she was nowhere to be found. He walked over to the spot where she held her ground against the wolf’s fire breath and found a familiar stone in her place. He recognized it as Emma’s, his old friend and first love in his first village. Was she the masked woman? She is supposed to be dead. He wanted it to be her, but what if it was not? Was it was just a coincidence? Thoughts like these filled his mind.
Halfway through destroying his first village in his sleep, Van woke up to see his town on fire; he needed to escape, so he just ran and ran until he passed out in the middle of the woods. Found passed out and surrounded by scavengers, an old widow took him in. She had shown him unimaginable kindness for three months. He confided into her the dreams he was having. She found them odd, but continued treating him like family. The one he told her about was reoccurring and different from the dream he had told Emma about; a dream that seemed to only have foreshadow his life. Though that dream had made him feel alone, the one he had during the nights of his unrecalled killing sprees gave him a sense of immense solitude.
When he finally thought his life would be stable for the first time in two years, he destroyed another town in his sleep. This time was different though. This time, he woke up to the woman who had taken care of him and other villagers he had grown to love stoning him. He asked them why. They quickly replied, “Why did you destroy or home?”
Once again, he ran. He ran for seven years searching for someone who could help him with his problem. He knew that his dreams were connected to his actions in the night, be them what they may. He had spoken to many people who told him of a woman who had a connection with the gods, whose sorcery was unmatched. He did not believe that anyone could have such power, but his hope to solve his dilemma is what brought him to the entrance of her cave.
What he expected inside was exactly the opposite of what there really was. He had expected a typical cave, but found it to be absolutely dead. There were bones and decaying carcass’ everywhere. The path ahead of him seemed very straight, so he closed his eyes in fear of seeing something that he did not want to, but like every other time he closed his eyes he thought of Emma and what a beautiful woman she would have been. He remembered a cave they had explored together when they were kids. Emma would always throw snakes at him, and he would throw some spider eggs he had found at her. Even though this brought a smile to his face, his mind drifted back to their kiss on the cliff and how she died that very night.
Van reached a dead end and was confused; is this not the cave the townspeople spoke of? Right when he was about to turn away, a slight groan of an old woman forced him to turn around.
“You there, boy, what are you doing here?”
He could tell it took her a lot of effort just to say such a simple phrase, so he tried to be polite towards her efforts, “I heard you were a great sorceress…”
“I am she…”
“Well,” he said uncomfortably, wanting to get straight to the point, “I have lived in three different villages in my life, all of which have been destroyed by fire, two of which destroyed by me, at least, I think they were destroyed by me. I fall asleep, and usually my sleep is undisturbed, but every night someone dies…”
“In all three villages?”
“No, just the most recent two. My first was typical. You know, friends, family, my mom, nothing out of the ordinary.”
The sorceress pondered how ordinary his first life really was, “Anyway, I had never woken up to the killings. The only times I have woken up is to the smell of smoke from the village that all the survivors are telling me I destroyed; I don’t remember any of it!”
“Well, what do you want me to do about it?”
“I want this to stop!” He retained himself, “I was told you could help.”
“First we must find the route of the problem, what do you remember doing the days these murders and fires occur?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Well, do you recall wanting to kill everyone?”
“No! Well, that’s not exactly true. I have this dream. I usually have it the nights when people die.”
“Tell me about it.”
The pain was obvious in her voice, “All I remember is dreaming about the fires in the first town. Everyone died, my mom….”
“No father?”
“No.”
“Hahaha, fool!”
He ignored her on the account of his assumption that she was probably senile, “I am standing in the middle of the fire, watching everyone burn, except that I am cold. There is a man standing past the flames; He is laughing.”
“You are quite different from normal humans, being cold in a raging fire.”
Not knowing how to respond, he continued, “That is the gist of what I remember, do you think you can help?”
“Tell me more about this laughing man. What did he look like?”
“I couldn’t see his face.”
She clapped, fire lighted the back of the cave revealing, what seemed like, a dying old woman with a cross shaped gash on the front of her chest sitting in front of a crystal ball, “I have something, an experiment. It is quite evident that your dreams of the past are what causes you do go insane in your sleep. I do not know what to say about the man in your dream, but that he was probably the source of the fire. You try and kill him in your sleep and henceforth kill someone else in the real world.”
He stared at her dumbfounded, “I have a sword that is able to harness and control memories and thoughts into a tangible form,” she spat, “It has one more magnificent power. The sword has the ability to draw the soul from a body it has destroyed and then reuse a certain power of the absorbed soul over and over. There may be some consequences, but its ability to harness memory seems to be what will help you the most.”
He was shocked; this sword seemed perfect for him “Sure that would be great! Can I have it?”
“Of course, but,” he knew there would be a ‘but’, “I need you to do me a favor. I shall give you the sword, but in return you must come back here tomorrow with a summon and fight the woman trying to kill me, do you understand?”
All of this seemed so fast, but he would do anything for the sword, “Sure!”
“Good. Take the sword; it’s on the wall behind me.” Her eyes closed; she had fallen asleep.
He walked up to the only sword on the wall and placed the sheath in his belt; he decided to go outside before unsheathing it. Halfway through the cave, he felt an urge to see it, in spite of what he said he would do, even though he probably wouldn’t be able to see it in the dark. He took the blade out of its sheath and stared at the godlike sword; it was glowing a blue aura. He touched the blade; it was warm. Van could feel the power surging through him like never before. Feeling overwhelmed, he put it in back in its case.
The light outside of the cave was bright. The forest was much more alive than the sorceress’ cave. There were many trees, but they were spread out in a way that he could see the sky very clearly. It was a beautiful day out. Life was good, well better; he had a sword that would keep him from killing in his sleep, and all he had to do for it was defeat some girl.
He began to walk deeper into the forest so that he could absorb the soul of a monster, making his fight against the woman easier. He looked around, and noticed that no one was around. At that instant he felt like a child who was given the most perfect band-aid after scraping his legs. He began to run through the woods.
With his sword in his belt, he felt invincible, nothing could go wrong. Suddenly, he stopped. He had a feeling while he was running something was around him, but now that feeling was stronger than ever. After hearing the breaking of a twig behind him, he saw a goblin running quickly at him. The monsters speed seemed unrealistic; Van had never seen anything like it. As fast as he could, he drew his sword and held it in front of him. The numerous times he had to fend for himself in the wilderness suddenly struck him, and he cut the small goblin right across the chest.
After getting over his amazement at the power of the sword, he saw what looked like the monsters soul jump from its body into the blade. Impressed by his accomplishment, he knew that he would need a more powerful summon to defeat the enemy of the sorceress.
Going deeper into the forest, avoiding trails, knowing monsters would stay away from them, he found nothing worthwhile until he heard a barking noise in the distance. He ran over to find a small puppy eating the innards of a bear. He walked over to try and pet it, but the dog turned its head and growled viciously at him; its eyes were filled with hunger and blood lust.
Though it was small, Van thought that its passion and anger would make for a good summon. He drew his sword and attempted to kill the beast. As he tried to cut the monster, it did a flip over the bear and managed to land on his hind legs. He barked loudly as his eyes rolled to the back of his head. His arms grew 10 times their normal size, as did the rest of his body. What Van noticed the most was the increase of size in its claws and its fangs; the angry little puppy had morphed itself into a thrashing wolf-beast.
With a combination of fear and anticipation for the power he would receive from killing the monster, Van launched himself at the beast. He swung his sword to have it almost effortlessly caught it between his enemy’s claws. With his other paw he easily knocked Van to the side. He landed, determined to kill the wolf.
He then remembered the goblin summon he had. Not knowing exactly how to summon the monster he killed, he screamed “Goblin” to no avail. The wolf smacked him around a bit until another idea popped into his head, “Summon Goblin!” Part of the swords blue aura wrapped itself around Van’s feet inspiring an image of the Goblin running around, fast as the wind. When the aura of the sword had disappeared, his speed matched that of the goblins.
He sprinted towards the beast, dodging its first attempt at a blow and then the second. Having an ample opportunity, Van slashed the beast on the arm. In blind rage, the wolf knocked him off to the side. Van continued this pattern of hitting than being hit until it felt as though he could not fight any longer.
The beast walked slowly towards him, blood dripping all over his fur. Leaned up against a tree, Van thought it was the end when suddenly he heard a woman’s voice scream in an overly heroic voice, “Take this fiend!” He saw a short sword go straight through the monster, almost scraping his face. She removed the sword from the monsters chest. When freed from the impalement of the masked woman’s sword he thrashed at her as she hopped gracefully away, dodging the blow, “Silly dog!”
He was embarrassed by her antics but grateful she was helping. The wolf let out a loud growl, and from his mouth came the hint of a flame. It took in a deep breath and blew out a massive amount of fire at the woman. She put up her shield, hoping that it would last longer than the wolfs fire breath. Staring into the flames, Van remembered the towns he destroyed. He became sweaty and nervous at the thought of all the people he killed. Short of breath, he stared wearily at his sword; it was glowing brighter than ever before.
Using it as a cane, Van stood up. Supported now by his legs, he felt a mixture of power and rage course through his body. He stared at the woman trying to fend off the fire; he did not want to have to rely on her. He held is sword sideways in front of him and span in a quick circle. He had no idea what he was doing; it was as though the sword had taken over his body. In the path the sword had followed in the circle there was now a ring of fire. Something possessed him to stick his arm up in the air. When he did, the ring of fire came up into the palm of his hand, combining into a ball of flame. He pointed the fireball at the monster and let out a yell. From the ball came what seemed like an endless amount of fire. It hit the wolf beast, stopping its assault on the masked woman, knocking it off of its feet. Before it could hit the ground, Van stopped the flow of fire from his hand and ran up to the wolf and cut the monster straight in half; its soul was absorbed into the sword.
He took a few breaths and calmed down a bit. He could not understand the sudden rush of adrenalin he had just experienced, but he knew that it was because of the sword.
Van looked around for the woman to give her his thanks, but she was nowhere to be found. He walked over to the spot where she held her ground against the wolf’s fire breath and found a familiar stone in her place. He recognized it as Emma’s, his old friend and first love in his first village. Was she the masked woman? She is supposed to be dead. He wanted it to be her, but what if it was not? Was it was just a coincidence? Thoughts like these filled his mind.