Shadows of Elysium: The Laughing King

Chapter 23: Shades Wake

Crow put one of her long cigarettes in between her stiff lips, they barely parted from the stress-clenched jaw that had been hardening over the past months. She took one last look at the miles of battlefield where Jasper had first killed the Laughing King of the Wasteland village. Much of the death had been cleaned up and hauled off to the ocean, but the bodies left had begun to rot away as well.

Soon the memory of the horrors that had plagued this village would fade, but another would surely arise to take its place. That was the way of the Husken Earth; Genocide, disaster, nuclear incident.

Apocalypse after apocalypse.

Again and again.

Civilizations rise and fall every year. It is amazing how fast humanity can rebuild, only for some other humans to tear it apart again.

Crow took a massive drag of her cigarette and started in on a bout of chest racking coughs. She spat blood into the sand by the viod-black pit on the ground before her.

The place where Jasper had killed Temnota in the daylight. She peered into the depths of the black puddle, hoping for some response from the man that had become this horrible shade. It was the same depthless puddle Jasper had been too afraid to look into, else he get pulled in by the corrupted.

Crow had no such fear, or maybe she was half gone herself. She glanced at the symbols encircling her bare arm, bandages strewn out around her feet, and the blood she had coughed up. She was only in her twenties, but her use of Elysium had impacted her body as well as her heart.

Yeah, she was half gone.

The pit into the void wasn't some warrior's heaven with beating drums guarded by a strange world like Jasper had seen when looking in. No, she saw a swirling mass of spirits, an endless pit of souls floating around, the same souls Temmy had consumed on that fateful day in the Raven Tribe Village. The same day young she had asked for Temmy to tell her a story and he told her two, because he knew he was slipping.

"It's weird, when I was a kid I knew better. I saw everyone changing around me. Some had fun, sure, but others were tormented after one use. Broken and shaking with need. I just grew into it I guess, thought it was normal after a while."

... The spirits were silent...

Her tone was careless. The kind of tone you have when unsure what to speak to a lost ones headstone, like nothing she said could really matter, "I've figured it out. The Elysium. The fire with memories, the tainted tattoos marking my erased aura. It's the souls of others. Their entire spiritual essence," she rolled a vial between her fingers, the yellow fluid squirmed like it was alive. She could have sworn she heard it slam into the side of the glass in an effort to escape.

Looking back into the void she saw the faces of several twisted spirits floating through the eather. Layer upon layer of souls bound to the same body. All consumed by Temmy who had been a gentle farmer in life. A druid if there ever was one. But now his spirit was at the bottom of the vessel. Even the good within him was confused and broken.

... Some of the spirits opened and closed their mouths, but sound still failed to penetrate the portal...

"So you came here after destroying the Raven Tribe, because... because you're nothing but chaos anymore..."

"I don't know why I'm trying. I doubt you even have any control left. Which one of you would answer if you even can? I just can't understand how you took over the parasites. The rest of it makes sense now. Not sure why I care about that when I'm not sure if my father figure is even alive, but I guess I'm a void like you now."

Temmy's face broke through the mass of souls with a voice both far away and right in her ear, "same as the people. I spoke to them. Even half of your spirit would rival the dragons. Fly away Crow, it's almost time."

"Jasper put you down easy the last time. Every time he does at least one spirit will leave your body."

Temmy's green spirit faded from view and his voice turned to a cacophony, "only a thousand more to go, and he had the sun on his side. I was born under the two moons, the night that Temmy died, you will find I'm much more powerful then. Join us Crow, it will be quicker than waiting for the barbarian's death. It's peaceful in here with us, you don't have to lose any more of your soul. There are no walls. No parasites. No overlords or red-eyed men. Only a collective nirvana. Pure bliss as we roll across the dessert like a sandstorm of dark green and blades. With you we can warm the throne alongside Jasper. That's what you want is it not? To have him protect you from the wastes around us? To rule together in his warm embrace? Big men fall easy in this world, but together we can protect him. You'll never have to feel imprisoned ever again."

The voices lost their unity and spoke several things at once;

"Join us Crow."

"Join us Crow."

"Come Venessa."

"Rule the Wastelands!"

"Comfort and power!"

"Never fear again!"

"Join us Crow!"

"Run darling. There's no shame in survival."