[IC] A World Of A Million Horrors

[Akihisa Yoshii]

Welcome To Hell: Make Peace With Your Maker

---

The above words were written across an old board, in something akin to blood, but smelled of something inhuman. It hung from a tree in the middle of nowhere, a short-lived survivor's last message. His bones now settled below the sign.The howl of the chimeras were the only sounds, as again the gigantic jaws of the portal opened. The beasts of the world watched as the pulsing, purple object in the sky floated there, a now normal occurrence in this world. Fairly soon, white flashes flew from the portal, at very quick speeds, soaring across the sky. To a human, it may seem as if a shooting star. To the creatures, it was easy lunch.

They watched as light after light flew through the skies, their mouths beginning to water at the thought of fresh food. Goblins giggled as their little green bodies shook with excitement; more humans, more mischief! Several other beasts revealed their excitement in roars of eagerness, as the streaks of light soon landed, dotted across the landscape. Most of the humans would die within the hour. The beasts were quick to act on the promise of free food and as they ran to their choice of dots.

One beast was about to join it's friends when it noticed several dots falling all in one spot. It smiled, black tar oozing from it's mouth. The beast scuttled along on all fours, quickly, towards the dots. The humans of this group were soon awoken by the sounds of the underworld-like place. The last thing they remember would be a bright white light and a ear-piercing shriek. It would not be uncommon for one or two to be amnesiac. A small lizard rested on Michael's face, and soon gave him a sharp and nasty bite on the nose, making a very small and adorable growling noise.

[Eklispe]

Michael woke up to a sharp pain on his nose. He looked around frantically while grabbing his sword and in doing so dislodged the Lizard that had inflicted said injury on his nose. Michael looked at it curiously and picked it up, it was kinda cute after all and if nothing else he could use it as a distraction if worst came to worst. It scampered around a bit then hid in his clothing and Michael proceded to examine the nearby area. They were several other poeple in the area and most of them seemed to be still unconcious. After breifly checking his body to make sure he was functioning properly and that he had all his gear, which he somehow seemed to remember but little else. Michael attempted to shake awake a nearby man with two pistols to see if he had any more imformation about where they were then Michael did, because the last thing Michael remembered was an ear piercing shriek and an obnoxiously bright light.

[Skepic]

Walter stirred, giving a small grown before picking himself up. He grumbled something though it was muffled by his gas mask. His senses kicked in and he suddenly became aware of the strange place around him, or more importantly, the people around him. He quickly readied his weapon at the strange people "Sind Sie alle freundlich?" he asked cautiously. Being in such a foreign looking place when only moments before he was in the process of caving a french man's skull in, it was quite the shift in scenery at least for Walter, if not the pacing of it all.

[nerminator]

'jeff! sarah!' matthew looked around the dark room holding his flashlight. the room he was in looked similar to the underground temple he was recently in. except the mirror was gone. matt looked around to find a way out but was unsuccessful. matt began to become a bit scared until he noticed a glowing door and a sign matt walked up the the sign and it read

'to all ye travels who have came here make peace with your maker because
you will meet him'

matt ignored the sign and pushed the door open to see a hellish area. it was hell. every part of it had fire brimstone and death. matt noticed a group of people one of them looked like a soldier. wanting to find out who these people are matt walked over to them and said 'uh hi my name is matt and does anyone know how i can get out of here?'

[Eklispe]

Michael stopped trying to wake up the gunman and turned to face the other two humans who were awake. Well one of them was speaking a language he didn't understand and the other one was speaking English, so it was clear where to start. "My name is Michael and no I don't even know where we are much less how to leave." as he replied he cautiously watched the foreigner, he didn't want to get wacked over the side of the head while trying to have a conversation.

[Akihisa Yoshii]

The small lizard in Michael's clothing soon let go a ear piercing screech of it's own, enough to jar most everyone there.

---

The minute the beast heard the screech it sprinted quickly, murder in it's eyes. The mother growled, quickly approaching the group but still some ways away, and let go a howl of rage. It's large lizard tail swept side to side as it crawled but it was larger than any lizard alive today, maternal instincts not known by reptiles kicking in.

If Matt looked back the door would already be gone. Another trapped soul that was not supposed to be. Oh well. Curious bastard deserves his fate, whatever that may be.

[Eklispe]

Michael flinched as the small lizard let out an enormous screech and he grabbed the small thing, then saw the much larger version. He put two and two together and concluded the small lizard was most likely the baby of the larger one. Michael set down the small lizard and pushed it towards the larger one hoping that the giant one would leave them alone, but he was more than prepared to fight it off.

[Gemini]

Ellie woke up quickly and her hands went immediately to the daggers at her side, confused at what was going on if it was anything dangerous. She saw the large lizard and where she was and was very confused and scared.

[nerminator]

matt saw a gigantic lizard stand in right next to the group. matt looked behind him to see if the door was still there.it wasn't [oh crap this is the end!] matt screamed and ran the opposite direction of the lizard just to escape but then noticed that there was no way out. the only escape was blocked by the gigantic lizard. extremely scared matt reached into his pocket to grab his revolver and aimed it at the lizard, his hands shaking. matt pulled the trigger to attempt to kill the monster

[Akihisa Yoshii]

(There's actually quite a bit of room to run, you're in the middle of nowhere) The bullet glanced off the lizard's hide and the smaller one ran to it, but it passed it up and jumped. From behind them, another, more powerful roar came as one of the chimera that had been howling before pounced, the two gigantic monsters coming to a clash right above the group, a storm of claws, tails and teeth, barreling upon the group if they didn't move out of the way.

[Eklispe]

Michael quickly grabbed the still unconcious gunman and lept out of the way of the two monsters as they fought over who would get to attempt to devour him and the small group. He set down the gunman safely out of range and prepared to jump in and kill one of the monsters if he saw an opening

[Rusalka]

Darkness.....it engulfed her completely in those final moments, the last ounces of her precious life draining ever so sudden from her face, that one final defiant glare towards grim adversity as wearily she raised her sword and gave one final blow of death to her assailant before he drew his blade painfully from her impaled cuirass and her bleeding breast and blood spewed forth unto the cold, stagnant grounds of the moors..... upon which her lifeless body fell, nary a cry of sorrow or of agony to the seething black pain that crept so fiendishly through her tattered and broken figure, clenching her bones and her muscles in its thick, obsidian talons. Silence now....silence befell her. The war cries and vicious shouts of her men....they faded into the distance, out of earshot....nothing left but the miserable quiet. Heavy were her eyes, unable to stay open, unable to keep her breathing just a.....few moments longer....just enough to aid her men in battle....and then pass on. Nay the Fates would have it so it seemed, and so.....her eyes closed and she died... Gone was she.....Arjuna, the Silent Warmaiden....

"Mortal......mortal...... Please, Thou must awake. Thou must stir before the beasts come to consume thee whole."

Then....a voice filled her ears, a woman she could tell rather by the sound of it. Softly, Arjuna's eyes peeled open, still the hot, searing pain resonating through her chest from where that bastard's sword had stuck her. It still bled too, as noted by the trickle of crimson issuing from the wide, gaping chasm in her cuirass. By the Gods, she lived! But wait.....this was not the battlefield.....these were indeed cold, foggy, and definitely muddy moors that reeked of swamp rot, but these were not the moors of Dralentath! No....these were not the moors of anywhere, except.....except....

"Good. I feared thou would be at the bottom of a Blood Lizard's gullet by now, yet...such a dreadful demise is but imminent." That voice again. Quickly, Arjuna stood, not a struggle against the lumbering weight of her armor. She whirled around and there her eyes beheld the woman. Gods! What be this foul place? The woman, a maiden was she, but there was....just something so....off about her, namely how her eyes were obscured by flaps of skin that.....dear Gods....were they sewn to her face?! "Be not afraid, fair knight." Whispered the maiden, sauntering closer to the rather disturbed Arjuna, who in return backed away a bit. "I am not one of those creatures who crave the flesh of mortals. I am but a being.....cursed for eternity to roam these forsaken lands....blind, weak...and without a drop of water to grace my parched tongue. Soon, I shall become one of them though....the creatures who doth roam these wretched fields, haunt these ghastly moors, and lurk beyond every wall, every tree.....salivating for a taste....of blood." From the seams upon her face, blood gently trickled down her porcelain cheeks as the woman, adorned in nothing but tattered rags and a sullen cloak to boot....she wept. "My humanity....I but feel it slipping away each day...each waking hour I am to spend imprisoned here. All hope....it is but lost for me....but for thou....thou art a newly-dead. Thine humanity flourishes while mine....drifts. Perchance thou could discover....a way to reverse this horrid reckoning."

Arjuna, rather quizzical now instead of fearful, she gazed at the brooding woman with eyes of scrutiny. Her message of impending woe, simple it was, yet Arjuna couldn't help but feel there was....some sort of cryptic meaning to the maiden's disparaging words. Had Arjuna possessed a voice of her own, she would ask the maiden of what she meant by such negative ramblings, and most importantly.....where was she? Cursed lands.....monsters....the loss of humanity, these were but the few clues the knight was given to decipher her current and definitely dim location. Why the very swamp she and the mysterious woman tarried in conveyed a foreboding and unwelcomed atmosphere. This place....it was not meant to be seen by humans....let alone walked upon. As the woman in black rags rested her aching and withering figure upon a downed tree, Arjuna knelt in front of her, an expression of complete befuddlement twisting her face with concerned wrinkling. The woman, though she could not see....to Arjuna's surprise...she could sense what Arjuna was trying to ask, "Thou wish is to know where we are, correct?" Mournful she whispered. "Fair knight, art thou as blind as I? Thou must know this is not the realm of mortals anymore. Thou art gone from it.....forever. This....is the Netherworld....where the dead and the undead but linger in eternal suffering. It ails me to deliver to thee such a grim revelation, but thou wouldst discovered it even had I not informed thee."

Oh her pierced and bloody heart, it sunk in the chasm of her chest. Arjuna.....was indeed dead, and she was indeed lost forever....twisting and turning...through the Nether....

[Akihisa Yoshii]

From the dead woman's words' end came a rather childish snicker. "Oh please, always with that 'intro'... Hey girly, look over 'ere..." The boy, or not boy, that spoke was standing behind Arjuna, and he smiled. He was young-looking, the body of someone only barely 14. He bared his teeth, long and sharp, chuckling. Many knew of his kind in the mortal world by now, a vampire. But he was not like them. His face did not match his body, his nose almost gone, his ears pointed and large, his face wrinkled and ugly, his lips non-existent, his smile being not much of anything because of this. Monstrous face was his, one of nightmares. His eyes were a coal black.

[MonsieurShade]

Dimitri awoke with the groan as the sound of two massive beasts battling it out pulled him from his slumber. At first, the man simply mistook the sound for his phone's alarm seeing as he'd set it's sound options to 'randomize'. Dimitri's hand flopped around a bit as he searched for the device in an effort to shut off the cursed noise, first brushing the hilt of his axe -a treasured item that he'd crafted with his father during an outing-, finding nothing wrong there as he slept with it propped by his bed, followed by his book bag, then his water skin, two items that he knew for a fact that he kept hanging on his bedroom door. "What the fuck..." Dimitri grunted as he lifted his head, noticing for the first time that what he was laying on wasn't his mattress, but in fact soil. This revelation however, was not nearly as jarring as the one he received as two massive beasts rolled by him, locked in combat. Dimitri blinked, his mind processing just what he was seeing for a moment, before a shriek forced its way out of his throat. In a flash Dimitri was on his feet with his items clutched in his hands as he began to run, stumbling at first, but quickly regaining traction as he fled in the opposite direction of the creatures. Dimitri had just enough time to make out a group of human shaped blurs out of his peripheral vision as he ran past them, however rather than stop to confirm what he'd seen, Dimitri continued to run as if the devil were at his heels.

[Eklispe]

Michael growled, it seemed everyone here was either idiots or cowards. Michael wasn't going to let anyone push him around be it humans or giant mutant lizards, as a burning anger poured through him he attacked the monsters. Moving faster than physical ability could account for he appeared on top of the Lizard's face and stabbed its eye's, one with his katana and one with his kunai. Then he once again vanished, reappearing away from the beasts. Lets see how it reacts to that thought to angry to notice him seemingly random ability to teleport at will.

[Zakara]

Maria felt the ground shake as she gained consciousness. As she opened her eyes and sat up, she noticed two large beasts chasing a group of humans, while two of them fought the monsters. One was a gunslinger and the other seemed to be some sort of master swordsman. I am definitely in the land of spirits and devils, thought Maria, quickly realizing her spell to grant immortal life had failed. She knew she would have to fight to survive based on knowledge she had about the Netherworld, or Realm of Evil, as she called it. Moving towards the battle scene, Maria threw a poisonous gas concoction that she had in her satchel at the beasts.

"Come. Leave quick," she ordered to the other humans, "The reptile and winged horror are too strong for now." While running away from the beasts and towards the forest, Maria chanted a spell of agility on the group. Hopefully they could escape... for now.

[Akihisa Yoshii]

The lizard was dead before it knew what had happened. One of the humans had stabbed its eyes out, blinding it, and deadly gas filled its nostrils, poisoning the poor beast. But that wasn't enough to kill it. The chimera stung his now weakened foe with his stinger and the fast-acting paralysis venom rendered the beast immobile, death-like. The chimera then placed one paw on the prey before ripping a large chunk of the beast off, not at all worried about the gas or the humans anymore. The smaller lizard shrieked more and ran in a fit of fright, darting back up Michael's clothing for the time being. If they were to run, this would be their chance, for now there was a momentary peace as the beast ate the lizard alive.

[Rusalka]

Akihisa Yoshii said
From the dead woman's words' end came a rather childish snicker. "Oh please, always with that 'intro'... Hey girly, look over 'ere..." The boy, or not boy, that spoke stood behind the girl smiled. He was young-looking, the body of someone only barely 14. He bared his teeth, long and sharp, chuckling. Many knew of his kind in the mortal world by now, a vampire. But he was not like them. His face did not match his body, his nose almost gone, his ears pointed and large, his face wrinkled and ugly, his lips non-existent. Monstrous face was his, one of nightmares. His eyes were a coal black. He sat up into a crawling position and stretched, his skin not affected by the sun as it would have been in the mortal world.

The childlike laughter of the young lad broke Arjuna's attention away from the weeping woman and focused it towards him. As it would seem, this mortal child was also a bit...no honestly he was indeed malformed, eyes as black as the very clouds that hung over this downtrodden world that played home to wretched, damned souls. His skin was also a rather inhuman shade, about the same as the woman's, but what caught Arjuna's attention the most was the boy's teeth, sharp, fiendish daggers of ivory that hung dripping with saliva from his wrinkled lips, not to mention the sickening way the....creature contorted his body and that snicker of ill glee that sent a slight chill through her hardened bones. Hastily Arjuna stood from her kneeling position, a glint of fire in her narrowing eyes, an intimidating glare towards the little hellion as she reached behind her back, but what be this? Her....her sword? Where was her sword? "Thy blade has been taken, fair knight." Silently the woman revealed to Arjuna a rather obvious truth, a truth that further irritated the Warmaiden, clenching tight her armored fist, as if that would be her weapon to silence this demonic brat. "Where thy blade lies, I do not know, for it was taken by the very thing that hath taken my eyes. And you." The woman's attention soon turned as well to the impish creature. "Why dost thou continue to mock and belittle these unfortunate souls? Have they not suffered enough as we have? Look at you, just as I, even your humanity fades, child. And with it, so has your compassion." Lack of compassion indeed, yet such was to be expected in a place such as this. Souls sent here were not meant compassion in the least.

[Akihisa Yoshii]

The vampire glared at the woman. "Silence you. I've had enough of your prattling..." He turned back to Arjuna and smiled once more, moving so that he was before her before she even knew it, he had her arm and twisted it inhumanly to where it hurt quite a bit, feeling her pulse. "You look tasty..." He commented, his hands caressing her arm. He salivated more at the thought of her warm, sticky blood... But resisted the temptation to bite... for now. "Oh so very tasty..." Though she probably would not know, he was still especially young for his kind. His body was still fourteen, while even though vampires can survive much much longer than humans, they still age, and his body had aged only slightly, meaning he'd only been here for a couple hundred years. It took a thousand years or so for a vampire to reach the next year of their life, at least in body. Still he knew the taste of blood and the hunger for it shone in his eyes. It would be only a matter of time before his hunger overcame him and he would kill the woman and eat her as he'd done to those before her...

[MonsieurShade]

Roughly a quarter mile away from the beasts and the group of humans, Dimitri finally came to a stop. It was not that he was tired -a combination of near constant physical conditioning and an adrenaline boost saw to that-, it was that during his sprinting, his mind had gotten the chance to try and piece things together in a way where they would make sense. The young man properly shouldered his bag and tied his water skin to his belt as he observed the strange landscape, "Ok...ok..get a grip Dimitri." he muttered to himself as he got his bearings. Dimitri tried to remember what events he'd partaken in to allow his predicament to transpire, "Ok...visited Joseph, had a beer or two, he said he wanted to go to mexico for the summer to get hold of some more peyote, pestered me into trying what he had le-", Dimitri paused, what seemed like realization dawning on his face. "The fucking peyote! Goddammit this is all probably just one big peyote high and i'm probably gonna come out of it in a jail cell or something." Dimitri growled as he raised and shouldered his axe. Mulling things over in his mind once more, Dimitri started walking once more, coming to the conclusion that if he was likely going to find himself in a drug tank when he came down from his high, he might as well play along for the time being. He had no idea how very real things around him were, nor just what he'd be in for.