Red: Swordsman in the Apocalypse

Chapter 8: A Beautiful Monster

"It has...been a long time." An eerily soft and melodious voice tore through the howling winds and resounding tremors. It wasn't loud or deep. Just above all others. 

Hanging on to the last traces of her dear life, Lyra's bleeding eyes stared feverishly and in horrifying awe at the 'creature' from beyond the red Rift.

Pale white porcelain skin and long black hair as black as the darkest nights; the creature stood tall at a height of a 196 cm. It was a man.

A human. A person.

"Keugh-! What is this abominable"Mana" radiation!" The green haired knight emerged from a pile or rubbles only some meters away, doubling over with apparent struggle on his expression.

He was bleeding from his head and his eyes were bloodshot as he grit his teeth heavily to fight back the persistent pounding pain he felt in his head.

The Knight rose his head and directed his gaze up front towards the Red tear in the fabric of reality.

He froze.

Then blinked. Then stood still once more, struggling to comprehend.

A red Rift was like nothing that had been recorded by the remnant of the human race since the beginning of the invasion of the Elder Gods. And the radiation emitted by this single anomaly was far overwhelming, even for him.

But he only fell deeper in horror at the being that stepped out of the rift.

'A...a person?' 

At the same time, the pile of rubbles and debris next to the knight shifted and tumbled. From the pile, his accomplice, the third man emerged with a strained expression of his own.

"What is this twisted"Mana". It's disgusting." He spat out, his voice subtly shivering.

His senses were all over the place, desperately struggling to keep up.

Then he froze.

His lips trembled. His eyes shook in feverish horror

"O-oi... Wh-what is that... monster?" He felt cold, his senses were haunted by pure unadulterated dread as he simply gazed at the 'gracefull' prescence of the man from a distance.

The green haired man lingered. His accomplice's question hung hauntingly in the air. Struggling against the instinct to cower, he remarked weakly.

"An abomination."

***

On the other side, Lyra couldn't keep her eyes of the beauty. This...'entity', in a dire time like her's, was like the emergence of the angel who guards and leads the souls of the dead. Both terrifyingly beautiful, and horrifyingly dreadful.

Lyra felt conflicted.

She felt cold and settled.

Haunted, and warm.

Enamored and full of ominous dread.

Then she visibly trembled when the being turned to look at her.

The next second, it was next to her. In the blink of an eye.

"You...girl over there," the person's voice was like an enchanting whisper; holding the symphony of all the finest musical pieces of man. The voice seemed to beckon at a promised world; a land of pleasure and desire.

...How much dread it filled Lyra with.

And how much longing it placed in her heart, all the same

Then the creature asked softly, monotone and evenly.

"What year is it?" 

The man just above her, Lyra was caught charmed under the influence of his sinful visage. A straight oval face of pure white skin with high cheek bones and a straight nose. Doll like features; like a angel fallen from heaven. 

In all of humanity, he was stunning.

Two vibrant pools of blood red eyes stared unshakenly into hers. Lyra shivered and felt small and entrapped like a cornered rat before the dark orange vertical pupils of those eyes.

How much she whished those eyes never came off her...and how much she dreaded the gaze they gave her.

She lingered longer, entrapped and enchanted. The person was donned in a ragged robe hanging loosely off his lower body, leaving his torso bare to the elements. 

His pale white skin glistened softly and almost beautifully eerily. Closer inspection brought the appearance of sparse scales to Lyra's attention.

And to the left side of his chest was a soft red glow from underneath his skin where his heart was supposed to be. If he was indeed human, that is.

"Girl," the man spoke again, drawing Lyra out of her reverie.

Lyra blinked. Her bleeding eyes hurt from the action.

"Eh?"

"I asked what year it is." In the same steady monotone, the man repeated.

Lyra found herself blinking again, confused, but replied regardless.

"2094... it's the year 2094."

A subtle shift happened in the man's aura. Lyra was close enough to notice the disturbance. 

Though his face remained impassive and neutral, she could sense the almost imperceivable shift.

The man turned away from her and said:

"...I see."

As he was about to turn around, he paused and spoke over his shoulder, at Lyra.

"Thank you."

Lyra stared with loose jaw as she watched the man slowly walk away from her.

Walk was an understatement, from Lyra's point of view, the man seemed to gracefully glide mere inches over the ground, his feet shrouded by his falling robes.

This time around, watching him leave, Lyra was filled with slight relief. And dread the next moment she realized the knights from before had survived.

"W-wait!" She called out, reaching a desperate arm forward.

A few meters away from her, the man stopped and slowly turned to face her.

Placing an arm first and pulling, Lyra struggled to crawl forward just to reach the feet of the man.

Her head pounded and her eyes burned. Her internal organ ruptured sending tremor's of terrible pain throughout her body as she coughed up puddles of blood.

Lyra felt lightheaded. She felt cold. She was in pain.

Her body slowly grew heavy. Lyra grew weaker.

"Please...wait..." She sickly pleaded.

The stoic man observed her impassively from the short distance.Then his lips parted and he asked.

"What is it?"

"... Please...h-help...me. I...beg of you. H-help..." Caught between her words, Lyra threw up pools of tainted blood. Blue veins slowly crept up her paling skin. Her vibrant azure eyes dimming behind flowing tears and blood.

The man merely looked down at the pathetic state of the girl then completely turned around.

His lips parted to speak when his voice was drowned by the frenzied cry of one of the knights some distance away.

It was the Green haired Knight.

"What are you doing?! Let's kill that abomination!"

He pulled out his green saber and leaned forward. He glared, his brows were furrowed, cold drops of sweat rolled down the side of his face, and his eyes were feverish.

He bit down his lower lip, using the pain to force the numbing fear out of his trembling body.

He cursed internally. Then his body flashed and lounged forward in a terrifying sprint at the man, brandishing his saber.

"Drop dead!" His saber flashed, drawing a sharp path towards the exposed neck of the monster. His sprint brought him mere centimeters towards the being in a matter of a mili second.

The green blade whistled, mere inches a way from the abominations' neck when a small pulse rang through the Knights body.

Instantly all of his internal organs ruptured and exploded. 

His eyes burst into blood, ear drums ruptured and overwhelming pain squeezed at his exploding heart.

The Knight, from inside out became a bloody mess of imploding organs with his skin twisting over his painfully popping joints.

His arms fell, following soon was the rest of his brutalized body out of mid air to the ground like a maimed human dull.

The green haired knight fell dead.

The wasteland fell still and quiet; the haunting howls of wind and pressure released by the Red Rift prevailed in desolation.

The third man's eyes widened slowly in horror.

"F...fuck!" 

He had seen it.

The moment his accomplice drew mere inches closer towards man, the translucent red glow from underneath the abominations' left chest pulsed like a heart beat. And the next moment his accomplice blew up from inside.

His friend was killed by a heartbeat.

A heartbeat with "Mana" Radiation of toxicity far beyond which Knights of their level could comprehend with mere instincts.

The man from the Rift gazed down impassively at the corpse of the green haired knight and the "Mana" seemed to shift once more.

A dark shadow loomed over his face, highlighting only the red of his eyes and the dark glow of his orange reptilian pupils.

Those pupils shifted to the battered girl on the ground.

Then his voice resounded darkly.

"Very well."

The "Mana" trembled furiously. The air shifting with thick animosity; pure bloodlust emanated from the single gaze of his reptilian eyes.

The remaining knight tensed in place as the reptilian gaze fell precisely in him. All survival instincts screamed like a thousand whispering voice in his head.

Telling him to run.

The abomination raised his hand to the side and ordered.

"Come, 02 "

The red pillar ripping the fabric of space time and reality rippled like a harrowing curtain. A sharp black streak pierced through its surface, out from the other side, with imperceivable speed like a black needle through the dark night into the outstretched arm of the man.

The streak seemed to cut across space. "Mana" radiation 'cleaved' along it's path like a separating tide. It whistled and the man caught it firmly in place. Full dread now descending upon the scene.

An ominously black sword, as straight as a needle over six feet longer than a regular sized human. Pulsing red 'viens' spread across the surface of the blade, seemingly alive.

The veins inched further across the blade as the sword fell into the man's hands.

They thrubbed. The blade trembled.

The man lowered the sword slowly; the seconds counting eternity for those who watched.

The translucent red glow behind his left chest thrubbed like a beat; black veins spread down the arm of the man, connecting with the pulsing blade of his blacks sword.

The black needle like blade stretched and elongated shortly.

Then he raised his sword; an effortless swing at an imperceivable speed.

The air cleaved. The "Mana" torn through.

A giant red wave slash tore through the space and ripped apart the surface of the ground in a massive trail of destruction. 

The gigantic sword wave slash of red "Mana" wreaked devastating horror across the desolate land as a calamity in on itself.

One second, the knight stared in frozen horror and terrifying awe at the approaching epitome of disaster with inevitable eyes.

The next, he was devoured by the decimating attack and was erased. Blood, bones, and all.

Nothing was left. But a traveling trail of pure catastrophe caused by the red wave slash still ploughing through the distance to only the universe knows where.