Beauty in the blood

Loneliness plagued my day to day life, killing beasts alone just isn't very entertaining. Sure, I've gotten better, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. I stood outside an abandoned theatre and pressed my ear up to the door. A chorus of roars sounded through the building confirming my suspicions.

Slowly opening the door, I surveyed the surroundings. The lobby was in disarray, papers all over the floor and blood coating the carpet. I creeped my way across the lobby to the dressing room, as the monsters were likely to be near the main stage.

As I entered the dressing room, the singing of metal could be heard through the main stage door. Moments later, the cries of the hounds were heard as well.

"You might as well come out now" an icy voice echoed through the theater. It was definitely a female voice, but it was surprisingly deep.

I stepped through the door and a women in a similar outfit to mine nodded at me.

"Too late, novice" She lifted her head enough for me to see her smirking.

"Who are you?" My confusion was palpable

"Who are you? Do you even know your name?" she fired back

"No... Do you?"

She turned her back to me and walked over to sit in the audience seats.

"Name is Talia" she answered.

I sat myself down at the edge of the stage, and cleared my throat

"How do you remember?"

She looked lost in her thoughts for the moment before answering.

"I didn't, made it up". With that, she shrugged and stood up to leave. Only when she stood up did you realize how tall she was, certainly a few inches taller than me.

"Already tire of me?"

She turned back with another insufferable smirk on her face.

"Valamer isn't very big you know, if you manage to make it for another few days, I'm sure we'll meet again".

She turned back around and exited through the dressing room.

'What does she mean by Novice, how long has she been around here?' I couldn't tell if she wanted me to make it for a few more days, in all honesty. From the dead beasts littering the stage I assumed she was some sort of 6'3 killing machine.

'How am I supposed to compete with that?' I shook my head in exasperation.

I stood up out of my seat, and headed out the dressing room exit. The outside world was dark and foggy, it hadn't really changed courtesy of the spider demon thing in the cathedral.

I had spent the last few hours (not really, considering time was stopped) killing as many beasts as I could, going from building to building.

'This is just boring, I might as well take a look around here before I get back to work'.

Past the cathedral, the city felt very cut and dry. the buildings were generally very similar and the beasts were the same. But the hospital was quite different. For one, the building was light blue, contrasting the washed out color palette Valamer seemed to embrace. More interestingly, the building led up to a bridge that leads across a large river separating the two sides of Valamer.

I crept my way inside the hospital, wary of possible threats in its walls. However, the building was remarkably clean, reminiscent of the Cathedral. As I climbed the steps, I noticed a painting on the second floor of the hospital. A remarkably attractive woman, wearing a white dress and veil. Like other inhabitants of Valamer, she had a snow white complexion and small eyes.

The nameplate read 'Lady Amara, Queen of the ruins'. Amara sounded familiar, despite him carrying no memories predating the clinic.

Confused, but still motivated, I reached the top of the stairs. An archway led to the bridge above the city, and when I stepped out I could see both sides in full view.

The city felt colorless, pale like its few citizens. But it held an ethereal beauty, it's gloominess felt more like a mysterious adventure from atop the bridge. The clock tower was visible from the top of the bridge, once again confirming that no time has passed at all. The moon glowed orange, more so than when I had first seen it. the city was too far below to tell, but I was sure the howls of hounds could be heard if he was at surface level.

The Bridge was wide enough to fit a train across it and as clean as the hospital floors. As he reached the middle of the bridge, he saw Talia crouched over the edge of the bridge, looking up at the moon.

"You were right". She turned her head towards me and nodded.

"You're alive" She looked embarrassingly surprised at that.

"I wish you had a little more faith in me". She rolled her eyes and turned back to the moon.

"Why does the moon look like that?" I questioned. She shrugged indifferently.

"Take my word for it, the truth isn't what you should be seeking. It's not as enticing as it sounds" She warned. I snorted at her words in return.

"Why say that, if you know that is going to make me want know it even more?"

"You will find the truth if you want it or not, I'm just telling you what to expect". I sat down on the other side of the bridge, thinking about her warning.

The sound of skittering footsteps could be heard from the side I had come up from.

Talia bolted upright and unsheathed her dual blades, looking toward me with fear tangible in her eyes.

'I didn't know her eyes were brown, huh' I mused.

"Get up, idiot" she whispered. "Don't carry the axe if your not planning on using it".

I finally got up and removed my axe from where it hung on my back.

The skittering was closer now, and both sides of the bridge were quickly filled with the deafening noise.

Rats started appearing on both sides, the rats were as big as small dogs and appeared to be bloated from all of the blood they had consumed.

There eyes glowed red in the night, both sides preparing to pinch us in the middle of the bridge.

"Fuck" Talia let out what we were both feeling. The rats inched closer to our section of the bridge.

The oversized rats all let out a chorus of screams and galloped towards us. I swung my axe back and forth, catching dozens of blood filled rats in the carnage. Their fragile stomachs burst and blood quickly coated both the bridge and me. The feeling was intoxicating, I almost felt like laughing as I saw the rats explode from the force of my axe. The rats on my side of the bridge had lost most of their numbers. I caught my breath as I peeked over to her side.

A massive rat had squeezed its way though the arch, and Talia was trying to deal with it as well as its companions.

She hopped onto the railing of the bridge, plunging her sword into the rats stomach. An ocean of blood covered the remaining rats and Talia herself.

She slowly exterminated the last of the rats with hysterical laughter. She turned towards me, revealing her blood covered face and clothing and most importantly, her glowing red eyes.

She laughed with glee as I slowly backed towards the other side of the bridge from her.

"Talia, stop this!" She continued laughing despite my pleas.

I swung my axe towards her, but she parried it out of my hands in a show of inhuman strength. She wasted no time in plunging one of her shining blades in my chest and laughing at the sight of my blood.

"St-" I gurgled out only a portion of my plea before she sunk the other blade into my stomach.