Embodied

A thousand years ago, in a faraway kingdom, the king of the land gathered his loyal men on the war room's roundtable. Knights and generals, who claimed to fight in the king’s name, sat in anticipation. The air in the room thickened with suspense and tension from what laid ahead of their lives.

“A storm will be coming and it’ll be big enough to wipe all that lives in this land,” the king said tiredly as he folded his hands together. His wrinkled eyes dropped to his hands, the sensation of utter helplessness taking over.

Small talk was immediately formed as the panicked soldiers all looked at one another. All while distant thunder was heard through the thick, brick walls of the castle. Not even the sturdy walls could keep the threatening noises out. With thunder, lightning flashed and with lightning, the earth shook a little. The men felt it and before getting the chance to panic, the king spoke again.

“It’s the gods fighting again... Gerrah and Levis...” the king said. His brown eyes looked out to the window and when seeing lightning gather in the distance, his lips let out a sigh. His years of living had been spent on endless wars which he promised to put a stop to. Eighty years of different wars and just when he thought he could finally die in peace, the gods were now fighting.

No matter how high in power he was, he was still human and just that. A king to a god was nothing: a king was no more powerful than any other human. Division in power amongst men was an illusion; in the end, they were all flesh and bone. This was the reality the king had just made in his senior years.

Many miles away, past many hidden forests and mountains and in a place where no man had been around, two gods had been fighting in the air. Blasts of their full-potential-power had been thrown at one another and deflected by the holy swords that they carried.

Levis, the god of righteousness and all that was good had a different attire and look; he was covered in silver armor, like that of a knight, and every part of his skin was covered. He focused on mainly deflecting the hits that the other god threw at him; even his fighting techniques defined him as the hero of this story.

Gerrah, on the other hand, was the god of darkness and evil. His dark clothes had been ripped to shreds and part of his chest showed. A magnificent black cape followed his every movement, his black hair covering his eyes now and then as he fought in a battle.

Levis fought to take over the world with righteousness and goodness, Gerrah fought to take over the world with darkness and chaos. And so, they fought for who would take over the land of man. They fought senselessly, not realizing that they would cause destruction to a nearby kingdom.

With swords clinking and explosions from their power deriving on the earth beneath them, they continued to fight senselessly.

“Give it up. I saw this world first,” Gerrah snarled as he flew through the attacks of his opponent and held him by the shoulders. He began to fly down to the ground, all while pushing his opponent down.

“Anything under your control is bound to die!” Levis said through his pointed armor-helmet. He grabbed onto Gerrah’s arm as they flew down and with all his mighty strength, he flipped him over so now he’d be the one on the bottom. Levis successfully managed to pin the god of darkness down in time for him to crash against the earth. Because of the impact of this, the earth shook below their feet and lightning struck again.

Moments, where Levis thought he’d won, had been shared by him and the environment when suddenly, a dark beam of energy blasted from Gerrah’s chest and sent Levis flying away. Gerrah’s destructive power destroyed the last shreds of clothes that covered him and now, his entire chest was bare. Scratches and cuts formed all over but none were compared to the black patterns that built from his heart and out towards his body.

Levis landed many feet away and landed on a pile of dead flowers, his helmet finally falling out to reveal his snow-white hair. He quickly got himself up and when he turned to look at where Gerrah laid, he saw that he was now on his feet with a black aura traced by a red glow surrounded him. Gerrah’s eyes flashed with a dark crimson hue as things around him began to levitate.

At the sight, Levis eyes were quickly shadowed by anger and determination grew at the center of his golden eyes. Suddenly, he clasped his hands together and his entire aura began to radiantly glow with a white light that was just as vibrant as his white hair.

Both gods yelled and ran to one another, ready to engage completely in their full power. And when they both clashed, a beam of crimson and white light shot straight to the sky. Clouds were quickly separated from this beam and all that was nearby flew away. Everything happened so fast and the destruction level was at its peak.

Both gods have blasted away. The mountain they fought on was destroyed but small remains of it remained, however, and a large hole was engraved from where the beam of light shot through. The hole was so deep that it reached the bottom of the 3,000-foot mountain.

The god of darkness landed on a village that was many miles away- that was just how powerful his attack had been. He crashed through the roof of a peasant family’s home and landed straight on the ground of where the family would eat.

Barely alive, the god of darkness was unable to move or react. His body was sprawled on the ground and he looked dead. He was as good as dead. He had many burns around his face and his side had been bleeding a dark goo from all of the fighting he’d done. He could’ve died there, he should’ve died there- but his fate was changed when a pair of gentle hands gently rested on his face.

A mute girl who had no words to give had seen the god clash into her home. She had just done her daily shopping around the town market and although unable to communicate, people treated her especially kind because of her incredible beauty. She had reached her home just in time to see the god break through her roof and land there unconsciously. Not knowing who he was, not knowing of his malevolence, she ran to him and instead of worrying for the roof, she worried for him. Her gentle hands wrapped around his face and with a few pats, she hummed desperately, wishing the words would leave her lips but they did not.

The blonde girl saw that there had been a pattern of darkness on the side of his face, a part she had not seen. Afraid of what it would do, her hands quickly let go of the god’s face but she found her hands stuck to his face the moment they were only centimeters away.

Her cobalt eyes turned to look at her hands, knowing very well it wasn’t under her command to reattach them to his face- but when seeing the god’s hand holding onto them, her eyes widened with fear.

The god suddenly inhaled sharply as his eyes shot open. His breathing was quick and without a pattern. He was trying to get as much oxygen as he could, fearing death might’ve taken over if he had not done so.

“You...” Gerrah said as he breathed out. The pattern around his face began to spread through more and began to spread through his hands. It spread to his hands so quickly and then, it began to spread into her smaller hands. “Help me, and I will help you...” he breathed out.

The young blonde, afraid of what was going on, tried pulling her hand away but the difference in strength was too great.

However, that moment of fear was quickly ended when the earth began to shake violently. All that was in the household began to fall out of place and the walls began to move from side to side. An earthquake struck with great strength; it’d been as though the quake had been done by the gods fighting again- but Gerrah was not the one doing the fighting this time.

Gerrah quickly turned to look out the open door but when he looked outside, a large glow of white light expanded from the outside and traveled onto the inside until all was consumed by it, including the blonde girl and himself.

His weak body couldn’t have run away, especially when the light glowed at an incredible speed. His body only had time to react with a faint gasp and his eyes widening before the light completely consumed everything.

This would be the last time the earth would ever hear of the god of Darkness, Gerrah. This was concluded as his cause of death.

After his death, years of peace blossomed and although man made wars still occurred, they didn’t happen as extremely as they would’ve if not for Gerrah.

The name Gerrah had slowly vanished from existence. The once fearsome god, whose tale’s would keep children up at night, was now only a myth; a myth usually depicted in old works of art or old literature. Nothing that truly signified that his existence was once existent.

That was until the year of 2015, when the moon turned red.

That night, when the moon turned into a dark crimson color, in the center of an ominous forest that no one really dared to go to, rain began to pour down heavily with all its might. The rain was collected so much by the earth below that a small river was created and it crawled through the forest. It crawled through, making the soil that was once firm, soft. The river eventually grew and grew, gaining strength as it passed through more collected water. Eventually, many things were dragged by the strong forces of the water, including trees and rocks.

Lightning began to build within the clouds that had been forming rapidly. And once the storm clouds were of appropriate size, the red moon’s hue gently brushed them with its light, crimson glow. This made the clouds look like blood vessels and the rain seem like blood. The lightning then began to strike down the forest and took more trees out as though trying to clear a path for the unknown.

These phenomena continued until the water carried most of the soil out into the edge of the mountain and down the cascades of a rain-made waterfall. Trees, soil, flowers— they all cascaded down the mountain and until the mountain finally showed it’s rocky surface: the five-hour terror of violent rain had finally come to a stop. The mountain had decreased in size a good five feet after so much was taken from it. Satisfied with the result, the blood-vessel clouds quickly disappeared and the lightning stopped.

Going back to where it all started, a woman with ripped and ragged clothing had been laying on the ground. It was the same woman that the dark lord had begged to for help, the same beautiful woman that ran to him. Her body remained the same, not a single wrinkle, not a single sign of decayed skin. She looked as radiant as ever as though she’d been a seed under the care of the soil— under the care until she would finally bloom again.

When the rays of the blood moon shone down on the blonde’s porcelain skin, her eyes slowly fluttered open and slowly, she began to sit up. She looked around and when seeing that she was in a forest and not in the home she thought she was in, her eyebrows knitted together.

“Where am I?” she would’ve said, but when she tried to speak, no voice came out. In panic, the blonde’s hand quickly went over to her throat, her features beginning to show her alarm. She tried to speak again and again, as though she’d forgotten she was a mute.

She quickly got up but due to the lack of use in her legs, she was quick to fall to her side and land on the ground again. Her legs were a lot frailer than she remembered. Her skin was brushed by the delicate fabrics of her shredded dress and when feeling it brush along her legs, the blonde quickly turned to look down at it.

A new look took over the blonde’s face, one of horror.

“What is this?” the blonde thought as her shaky hands were suddenly brought in front of her face. The moment she looked down at the small hands, her eyes widened to the max and complete dread over her face.

“Why am I in this woman’s body?!” the blonde screamed for the first time as a dreading yell escaped her mouth.

The once strong god that represented all that was malevolent and dark had somehow managed to trap himself in the body of this frail, human girl. The god was now trapped inside this woman’s body: the muted beauty.