KoF

The Knights of Faith

To win the affection of this particular maiden of fourteen, who was rightfully mine, was my one goal in life – her short, petite figure and black Egyptian bangs set my heart aflame.  On Earth, there was only Grace and I. Everyone else, as forgotten as the inhabitants of Pompeii. It did not shock me then, when I was met with disapproval of spending my inheritance on the fortune of my beloved (with chocolates and flowers and other banalities, of which I have learned since are unnecessary for the achievement of one’s desire) that my mother refused to acknowledge her existence. It pained me too much, for her opinion was worth gold to me and as a consequence, I had forgotten to say my evening prayers out of bitterness. What followed had eradicated my faith completely because the punishment far exceeded the crime: right before my eyes, on our usual secretive meetings in the forest outside our village, her soul was sapped from her pretty white body by the devil himself. Teeth were like wooden splinters and his eyes hung from their sockets; giant curvy horns like a mountain goat and his skin was thick leather; a frame of a wild beast and feet reminiscent of anvils. Grace’s limp body sunk to into the earth and so did he. I then ran home and cried, with my heart in my mouth and told my mother what had happened: that I had been meeting my beloved in secret, despite it being forbidden by the village elders; and that now she had gone forever into the earth. She groaned that it was not love that I was feeling but narcissism. She believed it as a fabrication and what had actually transpired was my rejection, I stormed off to my room and shut the door with such force as to shake the house like a mighty wind had brushed past it. Suicidal ideation weighed heavily on my being. I hugged the carpet and wept. Upon opening my burning, salty eyes I spotted an old rope stashed behind my drawer. It was sitting in a cob web. I could not do it. I feared the dishonor it would cause my mother and continued to weep for my beloved. Then, without warning, a bright, piercing light shone from the window, which made me dizzy and confused as it was still night. I recalled what my mother had said to me long ago, when I was a child and wanted to be a chivalrous Knight of Faith, that I had to fight for what I want in life. And at that moment, I swore by heaven and hell, and what came between, that I would journey to the ends of Satan’s domain and slay him, before bringing back my maiden. At that defining moment, I stood up with the rope in hand and punched the sky. “Oh Lord...” I began, “Bless me with the weapons and armor of Faith. Bind me with your holy protection. Grant me safe passage to the beyond.” A mere formality I thought. The rope was too small. I sneaked into the bathroom with the guise of cleansing and drowned myself, falling into a deep slumber, ready to be reunited with Grace in Hell.
The burning smell of rotten egg fumes aroused disgust upon waking, only intensifying after realising that the sky was reminiscent of yolk, which accelerated the repulsive imagery already pouring into my mind. Shortly thereafter, my sense of hearing returned and I was assaulted by countless loud cries, clashes of metals and extreme bowel movements like incessant claps of thunder. My fleshy skin corroded under the thick, heavy and violent atmosphere. I was exposed. The cracked ground consisted of dark gray slates, piercing the sky at almost a forty-five degree angle.  I took too long to gather my bearings before being sliced into two like mother’s lemon cake, which I suddenly wholeheartedly longed for at that particular moment, by a giant silver ape. The melting sensation overwhelmed me as the pieces of me slapped the hot ground like a gasping fish. My blood quickly evaporating. I remember, while laying there, staring at my other half, how regretful I had become of the whole affair with Grace and my complete disregard for my dutiful mother. How I wept at the thought of her wasting away because of my absence! As disgusting of a sight I was, I called out for her amid this fecal chaos. “Mama!” Like a babe.

The following events further plunged me into the abyss of regret: for the atmosphere of this sickening world began to destroy my eye sight. My two parts were put into a brown sack by a reddish being and attached to a horse using a rope, and then pulled along to a nearby encampment. Thereby stitched together by a doctor in a shifty tent. My vision at that point was blurry and I had to rely on my ears to make out what was happening to me. The voices I heard were sharp and distinct, and inhuman. Hisses and barks and spits. Although soon my ears gradually adjusted to the alien language and I was horrified by the discussion taking place over my monstrous body. “The putrefaction is too recent for him to be a Roman.” Argued a man who sounded like the doctor who had stitched me up. “He doesn’t even have his gear on.”
“But if we’re wrong, he’ll have us boiled! We need every ghoul we can get!” a desperate reply came from the one who had dragged me across the battlefield. “And I’m not going back in that beaker, oh no. You can have me eyeballs I don’t care. I ain’t going back in that bloody beaker. I’d rather die once and be done with it. Instead we die and die and die; over and over and over. Why can’t I just fucking die? The Emperor and his cursed new maid-” His voice trailed off as he began to sob. “Silence! That is sensitive information – what if the enemy heard you now?” The doctor sighed. “Put him in plate armor overnight. If he stays a ghoul. Fine, I’ll find a way to add him to the registry. If his tissue regenerates, however… I am hungry for human meat.” And he licked my face. There was a silence before the sobbing ghoul thanked the surgeon and left to get the plate armor from the barracks. The doctor called out after him: “Get the second to last one from the sword rack! Make sure of it.” I felt incredibly hungry myself. Anger now boiled inside me at the predicament I, at that time, blamed Grace for. It looked like I was the doctor’s breakfast.

It was certain at that moment, in the dungeon, that I must blame someone, bitter as I was. The anger compounded when vomit gushed all over the inside of my helmet and dripped to the floor. The constant noise rattled my armor and made the regeneration process that much more painful. I could feel the dry stone walls itching to compress my body inside and lubricate themselves on blood and guts. I had thought I was alone until I heard a foreign accent: “I hope the war ends soon. I want to see my daughter again.” He taps on the wall repeatedly. I was paralysed. My lips quivered in shock.“The Knights of Faith will win. I’m sure of it.” Bygone memories flooded my mind. I remembered the stories my mother used to tell me before bed of knights fighting in big battles and how it made me dream of becoming one someday. That never happened of course: the duties of a squire took time away from lusting after Grace. I saw no hope for me surviving so I relinquished all moral principles and possibilities of redemption and sank into deep rage directed towards her. Suddenly, loud cries erupted from outside the walls of my captivity. Boom. The door burst open and the clinks and clanks of metal stormed inside. “Quick, Zachary! Before their reinforcements come. And who’s this?” A queer voice said. My visor was lifted up and vomit poured out. “Ew, gross!” Our sword-wielding savior said. The torch he was holding to my face was comforting. “He’s human! Boys, it looks like he can’t walk. Carry him out of here!” I was, however, dejected at that point and wanted to be left to rot. But living in this world of chaotic horror as an able-bodied man was preferable than being boiled alive for eternity.”

I was soon introduced to the leader of the Knights of Faith, as they called themselves, and he was a distrusting fellow. My sight had returned and I was struck with how everyone was in the same plates of armor I was in. He doubted my intentions for joining them and thought I was a spy who tried to feign ignorance when I asked him who the Knights of Faith were. They were the last band of resistance against the Ghoulish Roman Empire – was all I could gather before being ushered into the showers since I stunk. The jet streams felt heavenly on my soft skin. But the shower itself was awkward because I had to still wear the plate armor. Flaps opened to allow small amounts of water and soap to gush inside. On my arrival to the sleeping quarters, I overheard Zachary and his friend, Aaron, complaining that he had lost an important item while in captivity, and that he must retrieve it or else the fate of his daughter was at stake. I barged in. I asked why his daughter was at stake and he told me: “If the Emperor gets hold of my picture of her, he will steal her soul from Earth, and drag her down here. That doctor has it.” I thought of Grace and how his daughter must have a lover also. I felt a strong desire to help him and so I offered my services. He thanked me. “The Goulish Romans would have doubled security after last night...” Zachary began. “We’ll start a fire as a distraction, and then sneak in amid the commotion disguised as a Ghoulish Roman transporting an injured comrade. I’ll hide under a sheet in my armor to slay any in our path if needs be.” Aaron gave me a piercing look and said, “If only we had left you there, then we could have used that as a reason to go back and had the commander’s support. I will go with you Zach, whether you want me to or not. I don’t trust this new fellow.” I was insulted. Zachary and Aaron kept glancing at one another and then told me the commander wanted to see me. So I left, feeling guilty of ever cursing Grace when I was blind and mad. Maybe, I had begun to think on a new trajectory, that my mother was right; this made me think of myself. The long trek to both find and walk to the commander’s tent amid millions of visually similar tents was for naught after I found the commander in a deep slumber. The explosion caused by Aaron was deafening. The maddening fire gobbled the wooden structures like a starved ape. I was hesitant to take off my protection but Zachary insisted that we’d be sniped on site if we strolled in looking like two silver-back gorillas. So I dumped my armor in a sack and stashed it in a crevice outside the walls and watched silently as the pale yellow sky skinned me alive. My muscular tissue was a deeper red than before and my eye balls slipped out of their sockets. I was escorted to the doctor’s tent by a panicked guard, who told me to tell the doctor to evacuate the stronghold, before he ran towards the fire with a bucket of water. The doctor never looked away from his desk the entire time we were there, wholly consumed in his scramble for important documents and valuables. Before I had even thought of what I was going to say, he mumbled that the City of Hell was North of here and to take him there. Zachary leaped from the bed and decapitated the doctor’s head. Then he tore through his belongings and found what he was looking for – a small painting of his daughter. Suddenly, the door of the tent was ripped open. Aaron stood there panting. “You’ve risked our lives for a bloody picture? Twenty legions are on their way now looking to crucify us for eternity!” Zachary shoved the desk out of his way and sized up Aaron. “You’ve always been a jealous cunt.” Aaron raised his visor. He was beginning to cry. “You’re never going to see her again.” He placed his hand on Zachary’s silver chest. “It tears me up inside knowing that you can’t forgive yourself. She’s forgiven you. I know she has. She has to. I love you...” He went to raise Zachary’s visor but he was pulled from outside the tent by large blue hands. I was taken aback. My heart in my throat. Zachary screamed and burst out the tent, with me on his tail. There I saw it. A large, four-armed beast with red bushy hair and large tusks, dressed in gold plate armor. By the time we had left the tent, half of Aaron was mangled by this giant savage. Zachary punctured the monster. Blood sprayed everywhere. Watching Aaron’s love for Zachary made me question my own: I didn’t love Grace. I loved what she did to me. Those intense feelings. But now that I am suffering for this imagined love, I feel nothing but shame. A wasted life is how I saw it. My quest for Grace was not borne out of heroic desire; nor my eternal sacrifice motivated by a chivalrous pursuit; but borne out of pride. Motivated by lust. I may not have been able to escape my torturous imprisonment because I deserved it but I can do my duty in saving one from injustice. “This is one of the Vanguard. They must be close.” Zachary said, weeping over what was left of Aaron’s corpse. In a blink, thousands of fire arrows rained upon us and we dived under the giant’s head to shield us from the hellfire. A new goal took hold and began to root itself deep in my unconscious: I wanted to seize my desires in life; motivated by the lust for life and fortified with heavenly courage. If I were to ever leave this dark place, and I had no hope to ever to do so, I would live out my life like this. After some time, I dared to part the red bushy hair and peak at our enemy. One-hundred thousand ghoulish warriors stood facing us. The back of the army were mere blots on the hellish landscape. The heat boiled me inside my armor. I turned to Zachary but he was not there: he had charged toward them screaming obscenities. I jumped over the giant’s head and bolted to him. “Stop!” I shouted. I leaped and caught his leg plate and dragged him to the floor. It was then that I saw him: A huge red demon, clutching a young white maiden. She was not in chains, rather, she wore a crown of jewels and a gold dress. She not only saw me from afar, she laughed! Anger swirled inside of me and I tore off my helmet and dashed toward her on the slanted slates of ground, not caring that they dug into my ankle. I screamed my name: Li Ace. Flakes of skin flew off into the sky. The Emperor raised his hand. Thousands of arrows, like birds, shot into the sky. I thought I could get to her in time before they landed. I was wrong. A knight towered over me on a horse and dropped to the ground with a large shield to protect us. Then I heard a chorus of cries from behind me as thousands of knights charged into battle, wielding large blades and riding stallions. My suit began to glow gold and my savior whispered to me my full name in this world’s language: Lior Adiel; which meant, “I have light adorned by God.” The Knights of Faith sung my name. Their swords shone with light. They decimated the Ghoulish Roman army. All that was left behind was Satan and his lover – in chains. I offered Grace mercy but she chose to die with Satan. So I slew them both. Then all the plated armor of the Knights glowed gold and broke, one by one; Then they were shredded of their skin by the elements of hell and died, returning to Earth at the exact time of their disappearance. I awoke floating in the bath tub. There was a knock on the door. My mother asked if I was going to go out later and if I needed money for food. “I am moving on, Mother.” I replied.