Chapter 13 Mountain Of Corpses!

“Hey! Move it! What’s taking so damn long?”

“I came all the way here to test my might against that godly sword! What’s with the hold-up?”

“This damn packed line is moving at a snail’s pace! What of the horde of people that had already gone in, why aren’t they coming back out?”

“Geez, so annoying. I want to take a shit but I am afraid of my spot being taken by someone else. What should I do? Can I go right here?”

“Don’t even think about it, buddy. Before I allow you to shit all over my boots, I would rather cleave your smelly ass in half with my huge axe.”

“Sorry! Sorry! I was just joking. I wasn’t going to actually shit here with all these people watching. My ass doesn’t have that much hubris.”

“It’s good you understand. If you want to unload your bowels go and do it elsewhere away from the reach of my nose.”

“What do you mean? If you hadn’t notice, this place already reeks of piss and shit all-around. Only the noble quarters has a sliver of fresh breathable air. ”

“Whatever, keep on moving. The line is getting closer to the fated holy grounds.”

“Aye! Aye!”

As I listened to the cacophony of voices spitting out around me, I discovered much about the history of No Man’s Land. Apparently, it was a prosperous kingdom 2-centuries ago with vast fertile lands and noble inhabitants. What brought about its impoverishment was a natural disaster that occurred which reduced most of the flourishing lands to cinders. Afterwards, bandits came and raided what they could, they violently pillaged through the crippled city until nothing remained of its former glory. For decades not even a blade of grass could sprout from its impoverish plains, thus it was called, No Man’s Land. It wasn’t until recently the soil became fertile again and residents started moving in to occupy lands.

As the lengthy line rife with anxious men continued advancing slowly, dusk started showing its routine presence. As the day grew darker, a blinding light started to reveal its radiant nature from the inner quarters of No Man’s Land. It was as if a fragment of the sun had descended upon earth. I had to squint my eye to prevent temporary blindness.

“Tagon, I hope you are still holding on out there. It won’t be long now before I get my chance.” The line continued moving at a gradual pace, it was close to midnight when I finally arrived at the inner quarters of the settlement. I expected a glorious scenery but what my eye discovered was far from something spectacular.

From the ground level where I was standing, my terrified vision painted unpleasant imagery of an exaggeratingly large pile of corpses. The heap of dead bodies was over 40-stretch-of-men tall! My unbelieving mind was astounded by this gruesome discovery. When I took a closer observation of the mountain of corpses, I recognized that all of them seemed to be drained of their life essence. They resembled empty husk sucked of all nutrition.

“What happened to all these people? Why are there so many dead bodies?” This question escaped my mouth and fell on the attentive ears of the other men around me who were also pondering the same thing.

“Yeah, what could have caused this huge pile of corpses? No wonder I didn’t see anybody coming back out. They have all been killed!”

“Eeek! I’m scared!” I spotted a scared boy vomiting all over the corpse close to his feet. I could tell that he wasn’t used to seeing such brutality. I might have sounded calm as if was accustomed to the repulsive nature of death, however, that was far from the truth. My innards were twisting inside me after witnessing that mountain of corpses but I just didn’t show my emotions externally as the frightened kid did.

A warrior who seemed to be aware of what was going on overheard our concerns and came over to address us. “I hear you scared mongrels whimpering after laying eyes on these pile of bodies! Let me tell you now before you toss away your worthless lives! Only the bravest of men can pull out that sword from its ground sheath! As the celestial deity said, a powerful god will be awoken amongst man when it happens! So if you don’t have the mettle, piss off!”

My keen gaze followed the direction of where the aggressive warrior’s finger was pointing. Atop the pile of dead bodies was a sharps brilliance of light radiating from a heavenly sword. All who were gazing upon its godly nature had to withdraw their eyes quickly due to the cutting pain brought about by staring at it for too long.

“That must be the holy object! Will it really grants me the power I need to save my steed?” I continued to observe the long trail of men ahead. At the very top of death’s summit, I watched the person who was in the lead going to test his mettle against the holy sword.

“Yushaaa! I came this far! There is no way I’m backing down now!” The warrior ahead was a very muscular man. His imposing bulkiness measured that of a healthy buffalo. I spied as he spat in the middle of his hand then rubbed his huge palms together. Finished tensing up his muscles, the warrior grabbed onto the hilt of the holy sword with both hands then began pulling with all his might.

“WAAAAAAH!” From the bulging veins popping all over the warrior’s impressive arms, everyone watching knew that he was expelling inhumane strength. His strength rivalled that of 50-men and yet no matter how violently he tugged on the holy sword it didn’t tremble one bit. I heard the spectators abreast me voicing their opinion on the unbelievable performance occurring atop the pile of dead bodies.

“How could that be? Balrog strength is unparalleled in these lands of Bethlia! I watched him once before carrying the insurmountable weight of 6 mature elephants uphill! 3 on his right shoulder and 3 on his left shoulder. The amount of strength and equilibrium it took to accomplish such exploit was inhumane!”

“But even Balrog that juice-up monster is failing to unsheathe that sword! If he isn’t able to do it then I fear no one else can.”

“WAAAAAH! COME TO PAPPA DAMN SWORD!” Balrog the unparalleled monster who exceeded in strength was not a worthy master of the celestial sword. I watched him pulled with all his might until a fountain of blood started pouring out of his facial apertures. “WAAAH! SHIT! I’M GOING TO DIE!”

I noticed Balrog had given up on withdrawing the holy sword from the earth. But no matter how hard he was trying to release his tight grasp from the blinding blade, he couldn’t accomplish such simplicity.

I was immensely puzzled by this peculiar discovery. “Why can’t he un-grasp the holy blade?” As this thought bemused my cognizant realm, soon after, I recognized Balrog’s threatening arms being drained of all their essence. A fiery red tint was swiftly creeping up his hands; continuing to the rest of his body. Within a matter of seconds, Balrog was completely depleted of vitality. It was not until he was truly diminished before his hands came free from the holy sword. [Thud! Thud!] His dried husk of a body collapsed and joined the pile of corpses.

“Impossible! Even the mighty Balrog has failed! Is there really no man who can unsheathe that celestial sword?”

“How many more people have to die before I can witness the birth of a true god? Please, somebody! Hurry up and unsheathed that damn blade!” The man who had just spoken was the trusted liegeman of the Brilmah’s king. He was shouting from atop a wooden platform that was built on an elevated level to oversee the pile of corpses.

The stench of rotten flesh coming from the mountain of corpses abused my nose’s sensitivity. Uncountable excited flies were swarming the inner quarters of No Man’s Land. The Brilmah's king liegeman commanded his underlings to discard some of the dead bodies being added to the pile of corpses, even so, a vast amount of lured flies continued to pester the residents of No Man’s Land. I was constantly swatting the air to keep the flies away from crashing into my face.