Squish… squish… squish… squish… squish… splat…

Squish… squish… squish… squish… squish… splat…

Squish… squish… squish… squish… squish… splat…

Squish… squish… squish… squish… squish… splat…

The arena was silent, the only exception being the sickening sounds of goblin remains being thrown about and an eerie madman’s laugh. The front row of spectators stood perfectly still, their bodies splattered with warm blood. Nearly a hundred bodies, or what remained of them, were scattered about, dismembered bodies, disembowelled bodies, crushed heads, mashed organs, warm blood, battered flesh, minced meat and splintered bone. Lying in the centre of the bloodbath was Ash, face down in the gore, laughing into the carnage, the laughter being more gurgling than laughter, the blood bubbling and frothing around his mouth. In his left hand, he was holding the jaw of a dead goblin, swinging the bone into the warm paste over and over, pieces of fragmented skull lying nearby. The gurgling stopped and Ashton rolled over and lathering himself in the warm soupy mixture of blood, guts, viscera and bone. Seeing Spiky in the distance, who was giving him a glare of hatred and astonishment, Ash waved merrily to him, still clutching the jaw with a haunting smile plastered on his face.

Ash could feel blood slowly ooze its way down his forehead and build up in his eyebrows, before dripping down, nestling in his eyelashes. The warm liquid gradually seeped into his eyes, dying his vision red and blurring the surroundings. Ash clamped his eyes shut, preventing any more from entering and wiped away the thick substance. He then shook his head wildly, flinging drops of blood through the air from his hair. After slicking his now red hair back, Ash opened his eyes to see a blurred fist, centimetres in front of him before a few spikes entered through his open eyes, sending him flying backwards.

SPLASH! Ash collapsed into a pile of bloodied mince meat, his head bled all over him as he screamed in agony. His eyes had burst on impact and three dangerously long holes had been punched into his face. Ash tried to heal his mashed face but with possession of the body came no access to magic, so no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t heal himself. He writhed on top of the pile of gore, struggling to think over the pain. A brain-rattling impact assaulted him from below as he felt his jaw give way. Spiky’s fist had collided with his jaw, his bottom teeth were sent into his upper teeth, pulverising most of them, the few that were intact pierced the roof of his mouth as his entire jaw collapsed from the force and flapped about pointlessly by his neck, dangling by a small amount of skin and muscle tissue. The sounds of the cheering audience and heavy grunting of Spiky slowly died down, drifting away as Ash slowly drifted out of consciousness. Yet Spiky would not let him go that easily as…

Crunch! Spiky drove his fist through Ash’s ribcage, plunging through the flesh until he reached his spine. Ash groaned as Spiky crushed his spine with his fist, grinding it into powder. Ash lost his the feeling of his lower body, but it didn’t make much difference with the indescribable pain assaulting his mind. Still, Spiky went on, plunging his other fist into Ash’s chest, digging its way through his muscle tissue before reaching his heart. Spiky grasped the heart softly at first, before gradually tightening his hold, tighter and tighter until it burst… and Ash screamed for the first time ever, in his entire life.

********

Drifting in a sea of darkness, with no boat, destination or any water was Ashton, lost in an abyss of despair lacking any senses or body. No sensations. No feeling, no sight, no smell, no taste and no hearing, only his thoughts. The guilt and shock of murder trapped him at the bottom of the sea, it was like an anchor tying him down to the ocean floor, except there was no anchor and there was no ocean or floor. The emptiness inside him slowly dug deeper and deeper into his figurative head and Ashton just let it happen, to him, he deserved it all. Murder was the worst possible thing he believed anyone could do, ending a life, and he ended ten. All with their own aspirations, dreams and memories. All with their own thoughts, feelings and emotions. Yet he had placed himself above them, he had deemed his own survival more important and he now had to carry those lives on his shoulders for the rest of his life, and they were truly heavy.

“They… deserved it,” hissed a venomous voice.

“W-What? A-A-Ash was that you?” Ashton cried out to the endless darkness.

A long silence followed with no answer.

“A-Ash?” sobbed Ashton.

“No… I am you…” the voice hissed in response.

“A-Another one?!” Ashton burst out in surprise.

“Another one…?” the voice questioned momentarily. “...Yes… another one… I am you… You must listen to me… leave this place… it will only cause you more harm…”

“W-W-What do you mean, c-cause me harm?” hastily questioned Ashton.

“These petty emotions of yours… regret… guilt… sadness… they do not help… anyone… you… were… not at fault… they… attacked you… You… were going to die,” the voice answered hesitantly.

“No!” Yelled out Ashton suddenly. “No… I-I-I… I killed them! It’s all m-my fault. W-W-Why should I live instead o-of them?”

“Foolish… why so… foolish… you … are the… creator of all… are you not…? …You can do anything… could you not… just grant all life again… in the… future…? You… can do… whatever… you want… a few lives lost… here… and there… should not… matter…” assured the voice.

“B-B-But… I-I… …it’s… …wrong…” murmured Ashton.

“Nonsense… staying… here… will only… cause harm… what good… are you here… to anyone? Even now… the other one… is suffering… needing assistance… dying… …Yet… what… are you doing…? Grieving… over the loss… of… a few… goblins… who tried… to kill you… …You… the creator… of all… without you… they… wouldn’t have lived… in… the first… place…” hissed the voice calmly.

“The o-other? Ash? H-He’s dying?!” yelled Ashton in shock.

“Yes… while… you stay… here… at this… moment… his spine... … or rather your… spine,” corrected the voice. “… Is being ground… to… dust…”

“W-What?! What do I do?!” wailed Ashton.

“Accept… to leave… you must… accept…” echoed the voice, slowly getting quieter and quieter.

“Accept?! H-How can I do that?!” cried out Ashton.

The abyss, once again, returned to its endless silence, however, this time it was only for a brief moment before…

An ear-splitting, gut wrenching, spine chilling scream echoed throughout the darkness, the voice was one he recognised. The screaming echoed, over and over and over. He could hear the pain in the inhuman scream, and time stood still. The guilt and despair clung onto him, trying to pull him deeper into the darkness, away from the screams, yet the venomous voice’s words continued to circulate in his head, playing to the background of Ash’s screeches.

He killed them… but he gave life to them. He killed them… but he could bring them back… He killed them… but more could die without him.

The darkness swirled around him, a cold feeling assaulted his very being from everywhere and the screams got incredibly louder. The anchor that sank him to the bottom no longer trapped him at the seabed and Ashton shot up like a rocket, flying to the surface, closer and closer. The darkness faded away, a low rumbling sound slowly reached his ears. A horrid stench slowly made its way towards him and he could taste a foul mixture of rotting meat and vinegar filling his mouth before…

PAIN.