Side Story 2: The Legend of Bloody Gus

It is said that the best of men come out of the worst situations. Sadly so do the monsters. In a far off part of Babel, there was a pair of brothers, one known as Gil, the other Gus. They were the best of friends and adored their younger sister Grace. They lived the path of life, breathed it and studied it until all three children were true paragons of the Absolution clan. Their father and mother could have not been more proud, but they were lacking something in life.

Gil chose to journey the tower, climb the floors and eventually reached the floor of battle. There he found an eternal war-zone, where men would fight and immortals would reap the souls of millions. There were only two sides to this war, «Ardis» and «Golgomah» who had fought since their creation. The thirty-sixth floor was a meat grinder made by Babel herself. It was meant to bring about the greatest soldiers through a path of pure destruction. Not many could rise up to the rank of «Form King», the leader of a million men, but those who did would be destined to become «Ascendant Immortals». They would punch through the veil and achieve the light of truth in the infinite paths of the world. This was the prize that Gil sought.

He fought and began learning the path of destruction, cutting swaths through men and women he stood against. He made friends and enemies with every kill as each corpse would have allies, enemies and loved ones. He fought and fought but not once did he break the land’s core tenets; To always fight fairly, To obey the laws of the land, to leave battlefield grudges behind after leaving the floor, and to protect your allies.

He spent over a thousand years on the plane as his brother and sister absorbed themselves in other fields of study. Eventually he became a «Form Lord», a leader of a thousand men, and was deemed a scourge to the side of Golgomah. He would lead and befriend anyone he could use to further his power, and rose without opposition until he met Arda.

Arda was unlike anyone he had ever seen, she was a war goddess, and the only being who had stood up to him in the millennium that he had been on this floor. Every time they came to arms against each other she would hold her ground, and more often than not she forced Gil to a draw. It infuriated him and intrigued him that this woman, this she-devil, could be his equal in war at least. He swore that if he met her on the field they would fight to the death. He truly believed his oath would hold, and the fight would end with only one man standing.

Until they actually met.

The moment he laid eyes on her he fell head over heels in love. She, the same. It was like the way of the world had finally found human form, a male and female offsetting each other in perfect harmony. They were truly made for each other, and so they fought in ways that no one had seen before. They were mating though battle, falling deeper for each other with each punch, arrow or blade stroke. Eventually their dance came to an end, with no loser and two victors. They spoke in battle about how they both would leave after the next skirmish, together. The battle ended and they parted with hope in their hearts.

This hope would not last. On the return journey the second in command of Gil’s troop realised what his commander was going to do. Fraternising with the opposing side was not against the law of the land or the tenets of the floor, but it left a bitter taste in the mouths of people. Often your partner would have killed someone you were friends with or cared about, and so it ended in heartbreak. With both Arda and Gil living on the floor for a millennium they had accrued a great number of connected enemies, and one of Arda’s was Gil’s second, Michael.

Michael had lost his brother to Arda in his first battle against her. They had quickly separated and Michael had been moved to Gil’s troup. He made no secret of his hatred for her, and so when he saw Gil in battle with the woman, and how he acted after he was furious. The man he trusted and relied on to lead him was in love with his most hated enemy. To him it was the deepest form of betrayal.

He only saw one option. He sowed the seeds of dissent in key members of Gil’s troup, weak links and power grabbers, men who coveted the title of Form Lord. Over the next three days he set up the way that Gil would die. He would be destroyed by the army of the woman he loved so much and then there would be a reason for Michael to hunt down the she-devil and kill her. For his brother and former leader. It was perfect, and the set-up went without a hitch.

Gil lead the battle, as he always did. He did not believe in being an armchair general, someone who lead from behind. He always stood at the forefront, risking as much as the others. But this time it would be his death.

He charged into the front row with his most reliable compatriots smashing against the enemy army, holding them back while the troupe lead by Michael was to flank the enemy and wipe them out. But Michael never came. The enemy saw the action and called on Arda’s devils to wipe his army out and they did to the man. Arda never saw her lover fall, or her second cut him down, once, twice, three times. She never saw his axe drop to the ground or his head severed. Instead she saw his axe and head in the arms of the woman she trusted to aid her. She saw her third in command covered in his blood, perusing through his «Book of Life». They did not see her.

Soon both women were two feet shorter, and Gil’s belongings were with her, in his precious storage ring. The only real memento that she had of him. That night she cried for the first time in her memory, and left the thirty-sixth floor because she had broken a law of the land. In one night both Ardis and Golgomah lost gifted leaders on either side and they would not find replacements for many years.

Arda took the ring and found that inside was a series of letters he had received from his brother, Gus. She could only do one thing, locate this man and tell him of his brother’s death. As for her, she would find a way to deal with her grief.

Eventually this ‘Gus’ was located. He was a mild mannered medicant, a giant of a man, but quiet and well-spoken. When she came to see him dishevelled and worn down he had asked her if she needed help. She fell to her knees again and the tale fell forth. When he heard that she only won the battle because his support never came, and he lost the battle almost three men to one something inside Gus broke. The mild mannered medicant asked if she had any of his possessions and she showed the ring, containing his axe and other belongings. He took out the axe and gave the ring back.

There was something odd in Gus’ eyes that Arda recognised. She had seen it in battle many a time, when the greatest soldiers became battle crazed and nigh on invincible. It was not something that just happened. There was a buildup of days or even years as the man stewed up whatever he was having trouble accepting. Finally it would burst and hell hath no fury like any soldier that felt that rage. The best option was to stand aside and just let him pass you by, so that is what Arda did. She left to her grief and let Gus stew.

Gus twisted and turned in his mind until he could bear it no more. Eventually he went to sleep after writing a letter to his sister about her brother's death simply ending with ‘I will correct this terrible wrong.’ He went to sleep a medicine man and woke up a monster.

Within a week there was a rumour of a man who had been hunting down people in a battle, tearing apart anyone who stood in his way. Gil’s troupe had been split up following his death and the six hundred survivors of the battle ended up being separated into thirty groups of twenty, each sent to a different region to abate revenge killings. It seemed that the upper echelons of Ardis knew something odd had gone on in that battle, but caused no uproar and simply split the troupe up.

Every action taken over Gil angered his brother. Every stupid decision and misinformed act made his rage rise, until he forced himself to stand at the pinnacle, the peak of man as a master of Life and Death. He cut through the crowds of thousands of men, until twenty thousand men had died by his hand. He was going to remove that troupe from existence, and no one or thing could stop him. He was death descended and had judged Ardis guilty. Ardis had protected Michael, and would now pay the price. He killed and killed until the rivers ran red with blood, and no one could stop him, despite many trying. He roamed the land, until eventually five-hundred and ninety-nine men from the troupe were dead. The only one left was their ring-leader, Michael.

Michael had told the superiors that he had eliminated a weak link through his ploy and they swallowed it hook line and sinker. If they wanted to gain the title of Form King then they had to be ruthless. They had to kill weak links to maintain their power. They believed that right up until a man so covered in blood that the red would not come out of his skin turned up at their door. The headquarters was not a place that anyone could simply walk to, so this man was obviously powerful but his stench of death was terrifying. He walked in and began reaping men like grain, killing with dust, axe or fist until he found the people responsible for it all. Michael and the men who would cut off their nose to spite their face. In Gus’ eyes they had a responsibility, and they had failed. It was time that they learned of their failure.

There are many legends of what happened that night, but it is fair to say that all is known is that only one person was ever seen leaving that compound again, and that he reappeared ten years later at the door of the Absolution home, drained of will and covered in blood and gore.

No one knows what happened to Bloody Gus after that. People say that he still hunts warzones that the Absolution clan have trouble with, but no one really knows. All they do know is that if there were more to kill he would have kept killing.


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1 comment:

  1. Wow, reading this after reading all the available chapters unfortunately... Is Arda still alive?

    ReplyDelete