Nekeili's consciousness weaved back into control.
His vision strained as he awoke in a sea of craze. A battle of unending gore assaulted his awakening mind.
Nekeili gasped. His eyes focused with strain as he stabbed forward with a blade that came into being seemingly out of thin air. He was killing people by sheer instinct alone, and yet, in his mind, he couldn't help but cry out in terror. He breathed with what little air he could take in, yet there was almost none to be had. He was trapped in an onslaught of men and women fighting to the death. Nekeili struggled to breathe as he was surrounded from every angle, from the very ground he stood upon to the skies above. Even children were amongst their ranks. They were killing one another, pushing and crushing each other beneath their own weight and momentum. Many suffocated to death, while many more were crushed beneath the heels of another.
Many wore heavy, cumbersome armor that thrummed with power. Artifacts that enabled one to fly were used everywhere. Even those carrying simple weapons and dressed in crude clothing fought amongst them like fodder. These denizens were used as nothing more than meat shields and distractions.
Wealth and one's station here meant nothing. Even one's strength meant little. It was whether you could endure punishment, be fast enough to dodge a blade, and kill as many around you as quickly as possible that determined your fate. Only then, just maybe... just maybe, one could have the slimmest chance of living another day in this war.
Blood rained from above, drenching those below. Heads flew through the air, while dismembered limbs and torsos came crashing down upon the masses beneath. Nekeili's eyes and mouth were flooded with the scarlet liquid as it poured from above. Screaming in shock, he wiped frantically at his face. He cleared his eyes and swallowed the blood staining his mouth, gulping it all down until none remained, leaving behind only a metallic aftertaste to remind him of what he had just done.
Suddenly, a shadow loomed over him.
By sheer instinct alone, he roared, straining every muscle in his body against the incoming attack. He shoved one of the men beside him aside with what little room he could muster. Twisting his hips sharply, Nekeili narrowly avoided a spear aimed to pierce his skull clean through.
Instead...
The spear struck the man beside him.
Nekeili looked into the young man's eyes as the weapon pierced straight through him. The last embers of life still shone within them. He could see the boy's weakening gaze, could watch his life slipping away, until it simply... faded.
As if it meant nothing.
The spear tore free from the boy's throat as its wielder ripped the weapon back with brutal force. It took a chunk of flesh with it. A fresh wave of hot blood gushed over Nekeili's arms and legs.
Nekeili twisted his hips once again. The muscles across his back and shoulder blades became taut with strain as he moved. He thrust his sword toward the sky and, all at once, spun the blade into a reverse grip before driving it downward with all his strength.
It was a woman.
He could see the shock in her eyes as she realized she had failed to take his life. His blade drove straight through her collarbone, shattering it completely.
The sword dug deeper with every passing second. Her armor barely provided any resistance against him.
Nekeili's thoughts were disordered and broken, unable to understand how or why he was here. Why he had to do this. Why he had to kill this woman, and the countless others before her... and the countless more that would surely follow.
He pressed down harder, using his other hand to grip the pommel of the sword. Nekeili forced the blade downward with even greater ferocity as spit and blood trickled down his chin in his desperate effort to end her suffering quickly.
He twisted the blade.
A moment of clarity echoed throughout his soul as the woman slowly died, gargling and choking upon the blood flooding her lungs.
He spoke to himself as a realization settled over him.
A calm one.
Yet this single thought sharpened and focused his mind to a stillness he had never experienced before.
"It was either me or her," he whispered to himself. "Or whoever crosses my path seeking my life. It's that simple."
They would die.
Without hesitation.
Without remorse.
For they would have none for him.
Nekeili steadied his breathing as the woman finally went limp.
He spoke once more within his mind.
"Remember your goal, Nekeili. Reaching for godhood is the only conclusion to this story. This moment is but a small blip in the long saga that will become your life. Hold fast... and be brave."
He ripped the blade free and shoved her corpse aside. Watching her lifeless body disappear beneath the trampling feet of countless others only strengthened his resolve against the brutality unfolding around him.
A thrumming sound suddenly echoed across the battlefield, violently shaking both the ground and the very air itself.
Nekeili looked upward.
Silence overtook him.
High above stood a small group of men, women... and even children.
He could feel every hair on his body, even those upon his head, rising as though static energy coursed through him.
One by one, they moved.
Each of them slowly raised a single hand.
Then they began humming.
It was a lullaby.
One that carried only death.
Even those around Nekeili came to a complete standstill. Faces filled with horror mirrored his own. Some wore expressions so twisted with dread they looked like living paintings, each one arriving at the same horrifying conclusion.
The end was near.
The war was reaching its conclusion.
And the instruments of that ending had finally arrived.
Each voice hummed with an unnatural cadence and perfect harmony. Together, they poured their power into an infinitesimally small point in space not far from Nekeili. A strange energy, entirely different from Void Essence, converged upon that single point.
It was not the same dark essence he harbored.
But it was every bit as deadly.
The sphere grew.
And as it did, so too did the horror and anguish of everyone present.
Many shoved and trampled one another in desperate attempts to flee, killing each other simply to gain a few extra feet of distance. Even those soaring through the skies couldn't escape fast enough.
For all their struggles...
The end would be the same.
Nekeili knew it with absolute certainty.
It didn't matter.
They would all die here.
Groups just like those above him began appearing all across the battlefield. The same humming echoed from their lips.
The same growing spheres of impossible power.
Eventually, the spheres no longer required their casters.
Instead...
They drew energy directly from the world itself.
By sheer power alone, they simply took what they desired.
They consumed.
They devoured.
The environment surrounding them withered away. Clouds vanished from the sky. The grass beneath countless feet dried and died. The earth became barren as every trace of moisture was stripped away. Every insect, every burrowing creature, every microscopic organism—even the unseen bacteria within the soil—was consumed.
Everything became fuel.
Everything became sacrifice.
Everything fed the ever-growing spheres scattered across the battlefield.
One after another, the groups hovering above disappeared as the spheres reached their apex.
Then...
Everything went white.
A gentle whistling entered Nekeili's ears as death claimed him.
The land was ripped apart and sundered.
What could only have been millions perished almost instantly.
A white-hot orb blossomed above the battlefield, stretching for hundreds of miles as unimaginable energies merged into one.
Everything within its reach was vaporized.
Many died in the super explosion.
Even more died from the sonic boom born from its sheer might. Those fortunate enough to stand beyond the blast radius were met by walls of compressed air powerful enough to tear flesh from bone, ripping entire armies apart before they ever understood what had happened.
Nekeili awoke on his knees, drenched in sweat, his hands gripping the ground so tightly that his fingers dug into the stone.
More images invaded his mind.
But this time...
They were revealing the final secrets of this ancient structure.
He now knew what this place was.
It was a tomb.
A glorified mass grave.
Those whose bodies remained intact enough were cast deep beneath the earth of Adramadeus like refuse. They were brought here and thrown into a great pit that rested beyond the massive gate before him.
All those who died were either harvested...
Or experimented upon.
Their lives had meant nothing in the eyes of those who believed themselves their betters.
Their killers had shown no mercy.
The system stirred in response to everything he had witnessed.
**System Update**
Nekeili gripped the wall and slowly rose to his feet. Taking a deep breath, he turned his attention toward the notification before him.
**System: User has acquired new skill — "Echoes of the Past."**
**Skill Title: Echoes of the Past**
Requirements: The past echo of a location you wish to view must first be primed or thoroughly saturated with Void Essence. The skill will fail if too little essence is present, or if the location is not sufficiently saturated for a stable connection to be formed between it and the host.
**Skill Description**
"Use this skill to peer into the long-forgotten histories of ancient tombs and historic events throughout Adramadeus by using Void Essence as a conduit, creating a profound connection between yourself and the past. You will relive a location's final moments, gaining ancient insights and forgotten knowledge unavailable to all but those who once experienced those events... or those who recorded them. It is up to you to uncover and tease out the many secrets this skill still hides."
Warning: If the user mentally falters for too long while experiencing a Past Echo, death of the body will be instantaneous. As long as the wielder remains mentally stable, no harm should come from walking through the past and witnessing its forgotten truths.