TARNOS

"Where are they?" Tarnos is a strength-based warrior hero of the Celestial faction.

One stormy afternoon not long ago, when I'd finally managed to get the supplies to that border camp before it was totally dark, I encountered an emaciated, scruffy old man. He was squatting, clothes ragged and eyes hollow, under the dilapidated roof of a ruined house opposite the camp. In this place, so close to the front lines, it was not uncommon to see refugees whose homes had been destroyed in the conflict, but I felt there was something different in the eyes of this fellow.

When the rain eventually stopped, I was able to make my escape from the anxious grumbling of the soldiers in the camp. I was cheering my expected peace and quiet too early, however, as the old man was already on his feet and speaking as if through tears: "Alas! O, alas, he is coming! Tarnos, the radiant fang! The watchdog of the gods, with a heart of stone! His eternal atonement begins once more…"

I was startled to say the least, even more so when the old man suddenly grabbed my collar in a vice-like grip: "All because Tarnos' radiance has been stained by that which he guards, only by the blood of every single Hypogean who escaped into this world can his sins be cleansed."

In my frantic attempts to break free from the old man's grasp, I slipped and fell to the ground. Just as I was about to get back up, I was distracted by a commotion from within the camp. First I heard the shouts of the soldiers, followed by the sounds of breaking pots shattering and barrels breaking. Then came the blood-curdling screams and wails of horror, before the very last thing I hoped to ever hear reached my ears: the roar of Hypogeans.

Flames were already licking the back of the wooden barricade, and I knew this place was soon to become a living hell. I tried to grab the old man's arm, thinking I could save at least one life, but he covered his head and began to shake uncontrollably. Sobbing, his tears soaking the back of my hand, he cried: "He has come! He is here! I can feel it! The brand on my body burns anew…He who cursed my approaches… Is today the day he takes me away?"

BANG! With a loud crash, the gates of the camp were ripped apart as easily as paper, and a Hypogean appeared, holding half a set of armor. It looked towards us before scratching its head, and I knew I was finished. The old man wailed even louder before dropping to his knees and flying his arms open, as if welcoming the Hypogean. For its part, the Hypogean approached him slowly, with great interest, as if happy for and accepting this human's servile reception. I could already smell the foul stench emanating from it, but my legs were so weak I could do nothing but lean against the tree behind me.

Just as I closed my eyes and thought of my dear, departed mother, there came a heavy thud, followed by a jet of sticky, stinking liquid right in my face. I somehow overcame the ringing in my ears to open my eyes, and saw that a bizarre pillar had fallen from the sky and squished the Hypogean into a quivering, fleshy mess. I rubbed my eyes but the had not deceived me: this ornately carved pillar, majestic and solemn, was clearly not of this world.

The old man was shouting at the pillar, his expression intensely strained. As the ringing in my ears slowly subsided, I could make out what he was yelling: "No! NO! Curse you Tarnos! You were meant to come after me, not that Hypogean! I cannot be your revenge bait forever! I have already fled to this desolate place, where next will you drive me?!"

I followed the old man's gaze and saw a figure in the shadow of the pillar. Beneath flowing white hair were golden veins which circulated across the black, statue-like body, while both legs were sunk deeply into the hard rock. More pillars came screaming down from the sky, and the grotesque cracking and thudding sounds of the other Hypogeans  being crushed continued to emanate from the camp.

The old man screamed profanity at the figure: 'Curse you! I curse you, Tarnos! 'Twas you who prevented Dura from giving fire to humans, prevented us from gaining power! You see us only as insects, crawling around the shackles of your mission! Thus the people have detested you and feared you from the first day they came to know you! They reject you! Forget you!"

The old man's yells changed into a tone of malicious taunting: "While you may be able to sever humans' communication with the  gods, you can never prevent the Hypogeans from calling to us! Their power will allow us mere mortals, whom you ignore, to shake the very mountains! You, however, will never find redemption, hahaha!"

"Petty ambition is the reason your people secretly court the Hypogeans? This thirst for power that is not yours?" Tarnos finally replied to the old man, though I could not see his face.

The old man was clearly irritated: "Haha…Petty ambition? Tell me, wherefore the gods enjoy eternal life, holding themselves far above the masses, while we humans must but simply accept our mortal fate? Why is it our lot to be born weak and powerless? Where do we err in wishing for power commensurate with our intelligence?"

"Human wisdom and emotion far surpass those of other creatures, yet these eventually become breeding grounds for greed." Tarnos' voice was chilling, "Dura entrusted me with watching the Barred Gates, yet those followers of the Hypogeans maintain their foolish obsession, as the try in vain to break the seal and loos the Hypogeans back into Esperia. This is a blasphemy I will never allow."

"Ahahaha!" The old man's demented laughter became even more crazed. "Yes, you vilified us. Persecuted us. Exiled us. But did we not succeed in the end? Those insufferably arrogant gods were dealt a crushing blow, while we were rewarded with the power of the Hypogeans!"

"That was my failure. I will not deny it." Tarnos' ice-cold eyes flashed from the shadows.

"Ahaha! So, look at you now, you stubborn cruel watchdog! To punish yourself, you go so far as to encase your legs in stone, vowing to never again take a single step until all Hypogeans have been exterminated. Do you really thing this is sufficient to expunge the shame of your desertion? How ridiculous!" The old man's tone became embittered and hateful once again, "But if your goal is the eradication of all Hypogeans, why do you yet brand us and endlessly drive us away?"

"The price of power for Hypogean worshippers is to become the vanguard of their evil, so you likewise become my perfect bait." Tarnos thus replied.

"What sort of god are you? These are actions of the demons!" The old man buried his face in his hands and appeared to weep. The rain had started again, soaking his disheveled hair, while the strange golden brand on his forehead appeared to emit a faint glow.

So immersed was I in the dreadful scene that I almost forgot I was present. But suddenly the old man leapt at me with unnatural agility, a demonic weapon fragment clutched tightly in his hand and aimed straight at my chest. I had not even time to shout before Tarnos was in front of me, grabbing the old man tightly and hoisting him in the air.

"Kill...Me…" The old man managed to utter these two words, before vainly stabbing at Tarnos' arm with his weapon, almost as if in supplication.

"I will not let you escape so easily." Tarnos snapped the old man's weapon as if it were a twig, then threw him on the floor. "Go. Bear my brand. The fate of your feral curs will ever be thus, even unto my redemption comes to pass."

"Never. That is impossible! Hahaha, Tarnos, you avowed guardian, never will you see the day that your sins are fully repaid!" The old man frantically fled from our sight, scrabbling and stumbling into the depths of the wasteland.

I do not know when it was that Tarnos departed. All I know is that when the rain stopped, all traces of what had just transpired had been washed away, as if it had never happened. Yet the actions of that merciless deity conjured nightmares within me, his name deeply engraved in my psyche: Tarnos, he whose Hypogean hunt will continue till the end of days. There will be no mercy, no quarter, no respite.