Bloody Ascent

Wretched screams, cracked bones, fractured shields. All who venture to this plane are met with the same fate. Yet, amongst the rubble, organic or otherwise, a single hand bursts forth. It finds purchase in the crimson foliage, barely visible amongst the rot and decay of fallen warriors. Not a single soul has reached the peak of this sentient mountain, growing ever taller with each new body, new building block…

The man’s fingers slip, grasping now at a glossy, slippery surface buried in the blood-soaked dirt. A low grumble erupts from the core of the beast, eyelids clasping around his decrepit fingers. His body goes tumbling down the fleshy terrain, a familiar cracking sound rattles his battered form. All the while the voices trapped within his cracked skull shout, distracting him from the pain of colliding with a fractured skull protruding from the dirt. His visage paints the bone a deep red, a slippery clear liquid trickling out from where his left eye was. A guttural, vengeful cry of defiance rings out from the bottom of the cliff as the husk of a man kneels in the dirt, knees sinking into the fleshy expanse of this nightmare.

The voices threaten to burst from the figure’s now exposed brain, pushing against the inevitability of his destiny. Pain would be inconsequential at the peak of the mountain, step by laborious step brought him ever closer. Monstrous howls begin to pierce through the din, a fractured knife finding its place amongst the flesh heap, pulling the man through rivers of bloody tears.

The flesh begins to absorb the knife, jagged teeth separating muscle from the leather handle, now digesting the man’s lost fingers. One final blood filled scream gurgles forth from the warrior’s lips before his vision is covered by a blanket of red, his body becoming a pile of pulsating flesh and tendons.