The train charged forward with a vengeance, nearly knocking Corvo off in the process. It picked up speed so suddenly and dramatically that it got to the point where he barely had any time left to plan his escape from the artificial monster.
Because staying on the death trap meant… well, death.
Up ahead, Corvo could see transformer-like parts rigged up against a wall, charged with so much energy that sparks were visible to the naked eye.
A wall of light is what it is. A contraption made by Anton Sokolov, of course it was. And it was placed so hazardous in every area around Dunwall with barely a moment's hesitation or thought.
A malicious machine that atomises anything going past not specifically in the system, this causes lots of accidental deaths, both civilian and guardsman alike.
Something Corvo obviously has no resistance to—if such a thing could even be resisted. It was instant death.
At his will, a pool of shadows manifests from under Corvos's feet. A signal to the fury of the end, a signal of a …single bird.
A crow pops out of Corvos's shadow and nearly beings sent off flying instantly if not for the timely grabbing of Corvos's trousers.
Bending down he picks up the crow and places it in his left armpit, securely pinning the swarm entity on his body.
With the other hand, he grabs his fully decked out crossbow. Tapping the side of his head with his weapon-wielding hand his mask zooms in, bringing up the image of a group of tall boys standing around in a group, a detriment to his plans of escaping relatively quietly.
Flicking a switch on the side of the weapond a few clicks and clanks, entirely inaudible in the fierce wind, are the confirmation that the change has taken place.
Then, still with a knee the train, he aims it steadily before rapid firing 4 bolts.
BOOOM
BOOOOOM
BOOM
BOOOOOOOOM
Explosions of varying sizes hit the group at different corners of the town centre they were all located in, instantly drawing the attention of all the guards, including the tall boys.
Observing his success Corvo shows no visible reaction, only grabbing the crow from under his arm and turning into an incorporeal
Spirit that merges with the corw. The crow, now missing the anchor that was Corvo's body is caught by the wind and is sent hurling off the speeding train.
It's only at the last second that the red of its eyes changes and gain a glint of clarity that it spreads its wings and soars.
———
{Guard POV}
BOOOOM
An explosion suddenly rings out at multiple points of the clearing, so loud that it manages to catch the attention of even some of my colleagues who are at the furthest points of the patrol area.
….Sighhhhh
This was meant to be one of the quieter jobs. Well, not literally of course with that goddamn train going past every fucking five minutes. But the majority of the civilians have either been wiped out by the plague or turned into those things we like to call weepers.
Still don't really get why that happens to them when the plague wipes others out, but hey- I've never been the smart type anyway! Why am I in this shit show of a job?
The higher-ups have gone to shit, the leaders mostly assassinated, the cities have been almost entirely consumed and at this point, I'm just waiting for my turn.
What's the point in living now anyway?
I'm overworked to the point I have to choose between eating or sleeping, one of the only times I have even managed to make it home do I find my family wrapped up in a body bag, the only bit of information being spray paint on the wall telling me of their infected fate.
What did we do to deserve this?
Anyway.
Eventually, we all grouped up, even the mythical tall boys that used to be so rare have come to grace us lowly ones with their presence, and listened for the orders the squad captain decided to give out.
"Men. You have all heard the explosions all around us, it's not good."
His loud voice reaches even us at the back, spoken with a calm confidence that only comes with years of experience. Listening to him calms my own nerves a bit, the familiarity we all share with the man allows us to put our trust in him without hesitation.
"Let's be honest, we all only accepted this shit show of a job because we thought we were going to get some rest or because the pay was actually meant to be decent. Well.. we obviously thought wrong."
That got a chuckle out of some of us, even myself which surprised me greatly, I have been walking around mostly like a weeper for months now.
"But we have a job to do and we have the honour to uphold our principles. If not for ourselves, then we do it for the late Empress and our memory of our kindest leader."
All of us look down, giving a moment of silence as we all remember a simpler time, a better one.
Perhaps an inappropriate time to be doing all this, who caused the explosions are probably getting to work now. But most of my fellow guardsmen, including the captain, probably share this little death wish of mine.
"We will split into five groups with one tall boy stationed with each unit. Four out of the five will split, each travelling to the point of explosion to investigate if any hostile remains. The fifth unit will remain, I believe this could have been set up to draw us out. I will remain as well and wait for our guests. In the case one of the units falls into danger they can't handle, find a nearby alarm and promptly sound it. Now then, you all know where you're going, MOVE OUT!"
"""UNDERSTOOD!"""
Everyone quickly moves out with practised efficiency, units quickly formed and travelling out at a pace that will allow them to get to their destination swiftly, but with enough stamina to deal with any threat.
I am in the squad that remains.
Silence, that unnerving silence that seems to make everything so much louder quickly dominates the surroundings soon after all the squads leave.
Oh, how I hate it so.
"Oi, Derek! Think anything interesting will happen now that our numbers have thinned?"
And yet, I prefer it so much more than hearing this prick's voice come out of his hole.
"I don't know, Sam. I don't know about you but we don't get paid enough to deal with shit like this."
My voice comes out monotone, without even a hint of any emotion I used to be so full of. Though at this he just snickers, apparently finding me hilarious.
"HAHAHA! Tell me about it! But still, anything is better than this void of border, right? RIGHT?!"
A crazed look appears in his eyes as he stares at me, as if he would do anything for the slightest chance to kill.
"Yes Sam, I suppose you're right. Now shut up, we are on duty."
But shut up apparently doesn't exist in his world as he continues chatting shit and speaking so much psychotic stuff that I feel sick just hearing it.
Who employs these creatures? Oh right! The same creatures that govern our life and death… great.
Oh by the outsider, you sick and twisted black-eyed bastard, I pray to whatever fucked your religion that you rule over that you kill him first, just so I can watch the light fade from his eyes.
Ha! As if.
You wish, and you shall receive….HAHAHA
...hmmm?
What?
…
…
Nononononononono! What the fuck.
But I don't get time to steep in my existential crisis as I hear a loud sound, a continuous single sound created by a legion of similar beings.
FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAPFLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAPFLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP
The ominous flapping of birds gets clearer and clearer with every passing moment causing me, and the surrounding guardsmen to freeze up and watch.
Void takes you, even that fucker next to me shut his big fat mouth in fright.
"Pft~"
I nearly break out in laughter, but nobody hears beyond the flapping so I remain embarrassed.
But it's as if I'm trying to contain my laughter that something else catches my notice. The murder of crows reaches directly above us, but that isn't what I'm mentioning.
Kneeling I touch the liquid shadows that spawned beneath us.
No one else seems to notice, too preoccupied by the scene above us.
The shadows have a weird texture, one I haven't experienced before. Seeming like the mix of a nice cool breeze in the middle of summer, the sticky feeling of a humid mist sticking to your skin, as well as the biting cold of touching a metal gate in winter.
How strange.
This is it, isn't it?
The call of death, the void made manifest, the Outsiders' whispers.
Sighhhhh.
Squeak squeak squeak
The squeaking of rats sounds out beneath me, and along with the mass of what looks like red eyes, I get the final sign that I'm fucked.
POOOOF
A loud sound pierces the flapping of the crows right next to my ear, causing me to instinctively whip my head around. Only to stumble upon a new, more intriguing sight.
Sam now kneeling to touch the shadows like me is suddenly pushed onto his back by a swarm of big rats, much bigger than street rats I've seen.
Much more aggressive as more and more keep spawning, tearing into every inch of his skin, leaving onto his eyes and mouth to express the agony he was going through.
"AGUHHHHHHHHH- HELFFFPPP MEEEFF-!!"
His mouth is unspared as a couple of the rats jump into his gullet and start tearing into him. He obviously tries to bite down and kill them, but he only meets the resistance of a brick wall as his teeth crack so loudly that I even cringe from here.
Though it's not long after that my wish is fulfilled and I get to watch as the light leaves this bastard's eyes.
Ha, fucker. Probably deserved this and all.
Though it doesn't take long for a similar fate to befall me. Luckily after the first few bites does one hits a vital artery in my neck and kills me.
Be careful what you wish for… heh.
Fuck off, cun-
{Narrator POV}
Swooping down with his bird body, Corvo picks up momentum. He shoots straight down, right at the lone tall boy of this group in what looks like a kamikaze attack.
Though at the last moment does his spirit form exits from the crow's body, just in time for it to fly straight at the bow of the tall boy, completely knocking it out of the man's hands.
And… exploding into a cloud of feathers
The feathers soon dissolve into liquid shadow, dissapearing into the nothingness which they came from. For a single heartbeat, nothing happened. Then Corvo stepped out of the space above the tall boy, fully stepping back into the world of material.
Corvo drops onto him, wrapping both legs around the tall boy's neck and jamming his blade straight into the skull.
CRACK
SPLAT
A disgusting noise sounds in his ears as he unsheathed his blade from the man's head, causing him to slightly flinch back behind his mask.
'Fucking hell. Look how far I've come! Sighhh.'
It's as if he's regretting all the previous life choices that might have had a chance in leading him here that he untangles his legs from the falling corpse's neck and he jumps up and blinks onto a metal railing.
Looking around, corvo observe the clearly alive charge of the railway, as well as the wall of light.
'Now, just need to look for the power source..'
He follows all the wires, tracing their passage from the wall of light into something that powers the mechanism.
It takes a few minutes with the shit show of cable management, but he finds the external distribution board that connects to the power.
Corvo opens it to look for some sort of off switch or some cable to pull out and shut the machine down, but he is interrupted midway through.
"MEN!!! DON'T LET THESE CREATURES GRAB HOLD OF YOU, PARTNER UP AND DISMANTLE THEM! THIS IS THE WORK OF DUNWALLS BUTCHER, WE MUST FIND HIM!"
'Quite quick-witted. Seriously, I haven't shown off my ability to summon things. The most they could know of would be blink, or potentially void vision. Looks like I wasn't as stealthy as I believed. That is assuming that more propaganda hasn't been spread about me.'
He continues the search with a distracted mind, but after a couple of seconds, he stops and smacks his masked face.
'Fucking idiot. Well, I actually I haven't used it before so can you blame me?'
Reaching out, Corvo ripped the boarding meant to cover the live wiring of the box away, exposing the buzz bar beneath. From his pocket he pulled a strange contraption that, even now he still did not fully understand.
A rewire tool.
'This thing… it goes against everything I learned during my apprenticeship. Sigh, here we go.'
He fitted the tool directly onto the power bar, adjusting the copper links until the device sat securely in place. Taking a moment, he double-checked the polarity markings, making sure the positive and negative connections were aligned properly.
Ziipp.
The small machine began to glow. At first it flickered red, but after a moment the light stabilised, turning a steady green.
'Good. It's working. Honestly, I'm still not sure I trust this thing… but if it fails, I suppose I won't feel it for long.'
Glancing toward the Wall of Light, Corvo stepped forward, ready to pass through. At the last second he paused, turning back with a tired sigh.
"Ah… right. I forgot about them."
Lifting his arm slowly, his mark finally dimming from its constant glow, he lowered it again.
For a few moments, nothing happened.
Then the deafening sound of flapping wings overhead suddenly stopped.
For a moment, the air went completely still.
Then a new sound filled the night.
…like a hundred swords falling at once.
The murder descends.
——-
Word count: 2,480
A/N: little fun fact I would like to share. In Latin the name Corvo means crow or raven. It was also used as a nickname to discribe someone brooding demeanor.
Just thought it was cool because crows are a symbolism to death and Corvo Attano is and assassin.🤷♂️
Anyway thanks for reading.