The Last Laugh

The Last Laugh is a part of Tales of Arkain.

## Synopsis

Krom the Immortal, after Aridon the Watcher's "disappearance", ponders his meaning of his existence. And he also tells the reader about the tragic history of the Arkainians, Arkain's ancient inhabitants.

## Story

I remember the old days. We were a numerous race. A strong race. A PROUD race. The CHILDREN of the GODS! We were PERFECT! Our race was without any flaw! Heh. If you actually believe that, you're a fool. Or one of the gods - which means that, well, you are dead and are unable to protest. It also means that if you were still alive, I'd have to kill you. We were religious. We were devout. For two hundred years, we ruled this world, more wealthy and wise than any of the races that inhabit our world today. We believed that it was our devotion that kept us alive. It was our devotion that proved to be our downfall, however. It took us many years to realize - we had noticed it much earlier, but we refused to acknowledge it as an actual problem, insisting that prayers and rather... underhanded methods would help us. We were dying out. Our children... The number of children that survived childbirth was going down and down and a strange illness caught hold of the children that were alive. It was only slow at first, many believed that the questionable methods of our northernmost provinces were able to counter it. I do not recall the details, but it had something to do with attempting to use a lesser species to reproduce. It was rather frowned upon at first, but as it got worse, this practice received more and more support. Still, as more years passed, it became obvious that it was not helping. Children kept dying. And adults were now also affected.

I remember people begging me to ask my god to either prevent their deaths - or to at least make it painless. Some even asked me to kill their ill children to spare them the pain of the plague. Back then, parents asking me to kill their babies was one of the most shocking things I ever heard, despite my position it was something unusual for me. Today, I would simply follow such an order if given without any second thoughts. I prayed to my god, for many days and many nights. I asked, no, begged him to save the innocent children or to at least make their deaths painless. Weeks passed without my god giving me any sign that he even listened. The illness only grew worse. It affected adults now as well. Our numbers dwindled. The most advanced race of the entire world, brought to its knees by some illness. No medicine, no magic seemed to save us, so we kept praying. The God of Death did not answer my calls. So I called upon the high priests of the other gods to support me in my prayers. More weeks passed and we heard nothing. We did not know. The gods were arguing amongst themselves and started to insult and threaten each other. They did not hear us. A year passed until we saw the sign. And it was not the sign we were waiting for. We heard a loud explosion outside. When we hurried to leave the temple, we saw it. War had come. The gods had begun a war - against each other.
They killed each other. Their children were dying like flies and they fought each other rather than searching for solutions. And what was worse: This motivated the high priests and priestesses to join in! One by one, they left to join the madness that was this slaughter. In the end, only I and three others remained. We refused to have any part in this. We were the oldest of the high priests of the different gods, we realized that We returned into the temple and closed the doors. We remained inside for many years. Until the gods themselves appeared before us, demanding that we joined their fight. We looked at each other before we all together declared ourselves no longer being the playthings of the gods who threw us away in a useless war when we needed them the most. We defied the gods, the creators of our world, the beings we had served for our entire lives. Our reward was a slow, agonizing death. And the war continued. Our race died out and the war continued. The conflict of the gods threatened to destroy the very world...

I awoke. Life returned to my body - or what remained of it. I opened my eyes and stood up. I was still in the now ruined temple. The other three were also there and stood up. They too had returned to life. But we were nothing but bones. We were confused and studied our own skeletal bodies. Then we heard his voice. The voice of the one who had brought us back to life. He said: "Come. Let us save this world.". Aridon the Avatar of Death called and we answered. Our dead gods had died and from their essence, he had been created. We were the first he raised, but not the last. He unleashed the living dead and the powers of the gods whose essence created him against the remaining gods as his brethren unleashed their own power against the gods. One by one, the Four destroyed the few remaining gods. When they won the war, they seemed to be... uncertain what to do with their immense power. They decided to share the continent of Arkain among themselves and an age of peace had begun. The Avatar of Death no longer needed us, yet he kept us close. He asked us many questions about the world and the Arkainians. About the gods and our civilisation. We told him everything we knew, shared every bit of knowledge with him. We were his servants, the first to join his service in fact, so we were eager to oblige. I do not know why he wanted this knowledge, but I think it was then when he made his first plans to shape this world. He created the True Elves to populate his part of the world, like his siblings had their own creations - with the exception of Tregakh the Dark One who created no race of his own. Countless years passed, several centuries even. We were still in service of Aridon but there were no war to fight. As high priest of the god of death I had been a master assassin and despite lacking targets, I continued my training by hunting animals. The other three in the meantime trained to become master tacticians and fighters. One day, the master called upon us once again. Tregakh had betrayed the Four. He did not seem surprised in the slightest. We were sure that he had already foreseen it. And so, we followed him into battle once again. Together with his siblings, he defeated the Dark One - but victory came at a terrible price. We knew of our masters' intentions as we marched alongside the servants of his brethren so we were prepared when Aridon the Avatar of Death stabbed Zindrach the Demon God in the back. The explosion that his sudden death caused, however, was something we could not have prepared ourselves for. It was massive. Due to my weapon of choice, my bow, I was far away and managed to get into cover. The other three and the armies who had come to this place were less lucky. I too was heavily wounded. When the explosion was over and I could dare to leave my cover. There were no survivors. Only I remained - and in the distance I could see my master, also heavily wounded. I ran towards him, as the continent we stood on was beginning to sink. The realm of the Dark One was completely destroyed and destabilized, it would drown completely. Aridon teleported him, myself and the remains of the three other high priests back to the Dead Mountain. I was able to heal my wounds, but his would not heal, no matter what. But he insisted that this was all part of the plan. He called upon his race and asked them to venture deep into the Dead Mountain. There he would seal them until the time was right for them to return to the surface. They were loyal servants so they obeyed. Only the ones who lived in a large forest had not answered his call. They probably believed that he had fallen and this was a trick from one of his enemies. Aridon allowed them to remain as their number was low and those True Elves were different from the rest, they were less faithful and independent, but also isolationist. This was the main reason why the Avatar of Death allowed them to stay. The younger races would rise. The Avatar of Death died... and he rose again.

Time passed. New races replaced the old. The few undead Arkainians who had not been destroyed by the explosion slowly decayed. The remains of the Bonelords, as my fellow high priests had called themselves in service to the Avatar of Death, were sealed in the vaults of the Dead Mountain. Aridon did not have the strength to bring them back in their full strength just yet. Aridon took the title as Watcher of Arkain instead of his old name and chose to watch the races of Arkain develop. He made sure that they did not kill themselves but apart from that he stayed out of their lives. He sent me whenever he needed someone to be assassinated or when a monster needed to be killed. I was the only Arkainian remaining in his service, the oldest being of Arkain, older than even Aridon. The title of "the Immortal" seemed only fitting so I accepted it. The more years passed, the more often Aridon sent me out while he stayed on the Dead Mountain, watching the world through his unliving servants. Then the Voidwars came.

Now, the second war is over. It has been over for quite some time now, actually. Aridon has... disappeared in the depths of the Dead Mountain. For the first time in my long unlife, I am without his directive. No orders, no assassinations, nothing but silence. I do hardly remember the last time I have felt like this. I feel... empty. The Bonelords are gone once again. I am the last of my kind. My proud race? hardly a memory. For most, little more than a myth. The last of my kind are gone. My master is gone. Only I remain. I have tried to keep myself entertained with hunting to think about other things, but no slain prey seems to satisfy me. If I did not know that his very essence was gone, I would be sure that the God of Death would be satisfied that I, the high priest who defied his will, am unsatisfied with my current situation. Well, the joke is on him, he is long dead and gone, there is no afterlife for him. I on the other hand still have much to do. And in fact, I can do whatever I want. I think I know where I am going next and what I will do next. I have defied the gods who created this world, I have lived longer on this world than any other being, both alive and undead and by the rotten remains of the fallen gods, even without the commands of Aridon, I still had a place on this world. I just needed to find it.

The last laugh would be mine.