I found myself stumbling this this way and that, searching furiously for my enemy. Marching for ages, through shine and storm, through hell and heaven and back through hell again, ever longing, ever yearning to find and destroy that which was the source of my despair. I attacked my brothers, my surroundings, lashing out at any and everything in desperation.
And each time that I believed I had found it, and overcame it, I was mistaken. The removal of this obstacle and then that one. The attaining of this power and that possession, but none proving to be or to destroy the final enemy. Not at all. Not even close.
I would rejoice with each perceived victory, and laugh at each mountain scaled and overcome, only to find an even greater mountain looming in the distance, taller and more ominous than the one before.
Lifetimes passed, and through each one the story was the same. Although my powers grew at each pass, still the enemy remained. No matter how much I overcame, no matter how many things, people, circumstances that I perceived the conquering of which would destroy the enemy, each time I would feel the enemy still there, somewhere, taunting me.
I dropped to my knees in despair before the next mountain. Overflowing with anger and hate, I summoned all the rage I had left in me and thundered a cry that rattled the heavens and shook the very earth beneath my feet. I had lost all hope and I stopped marching. Countless lifetimes did I spend searching, searching until my eyes bled and my legs buckled beneath me each day. And all for naught. I removed my armor and threw down my blade, ready to forfeit my soul and will.
And as I laid there, eyes heavy with exhaustion, revolving in myself, a dark figure began to take form. A hideous creature, the likes of which I had never seen, had never dreamed existed. A being from the nightmares of hell was he. A vile beast that had burrowed into my mind. A demon that had been allowed a foothold into my mental kingdom in a time far past, and he had slowly taken up residence. It was then that I realized I never would have found the enemy in the worlds without. He had been sitting on the throne of my mind all these ages, whispering into my ear for millennia until I believed that the voice inside of my head was my own.
-A. Cain
ARK CAIN 