You have heard tale of Pandora’s Box?
Ha!
Let me tell you of some of her gifts.
War, Fear, Sickness – these are not mere plagues upon humanity; they are the crucible in which our true selves are forged.
Harold Attano, a pawn in the grand game of War, dances on the strings of fate thinking himself a master of his destiny. Betrayed, broken, yet blind to the true nature of his suffering. He is a tragic figure, a mere silhouette against the backdrop of a far greater War.
The Yellow Python slithers in the fringes of our world. His power is a laughable facade in the face of the deeper Fear that courses through his veins. He is pretender to a Kingdom of folly, a naïve child playing with vile serpents of vengeance, unaware of the true venom that festers within the heart of man.
And Doom, the twisted product of a hunger for knowledge, a Sickness of the mind. His quest, laughably myopic, a desperate scrabble for meaning by a madman who believes the secrets of the universe lie in the gray matter of the brain, ignorant of the deeper truths that are etched in the sinews of the soul.
To these wayward souls, I offer not sympathy but scorn.
For I have walked through the valley of shadows, have tasted the bitter fruits of Pandora’s Box, and emerged not just as a survivor, but as a prophet of pain.
You are but children playing at the edge of a vast, unfathomable ocean. You have yet to dive into its depths, to let the waters of suffering close over your heads, to be reborn in the crucible of agony.
I am the herald of your reckoning, the preacher of your demise. For I have been molded by the very forces you shy away from – Fear has honed my resolve, Sickness has been my crucible, and War has tempered my spirit.
And Death has been my teacher.
I will lead you through the abyss, not to salvation but to annihilation, for in the annals of pain, there is no redemption, only endless descent.
It is a bitter mercy, a cruel grace. I will strip you of your illusions, tear away the veils of your ignorance, and expose you to the raw, unvarnished truth of existence.
To Harold Attano, I am your reckoning, the truth that will shatter your illusion of redemption.
To the Yellow Python, I am the inevitable end, the predator that will devour your pretense.
And to Doom, I am the chaos that will consume your madness.
Your struggles, your victories, your very lives are but footnotes in the saga of suffering. And as you stand before me, quivering in the shadow of your impending doom, remember this – you brought this upon yourselves.
And in the end, when all is laid to waste, when the screams have faded and the ashes have settled, you will understand.
You will see that in the heart of darkness lies the truth, and in the embrace of pain lies salvation.
What I will do, I do for you.
I’m sorry.