Chapter 31.5 Bonus chapter

After going through the memories of Victor, that was his name. I felt a similar connection to the indomitable will power. Just like the previous I felt I could view memories if I chose to. I decided to. Who do you think has the strongest will on planet Earth? Would it be Batman, Superman or Spiderman? Would it be a green lantern? No. It was someone completely different and unexpected.

The memories don’t start on Earth but in Avalon, a magical realm tied to ours. The man was a knight turned sheriff in his old age. He was big, really really big even for people in Avalon who were on average bigger than those on Earth. He lived peacefully, only needing to kill a few stray wolves and drag drunkards off the street and into cells.

That is until the rumors of Morgan Le Fay reached them. Rumors spread that she had gone crazy as a lover told her she had a wrinkle below her eye. She struck the man down and began hunting virgins to kill and bathe in their blood. Only two weeks later did Morgan Le Fay show up at their small village. The memories shifted from third person for context to first person and I could feel the same feelings as the body I just flew into.

She had a small army of undead soldiers behind her with two vanguards standing next to her. They smelled like death but I couldn’t tell for sure because they were wearing full plate. Morgan asked. “Mmmm, handsome man. Do you by chance have any children in this village? We are searching for them to work in my castle. You’d be well rewarded if you told me where they are."

I chuckled at her audaciousness. I wasn’t the brightest but even I could tell that was a bold faced lie. I spoke calmly. “The only women in the village are those too old and feeble to run from you. The only men left in the village are those who stayed behind to buy time so you couldn’t find them.”

The haughty look of hers broke as she sneered before ordering the sacking of our village. Men fell in line beside me and died in the war of undead. By the end of the first hour I was the only one left alive and I fought for another four. She finally grew sick of my impudence and struck me with magic binding my hands and feet before asking again. “Foolish mortal! Tell me the direction they ran and I’ll give you a swift death, otherwise you’ll end up the same as my two death knights beside me.”

“Come. Come closer.” I mumbled out as I tried to draw her in towards me. She dismounted her stallion and got closer to me. I couldn’t move still, completely bound beside my ability to speak. I spit in her face. She reeled back before chuckling. “Oh, you poor poor fool.”

She came closer resting her hand on my chest. My body went still as I felt my heart stop. I could still hear her speaking as my body died. “You will become one of my greatest creations yet fool. The moment of your death you’ll be put into a torturous hell where all you can feel is pain until you agree to my contract. When you do, I’ll have you hunt down every girl you thought you saved from this village and bring them to me.”

Her wicked smile vanished from her face as she had already grown bored of me. My body died as the rest of her army passed over me. Pain, so much pain it was unbearable but I had to endure. One day, two days. The pain was something that would drive a man crazy in minutes but I lasted. The two death knights by her side had lasted on days which had already shown their strength of will.

Days turned into weeks. The only thing that kept me sane was a mantra I was taught as a child that involved my name. Weeks turned into months. I no longer thought, I only repeated the mantra over and over again in my head. Months became years. The village laid abandoned for over twenty years.

A band of adventurers passed through and talked but I couldn’t hear them. I was too busy repeating my mantra. Fifty years passed since my death and a family moved into the destroyed village. One family became two, then ten. They buried me in a shallow grave nearby as I repeated my mantra.

I couldn’t tell how long it had been. More than a hundred years but less than a thousand something finally snapped. The contract she was holding over my head faltered and suddenly my eyes shot open. I clawed myself from the grave and into a bustling city. I made my way towards the tether of the contract repeating my mantra.

“Ssssss. Ssssssooooo. Sssssooooooo. Sssssooooollll. Ssssssooollllooooommmm. Sssooolllooommmooonnn. Ssoolloommoonn Ggrrr. Ssoolloommoonn Ggrruunnddyy. Ssoolloommoonn Ggrruunnddy b-born on a monday. Solomon Grundy! Born on a monday!”

I repeated that mantra over and over again. I said it close to five hundred million times by now. I kept going. Anyone who saw me ran. They ran any direction that wasn’t towards me as I chanted my mantra. I kept heading towards the tether. Days turned into weeks as I spoke my mantra. “SOLOMON GRUNDY! BORN ON A MONDAY!”

I screamed it from my lungs. Weeks passed and I reached the top of a hill and saw a battle of epic proportions taking place. Morgan Le Fay's army had grown far larger than before but most were bodies now. There were only a few knights dead but I could tell each was worth a hundred undead.

There numbers were about even then, the fight could swing in either direction. I charged at the army shouting. “SOLOMON GRUNDY! BORN ON A MONDAY!” Half expecting the men to see me and run or come towards me to attack they split open like Moses parting the sea. They let me charge in.

The number of death knights Morgan had by her had grown to eleven. If I had been converted I would have been number twelve, I didn’t know the significance of that number. I tore through the death knights with my bare hands. All were a head shorter and not nearly as wide. I yelled as I ripped my third in half. “SOLOMON GRUNDY! BORN ON A MONDAY!”

Morgan looked at me with a snarl on her face. “You! You did this to me! You’re the reason why I failed. BEGONE!” I couldn’t do anything again. In only a second a portal had appeared in front of me and I was kicked through it. I fell and fell and fell. I continued to fall for a very long time before landing hard into a body of water.

Hungry. I was still in pain and hungry. I didn’t know why. “Solomon. Grundy. Born on. A monday.” I walked along the bottom of the ocean for an entire year before I reached oxygen. “Solomon Grundy born on a monday.”

I approached a village beyond being hungry and in pain. The buildings were big and strange. I tried, god did I try. I was just so hungry. I was spotted by men and women who ran. Different men showed up before pointing black sticks at me. I finally saw an animal and couldn’t contain myself. I picked up the thing and ate it in three bites.

The men in blue uniforms black sticks made noise at me and I felt something strike me. It didn’t hurt, it was just annoying. I left that area and kept walking until I found an animal then ate it. A man in a field came out with a bigger black stick and used it against me when I ate his cows.

Finally a man in a blue suit with a big S on his chest confronted me. He followed me until I saw another animal and he took it from me before I could eat it. He punched me which made me feel pain for the first time in centuries besides the contract pain. He beat me up and put me in a room I can’t leave… Hungry… In pain and hungry.