It was a gloomy night in the northern part of the known world. So to speak, it was one of those overwhelming nights that adds gloom to the gloom.

  A freezing cold was prowling in the air, and there was a deadly silence around. The only source of sound occasionally breaking the silence was a hot, disgusting, and sour-smelling air wave that was moving through by piercing the cold. This being, too strange to be called wind, continued its advance for a while by sweeping away the cold. Then, it headed down from the Broken Mountains. The diseased soil of the Doom Pits became scorched to the core by its touch.

  As the shadows of the barren hills and established dark camps cut the cracked soil with sharp angles again and again, the moon was barely visible through the dirty haze in the air; it gleamed with a reluctant and faint light as if it hated this place and wanted to leave as soon as possible.

  Indeed, it was obscure what kind of light source engendered these shadows; neither the faint light of the moon nor the torches on the poles was sufficient to make them. No, these shadows were armless, earless, and shapeless shadows. It was as though these shadows were there for aeons. As it were, they existed on their own, not coming from a light source.

  Veiled by the shadows which are far from the camps, The Cavalier was standing upright on his horse. He drew his black crystal sword and stared at the enormous, cursed tornadoes brimming with dark energy. His eyes were just as black as those tornadoes. These were the tornadoes of destruction; this place was the womb where fear was born in Gandrodi. One’s heart trembles while mentioning these tornadoes. These were the ancient passages that nobody entered and returned. There were plenty of tales, legends, and myths about them. They have been there since pre-eternity, and they will be there forevermore.

  Now, there was a strong wind around the tornadoes. It was clear that some of the gorphans were intended to enter the passages; their preparations were continuing.

  The hideous creatures who make poisoned daggers and attack humans with them, write books about the nonsense called the dark art, brew potions and make seals for the cause of absorbing light. These were gorphans. These distorted beings had taken away his most valuable. Since the day he lost Remeda, he couldn’t think of anything but time and death.

  While the madness-whispering wind blows his black cloak as if to rip it off on his shoulders, The Cavalier was standing still in between the shadows, like a monument of reality.

  “The cursed reality,” he said. “Isn’t it? The misery of my own thoughts.”

  The Cavalier was one of The Fifteens. When he had told the others that he would enter the tornadoes of destruction, none of them had reacted. Already, he didn’t care what they thought about. From the moment he knew himself, The Cavalier was alone.

  ‘Such is better,’ he said to himself.

  It had been very long since he had denied being human; humans were beings condemned to time. They would watch the created beings like themselves, foggy mountains, green plains, and gurgling rivers. After causing a little stir and a little flaunting, they would go away. On the other hand, the reason for The Cavalier’s existence was bringing time to its knees. Among others – Among The Fifteens and some human sages – some would say that he renounced everything but himself. However, the self in question was a kind of consciousness that no one else could understand but him, perhaps another kind of existence.

  The Cavalier has been watching gorphans for a very long time. Here was the place where the tornadoes of destruction were the most violent. Before, there wasn’t anybody who entered inside and returned without losing their mind; yet, gorphans never gave up trying. Ancient people used to call this land of storms the Impasse of Watchmen, but today’s people don’t even know about it. Pushing the boundaries had been completely left to gorphans, while humans were lingering inside their own barren worlds.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “If gorphans are mad, I am stark mad.”

  He raised his sword held with his right hand, and passed it through the dark orb in his left hand.

  “In the name of the destruction of time; for the love of the moment!”

  He was aware of the contradiction in the sentence; yet, he used to enjoy this half-contradiction every time he said this sentence. He spurred his black horse, Rokpim. The last of its kind, the purebred nighthorse reared up and started running towards the tornadoes of destruction. Rokpim was bound to The Cavalier with unconditional obedience: Whether towards a sharp spear or downwards from a cliff, it would move forward without any hesitation.

  When the gorphans noticed the horseman, they threw flaming spears and dark orbs at him, but none of them could harm The Cavalier. To reciprocate them, he accelerated his horse and threw dark thunderbolts onto the gorphans with his left hand. The howl of the tornadoes increased and drowned the sound of the thunderbolts. The smell of hot blood and ash had enraged the tornadoes of destruction even more. The Cavalier didn’t stop; he swung his massive sword, which was shining with a white and dark glow, violently at the gorphans and shed their cursed blood on the arid soil of the Doom Pits. Even centuries-old grudges would seem like insignificant sparks against The Cavalier’s fury. Such was the hatred he felt for the gorphan kind. This hatred was like a living being that he grew inside.

  “For the break of time!”

  As The Cavalier had shouted with the wrath of the battle and his inwardly increasing hatred, an alert had risen on the gorphans’ side. While the devils started running towards him from all sides, he did not stop and continued to ride his horse towards the Impasse of Watchmen. Then, movements of the gorphans slowed down; astonishment and awe surrounded their flanks, because even they were witnessing a view like this for the first time.

  When The Cavalier entered between two huge tornadoes, the gorphans completely stopped and started to watch him, or rather, the madness he committed. Someone who is not among them, another being, was inside the tornadoes of destruction right now. On the other hand, the only thing The Cavalier cared about was the Impasse of Watchmen anymore. He did not even turn to gorphans to look at them; he spurred the nighthorse again to speed up. As the tornadoes expanded and got close to each other, The Cavalier caught a glimpse of a large raptor in the sky. A hawk winging south?

  ‘Vehyor?!’

  When he rubbed his eyes and looked again, the darkness had already enveloped the sky. The words of destruction and madness were whispered into his ears from everywhere. Among those words, he also heard his beloved’s name as though.

  “Remeda, my love…”

  When the tornadoes had covered him completely, and the shadows had veiled his eyes, The Cavalier made his hands into fists and put them to his chest. He stopped and silenced all the whispers. A quatrain flowed from his lips. Maybe this was the very last time he was uttering it. And perhaps no one else would ever hear it but him.

  “I put aside all the blank questions

  And sold the faded pages of the past to the wind

  Those who said they loved me never knew about me

  That night,

  To the Impasse of Watchmen, I went forward alone”

  Silence and darkness surrounded him. Actually, it was insufficient to describe this as darkness; it was more similar to nothingness. Before he lost consciousness, he felt a strong urge to remind himself of his name.

  “I am The Cavalier, the lord of time.”

  As his voice dispersed in the void, he felt his throat going dry. He shouted the sentence several times, but he couldn’t hear any of them. In this closed passage named Gandrodi, there had been many lives sacrificed for a futile dream. While this was the situation, it remained ridiculous to die even at the borders of that passage. The Cavalier laughed; he laughed for every word he had bewared. And he laughed at every danger he had never challenged. Although he was straining to shout the sentence, he could do nothing but laugh. Before he lost himself, the last thing he heard was a laugh from the depths of nothingness...