The Last Breath World Of Souls: The Grave Robber's Despair

By David Brumfield

The story of the Last Breath is told through the journals of the main character, Desiderio Roman, and what he witnesses and experiences in purgatory. As one of the grave robbers, an outlaw in purgatory, Desiderio struggles mightily as he faces emotional and physical, opposing daemons. "Purg" is a dangerous seedy world of witc

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bay Company Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781087910338

Book preview

TERMS

THE LAST BREATH: Is the last air that exits the lungs when someone dies. It’s believed by the living that the Last Breath has to be protected for the Aerial Gods so that there is a positive outcome for the soul. Also referred to as quietus by the Aerial Gods.

AERIAL GODS: Deities of Purg, the enchantresses, clerics call upon them for their magic. They have ultimate power over a soul's Last Breath.

QUIETUS: Another name for the Last Breath which sorcerers and clerics use

PURGATORY-YEAR: Is the day count since Queen Sirry's death and is a marker for time when Desiderio exists in the history of Purg. To understand how many years have passed, divide 365 by the Purgatory-Year number that he often refers to in his journal.

AGES OF DARK QUIETUS: The period of 200 years when Queen Sirry ruled the Sirry Kingdom and Yolowhem continents. This time period was also referred to as the ensuing dragon wars.

RESURGENCE: Were the many scrambles for land and the ensuing conflicts of the multitudes that happened right after Queen Sirry died and left a vacancy of power in the world of Purg. If you had descendants who lost and died in these conflicts, you were considered to be of the Lost, debauched.

THE LOST: These are citizens of Purg, human and beasts, who are descendants of men and women who lost in war during the Resurgence; their Last Breath isn't recognized by leaders. Some Lost are grave robbers/rebels, they vandalize the plethora of tombs in Yolowhem and Sirry Kingdom, and release/steal the Last Breath of many past dead kings and leaders relatives.

RED-SKINNED HUMANS: Yolowhem Continent was known by those of Sirry Kingdom to be the land of red-skinned humans; They didn't really have red skin, it was just perception-identity, a way to refer to people from that area of the world. Sometimes the red-skin reference was used to demean the citizens there that they were not from Sirry Kingdom.

DEBAUCHED: An insult that was attached specifically to the Lost.

BERSERKER: A mutually recognized second-level human fighter in any kingdom in the world of Purg, enhancing infantry. Fighter must have bloodlines of descendants who won in wars during the Resurgence. To qualify for Berserker the fighter must be the offspring of a mother or a father who killed at least five war combatants.

SILVER ARMORED ROOKS: Exclusive advanced fighters in Klukus reign armies; they defend against large monsters to protect their king. Qualifications must have been a Berserker to a achieve Silver Armored Rook.

DRAGONSLAYER OR SLAYER: Specialized fighters in Klukus Kingdom who have to have Silver Armored Rook status first. They are trained to fight dragons and other nefarious giant beasts in the world of Purg. Must be a Silver Armored Rook to qualify for Dragonslayer.

CHALICE: Magical urn that is used by Clerics to capture and hold the spiritual magical Last Breath of a being after they die, to provide a positive outcome for the soul. Desired by grave robbers who want to breathe from the chalice to obtain the powerful stimulant effects.

MOONBLADE: A powerful magical sword with elephant bone handle.

ICE WOLF HAIR MASK: Repels dragon fire or acid, or smoke.

GAUNTLET WRAP: A shield that wraps around a Dragonslayer when he fights dragons.

CLERICS: Magic users. Clerics oversee the king's well-being and helps a king or queen make decisions about governing. Clerics prepare the Last Breath during a leader's life, before a leader dies, with prayer and meditation. A cleric's levies are void, because of the service they provide for a king.

CHARACTERS

DESIDERIO ROMAN: Human main character and a grave robber. He is the voice of the journal, and tells of his experience in the Last Breath World of Souls.

PARSON KELTER: A Cleric magic user who oversees King Gustoler’s Last Breath. Parson has a farm in Hollsberg.

ALANA FORMITER: Alana is a beautiful female grave robber, who Desiderio falls in love with. She avoids levies and rebels against the Last Breath. Her belief is that all living souls deserve a place for their Last Breath.

LUTHER FORMITER: Luther could have been a Berserker, but chose to be a trapper and hunter; provides skins for clothes/footwear to pay his levies to the king and is the brother of Alana Formiter.

MARCONE: A Dragonslayer enchanted by Sylvia.

SYLVIA: A beautiful, deceptive siren-witch, with green eyes. Clover is her magical horse. She is one of Sirry's disciple enchantresses. And an ally to King Merle.

CONSTANCE FERN: A young female virgin, the sacrifice. Her parents are farmers.

ALEXANDER FERN: Father of Constance. Pays his families levy to the king with farming profits.

ELIZA FERN: Mother of Constance.

CAPTAIN PHARNYX: Half-goat creature, a Curupira, is a fisherman captain, hunts cod and sharks. Owner of the Arnet West.

OVERITS: A Berserker who is an assistant warrior and guards Sylvia and the Last Breath.

LENDSY: A Berserker who is another assistant warrior and also guards Sylvia and the Last Breath.

TORBIT FORMITER: Was a Berserker and was the father of Luther Formiter and Alana Formiter.

SHANT: An old man who owns Fog Way Salty Inn, and is romantic with Crackie, a Land Troll who is his business associate as well.

CRACKIE: A land troll who works and is involved with Shant in Fog Way Salty.

ROYAL CHARACTERS

CONTINENT OF SIRRY KINGDOM

KRANTENTIES DYNASTY

QUEEN SIRRY: For 200 years ruled both provinces of eastern and western Sirry Kingdom and all of the rest of the planet Purg before her murder. She was a seductress and siren magic user; she propagated dragons and Stone Giants and Tree Trolls. The Sirry Kingdom was named after her.

KLUKUS DYNASTY

(AFTER QUEEN SIRRY KRANTENTIES' DEATH)

KING GAGE: Was the first king of eastern province of Sirry Kingdom for approximately sixteen years and was Uncle of King Vale.

KING VALE: Was king for a year and a half. He died by suicide when his Cleric Andio Formacus and the realm wouldn't let him wed a courtesan named Mary Gold Baring. Also was leader of the eastern provinces.

KING FORSEENER: He was leader of eastern Sirry Kingdom. He was the third king in succession of the eastern province of Sirry Kingdom, after Queen Sirrys' death. He battled and vanquished King Purity.

KING TROUST: Cousin of King Forseener, ruled in the east for only ten years as he died from pneumonia at a fairly young age.

KING CHUTNEY: Was the brother of King Troust, was bothered most of his life that his brother King Troust hadn't lived longer. King Troust ruled the Sirry Kingdom for approximately thirty-nine years. At the end his castle was destroyed by to recalcitrant Stone Giants; and the king died in the attack.

KING BADE: Ruled the Sirry Kingdom for fifty-six years and died of old age.

KING GUSTOLER: Great-great-grandson to King Forseener, is king during the time Desiderio is writing his journal.

ROYAL CHARACTERS

WESTERN SIRRY KINGDOM

MAIM DYNASTY

QUEEN ANDREA: Ruled western Sirry Kingdom for forty-four years, had many disputes and skirmishes with King Gage. The mother of King Purity, she was killed, and many of her armies, by the dragon Sarehole's wrath.

KING PURITY: He ruled the western Sirry Kingdom for forty-nine years; opposed King Forseener of the eastern provinces and eventually is vanquished by King Forseener.

ROYAL CHARACTERS

CONTINENT OF YOLOWHEM

MUMBLES DYNASTY

KING ANECIEDS: Ruled on the continent of Yolowhem after his armies beat down hundreds of thousands of half-dog humans to take power over Yolowhem.

QUEEN JULIE: Only female to become queen without some sorcery involved to get her to that absolute power. Daughter of King Anecieds I. Served twenty-six years when her husband killed her for cuckolding him.

KING OPUS: Ruled Yolowhem for thirty-six years until he died of old age; his crown and Last Breath were stolen and have been held for many years by the dragon, Sarehole, in her lair in Pitiful Mountain.

KING VIC: His tomb is greatly sought after by grave robber, Alana Formiter, because the water dragon Critia guards the tomb.

KING ALAN: Ruled Yolowhem for forty years; mostly collected levies. He didn't want war and enjoyed throwing parties and having shows for entertainment.

KING MERLE: Current king ruling Yolowhem during Desiderio's times of adventure, and the Last Breath. The great-great-grandson of King Opus.

PLACES

PURG: Planet where this story takes place. The two known continents are Sirry Kingdom and Yolowhem. Because of the danger the total number of continents are unknown.

UNDERWORLD: Where all monsters come from, whether fashioned by a witch or not. The residence of Mourgol Foustest, a great and powerful daemon who lives deep under the earth.

MUSHROOT: Where mushroom people live mostly. Mushroot also means possessions, what tribes are called and where they live.

PITIFUL MOUNTAIN: The huge dormant, volcanic, barren mountain where the dangerous snake-dragon Sarehole lives.

FLEETING OCEAN: Large mass of ocean separating the continents of Sirry and Yolowhem and the Caspian Island.

TOMBS: Most royal, cult, tribe and king's tombs are guarded by traps, or monsters made from witchery to protect the Last Breath from being vandalized. The Last Breath, which is usually held in an urn or chalice, is prepared by Clerics.

CREATURES

CLOVER: Sylvia's magical horse, the horse can fly by turning into a giant crow. Horse has a mysterious green luminescent mane that can light pathways in darkness. Black colored horse and she can see in the dark when she doesn't use her mane.

DOG MEN: Species specific to Yolowhem continent. They become allies and members of Mumbles' monarchy. Half human beasts, slender, tall wolf-like or dog creatures.

LAND TROLLS: A human-sized troll, usually peaceful species that live among humanity.

CURUPIRA: Half-goat half-human creature that usually are found at sea on fishing vessels, or in harbor towns in fisheries.

STONE GIANTS: Made by Queen Sirry these huge monsters are made of rock. They eat large animals and have a desire to be human and therefore resentful of human-beings. They fear fire and the sun and live at high elevations in the mountains.

TREE TROLLS: Dangerous giant trolls that feed on large animals mostly and live and hide in forests and mountains. They also fear fire and the sun.

SAREHOLE: Dangerous dragon that lurks in Pitiful Mountain and harbors great disdain for the living. Is malleable to negotiate trades for possessions if a sacrifice of a human female virgin is brought before it. The dragon Critia is her sister.

CRITIA: Very dangerous water-serpent dragon, the sister dragon of Sarehole. Guards King Vic’s tomb, is sought by grave robber, Alana.

BENEATHS: Large human-sized gopher-like beast that live underground; body is disproportionate from their tiny eyes; very soft voice and are root and plant stem eaters. Advanced gardeners and workers of the soil. They like dark wet places.

MOOSE TICKS: Creatures live in dry climates, to eat they bore under the skin of any animal-victim and drink the host's blood. Their saliva is poisonous.

MUSHROOM: Part human, mushroom and fungus creatures, white eyes with crimson pupils. They pay their levies to a king from gardening. They are environmentalists and usually live underground or deep in swamps like Beneaths.

GRUNDLE: Is a deadly flying daemon Hell Hawk that hunts in Molehead woods in Yolowhem. The monster guards King Chutney’s Last Breath and tomb.

HUAHAUI MASONS: Half-pig, half-human beasts, highly intelligent masonry experts and builders. They built many castles and tombs, work in harbor towns on docks to pay their levies to kings of any lands.

PROLOGUE

JOURNAL ENTRY:

LAST DAY OF AUTUMN, PURGATORY-YEAR 73196, AFTER QUEEN SIRRY’S RULE:

I’m Desiderio Roman, one of the Lost humans, in the Last Breath World Of Souls. Parson Kelter, a blessed human cleric, named me when he found me. He said he thought I was twelve, or thirteen and that was six years past. Back then, he rescued me from a paralysis charm. I only had days left to live without food or water under that lurid spell. He found me among the ruins of an old castle above Ruineer, in the western Sirry Kingdom province. The castle had been the residence of King Purity, one hundred fifty years past. The mossy rubble, partial moldering walls, huge toppled stone spires and salient forested outlines of withered courtyards was where I had been hobbled, charm-sickened, and almost died. Queen Sirry’s ghost tried to kill me there, and take my Breath. When Queen Sirry was alive, she ruled all of the Planet Purg. She was the mother of Stone Giants, three hundred fifty years past, at the beginnings of the Age Of Dark Quietus, before humanity’s Resurgence. Her last day of rule came when she was betrayed by her Stone Giants and Tree Trolls. The creatures loved her, but they resented her deeply for not making them with her female human face. They tricked her, and then pummeled her to death with their enormous fists. She was mostly gone, only scarlet swaths remained of her on the white sands of the Endless Sand Sea where her blood had been spread by the giants.

Not long after Queen Sirry’s death, humanity came back from her oppression like an all-consuming sea of locusts. They took back the habitable continents of Sirry Kingdom and Yolowhem. There were other distant continents, but these were too far and too dangerous to colonize; horrendous entities thrived in those uncharted lands.

The bestial races of Roughs, Beneaths and Mushroom’s came along with humanity, and they wanted to be a part of the retaking of farming fields, rivers and lakes. Actually, the organic forms of Mushroom never left Sirry Kingdom. They stayed out of war, hidden in shadows of marshland and forested valleys where they grew herbs and gardened.

Humanity and the bestial races in the Sirry Kingdom developed different sects; one sect took the north, another the west, and then one took the south and east. Factions tried to stay out of the Hidden Valley Of Parrish, because the devilish valley was too dangerous to move through, or camp.

Most disputes between the sects or tribes were over the claims of waterways and farmland and these usually led to savage bloodshed. Fights broke out until one side or the other won. In all this time the human throngs still profoundly respected the Last Breath, or Quietus as it was known to the Aerial Gods Of Purg. The humans who lost in the early conflicts of land and river were many, and became known as the debauched race. Their descendants would be forever marred as the ones who didn’t have sanctification of their Last Breath. To be debauched was to carry a scar forever deep, and the scar was not of the skin, but one in the blood.

Two monarchies arose out of the Sirry Kingdom, the Klukus Dynasty in the east, and the Maim Dynasty in the west. These kingdoms did vastly dislike each other and each sought to vanquish the other for complete power over all of Sirry Kingdom.

On the continent of Yolowhem, there was only one dynasty to emerge and that was the Mumbles Monarchy. King Anecieds seized Yolowhem from the red tribe sects and cults of wolf-like Dog-Men, humans who had been cursed by Queen Sirry, to serve her back in the Dragon Wars. The Dog-Men became a part of King Anecieds rangers and brass; although they didn’t always get along well with the many human fighters, they eventually found mutual respect. Not much warring happened between the powers of the Sirry Kingdom and Yolowhem, as there was too much Fleeting Ocean between them.

The most fascinating thing to me was that the primary battles between King Purity and King Forseener were organized, almost civilly. There was arranged rules of engagement between the east and west. The rules required wars to take place away from nature, away from towns and villages. The wars were to take place on the white sands of Endless Sand Sea. The battles were not civil, they were wrought with dogged, depraved violence.

The Maim Dynasty, in western Sirry Kingdom, lasted all but ninety-three years. King Purity, very bitter and angry at the end, violated the rules of engagement, because he wasn’t getting the better end. The violation almost gave him victory over King Forseener at the Crossing Bridges of the Solace River, just southeast of Maim Castle. In a camp raid at night, with glowing flint lamps giving them vision, King Purity’s armies of human and beast rushed forward on the backs of black-haired shrilling chargers, and the riders in fevered haste gravely beat down King Forseener’s remarkable infantry. King Purity’s enchantresses discharged snake-fire charms from their places in the shadowy elms. The charm entered through the eyes of the target and disintegrated the brain; the torrid voodoo left its victim in a smoking, hollowed, shriveled mass of boiling skin and bone. With King Forseener’s witches slain, there was no way his men could repel the spells of King Purity’s enchantresses. Arching, translucent, blue fire was said to have spat and crackled through the night, like thunder. The raid went on into the late morning, where the pressing of King Purity’s forces on their chargers hacked down more of King Forseener’s Rough ranger beasts, specialized Silver Armored Rooks and Berserkers, making them corpses in heaps of metal, bloody flesh and gashed shields. Numerous dead were left splayed by the whirlwind of violet infantry slinging striking swords, and chasing those who fled across trampled camps, eventually leaving the cowards sprawled, hoof-stomped, lifeless in the mud of the blood-soaked earth. Not far from the dead were their opaque, wilted and ripped tents.

On the edges of the Solace and Split River, for miles on the shores, the beauty of the green and copper hues of the willows and reeds gleamed in the rising morning sun; but on this day their glow was lost in death. The vibrant river’s usual emerald currents showed to be tarnished, ghastly, with a rose-colored tinge. Nary a Last Breath was saved in that thrashing, or any souls to have found sanctity.

When the lull came to the slaughter, and for the days after, King Forseener invoked a desperate incantation to the ghost of Queen Sirry. He didn’t want to lose, but all his witches had been killed. His limited exposure to sorcery was his only chance to turn the conflict around on King Purity. He called upon Queen Sirry’s ghost to beguile her trolls and giants to fight for him. Queen Sirry had eyes for Forseener, during her living years and — when he was very young — they had a tempestuous love affair that she could never deny. The King’s desperate call was answered and the Tree Trolls and Stone Giants, despite feeling dismay over how Queen Sirry had made them, came loyally out of the Staff Reign Mountains, and went west with a rumpus.

The psychotic towering forms blocked out the sun, while chasing terrorized numbers of King Purity’s core army and his enchantresses. The huge western army, in their blue and purple uniform color and silvery weapons pinging direful sunlight, fled back to the Endless Sand Sea, in the long chase. The daemons won the chase, and smashed King Purity’s army while the enchantresses tried to expel charms in vain. Pulses of green explosions streaked high above their hopeless fingertips. When their Last Breath came, the female enchantresses’ flesh and clothes were dissolved bloodily down to a powdery chalk, maybe only a foot or a leg was left pruned and blackened in the spread. Thousands of King Purity’s warriors had been mercilessly crushed at the border of the desert. The triumphant monstrosities set the skulls of the dead on the top of tall pikes and stuck them in the sand.

The alliance of King Forseener and Queen Sirry’s beasts didn’t last long though. King Forseener had to end the agreement when it was discovered his livestock was being depleted. The maladies of purgatory thieved and were eating his horses, mules and pigs. The king abruptly took the shade away, shade that heretofore had given the beasts cover. The monsters’ polarized senses to sunlight and fire made them flee in desperate fear. The giants went back to the Staff Reign Mountains and the Hidden Valley Of Parrish, in loneliness.

Presently, a hundred and sixty or so years later, Parson Kelter pays my levy to the current king, King Gustoler of the Sirry Kingdom. I, Desiderio, labored for the cleric on his farm in the green lands, near the coast in Hollsburg, in the Sirry Kingdom, or at least, most of the time I did.

Copper was most commonly used for currency in Sirry Kingdom, then silver, and then gold. Only the rich had gold it seemed. Each worker, tradesman, metal-smith, fisherman, huntsman, or garment-worker was responsible for levy to King Gustoler. The king had variations on how he governed society, socially and economically, which were mostly overbearing. In the end, though, the king always obscenely benefited from the economic side of things. But the levy was an unrelenting requirement of his people; if a man fell short, the man would be made a slave in farms, or trade. There were castle slaves, closely watched as they washed King Gustoler’s garments, and his Silver Armored Rooks’ garments. There were also slaves who cleaned the garments and groomed the hair of wealthy men and women of the citadels. Slaves carried sacks of flower, potatoes, meats, and lettuce, or wheeled in barrels grains, fruits, and produce down long roads in trolleys. Slaves served in kitchens and mess halls. The most desired slave work was to be a gardener in the expansive illustrious gardens in the court of King Gustoler. There was always the chance of those who strayed from paying levy, of being taken up within the king’s armies. King Gustoler adamantly and vehemently demanded a stalwart army. A deserter could be made to fight, or moved into the more difficult to achieve Berserker or Dragonslayer regiments of warfare. I had seen men and women hide from the levy of a king; it worked for a while, but the penalty of slavery, infantry service, dungeons, or ultimately execution was a deterrent for any sane man. But sometimes, for a soul to eat and survive, a soul heedlessly evaded outside the desperate lines and demands of a king.

My friend and confidant, cleric Parson Kelter, often commented to me on how children and infants in Sirry Kingdom, more and more, were left abandoned by mothers like I had been. This shameful action of deserting a child by a mother came from the disgrace of tainted bloodlines of men in their family having lost in war. The women didn’t want to have to bear the burden or the ridicule that relations of their own offspring being of the Lost would bring. Descendants of the Lost couldn’t shake the notion of being debauched humans. Many families never made it.

Sixty or so years ago, some men and women of the debauched human race rebelled against the kingdoms, and they vandalized tombs trying to ruin a kings’ precious Last Breath. These grave robbers would break into a glorious tomb, and release the Last Breath from its chalice, or breathe the contents as the substance would seep out in a strange swirl of green-purple fog. The vandalism of tombs became such a problem that kings ordered their clerics to raise heinous, depraved monsters from the depths of the underworld to guard the tombs of the kings and protect the Last Breath. At first, the vandalism of a tomb and theft of the Last Breath was a way to strike back at the kings. Very soon though, the thieves discovered that the substance of the Last Breath induced intoxicating effects and left them in euphoric, mindless exhilaration and delirious hallucinations. Inhaling the Breath became an obsession for the Lost thieves, and they sought compulsively for its stimulant effects.

My cleric, Kelter, said of the Last Breath, After promising love, you must promise your Breath to the Aerial Gods, so that you can reach a higher, regal place, he said, the Berserker of any kingdom could squash a man or a woman in hate, but they couldn’t take or deny your Last Breath!

I was thankful Kelter pulled me out of Queen Sirry’s ghostly grip of treachery, but