Maelstrom

Part I: The Journey Inward

Two travelers enter the maelstrom
Inside which they find reflections of the distance inflicted upon them
Cursing them forever to change

Choices they've made, they cannot escape their past
Memories that shaped their psyche
When entered the Maelstrom they left behind

They can't evade the mirage of their past that casts a shadow
Unto their separation, as they close like a sea of darkness
As trials change them, they're shaped in different ways
Truth is, both, they're unrecognizable, two mirrors between them

Yet their song still brings them back
Blood drawn between them, forged in strife, inseparable

And so they journey into the maelstrom
As they enter the dark void they look to
The shadow of doubt within

And they walk towards the precipice
As the dark storm curls within
They look at each other and then take the step
Into the maelstrom

Part II: The Ignorance of the Gatekeeper

Soldier on your kind will not be welcome
You cannot be here

This realm is of no consequence to your kind
The subhuman tendencies of unrefined filth
We built these temples, built these shrines purified our blood and wiped out slime
Still we struggle among ourselves to establish castes, purity
To impose our fratricide self defined

Unfragmented malevolent criticism
For the tribalism of the lands of self dynamism

Lacking the awareness of the seed makes the heart untangle from abasement

The walls built around the hollow flame, flesh strewn across prickled, weak
The maelstrom was supposed to take us to a place more advanced, more refined

Yet the gate is guarded like a flower steps away from wilting
Our lands are different yet in the eyes of the tempest we are all the same

Yet the price we pay to enter is a soul too high
The end of unity is nigh
Cold

Part III: The Skinrender

To forge desire, the affection that goes skin deep
The cuts come deep, slashing across the eyes that turn inwards
Salt the wounds burn the pus away
Sacrificed to the altars gazed upon by disaffected eyes
A body disconnected lies inside
Crushed by pressures demanding a stride
Propped up empty veins draining life force from society

Crush them claw their eyes out skin them alive
Have no fear we shall grant them no rest
Heaven abandoned us all so we will never forget
Their time has come

The skinrender arrives, time to take its toll
Price of flesh paid in the currency of fake propensity
Cast your semblance aside
Leave your flesh behind

To decide what the worth of one’s soul is
I weigh it against void of a black hole
The trials complete, the verdict is drawn in fire
When the flesh is flayed, your core displayed, there’s nothing inside

You trudge forward, an empty facade
Actualization of empathy denied
A carcass mirrored in bloodred collages
Splayed across clouds in a collective mirage
No one hears when you scream

Part IV: The Exemplars

Drowned by insight
Hunted all through the night
Blood engines churn alight
Pursue the beast inside
Pale of blood we hunt into the night
Alive, the ancient curse
When we rise the moon will consume
The gods will look upon us and descend
The seers will mislead
Healers will concede

Cutting slashing blood is gushing
Darkness consumes blinding seething
Whips out lashing umbilical cord tying into dreams and burning
Down the church of nightmares hunting larvae giving birth to elder gods in cycles timeless
Serpents endless spiders vacuous orphans nameless martyrs lifeless

Cosmos seeking entry into our realm with the birth of emissaries eyeless shadows soulless
Marks of those who fell to the thirst, runes of power bestowing
Perversities upon the beholders who transform into their own worst
Enemies only to be blinded by the enlightened
Biting into flesh seeking the path to sightless visions of the gods