Brandon Dixon

Four Stages Brandon Dixon

A horror novella/short story set within the Swordsfall Universe




*Content Warning. This story deals with Alcoholism and shades of domestic abuse and implied violence*




A Spirit Medium from an elite division known as The Eyes of Garuda was commissioned to help in the investigation of a grisly quadruple homicide. The investigators assigned were baffled by the case. What they uncovered during the Mediums vision would change everything.




This vision would give the first glimpse into Xavian's Touch, a deadly mixture of curse and disease that links the victim to The Withering King himself, Xavian.

The following is a re-telling of what the Medium saw that fateful day.


The Four Stages of Xavian's Touch


Stage 1 - Infection



Stage 2 - Host Preparation



Stage 3 - Mental Degradation



Stage 4 - The Invitation



In the beginning... Tikor is a world where deities and spirits are as real as the nature that surrounds us. Since the earliest writings of mankind, the gods have been there alongside humanity. They are a vital part of the makeup of human societies across the globe. In a way, this is to be expected. Humans were in fact created by the gods. Various great deities created cultures of their design and ethos. As time marched forward, these various cultures and groups co-existed. Sometimes contentiously, sometimes harmoniously, but always striving to co-exist.




History, however, would change its course in a single tragic day and the horrific night that followed. Mime, the Garuda deity of Wisdom, is assassinated at the hands of an alleged Vinyatian assassin. Mortal hands had never before slain a deity. As tensions between the rival nations of Garuda and Vinyata soared under a long Tikor night, a bloody battle erupted between the two sides. A truce was called once the truth of the news surrounding the assassination was called into question, but not before irreversible damage to both sides was done.




Despite the armistice between bitter enemies, the wounds of that day will forever linger. The world heaves as the one constant, the gods themselves, waver.

A new struggle begins...