Present Day
A smell hung in the air. Heavy. Sweet. But not like flowers or honey.
More like blood. Warm, metallic, decayed.
Like the inside of a body left open for too long.
Kyro (confused, dazed) slowly opened his eyes. His eyelids felt heavy, like lifting them through mud.
Beside him, Utak moved, groaning quietly.
"What… where are we?"
Kyro (quiet) sat up, rubbing his forehead. The world seemed gray, dull, distorted.
Fog covered the market square – but not like he remembered it.
It was thicker. Almost liquid. Impenetrable.
The houses were still there, but their shapes were crooked.
As if someone had rebuilt them inside a nightmare.
Windows shattered. Doors rusted off their hinges.
Silence.
No voices.
No children.
No laughter.
Only the dripping.
Slow. Constant.
And something else: a wet, gurgling breath – from a direction he couldn't place.
Utak (trembling) took a few steps forward. His eyes flickered.
"Kyro…"
Kyro (silent) followed his gaze.
Then he noticed the ground.
Red.
Not from dirt.
Not from dark stone.
Red from blood.
Everywhere.
Not just stains. The entire ground was soaked.
Puddles reflecting the twisted world.
Foamy edges.
Dried patches.
Kyro (hesitant) took a step – the ground beneath him felt wrong. Too soft. Too yielding.
Then he saw them.
The first corpses.
A man with a crushed skull, his brain splattered on the wall behind him.
A woman with her chest sliced open, ribs spread like hands reaching for the sky.
Further back: a child. Small. Fragile. Legs severed.
Next to them, two more bodies.
A boy, maybe ten. Belly ripped open. Eyes still wide.
A baby – face crushed, like under something massive.
Kyro (horrified) stepped back. His breath caught in his throat.
"This… can't be…"
Utak (frozen) just stood there. Shoulders trembling.
Then he bent forward – and threw up.
Kyro (stunned) watched as yellowish vomit hit the ground.
It smelled like the stew from yesterday.
Utak staggered back. His eyes glassy.
"I… I talked to her… the girl…"
His voice cracked.
"She gave me a flower."
Kyro (speechless) stared at the place where they had sat yesterday.
The market square. The fire pit. The laughter. The voices. The warmth.
All… gone.
He clenched his fists. Resonance surged through his body – wild, unchecked.
Then he saw them.
Two figures.
Covered in blood.
Elias Vaughn. Noah Vaughn.
They stood at the other end of the square. Among the corpses.
Blood on their hands. Their coats. Their boots.
Kyro (shouting): "YOU DID THIS!"
No reply.
Only stares.
Noah looked at him, expressionless. Elias remained silent.
Kyro (furious) charged forward. Resonance pulsed. The ground began to crack.
"YOU SLAUGHTERED THEM!"
Utak stepped up beside him. His voice shook:
"WHY?!"
No reply.
Kyro pulled his resonance from deep within – like a wave meant to wash everything away.
He sprinted.
Elias didn't move.
Then – just as Kyro's fist nearly hit his chest – he stepped aside.
By a hair.
Kyro hit nothing but air.
He turned, struck again – missed.
Utak lunged at Noah, resonance flaring around his arms, forming blades.
Noah simply stepped aside. His face unreadable.
Kyro (gasping) hurled a wave of resonance – it shattered the cobblestones.
Crushed corpses.
Elias stepped back. No shield. No counter.
He didn't need one.
Kyro (screaming): "DON'T JUST STAND THERE!"
"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!"
Noah (quiet): "You don't understand."
Kyro: "THEN LET US UNDERSTAND!"
One step back. Hands trembling.
"TALK!"
Silence.
Elias (calm): "They weren't alive anymore."
Kyro (disbelieving): "What?"
Elias: "This village. These people. They were dead long before you arrived."
Utak (confused): "What… are you saying?"
Noah (flatly): "The Boneweavers used them. Their bodies. Their voices. Their memories."
Kyro stepped back.
"No…"
Elias nodded.
"They were puppets. Moved husks. Resonance-bound. You spoke to their corpses. And you ate."
Kyro (frozen): "…ate?"
Noah looked him straight in the eyes.
"It wasn't stew. Not meat. Not water."
"You ate human flesh. And drank their blood."
Kyro dropped to his knees.
Utak stumbled – then vomited again.
Something dark fell from his mouth.
A strip of meat.
Kyro (shattered) dug his fingers into the dirt.
He wanted to scream.
But nothing came.
Only tears.
He had talked to the girl.
Dined with her parents.
Laughed. Slept. Trusted.
And they were dead.
The whole time.
Kyro (whispers): "Why…?"
Noah: "Because you were prey. And you were almost empty."
"Your resonance – they were draining it. Piece by piece."
Elias: "Two more days, and you would've fallen. Like them. Hollow. Used."
Kyro closed his eyes.
He saw himself.
Laughing. Eating. Sleeping.
With corpses.
His stomach turned.
He gagged – but nothing came out.
Utak just sat there. Silent. Broken.
Noah (gently): "It wasn't your fault. The Boneweavers are old. And clever. They know how to lure children."
Children.
Kyro looked up.
He saw the girl.
Her eyes. Her little hand.
He had held it.
Kyro (softly): "And you… are you even real?"
Silence.
Then:
Noah: "You should be asking…"
Elias stepped beside him.
"…if you are."
Something moved in the fog.
A laugh.
Faint.
Chilling.
Something in the distance answered.
And Black Mark remained silent.