So, get this: on a continent that's basically a myth, in a city that's more ghost than town, Henry was born. And his birth was, to put it mildly, a cosmic oopsie. His parents were from rival clans, the Solari and the Lunari. Think fire and ice, day and night, the kind of enemies who've been trying to murder each other for centuries. And these two decided, "Hey, let's have a kid."
Huge mistake.
The gods were not amused. The Moon goddess, in a spectacular fit of celestial rage, cursed baby Henry: one person by day, a completely different, monstrous person by night. Then the Sun goddess, probably in a misguided attempt to one-up her, made him resurrect after dying. So now he's stuck on this mortal coil, forever. Bummer.
This whole baby-mama-drama kicked off a massive war. For the first time ever, the two clans teamed up, but this time against their psycho gods. After a solid year of bloodshed, pretty much everyone was wiped out. The goddesses, apparently exhausted from all the smiting, just peaced out and sealed themselves away somewhere.
The only survivors? Henry, a crying baby in a field of corpses, and Joseph, the old warrior who found him and was just crazy enough to adopt him.
Fast forward fourteen years. Henry isn't just a kid anymore; he's a living weapon. Joseph trained him, pushed him, and Henry shattered every single expectation. He's got stark white hair, piercing blue eyes, and wears clothes so white they could probably blind you if you stared too long. Now, Joseph decided it was time for the next, terrifying step: school. A real one. With, like, other people. A shot at being normal.
But normal was never really in the cards.
See, Joseph has this insane tattoo on his left hand—a gate with seven intricate locks. It's the only thing keeping Henry's night-side on a leash. With a single touch, the tattoo leaped from Joseph's skin to Henry's arm, burning like hellfire. In that same instant, Joseph's spirit became the warden of that inner prison, a permanent guard inside Henry's head to keep the darkness from taking over completely.
"Go," Joseph's voice echoed in his mind, a final, ghostly command. So he did.
The trip to the human city of Kha'thox was an eight-day trek through nowhere. The moment night fell, Henry's other side took the wheel. His hair bled to black, his eyes ignited into a burning red, and his face was split by an immense, terrifying smile. First stop: some low-tech dump run by a local commander who unironically called himself a god. And, of course, trouble found him on the very first night.
Shadows peeled themselves away from the darkness of the road. Bandits. Classic.
"Wallet or your life, kid," one of them growled, flashing two grimy daggers.
Henry didn't even flinch. "Bad idea," he said, his voice flat and cold. "Walk away. Forget you ever saw me."
That got a laugh. They closed in, a hungry pack circling their prey. A thin, dangerous smirk touched Henry's lips. And then he was just... gone. Vanished into the shadows pooling at his feet.
The bandits froze. "The hell? Where'd he go?"
"I warned you," a voice hissed from everywhere at once.
Panic erupted. Then came the slaughter. A blade forged from pure darkness sliced through the air. Men screamed, trying to run, but the shadows were faster, pulling them down as the sword did its grim work.
The last one was on his knees, trembling, as Henry's form solidified in front of him. "P-Please... we screwed up! Just let me go!"
Henry tilted his head, that chilling smile still plastered on his face. "The warning was pretty clear."
In a final, desperate move, the man lunged. Henry dematerialized, the knife stabbing nothing but empty air.
"Oops," Henry's laugh was warped, monstrous. "You missed."
The sound of a blade meeting flesh was the last thing the bandit ever heard.
"You didn't have to kill all of them, Henry. You could have just scared them," Joseph's voice nagged in his head, staticky and faint.
"And what's the fun in that?" Henry shot back, his tone dripping with a snark that wasn't his own. A sigh of static was Joseph's only reply. "Just... get to Kha'thox."