The sky churned like boiling tar as Kael stepped over the corpse of the armored ogre the earth beneath his feet still pulsing with fading blood magic His body was dripping with gore his hands shaking not with fear but the residue of forbidden power he had just unleashed
The villagers watched from afar hidden behind shattered ruins and burning trees Their eyes wide hollowed out by the carnage they had just witnessed None dared speak They had prayed for salvation and what arrived was no savior It was Kael
A sound echoed through the smoke a low grating hiss like metal scraping bone Kael turned his eyes cold and focused He already knew what was coming Another challenger another monster from the depths of the decaying realms His lips barely moved but his mind screamed for it Let it come
From the ground burst a twisted beast half serpent half man Its scales shimmered with green ichor its eyes black pits leaking darkness It carried no weapon It was the weapon
Kael moved before it finished its scream His blade surged with darkness the runes along its edge glowing with hungry energy With a single slash he carved through the air the pressure so sharp it split trees behind the beast before the strike even landed
The creature twisted unnaturally its torso bending backward as if bones were liquid It dodged but Kael was already gone A shadow leapt from the smoke behind it and plunged a dagger straight into its spine The creature roared but the sound was muffled by a burst of dark magic erupting from within Kaels hand
Kael whispered inside his mind He could feel the curse evolving again The more he killed the more it grew not just in strength but in hunger It demanded more suffering more sacrifice
The beast spasmed collapsed but did not die Its body began to regrow the broken spine realigning with wet squelching sounds Kael did not wait He raised his palm channeled raw void magic and drove it directly into the skull of the regenerating abomination The head exploded into black mist and bone
Silence fell again and this time it was heavier than before No one clapped No one cheered Even the wind refused to move
Kael turned to walk deeper into the forest but a small voice rose from behind It was a child Maybe ten Her clothes tattered her face marked with dirt and dried blood
She asked if he was going to kill the rest of them too
Kael looked at her not with warmth or cruelty but with a gaze hollowed by lifetimes of betrayal He asked if any of them had taken part in the offerings to the demon lords that had consumed this region
The girl said she did not know
Kael said then you are not useful
And walked away
No one followed
As Kael moved deeper into the corrupted lands his senses sharpened Shadows no longer obeyed the sun and the trees whispered secrets of old gods rotting beneath the soil The deeper he went the more twisted the land became
He found a shrine hidden in a cavern of thorns The walls pulsed like flesh veins running with dark nectar Inside stood a statue of a forgotten deity faceless arms open in eternal agony At its feet lay the bound bodies of living men their souls drained but not yet dead
Kael approached touched the stone and the world spun
Visions flooded his mind
A tower of bone rising above a sea of corpses
A woman with crimson wings weeping blood while birthing flame
A throne made of screaming skulls
Kael laughed not from joy but from clarity The path ahead was now set The pieces were moving faster The world was shifting in response to his presence
He cut the bound men free only to cast a spell that set their spirits ablaze releasing them to feed the hungry god that watched from beyond the veil
He did not do it for mercy He did it for power
And the shrine answered
A pulse of energy exploded through his chest tattooing his soul with the mark of the third forgotten sin Wrath beyond death
Kaels eyes turned black with crimson rings and his veins glowed with the memory of destruction
He could now summon the remnants of souls he had slaughtered and force them to fight as spectral puppets
A new army born from hate
Kael emerged from the shrine not alone but followed by wraithlike shadows each one echoing his past victims They whispered in languages only the dead remembered
Waiting for their master to command them again
Far in the north the demons felt it too
The Crimson Reborn had taken the third seal
And the world would bleed again