The forest was silent.
It was not the silence of peace, but the kind of silence that weighs on you. Unnatural and heavy. No birds, no insects. Not even the rustle of leaves. Just pure stillness.
Mud clung to my boots as I walked alone, pulling at each step. The trees around me bent low. The silence felt wrong, like something was coming.
Mark on my hand burned.
Veins started crawling up my wrist, black against my pale skin. The burning feeling in my hand wasnt constant, it pulsed like a rhythm that didn't belonged to me. It felt like someone was watching me.
I tightened my grip on the daggers at my belt. I didn't remember where they came from. Only that they belonged to me. The blades were long, curved. Their weight was familiar. When I held them, it was like I remembered something my mind had already forgotten.
I stopped walking.
The silence deepened, my hand burned.
The sky tore.
The sky slowly ripped apart. The clouds bled crimson and the stench of iron filled my lungs.
The Bleeding Sky has opened once again.
And with it, the monsters.
The first one jumped on me from the trees. I reacted quickly, drew the steels and parried it. The attack from the monster blew me away. I quickly got up and took a good look at it.
It had wolf like appearance, large claws, bones sticking out of its spine. Its teeth were twitching. Another 2 came, one had its torso fused with another's head.
My body move quickly, before my mind caught up with what I saw. The first one came fast, I met it head-on. One blade slashed its throat open, the other one drove deep into its eye. Hot blood sprayed across my face. It shrieked, collapsed, then layed still.
The second one lunged low. I kicked it aside, snapping its ribs. Then pierced its head with my second dagger pinning it to the ground. Its eyes rolled wildy as I twisted the blade.
The third screamed. I turned too late, its claw chipped my shoulder. I staggered, but my instinct carried me. I dropped low and drived both blades into its throat. A spray of blood washing my face. I pulled the blades back and it collapsed on top the second one.
More of them came.
One after another, in shapes that defied reason. All of them screamed, they came for me.
And I fought.
Daggers clashed with their flesh, blood was spraying. The forest floor became a mire of steaming crimson. My arms shook from the strain, but my blades never stopped. Each movement felt familiar, like I have done this before. Step, slash, thrust. One fell, another rose. Their numbers did not end.
In the blur of a slaughter, a memory came.
I was a small boy hiding beneath a table. The world above is full of fire. Shadows moved through the flames, screaming, clawing. The Mark bloomed on my hand. I heard my name, whispered by lips I couldnt see. "Erebus"
I staggered, losing myself in the vision. A claw slashed my side, I gritted my teeth. I spun and gutted the thing that struck me. The memory faded.
The largest of them came at last.
It landed heavy, shaking the trees. Its body was a mass of limbs fused into a single body. Mouths lined in its chest, each one drooling. Its head was a cluster of a smaller heads all screaming together.
It charged at me.
The ground trembled. I rolled to the side as it slammed down. My blades tore into one of its legs, severing tendon. It stumbled shrieking. I stabbed its leg and leaped onto its back, my daggers were driving into its flesh. It slammed me against a tree. Pain exploded in my ribs as I held onto my daggers.
The mouths on its chest opened wide, screaming. I gritted my teeth, slashed one dagger across its throat, the other burying deep into its eye.
I drove the blades deeper, tearing, until the whole mass collapsed beneath me.
Silence.
The sky above sealed slowly, the mark stopped burning.
I fell to my knees, arm trembling. My hands dripped with blood.
I stared at my Mark.
I do not know why this curse chose me.
I do not know why I am left to survive when all others fall.
But as long as I breathe, the Bleeding Sky will never close.