Urghh!
Marcus gasped, the sound coming out low and pained. His eyes opened slowly, adjusting to light that felt wrong somehow. Bright. Too bright.
Strange displays floated in his vision. Glowing words and symbols he didn't recognize. What sorcery was this?
He scrambled up from the grass like something was chasing him, heart pounding, expecting to feel the wound in his chest. Nothing. No pain. No blood. Just the feeling of soft earth under his palms.
"I thought I was dead." His voice came out hoarse. Confused. "What is this?"
Marcus looked down at his hands and froze. They were his hands, but younger. Smoother. Like they'd never gripped a sword through two years of constant combat. Like they'd never been covered in beast blood and dirt and the grime of war.
He was a young adult again. Maybe twenty years old at most.
How?
Marcus forced himself to stand and take in his surroundings. He was in the middle of a forest. Dense trees surrounded him on all sides. The architecture of distant buildings visible through the branches looked medieval. Lithuanian. Familiar in a way that made his chest tight.
But this wasn't his Lithuania. Something about it felt off. Too perfect. Too clean.
"Second chance at life," he muttered, remembering those final glowing words before everything went dark. "What does that even mean? A miracle? Some kind of divine intervention?"
An urge hit him suddenly. Inexplicable. A word formed in his mind and he couldn't stop himself from saying it out loud.
"System."
The air shimmered in front of him.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING…]
[WELCOME, PLAYER]
[QUALIFICATION MET: SSS-RANK POTENTIAL]
Player? Qualification?
Marcus stared at the floating words, his mind trying to make sense of something that made no sense. Was this judgment? Had some god or devil decided his fate based on how he died?
"Urghh!"
Pain exploded through his skull. Not physical. Worse. Memories flooded back with brutal clarity.
The fortress. The nest. Running toward victory. Then steel punching through his back. Lukas's calm face. That cold voice explaining the betrayal like it was nothing. Like their friendship had meant nothing.
"It was always supposed to end like this."
"LUKAS!"
Marcus screamed the name, rage burning through every part of him. His hands clenched into fists so tight his nails bit into his palms.
More glowing text appeared, responding to his fury.
[YOU ARE PLAYER #847,293]
[TRAUMA EVENT CONFIRMED: KILLED BY BETRAYAL, OCTOBER 1878]
[SSS-RANK SKILL UNLOCKED]
So it knew. Whatever this thing was, it knew exactly how he'd died. Knew about the betrayal. About Lukas.
"I will kill you with my own hands," Marcus growled at the empty air, at Lukas who wasn't there, at the universe itself. "If it's the last thing I do in this life or the next, I swear it. You and everyone who conspired against me. Mark my words."
The forest around him vanished.
Everything went pitch black. Marcus stood in pure darkness again, but this felt different than dying.
This darkness was warm. Alive. Waiting.
A single message burned into existence in front of him. The letters looked like they'd been written in dried blood, crimson and ominous against the void.
[SSS-RANK SKILL: SUMMON THE BETRAYED]
[DESCRIPTION: You who died from the ultimate betrayal may call upon others who share your fate. Throughout history, legends have fallen to treachery. They wait in darkness, burning with rage, hungry for vengeance that was denied to them in life. Summon them. Command them. Let them taste the justice they were robbed of.]
[THE BETRAYED WILL ANSWER YOUR CALL]
[DO YOU ACCEPT THIS POWER?]
Marcus didn't hesitate. Didn't even think about it.
"Yes."
Something clicked deep inside his chest. Like a lock opening. Like a door he'd never known existed suddenly swinging wide.
He could feel them now.
Voices in the darkness. Dozens at first, then hundreds, maybe thousands. All of them screaming. Not in pain but in rage. Fury at the injustice of their deaths. Anger at the betrayals that had ended their lives.
Knights sold out by their commanders. Kings poisoned by their advisors. Warriors stabbed in the back by their brothers-in-arms. Lovers murdered by those they trusted most.
All of them waiting. All of them ready to answer if someone called.
They recognized him. A kindred spirit. Someone who understood their pain because he'd lived it.
The darkness shattered like glass.
Marcus stood in the forest again, but everything looked different now. Sharper. More detailed. He could see things he hadn't noticed before.
Glowing markers hovered in the air, pointing toward distant locations. Numbers appeared above small animals moving through the underbrush, indicating their level or strength. Even the trees seemed to have information attached to them.
"A game," Marcus whispered, the realization hitting him hard. "This is a game?"
But how? Why? Did people who died in his world end up here? Was this some kind of afterlife disguised as entertainment?
His mind raced through the implications. If this was a game based on his life, on the 1878 apocalypse he'd lived through, then everything would be here. The beasts. The battles. The people.
Lukas.
Marcus stood there in the grass, breathing hard, trying to process everything. The skill. The system.
This strange second life he'd been given.
Then he smiled.
It wasn't a happy smile. It was cold and dark and full of terrible promise. The smile of someone who'd been given a weapon and knew exactly who to use it on.
"Lukas," he said quietly to the empty forest. "I wonder if you're in here too. I wonder if you remember what you did. Because even if you don't, I do. And I'm going to make you pay for every single second I spent bleeding on that floor."
A new message appeared in his vision.
[THE SYSTEM WILL NOT INTERFERE WITH YOUR DAILY ACTIVITIES UNLESS NECESSARY]
[SURVIVE. EXPLORE. GROW STRONGER, PLAYER]
[YOUR JOURNEY BEGINS NOW]
The text faded away like smoke.
Marcus stood up fully, rolling his shoulders, testing this younger body. It felt weak. Untrained. Nothing like the warrior he'd become after countless years of constant combat.
But that was fine. He'd trained once. He could do it again. And this time, he had something he'd never had before.
Power and hate .
Poosh!
The system interface vanished completely, leaving his vision clear.
Marcus took a step forward, then another, heading toward the treeline. He needed to figure out where he was. What this world was. How it worked.
POOOM!!!
A loud horn blast echoed through the forest, deep and resonating.
Voices shouted in the distance. Panicked. Urgent.
"They're here!"
"Beast attack! Everyone to arms!"
["The Velnias are coming!"] Marcus thoughts spiralled.
Marcus's blood went cold, then hot. He knew that horn. Knew those shouts. He'd heard them a hundred times in his previous life.
Beast attack.
The war was still happening here. The same war he'd died fighting.
His hand went to his hip, reaching for a sword that wasn't there. Right. He had nothing. No weapon. No armor. Just this weak young body and a skill he didn't know how to use yet.
Marcus started running toward the sounds of battle, toward the screaming and the horn blasts.