The air reeked of blood.
Kinslayer dragged behind him, metal scraping stone, carving thin grooves into the road. Each step landed heavy, his boots sticking with blood that refused to dry.
His shoulders sagged. His grip didn't.
He didn't look back. Couldn't. Faces were there anyway—wide eyes, twisted mouths, their red smeared across his eyelids every time he blinked.
A whisper slithered into his head, smooth, low.
Kinslayer: They deserved it. Scavengers feeding on scraps of misery. You cut them down. You did what was needed.
Axel's jaw clenched. His veins swelled against the hilt.
AXEL (rasping)
Needed… yeah. That's what I'll keep saying.
He stopped at the bend. The road ahead blackened—stone ridges, crooked trees clawing at the sky. Far off, a faint glow pulsed, not fire, not moonlight. A heartbeat on the horizon.
The Temple.
He exhaled once, lips twitching. Something between a smile and a snarl.
AXEL
…Perfect.
Hours bled together. Wolves lunged, ribs sharp through fur. He split them. Bandits drew blades, hungry for his coin. He left them in pieces. None slowed him down, none worth more than a swing.
No finesse. No mercy. Just ends.
Every corpse added weight. But the weight honed him, edge over edge, hammer over hammer.
Night.
He dropped beneath a gnarled oak, sweat slicking his shirt. His chest dragged air in ragged pulls. Kinslayer stayed in his hand, as if welded there. Sleep forced him under anyway.
Dreams clawed through.
His mother's laugh. Her hands brushing crumbs from his cheek. A warm kitchen, war outside but never inside her eyes.
Then Dylan's grin, loud and careless. Murphy's hand—firm, steady, like a wall against chaos.
For a moment, home.
Then blood. Always blood.
He jolted awake, skin clammy, eyes hunting shadows. Only silence met him. Only the pulse on the horizon, brighter now. Closer.
Kinslayer thrummed in his palm. Hungry.
He whispered, not to the sword, not to himself, but to the night.
AXEL
If the world calls me monster… then let's see how far that goes.
And he walked. North. To the glow. To the Temple.
NARRATOR: Axel was long gone the cursed spade form his clan had corrupted him and Kinslayer.