Nareth village —
♦♦♦
Morning came slowly. The smoke still hung low over Nareth, heavy in the lungs. The fires had died, but what remained was ruin—burned homes, cracked stone, collapsed beams still warm to the touch. The scent of blood and scorched flesh clung to the air.
And yet… life stirred.
Villagers emerged from hiding—some limping, others with bandaged wounds and hollow eyes. They worked in silence, carrying water from the well, scraping soot from what walls still stood. Children wandered, dazed, searching for familiar faces.
The bodies were everywhere.
Not just human—those were laid out gently in the square, wrapped in sheets or cloaks. But among them lay other things. Monsters. Abominations.
Kain stood atop a broken column.
"Burn the corpses of the creatures," he ordered the ISSD officers. "Away from the village. Use accelerants. No chances of infection or reanimation."
"Understood," a Bernardian operative replied.
