....
His thoughts drifted as his head leaned back against the damp stone. The memories kept bleeding through, piece by chaotic piece. Almost like a movie yet more like a slideshow, as if he was reliving the experience.
He remembered the invitation. The scroll sealed with the wax of House Verdain—one of the few noble families who were staunch supporters of House Castro. Within where his prearranged fiancée was to come from.
It was sent to him under the guise of an invitation to do an intermediate dungeon dive. For him risky but doable, it should have gone perfectly. But alas, fate is often a cruel cruel thing that loves to pick and play at the hearts of humans.
Nobody, actually, had suspected foul play despite the abruptness of the matter as such events are usually prepared for at the consideration of the safety of nobility. Sure he wasn't an awakaned or an heir apparent, but he was still nobility
That ought to have meant something right.
But it was a trap. Set meticulously to seem like an accident.
The moment he arrived at the rendezvous point—an abandoned fort buried beneath the rotting vines of the Kamout Everglades—he felt it. The tension. The silence that wasn't silence.
He found the first body hidden under a tarp. One of his old retainers.
Poisoned. Thick black veins throbbing beneath his skin seemingly ready to burst.
He didn't bring much with him save for a family guard and his own blade. There wasn't much he was going to be doing anyway since he was nothing more than small meat in this expedition.
Then came the whispers. The click of blades drawn. The shimmer of a cloaking rune dropping.
Five of them. Professional. Swift. Brutal.
One of them wore the colors of House Verdain. The other four, unidentifiable. His loyal guard none the wiser did not let his responsibilities elude him and took a step forward to defend his vulnerable lord. He was strictly instructed by the Lord's consort not to allow any harm befall her child. Lest he requires to be relieved of the burden of his head upon his shoulders.Bastards.
The man fought like a cornered beast, Thyr burning through his veins. He had taken two of them down before the blade caught him under the ribs.
He remembered the cold voice of his guard escort shouting for him to flee for his life. The boy, deep in an unfamiliar forest within which was one of those accursed dungeons could only run harder. Lungs burning and screaming for air.
He hid behind a rock formation in what looked to be an inconspicuous opening, you really couldn't blame him. Fear is known to cloud sound judgment. Adjusting his stance to take a peek, he saw the armed assassins heading straight towards him.
His breath hitched when one of them caught his line of sight and signalled to the others.
"You can't run boy, beyond that formation is the entrance to the newly appeared dungeon appraised to be at level 5, surely you are aware of what that means." Said one of the men gloatingly.
They then continued to gloat at him with honeyed but brutal words such as ' a painless death '.
How truly considerate of them .
At this point, Kaiser chose to steel his heart and made the one critical decision that would forever change his destiny. Setting him up to a path where he would never be chained to the whims of powerlessness in this world that only values strength and might makes right.
He jumped into the dungeon gate standing majestically behind him.
Then darkness.
And something else.
He was in a totally new plane of existence, a lush green grassland, the air brimming with Thyr. Thyr he could not use.
Choosing not to stay out in the open in an uncharted dungeon space, he moved quickly to find a hiding place to escape his pursuers should they choose to follow him through.
He really didn't know what miracle he was expecting but eventually stumbled upon a cave lined with bioluminescent moss.
From that point on, everything else seemed black. As if a video tape suddenly getting cut in a movie theatre. Unable to continue any longer.
He had opened his eyes for a moment through the haze, and saw it—a towering lizard-like figure, blood-soaked, breathing hard. The assassin who struck him, he assumed due to the proximity to him, maybe not, lay twitching in a pool of his own organs. The beast's shoulder was impaled by a Nyrium shard, driven deep into its chest.
There was blood and gore everywhere, seemingly from both man and beast. That explained the metallic tang in the air.
Kaiser slowly stood, legs trembling. He limped deeper into the chamber, heart pounding.
The corpse was still there.
Twisted. Charred. Torn apart. Both the assassins and the creature lay side by side, equally broken.
Why had it saved him? What was it?
He didn't know.
And worse—he had no idea who wanted him dead. Again.
House Verdain? Maybe. But the bounty could've come from anywhere. From any noble house who still saw him as a threat. Or maybe even within his family itself.
He stepped closer to the beast. Despite its monstrous appearance, something in him stirred.
Appreciation?
Pity?
It had fought for him. Albeit unwillingly.
He reached out and touched the cold scales of its arm. For a brief instant, he thought he felt something pulse beneath.
Like a sliver of Thyr passed between them.
Then it faded.
"Thank you," he whispered.
Whatever it was, it had given him another chance.
Now he would find answers.
And if someone wanted him dead...
They should have aimed better.
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