There was just Darkness.
No sound.
No pain.
No body.
Only the cold weight of power, sinking into his bones like a curse that had always been waiting.
Vael drifted between thought and nothing, between what he was and what he had become. The forest closed in around him. Shadows crawled beneath his skin, whispering lies that felt too real.
He walked, but he could not feel his feet.
The world around him was just quiet.
The whispers never stopped now.
Follow.
Hunt.
Become.
He didn't know where he was going. Only that the crown wanted him to go there.
And maybe that was enough.
The stench came first—blood, rot, something older. Vael stepped over corpses, some fresh, others long dead. Shattered armor. Ripped flesh. Bones cracked open like hollow fruit.
This wasn't war. This was feeding.
His breath didn't falter. He wasn't the same boy who used to tremble at the smell of blood. That boy was buried in the ruins of Black Hollow.
A sound broke the silence.
Wet. Low. Wrong.
The trees ahead bent, twitching unnaturally. Vael stepped forward. Shadows clung to him like a second skin.
Then he saw it.
A creature crouched over a dead body.It had Pale skin, jagged bones, its spine arched like a beast but limbs shaped almost like that of a human. Its mouth was too wide. Too full of teeth. It chewed slowly, like it was savoring the warmth of the flesh.
Vael watched.
No fear.
The creature paused. Lifted its head.
Hollow pits where eyes should've been stared at him.
It sniffed the air.
Then smiled.
"You are not afraid," it croaked. Its voice cracked, layered, broken like an echo collapsing in on itself.
Vael didn't move.
"I don't fear dead things," he said quietly.
The thing chuckled, wet and throaty. "Not dead. Not alive," it rasped. "Like you."
The whispers stirred, curious, circling. The creature felt it. The crown. The curse.
"You wear something old," it hissed. "It calls to me."
Then it lunged.
Claws swept through the air, missing his neck by inches. Vael ducked, blade sliding free, shadows rushing to his call. The fight was instinct. The power moved with him, wrapped around him, becoming him.
Steel met bone.
The creature hissed, bleeding black.
But it didn't stop.
Another strike. Vael shifted sideways, let the darkness catch the blow. The crown throbbed in his mind, its hunger pushing him further.
Faster.
Sharper.
He answered.
His sword cleaved the creature's chest. It staggered, snarling—but smiled through the blood.
"You are like us," it whispered. "And you don't even know it."
Vael didn't let it speak again.
He clenched his fist.
The shadows obeyed.
They surged forward. Spears of blackness impaling it from every angle. The creature didn't scream. It grinned even as its body broke apart, collapsing in on itself like ash.
Gone.
Silence returned.
But the whispers remained.Satisfied.
Vael stood alone, breath steady, heart quiet.
He looked down at the remains, then ahead.
He kept walking.
There was no turning back anymore.