The ground was soaked in blood.
When my eyes opened, it was as if I had been dragged back into the world—not into life, but into death itself. My lungs filled with air that carried the weight of old memories, the kind that made the heart ache before it could even beat. The cold reality pressed in from all sides, suffocating, heavy... unrelenting.
I stood there, unmoving.
It didn't feel like I was seeing through my own eyes. It was as if I were hovering far above, a hollow shadow staring down at what was left of the camp. Detached. Empty. A ghost forced to witness the living turn into the dead.
Everywhere I looked… corpses.
Not strangers. Not nameless soldiers. But friends.
People I had eaten with, fought beside, and laughed with. And now they lay before me—twisted, torn apart, their bodies mangled beyond recognition.
Their eyes remained open.
And in their glassy, lifeless stare, I heard it—
Why you? Why are you still breathing while we are not?
The air was thick with smoke, the ash drifting like the slow fall of cursed snow. The bitter stench of death clawed its way down my throat, lodging itself deep where no breath could dislodge it. My fingers trembled with the urge to move, but my legs… my legs would not obey. My chest felt like it had been cored out, leaving nothing but a hollow echo where my heart should have been.
And then—
It came again.
That feeling. That familiar, merciless weight I had sworn I buried years ago.
The past bled into the present.
A woman's scream.
Not calling my name. Not calling for anyone. It wasn't a scream for help—it was something else entirely.
She was the kind who gave without expecting. The kind who smiled even when she was tired. The kind who reached out to help, even if the hand she pulled from the mud would one day stab her in the back. Too kind for the world she lived in. Too kind for the fate that awaited her.
The Wardens came to the town.
Once hailed as saviors, champions of humanity—slayers of demons—they were symbolized by the very people they would one day betray. Power, once left unchecked, had soured into something vile. They demanded food. Money. Obedience. And when the town had nothing left to give… they threatened to raze it to the ground.
She stepped forward.
She thought she could reason with them. And save us. She offered herself to work for them. For any work, she will accept the task. And they agreed to take her in.
They bound her. Stripped her of dignity. Worked her until her body bent beneath exhaustion, feeding her just enough to keep her breathing. Her once-bright voice, the voice that could soothe an entire village, was reduced to hoarse cries that barely carried past the walls.
I saw it all.
I was there.
And I… did nothing.
I hid. Pressed against the cold stone, listening as her screams tore holes into my soul. My legs wouldn't move. My hands wouldn't lift a weapon.
Her final cry still echoes inside me.
It wasn't for mercy.
It wasn't for me.
It was goodbye.
They killed her before the eyes of the whole town. Her blood pooled beneath her feet, seeping into the cracks of the stone, and still—no one moved. Not a single voice was raised.
And I was one of them.
I could have tried. I could have died with her. I could have done something... anything!
But I didn't.
And now, years later, I was standing in another sea of the dead. Different place. Different faces. Same story.
Same silence...
Same regret...
My friends were gone. My allies… gone. All slaughtered. And once again—once again—I was the one who lived.
Why?
Why them?! Why not me?!
That same cold crept up from within, the same one that had taken me years ago. It was not born of winter air or the damp touch of death. It was the frost of cowardice… of guilt… of being left behind.
My breath shook. My heart screamed in my chest. And still, all I could think was—
What's my purpose? Why am I alive? Why did this happen again…?
Then—footsteps.
Slow. Heavy. Each one cutting through the silence like the swing of an executioner's blade.
I turned.
He stood there—the demon who had slaughtered my friends.
Instinct surged. I ran.
Or… I tried to.
Before I could take more than two steps, his shadow fell over me, and then he was simply there—too close, too fast. His strike landed square in my chest. Pain exploded through me, the force throwing me to the ground, back into the blood and ash.
The demon leaned forward, his voice curling with mockery.
"Running? Don't you want to join them? I'm sure they miss you."
His grin was wide. "Coward. You can't even look me in the eye."
My body wouldn't respond. My thoughts spiraled. Why can't I move…? Am I that afraid? Is this why I couldn't save them…?
The demon's chuckle was low and vile. He crouched.
"Tell me… Do you remember that day?"
My breath hitched.
"That day," he went on, "when she was executed by your so-called heroes. Must've been hard, watching your closest friend die like that."
My eyes locked on his. "How… do you know about that?"
He laughed, the sound sharp as broken glass.
"How? Because I was the one who sent them. I ordered the Wardens to take her life."
The air seemed to vanish from my lungs. "W-Why…?"
"Oh, for fun, of course," he said, as if the words meant nothing. "And I made sure you'd live… just long enough for me to enjoy watching you break before I rip you apart… piece by piece… drowning in your own misery."
Hearing him say all that made me feel something deep within myself... anger? No, it's much more than just anger. Something inside me… snapped.
Before I realized it, something dark and thick—blood-like but alive—erupted from my hands. It shot forward, slicing through one of his arms. His scream split the air.
Another crimson spike followed, piercing straight through his chest.
The demon staggered, choking on his own blood.
"Well done… He's become exactly as you suspected…"
Then he collapsed.
I stood frozen, my chest heaving, my mind drowning in a storm of guilt and confusion.
The next moment, darkness rushed in from all sides.
As I fell, I heard footsteps approaching.
Another demon…? The thought flickered in my fading mind. I tried to open my eyes, to see. But before I could, the footsteps reached me—close enough to touch—and my vision went black.