Heavy steps… sounds approaching my front door.
Violent knocks shook the wood… then the door was kicked open.
They entered. Familiar faces… the same gang I had faced at the tavern, but this time more numerous, their eyes red with rage, carrying sticks and knives like starving dogs hunting for flesh.
> "There he is… he didn't run far."
"Master Roen wants his head!"
They had recognized me as Kim when some people were chasing me and told Roen my location. But Roen realized I lived nearby and informed them.
I smiled calmly, standing slowly from the table. My left hand still pulsed with darkness… shadows coiling around my fingers.
— "Kill him!"
They lunged at me, and in an instant, my body moved on its own.
The black claws tore through their chests, the blades on the back of my hand slicing their throats.
Blood splattered across the walls… the floor became a lake of red.
Their screams faded quickly; only the sound of my heavy breaths remained… and my smile, inhuman, lingered.
Then…
Roen opened the door slowly, his eyes wide with disbelief, his voice trembling:
— "Kim… h… how are you alive?! You bled so much… I never expected you to survive… that's why I ran… and didn't finish you off."
I froze, eyes widening. I saw him.
Roen.
Standing there, his face frozen, a cigarette falling from between his fingers. His eyes stared at me as if seeing a ghost risen from the grave.
— "Impossible… Kim…"
I turned toward him slowly, half of my face still human… the other half consumed by darkness, starting from my right eye, engulfing my cheek and jaw.
My entire left hand had transformed into a black claw, dripping with hot blood.
Roen spoke to me:
— "What is this? Who are you? Are you… a demon?"
My laugh rose, insane, mingling with the echoes of shadows filling the room:
— "Because of you… I am now something else… a curse walking on two legs!"
His hand shook as he raised his gun, fingers barely gripping it. He fired…
But my body melted into the darkness, emerging from behind him like a hellish phantom.
I approached his ear and whispered, my voice dripping with venom and madness:
— "Roen… do you think something trivial like this can kill me?"
He screamed in terror, but he didn't have time.
I extended my left hand, the black blades bursting from my skin as if alive, piercing through half of his body. I split him slowly, blood flooding the floor.
I stood over his corpse, darkness creeping and devouring the blood as if drinking it.
I raised my head and laughed, saying:
— "When you meet the King of Hell… he will tell you that you've toyed with something… far worse than you imagined."