Thorian had blood dripping down his arm. The stinging pain running down it was nothing compared to the agonizing betrayal he felt from his fiancée riding the man in front of him as if she had never had any pleasure before.
The day had started as normal. He had got up to chop the firewood so the hut would stay nice and warm through the day while a blizzard raged outside. The wind howling outside sounded like a raging beast.
He'd gone out to hunt to feed his pregnant fiancée, claiming a wild boar as the prize. But when he got back to the hut, he could hear moans of ecstasy seeping out the door, pleasure drifting through the air.
Thorian stopped in his tracks, not quite believing what he was hearing coming from inside. His fiancée was quite a prudish woman; even to have their baby together was a miracle since he had only touched her once.
"Mauve darling, when are you going to tell him... mmmm... he should know it's not his kid and you should be with me... You keep promising me this, why hasn't it happened yet? I want you near me so I can love on you all the time."
Thorian felt the boar he had hunted slip through his hand in disbelief. He felt disgusted when he heard the voice come through the door. It was Thorian's brother, Rane. Someone who, by all accounts, shouldn't be anywhere near this house. He was supposed to be stationed at the far end of the land in which Thorian dwelled — Alacana.
He was the war chief, or so he should have been, but here he was ravishing my fiancée.
"Rane, you have to be patient. When he finally hands me the deed for safekeeping, we will have our own plot of land. We can kick him out."
Fury boiled like nothing else. Thorian raised his fist and smashed through the door, startling the two that were tangled together in the bed.
The noise startled the two, but there was no movement to get off each other.
"You were gonna do what?... I don't think so," Thorian said, his face twisted in a mix of grief and anger.
Mauve's face had paled to the point she looked like a ghost, her strawberry-blonde hair was matted to her face from sweat, and her freckles — which he had loved before — were now bright from ecstasy. And Rane, with his war-chief demeanor, was sculpted like a god. He hated to admit it, but they looked good together...
Seeing the expression on Thorian's face, Rane just laughed like he was delighted this was finally in the open.
"Hahaha, brother, your wrist is looking a bit hurt."
Thorian glanced down and realized his wrist was sliced up from punching through the hut's door. He wobbled a little bit when he noticed but regained his composure.
"Mauve, how could you do this to me? We've been sweethearts. Did you never love me?"
Mauve looked like she was weighing between her choices. She took one final breath and seemed to settle on a decision.
"Thorian... I'm sorry. The baby's Rane's, and I don't love you. I never have... You know I had no family, I had nowhere to go, and you were the only option at the time. I mean, you had an inheritance — Rane unfortunately didn't get any of it. What was I supposed to do?!"
Thorian just stood there, letting the words hit him with invisible force. He bent down from the agony of it all.
His vision continued to get blurry and the words that they continued speaking weren't making any sense anymore.
As he felt the warmth leaving his body, he made one final wish among the despair.
If I could live once more, I would live my life completely different. For me. Not for someone else...
Thorian's body shuddered one more time and stilled...
The pair on the bed, who had been trying to speak, hadn't noticed before — but now that he'd gone still, they quietened down and approached him nervously.
"What do we do, Mauve?"
"I don't know, Rane! I didn't expect him to die. Nothing is going to work out. We will have nothing without him here. Quick, search the hut..."
The pair turned the place upside down, but unfortunately, they would never know that he had given it to the city chief for safekeeping, so they were never going to find it since Thorian hadn't told them.
After finally realising it wasn't there, they dragged Thorian's body out and left him there all alone in the snow.
The end of Thorian — eaten by wild dogs in the snow. Pathetic...
---
Thorian opened his eyes. He was in a dark space, hovering in the air. White specks of all different sizes were floating around him.
He reached out to touch it, then realised he had no arms... He was the same as every other white speck. He decided to just observe for a while.
After what seemed like eternity but was probably a couple of minutes, a light started to shine in the dark space, making it as bright as a sun. Thorian couldn't even close his eyes that were no longer there.
After the light calmed down, a woman was standing there — beautiful, gold hair that shone with a divine light. An hourglass figure that had her clothes in all the right places, a small face with purple eyes and luscious red lips. A female in full perfection.
She opened her mouth and spoke.
"Welcome Thorian, welcome to the Divine World. Your new life starts now," she spoke while pointing at him.
Thorian started moving at full speed towards her hand as if he had been suctioned from a vacuum.
Her face suddenly twisted and her purple eyes flashed black. Her hand around him closed in a vice-like grip, raising her arm up high. Her hand suddenly let off a pulsing, flashing light — it gave off a weird mix of divine energy and something that made his skin crawl.
She tossed him one last glance that looked a lot like gloating.
"I hope you survive Stage 1... hahHahahaHAHA, and many more after that..."
She suddenly threw Thorian through the air, her manic laughter fading as he flew on, the space he was in seemingly shattering as he flew through it, his body — a white fleck — flashing through the night.
As Thorian was travelling through the air, the last thought through his mind was...
Whatever this life throws at me can't be worse than my previous one. No matter what is thrown at me... I'll win and I'll succeed.