The forest was silent.
Too silent.
Xturdia moved between the dead trees, his footsteps barely touch the ground. The moolight barely touch this place, as if the shadow themselves blocking were blocking it.
"This land feels...wounded." he said quietly
"It is," the voice answered.
"War leaves scars, even on the earth."
Xturdia stopped.
Ahead of him, the shadows began to tremble.
Someone was there.
He raised his hand slightly, and the darkness obeyed. It gathered around his arm, forming a thin blade-sharp, calm, waiting.
A figure stepped out from behind a tree.
A man in torn cloak, holding a spear. His face was pale, his eyes wide with fear and desperation.
"D-don't come closer!" the man shouted. "I won't hesitate!"
Xturdia studied him.
Not a soldier.
Not a knight.
Just a survivor.
"I'm not here to kill you," Xturdia said.
The man laughed nervously. "Liar. Everyone who walks out of that battlefield is a monster."
The shadows aroud Xturdia reacted, spreading slightly.
The man saw them.
His fear turned into panic.
"You're one of them!" he screamed and charged forward.
Xtudia sighed.
"So this is how it begins..."
The spear came fast.
Xturdia stepped aside. The shadows moves on their own, wrapping around the spear and snapping it in half.
The man fell backward, crawling away.
"Please," he begged. "I didn't mean to-"
Xturdia froze.
His heart tightened.
This was not an enemy.
This was the world had become.
Then the voice whispered again, closer than before.
"Mercy will mark you you."
"Fear will mark you"
"Choices will mark you"
Xturdia clenched his fist.
"I won't be a mindless beast," he said.
He walked closer and extended his hand-not in attack, but in warning.
"Run," Xturdia said. "Forget you ever saw me."
The man starred at him, confused.
Then the ground shook.
A heavy presence descended from darkness behind them.
The shadows twisted violently.
Xturdia turned.
A creature emerged-its body made of black smoke and bone, its eyes glowing red like burning embers. A corrupted knight. One of the fallen guardians of the kingdom.
It let out a low, broken roar.
The man screamed.
Xturdia stepped in front of him.
"So," Xturdia said slowly, "this world doesn't care about mercy."
"No," the voice replied.
"But it watches your decisions."
The creature lunged.
Xturdia raised his hand.
The darkness surged-not wild, not angry-but controlled.
Chains of shadows errupted from the ground, binding the corrupted knight in mid-air. It struggled, roaring louder.
Xturdia felt something burn in his chest.
Not rage.
Resolve.
He walked forward and placed his palm against the creature's chest.
"I choose," he said, "who deserves to fall."
The shadow pierced inward.
The creature shattered into dust.
Silence returned.
Xturdia stood still, breathing slowly.
A sharp pain struck his hand.
He looked down.
A black symbol had appeared on his palm-like a scar shaped by darkness itself.
It pulsed once.
Then stopped.
"The First Mark," the voice said.
"Proof that the darkness has acknowledged you"
Xturdia closed his fingers.
The survivor behind him had stopped screaming.
When Xturdia turned-
The man was gone.
Only footprints leading away into the forest remained.
Xturdia starred at them for a long moment.
"Good," he said quietly.
He looked at his marked hand.
"This power isn't free, is it."
The voice answer with a faint, knowing tone.
"No"
"And every mark brings you closer to what will you become."
Xturdia stepped deeper into the forest.
Above him, the shadow followed.
The first choice had been made.
And the darkness had remembered it.
END OF ACT I - CHAPTER III...