THE PAST THAT DOES NOT BELONG TO ME
Pain is not always a warning. Sometimes it manifests itself as a fleeting flash, sometimes as a wound that burns from the soul. But for Kael, this time, it came as a memory that was not his own.
The night was cold, and the fire barely illuminated the edges of the makeshift camp. The trees rustled, and the wind whispered names he did not know. He was alone, meditating, trying to figure out what it was that kept him awake. It was then that he saw it.
Not with his eyes... but from the inside.
An ancient battlefield. Obsidian swords. Men in ceremonial robes shouting in a forgotten tongue. And in the center, him...or someone like him. Standing on a mountain of corpses, his body covered in blood, his gaze remorseless. On his forehead, a sacred symbol: the sun.
-Who... am I? -Kael whispered, feeling his breathing quicken.
The man of remembrance raised his hand, and the sky responded. A pillar of fire descended from the heavens, sweeping across the land. The enemies fled in terror, but they did not escape. They could not. For that being... had no mercy.
Then everything was extinguished. Kael gasped, kneeling on the wet earth. His body trembled, but not with fear, but with recognition.
-Kinich..." he murmured.
That name was no longer alien. It was his own. It was the man he was... and perhaps, still was.
But how could it be, how could it be that these memories, so vivid and strange, felt more real than his own childhood?
The fire in front of him crackled, and for an instant, a shadow appeared in the flames. It was her. Ixchel. Though her face was confused, her gaze was the same: deep, sad, eternal.
-Why did you show me this...? -asked Kael, but there was no answer.
Only a whisper in the wind: "You still don't remember everything."
The next day, Kael woke up different. Quieter. Steadier. He knew something had changed. Something inside him had awakened again.
And as the scars of the world continued to bleed, he understood only one thing: if he wanted to survive... if he wanted to understand what he was... he would have to become something stronger than men. Stronger than the gods.
He would have to become the living echo of his past.
Into the man he was...
And into the monster that was about to be born.