Chapter 3: The City That Devours Itself
He jolted awake from a nightmare that tore the silence apart.
Strange words echoed in his mind:
"Power… is gained by devouring humans."
He froze, whispering to himself in horror:
"That's disgusting…"
But as his breath steadied, a stream of hazy, fragmented memories began surfacing in his mind.
He didn't know where they came from,
but they felt… disturbingly familiar.
Slowly, he lifted his head.
Before him loomed a colossal fortress, stretching across a distance too vast to measure.
Weighed down by hunger and exhaustion,
he walked toward it—his face pale, his expression quietly groaning with weariness.
When he arrived, the towering gate stood open.
No guards.
No warnings.
The moment he stepped inside, a chill crawled down his spine,
and cold sweat trickled from his brow.
The air was dim—
as though life itself had abandoned this place.
But what he saw beyond the gate
was worse than anything his mind had dared to imagine.
Shops… selling human flesh.
Workshops… slicing off limbs for coin.
Disturbing laughter echoed through the streets,
and the stench of death hung heavy in the air.
He wandered through the alleys,
the foul smells assaulting him from every direction.
Then, in a corner of the marketplace,
his eyes froze on a scene that would haunt him forever:
People sold like livestock—
not for labor,
but for breeding.
Their children, once born, were destined to be… consumed.
This wasn't a living world.
It was a system—
built in the heart of hell.
He collapsed in a forgotten alleyway,
trying to comprehend what he'd seen.
Fragments of overheard words drifted through his thoughts—
as if his mind were reconstructing this society's hierarchy:
> The King, at the top.
The Nobles beneath him—powerful,
yet their strength was capped by royal decree.
Then the Workers.
And below them… the Slaves.
Born not to live—
but to be consumed.
He whispered to himself, eyes lost in the void:
"From birth… their fate is sealed. Eat, or be eaten."
Night fell—
a black sky with no stars, no moon.
He muttered, gazing into the blind heavens:
"Why do these words come to me… when I don't even know my name?
I don't know why I'm here.
Even that shadow I once followed… has vanished."
Then—
voices in the distance.
A faint light flickered from within an old house, drawing his attention like a whisper in the dark.
He stopped.
Stared.
Then murmured:
"I'll go.
Maybe… I'll find something.
An answer."
He rose,
and walked toward the house.