The night sky stretched black and infinite, but Azkarel felt every star sneer down at him. Their silent laughter was the same he had heard at his birth—the laughter of constellations who had condemned him.
But tonight, he would answer them.
Zorvak's voice slithered inside his skull, heavy as chains dragging across bone.
"Go, child. Feed the hunger I have planted in you. Show me that their rejection is your blade, not your weakness."
The boy walked barefoot into a mortal village at the edge of Velgrath's forests. Small fires flickered in crude clay huts. Mothers sang lullabies. Children dreamed, ignorant of the storm walking among them.
He felt his chains stir.
System Message:[The System of Chains has detected prey.][Break the First Chain: Slay. Devour. Feast.]
Azkarel's lips twisted into a smile. He lifted a jagged shard of iron he'd scavenged earlier. Then, without hesitation, he drove it into the chest of a sleeping man. The scream never left the man's throat—Azkarel's tiny hand covered his mouth, his eyes wide with delight as warm blood poured across his fingers.
The System sang.
[Chain Broken: 1][Reward Granted: Skill – Gluttony of the Void]
The corpse convulsed. Flesh dissolved into black ash and spiraled into Azkarel's mouth as though devoured by an invisible maw. His stomach felt aflame, not with sickness but with power.
He staggered back, gasping. "M-Master… I tasted him. I tasted everything!"
Zorvak's laughter cracked thunder across the void.
"Good. Mortal flesh is but an appetizer. Soon, you will drink constellations dry."
The hunger spread through him, gnawing at his insides. He could no longer resist. Azkarel moved from hut to hut, butchering, devouring, swallowing screams and souls. Children's bones bent and twisted as their shadows merged into his. Women's throats spilled notes of despair that echoed into eternity. He carved the village into a banquet, not a graveyard.
The System pulsed with each kill.
[You have consumed despair.][Skill Gained: Shroud of Wailing] – Your presence spreads terror, lowering enemy resistance.][Title Gained: Omen-Born] – The stars acknowledge your cursed existence.]
At dawn, nothing remained but charred bones and wet red earth. Azkarel stood at the village's heart, face smeared with gore, eyes gleaming with something inhuman.
Above him, the constellations flickered—just briefly. Their eternal laughter faltered.
And Azkarel whispered, his voice soft, almost reverent:
"Do you see me now?"