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Chapter 57 - Chapter 57: The Burning Mark

Chapter 57: The Burning Mark

Ravi jolted awake, drenched in cold sweat. His entire body convulsed as a searing pain tore through his veins like fire spreading its burning sensation.

"AARGH!" He clutched at his neck, where the burst-eye mark had split open, its throb like a furnace pressed against his flesh. Every pulse was agony, each wave of pain hotter and deeper than the last.

The silence was torn apart by howls and the air started reeking of ash and iron. His knees buckled beneath him, but he forced himself upright. As he knelt on one knee while gasping, he quickly recognised his location from the shape of the trees around him.

He was present in the Astal Forest, and he could see the Astal Mountains from his position at the distance.

His hand came away wet with blood from the mark. Behind him, low growls echoed. He understood that these were the Devourer wolves closing in. He turned his head and saw eyes gleamed like red hot coals, the shadows stretching long against the trees as they came into view slowly.

A roar split the air. Grey wolves surged from the forest—hulking beasts with twisted black tentacles jutting from their spines, jaws packed with redened fangs. One of them lunged like a swift wind.

Ravi raised the bone-blade of the Revenant, slashing in desperation even as he knelt. The clash rang out like steel on corrupted bone, sparks scattering into the daylight. The wolf's fangs snapped an inch from his throat. The force of the clash rattled his arms, nearly tearing the bone sword from his grip.

Pain flared again from his neck, draining his consciousness and sanity. The burst eye-mark pulsed, and his vision wavered as he saw blood-red roses growing out of everywhere, each blooming with tiny mouths—gurgling and chewing. The world twisted into a grotesque painting of crimson and shadow.

He blinked, and the nightmare collapsed back into reality, and the wolf devourer was already upon him. With a ragged cry, he rolled aside as the wolf's claws shredded the ground where he had been.

He rose again, every breath like a blade penetrating his chest. He slashed wildly, driving one beast back, only for another to crash into him from the side. He tumbled through roots and ground, his ribs screaming with each impact.

The wolves circled him now, their eyes burning, and their snarls clawing at his mind. A dizzy haze pressed against his sanity as he felt his grip on himsel slipping.

Ravi knew with bone-deep certainty: if he wanted to live, he would have to embrace madness. It wasn't that he was afraid of death, but there were certain things left undone. So, he would try to survive to the last bit he could.

The Dark Sigil at his neck writhed, interfering with the surge of his essence, but even so, something inside him had changed. His essence aspect felt sharper, and his essence talent had been improved.

He gritted his teeth, dragging himself upright once more. The bone sword trembled in his hands, but his eyes burned with defiance.

"If I die here … " His voice was hoarse, and raw. "Then I'll die standing."

And so, he began to recite all six Quls, his cracked voice spilling faith as he braced against the wolves' charge at the same time.

They all struck together as their crimson claws flashed. Ravi's blade carved a shallow gash across one wolf's eye, earning a furious howl. Another beast sank its teeth into his shoulder, his own blood spraying the grass. He screamed but rammed his blade through its chest before it could tear deeper. His bone sword itself was a part of a Dark Devourer - The Mask Revenant. A perfect weapon against these devourers.

The beast fell twitching, and from its corpse writhed a long worm-like insect, tentacles whipping. Ravi struck again, pinning it before it could separate itself from the corpse. The Revenant blade drank its blood, black blood hissing on its edge.

The mark burned hotter now, writhing beneath his skin like a living thing. His vision blurred even more than before. He stumbled, dropping to his knees again.

The wolves closed in, growls deepening. There were still seventeen more left.

Still, Ravi lifted his sword. His arms shook violently, but his eyes held a mad, unyielding fire.

Suddenly, for a split second he saw a figure drifting in the fog and red cracks in his inner world — it was a vague, monstrous silhouette shaped like him, as if something born from his shadow was developing inside him, awakening and pulsing with malice.

"I don't care who you are," he whispered like a maniac to it or to the darkness inside him. "I won't give in that easily."

And with a faint cry, he charged headlong into the swarm of beasts as he came back into reality.

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