On that night, when the moon,high and full,splashed its spectral light across the silent forest, fate twisted in an unexpected way. This night marked the perfect moment for Kenzo. The moment he would strike, the moment he would kill the cursed Warden and tear his future free from fear's grip.
The Viper's sudden attack was violently brutal. With a dull, sinister crack, it swept the Warden aside, hurling his shattered body against a broken tree. He remained there, on his knees, trembling faintly… yet the sword, that sword he refused to abandon, still glimmered beneath the moon.
A twisted grin crept across Kenzo's lips. He wanted to be the one to end the Warden's life. But he wasn't stupid: between those two nightmare beings, he was nothing more than an insect, an insignificant shadow. So he had gambled on the one he hated most. Yes… the Warden himself.
With slow, silent steps, Kenzo approached the battlefield. The two coloss were still locked in a deadly stare, unaware of the vermin creeping closer.
And then… the Viper launched its final assault.
A venomous blur sliced through the air toward the Warden. But against all odds, in an improbable flash of luck or desperate instinct, the Warden dodged. His battered form rolled across the ground, rose with a hoarse growl, pivoted… and leapt.
His blade split the night sky and crashed down onto the Nightmare Viper's skull with a dull impact. A cavernous rasp echoed through the darkness as steel sank into the beast's thick flesh.
– « Die… just die… die! » the Warden snarled, driving the reddened blade into the abomination's head again and again, his rage bleeding into every strike.
A piercing shriek rose from the monster, its body twisted one last time… then went still.
Silence.
An icy wind slipped through the frozen trees.
And suddenly...
Schlak!
A miserable spear tore through the night… and buried itself deep in the Warden's neck, piercing through his nape and bursting out through his jugular.
– « Got you. » Kenzo whispered softly, a vicious smile warping his face.
He stood behind the fallen Warden, having seized that instant when his enemy, drunk on victory, had lowered his guard. He had gambled correctly. The being he hated even more than the Viper itself was going to die by his hand.
The Warden, shocked, tried to turn around, eyes wide with disbelief and fear. But exhaustion, accumulated wounds, and the spear lodged in his throat overcame him. With a dull thud, he dropped to his knees, gasping, staring at Kenzo with a terror-clouded gaze.
– « Yes… that look… » Kenzo murmured hoarsely. – « The same look we gave you… we miserable prisoners… begging for your mercy. »
A thrill ran down his spine. From his belt, he drew the old rusty dagger—the same one he had taken from those three rotting corpses earlier that night. The very blade he had driven into his own eardrums to become deaf, to escape their filthy whispers.
– « You'll die… like the very first Void Creature I killed. »
Without trembling, he grabbed the Warden by the hair, tore away the broken helm, and plunged the filthy blade straight into the fallen man's eye, pushing until he felt bone give way, the tip scraping inside the skull.
– « This is for you, William… You're avenged. »
Blood sprayed, warm and sticky.
It was done. Those two monsters, ready to slaughter him and the other wretched prisoners of that infernal island… were gone.
Only him remained. Kenzo. And the silent forest, as though dead beneath the rising dawn.
He exhaled slowly. Dawn… at last. Daybreak rose over the worst night of his life, from the moment he had learned they were trapped on that cursed island to this instant when his thirst for vengeance had prevailed.
But then… that same sensation, that same insatiable hunger awakened within him.
– « What is this…? » he murmured, panting.
His feverish gaze slid toward the Warden's corpse. Without thinking, as if driven by a primal instinct, he pulled the dagger from the shattered skull and began cutting into the chest, tearing the torso apart in search of the heart.
– « What am I doing… why am I doing this…? But I need to know… »
At last, his blood-smeared fingers closed around the still-warm heart.
– « No… why am I salivating…? I shouldn't… Even in the slums, even when I was starving every night… I never did this… »
But his teeth were already sinking into the pulsing flesh.
A bitter taste flooded his mouth… and energy suddenly rushed through him, gentle, peaceful… just like during the alchemists' abominable experiments. A shiver of power coursed through his veins.
His eyes then fell upon the Nightmare Viper.
He chuckled.
He couldn't carve up its whole body… but the head… the head the Warden had split open… the heart had to still be there.
Crawling like a carrion feeder drunk on power, he plunged into the monster's gaping jaws and searched, digging, clawing… until he found the coveted organ.
– « What is this feeling…? I want more… »
He bit into the Viper's foul heart. This time, a black, sinister, icy energy , like an echo from the abyss—slithered into his entrails.
Then suddenly, his mind tore apart.
– « What have I done…? »
Pain struck him down. An agony beyond words, a thousand times worse than the alchemical experiments. He screamed, convulsed, rolled across the ground, until unconsciousness claimed him.
…
When he opened his eyes… absolute void surrounded him.
Everything was darkness.
Before him… two paths.
One bright and radiant. The other dark and menacing.
His heart tightened. An inner voice rumbled.
– « What is this? Where am I…? What is this… choice…? »
He clenched his fists.
– « No… no! If you think I'm going to choose one or the other… you're dreaming! »
He shouted:
– « The Awakened… those so-called heroes who claim to protect us from Void Creatures… those bastards have never seen what Non-Awakened people and the poor beyond the outer walls go through, those condemned to hunger and despair! Their arrival made this world worse! Let them all die, them and their monsters! »
His voice rose into the void.
– « I want to live… someone is waiting for me. But I refuse this fake choice! Plague or cholera? No! Choose for me, cowards! I'll survive, no matter what! »
Silence answered him.
A long, freezing, oppressive silence.
Then… a voice echoed. Neither human nor mechanical.
[Congratulations, Kenzo. You have just succeeded in your test to become the Lastborn.]
You who walked the shadowed ways
Where trials break or harden souls
And in the abyss without edge or end
You bit into their ancient hearts.
Fresh blood still on your hands
The two great voices fled from you
Neither shadow nor pure ligh
Granted you their whisper anymore.
So, standing against the sky
You forged your own call
No god, no master, no truth
Only your will, raised high.
But which road have you chosen?
Will you forge an empire of ruins
Or the rise of a thornless reign?
No one knows, not even you
For your destiny will be written
Only on the day when, with chained arm
You have tamed the Ancients
And the Nameless One, that ancient abyss
Sealed beneath your final bond.
[Here is your current Status:]