♤ Lesson of Blood ♤
The pain didn't stop.
It wasn't just pain anymore, it was more like a presence now. A constant companion, whispering that I hadn't died yet, that I was still here, still suffering. Every breath I took felt jagged, like inhaling broken glass. Each movement was a scream my body didn't have the voice to give.
I crawled across the blackened sand, one arm dragging, the other clutching my side. Something was inside the wound, not just blood, but something wrong. Thick, dark, clinging like oil, like it wanted to stay with me.
I tried not to cry out. There was no one to hear me. And even if someone did, they wouldn't help. Not in this place. Not here.
Pain means I'm still alive.
I repeated that in my head like a prayer. If I kept thinking it, maybe I'd believe it. Maybe I'd stay human.
I forced myself up. My legs trembled like they belonged to someone else. My body was ruined, useless. But I stood. Because if I didn't, I'd sink into this place. I'd become a part of it.
The world around me was a corpse that hadn't stopped twitching. Twisted buildings jutted up like broken bones. The sky above bled light through fractured clouds. Dead trees reached for me with blackened branches like they remembered how to hate.
The silence wasn't empty. It was waiting.
I stumbled through a ruined corridor, walls carved deep with symbols I didn't recognize, yet somehow understood. A language older than memory. Stories of ambition turned to ash, thrones risen and shattered. Screams soaked into the stone.
This place had no gods. Only grave markers.
I placed my palm against one of the carvings. It was cold. It was angry.
A low growl shuddered through the ruins. My instincts snapped awake like fire catching dry leaves. I ducked low, chest tight, slipping behind a shattered wall. Heart pounding so loud I swore the ground could hear it.
Movement. Shadows slithered between columns.
Then I saw them.
Scavenger demons. Thin. Ragged. Their bodies bent wrong, like something had twisted them inside out and called it evolution. Their teeth didn't fit their mouths. Eyes burned like dying coals. They didn't walk, they crawled, twitching and sniffing, always hungry.
I froze.
They didn't see me.
Instead, they found something else, a creature, broken and bleeding. Lizard-like. Eyes wide. Desperate.
It tried to flee.
They tore into it before the sound could escape its throat.
I didn't blink.
I didn't look away.
I let it burn itself into my mind.
This is the world I lived in now.
Not a hell. Hell had rules. Punishments. A point. This place just had predators and prey.
And I was bleeding.
I moved, slow, quiet. My wound screamed, every step a war. But I didn't stop. I couldn't afford to. Pain meant I was still alive, but still alive meant still hunted.
The land stretched before me like a scar. Rivers of red light split the earth like veins, pulsing faintly, glowing with something ancient and wrong. Spires loomed, half-collapsed, like the bones of titans. The sky above never changed, frozen in a state of breaking.
I needed shelter. Water. Food.
I had none of those things.
Then, something glinted beneath the roots of a charred tree. Metal.
I staggered toward it, vision swimming.
A dagger.
Small. Chipped. Uneven. But real.
I wrapped my fingers around it like it was salvation.
It wasn't sharp. But it was mine.
I turned it in my hand, testing the weight. The handle was cold against my palm. Comforting, in a twisted way.
Then came the snarl.
The scavengers had finished feeding.
Now they were hunting again.
I backed away, heart racing, breath shallow. I didn't know how to fight, not really. But I'd fight anyway. Because the only other option was to lie down and wait to be devoured.
I fled into deeper ruins, slipping through rubble and shattered stone. The walls closed in, the air thick with heat and rot. My hunger gnawed at my insides. My soul felt… hollow. As if something inside me had been leaking out since the moment I arrived.
Eventually, I stumbled into a courtyard. Statues, broken and faceless, stood in a circle like they were judging me. A dry fountain sat in the center, cracked and choking on dust. I dropped beside it, limbs shaking, eyes burning.
I couldn't go on much longer.
Then came the sound, soft, almost innocent.
Tiny footsteps. Skittering.
I peered over the edge of the fountain.
A small beast limped into view. Thin. Grey. Its ribs showed. Eyes twitching, nervous.
Not a threat.
Not dangerous.
But alive.
My hand tightened around the dagger.
Could I kill it? Just like that?
I didn't want to.
But I was starving. Dying.
This world didn't care about wanting.
I rose slowly, blade raised. My breath trembled. My fingers felt numb.
Then something deep inside me stirred. Something primal. Older than language. Hot.
I lunged.
The blade sank deep. The creature shrieked, high, sharp, painful. I stabbed again. And again. Until the sounds stopped.
The blood was hot. Sticky. I could feel it soaking through my clothes. Smelled like copper and fire.
I dropped to my knees.
Breathing hard.
Covered in death and blood.
Then the voice returned. Cold. Mechanical.
[Survival Instinct: +10]
[Demonic Power: 1%]
I stared at the message like it was a stranger.
This was what counted as growth?
I didn't feel powerful.
I felt less.
Less human. Less me.
But I wiped the blade. Pulled the corpse into shadow. Forced myself to feed.
It tasted wrong.
But I swallowed anyway.
Because now, I understood:
There's no mercy here.
No saviors. No justice. No redemption.
Only blood.
And if I want to live…
I have to become something the dark will fear.
Something worse.
Something predatory.