**Beware, there is domestic violence and mention of nonconsensual sex in this chapter**
287 AC, Gates of Volantis…
Gerold woke up in a town with muddy streets. He looked around but there was no one and when he tried to stand up, he realized his stature was too short. His hands were like that of a child.
Suddenly, Gerold heard a woman's scream coming from a house with white-painted walls. The screams were getting louder and they were full of pain. Gerold decided to go to look at the house and see what was going on.
When he neared the door, the screams slowed down and a different cry was heard but this was different as it was too high-pitched and a bit muffled.
"Is Gwayne okay?! How is the baby?" Gerold heard a man's name coming behind the door. He opened it and saw a man hurrying towards a room.
Gerold followed behind the man with calm steps. He saw a woman lying on a bed with sheets covering her. There were two more women in the room, one of them was pouring a bucket with bloody water down the window. The other woman was holding a little bundle in her arms and crying sounds were coming from that bundle. However, there was an ugly look on the woman's face.
The man ignored the crying sounds and went towards his wife and held her hand, "Gwayne, are you okay?!"
"Yes, honey." The woman named Gwayne answered weakly and she turned her head towards the other women, "Give him to me, please."
The woman holding the bundle hesitated but in the end, she gave up and gave the bundle to Gwayne.
Gwayne took his son with a smile on her face but that smile had frozen as soon as she saw his face. Instead of a normal mouth, there was just a hole on his face.
"Jack… Jack look at his face. Why is it like that!?" Gwayne cried out with a hysterical voice.
Jack, the man holding her shoulder, creased his brows and extended his head to look at what his wife was fussing over but he was shocked but what he saw. He was expecting a healthy and robust child but what he got was an abomination. There was only one thing on his mind, this couldn't be my son… it couldn't be...
"I… I will take him to the priest. I'm sure they will know what to do about this thing." Jack tried to take the bundle to his hands but despite giving birth recently, his wife's grip was strong.
"No, never!! I know what you are planning to do!! He is our son!" Gwayne tried to hide her son from her husband.
At that moment, Gerold realized that this was the memories of his body's original owner. However, before he was able to see what was going to happen to the baby his vision blurred and he was thrown to a bigger room. The room was similar to the previous one but instead of a bedroom, this was a living room.
An older version of Jack with greying hair was sitting on a chair and there were 3 bottles in front of him. However, only one of them was full as the rest was resting in his belly. He was alone in the room.
He raised his tankard to his mouth but it was empty so he opened the last bottle and tried to pour it into his tankard without spilling it outside. He has barely filled half of it when he was startled by crying sound from upstairs.
"Fuckin' woman, didn't I told ya! I don't want to hear of that fuckin' freak's voice!!" Jack stood up and went towards the stair with an angry and flushed face.
Gerold followed him behind but there was something strange on the man as a big shadow with an evil smile was clinging to his back and whispering to his ear.
Jack kicked the door open when he went up to the stairs. In the room, there were a woman and a baby. The woman was holding the baby in her arms and she was trying to calm him. When she saw her husband coming into the room, she put the baby in his crib anxiously.
"You fuckin' whore!! Didn't I tell you no fuckin' cryin' anymore!?" Jack went to his wife with angry steps and slapped her on the face, "Because of you and that shitty freak everyone is laughing at me!!"
Jack was hitting his wife while the shadow was whispering with a mad smile on its face.
As Gwayne felt pain a similar shadow to Jack's grew on her back. With the whispers on her ear, she reached for the knife on the table but stopped at the last moment as she remembered her child. If she saved herself by stabbing this man then there would have been hard days in front of her as she couldn't earn any silver by herself. So the shadow on her back grew smaller while the one on Jack's back grew bigger.
Gerold's vision blurred again and, this time, he was thrown to a bigger city. He remembered this city as this was where he worked in the streets as a thug. He looked around and saw himself with another man and two women.
He remembered this day as this was the day he became a real scum. The same shadow was on his old self's back though it was still small. However, he was sure that the shadow was going to grow bigger today.
Gerold's old self got into a big van with others speeding towards the lights of the big city. His eyes blurred again and he found himself in a hotel room with a big bed. There was a tripod camera in front of the bed and a man with a beard and a bald head was adjusting it.
The door of the room opened and Gerold's old self went in while supporting two women with dizzy eyes. Gerold saw the shadow growing bigger each second and filled the room.
Gerold's vision blurred again but he did not find himself in a familiar place. Everywhere he could see was black and the only thing he was able to see was his own hands. He tried to walk forward but after a few steps, he was met with a black bar. He walked to another direction but he was met again with a black bar.
Gerold tries to look throughout the bars but all he could see is a slimy black substance on the ground, wriggling and twisting towards him. The black substance flowed towards him and he tried to climb to his leg by clinging to his feet. Gerold shook of the black thing off his feet and backed off. However, this time, another black thing tried to climb his leg from behind.
Gerold panics and tries to run away but because of the black bars, he couldn't escape anywhere. He was besotted from all sides and there wasn't anywhere to run away.
Black substance climbed up to his legs and Gerold's breath quickened. There was fear in his eyes and he was trying to throw off the black thing from his body. However, it was already climbing up to his torso.
The black substance covered him up to his hair and Gerold started hearing strange sounds. A black glowing ball came in front of him. İt was floating in the air and its light was blinding despite being black.
"Cumhacht... Is féidir liom cumhacht a dheonú duit…" The voice was coming strange but it was similar in a strange way, "Is féidir leat gach rud a dhéanamh…"
The words naturally came to Gerold as he began to understand them. The being was offering him power, a power which could grant him everything…
Gerold understood the meaning of true power when he came to this world. It was not political and economic. The true power of Planetos was the divine power; a power which mortals can't interfere, a power which could surpass all others. And this was the power which Gerold was offered. It was tempting as he had a thirst for this type of power since coming to this planet. Even with these powers, he was beneath the gods and this weakness was the reason he was being so aggressive to reach his goals.
The promise of power was too tempting as Gerold extended his hand towards the glowing ball. Suddenly, a white light came out of Gerold's heart and the black substance tried to escape from its light's reach and washed away from Gerold's body. Even the glowing black ball retreated behind the bars.
Gerold calmed down with the warming white light and opened his eyes. He was back again at the red demon's temple.