As night had completely fallen a shadowy figure moved around in darkness without much issue.
(Seems like moon or starlight is not an issue… I was worried I would be stuck in that cave forever.)
Being able to see perfectly in the sparse light of the night, the first thing Alex did after getting out of the cave was to walk up and touch the oak tree he had seen from the cave.
(It really is real…)
The world he was familiar with had almost no trees, or nature in general for that matter. After unmitigated anthropometric climate change throughout the 20th century, the world eventually turned grey. Instead of fixing what they had damaged, humankind created machines to make breathable air, purify water and grow beef for them. After 900 years of such an environment, homo sapiens and a few other species that lived off their waste became the only remaining living creatures on the once blue and green planet. Having been born in such a world, the only places Alex had seen hints of the earth's once great nature was in videos and pictures, or in the homes of some of his ultra rich clients.
(I finally understand why they always wanted to surround themselves with something like this… It's somehow relaxing.)
Spending a bit more time walking around and admiring the lush nature, Alex decided it was time to learn more about his new body.
(First is mobility…)
Locating an open patch of ground Alex went down into a sprinter starting position and set off into a run, reaching speeds that were normally reserved for enhanced individuals in a fraction of a second. Further pushing himself, Alex found the only limiting factor of his speed to be his own inexperience.
(This body is amazing, not counting the extreme reaction to light of course…)
The limit Alex ran into was the inability to properly balance himself and make fast enough decisions to avoid crashing at the speeds he was moving around, with training he believed he would become unmatched.
(Ahh I really don't want to know…)
Noticing that the sun was slowly rising, Alex steeled his nerves. He had consciously been avoiding this for as long as he could and as he slowly approached a small lake to find out exactly what he looked like.
(Well… It's not so bad?... Wait, who the fuck am I kidding? I'm haunting.)
Alex's new body which he found his way into without any reason or explanation after he was executed could have been taken right out of an LSD induced nightmare, truly it was a nightmarish figure. Like he had seen on the other parts of his body, it consisted of a kind of dense shadow like webbing, with bright white bones acting as either armour or limbs in the case of his hands which were long, sharp and claw like.
But the worst part was most definitely Alex's new head.
(I would definitely piss myself if I ran into me in a dark alley late at night…)
Staring into the quiet lake surface, Alex was greeted by countless red glowing eyes hidden behind a veil of shadow which loosely looked like a hood. Beneath the eyes was a single wide mouth with countless jagged and razor sharp teeth, nailing down the fact that Alex was now entirely a carnivore.
(Still, I don't really feel that hungry yet... Oh shit, the sun is coming up!)
Having zoned out for a bit Alex realized was limited to the night the second he spotted the first morning rays illuminating the trees above him.
-
Doing the next few nights Alex got increasingly more used to his new body, and so he started exploring the surrounding area while staying close to the cave he woke up in. Alex's assessment of the world he had explored so far, was in a single word: Magical. Even if he didn't breathe air any more and was limited to viewing the world at night, Alex found himself constantly in awe of this strange place he had woken up in and its abundant nature.
(There must be some animals around, I've found multiple different tracks so far… That's the goal for tonight, find some kind life.)
While watching the setting sun from the safety of his cave, Alex set a goal he was almost certain he could achieve. Setting off the very second after the cursed sun dipped completely below the horizon, Alex showed the result of several earlier nights training and adjustments he moved faster than he had ever been able to with a flesh and blood body.
(These tracks look fresh… And it looks like they're leading in that direction.)
Having found a recently snapped tiny branch in a lush forest near his cave, Alex started following the tacks of some 4 legged forest dweller. Before long Alex felt like he was on close in the tracks of the animal, making some kind of curiosity increase his already extreme running speed.
(There it is!.....)
Finally spotting a large deer with a proud crown made of antlers on top of its head something broke inside Alex's mind and he lost the ability to control his body. Fueled by some primal and unbearable feeling of pure hate, Alex formed a wide and bloodthirsty smile on his face as he let out a howl like scream and charged the deer. In response, the beast did as any beast would do in such a situation and bolted, but Alex had reacted first and without any resistance, his claws dug into the deer's legs and ripped them off its body.
"YES! SCREAM!"
Laughing gleefully while the beast tried its best to get away from him while letting out grunts and screams of pain, Alex started slowly and carefully taring into its flesh and writing occult looking symbols deep into its flesh. When there was no more flesh to scar for his writing Alex started ripping off parts of its body, plucking out the eyes, ripping out the teeth and smashing the testicles. Hours quickly flowed in that manner and before Alex knew what was going on he regained his consciousness after eating the tortured deer's heart and brain after he had skinned it alive and hung its hide up on a tree.
"URG! FUCK!"
If Alex could still puke he would have done so at that moment. An unnatural truly horrifying amount of hate and sadistic anger had taken control of his body, the feeling of such emotions completely stealing away his own free will was truly horrid. Looking around himself, Alex felt the entire area had been covered in blood while he had left claw marks and more of those strange symbols on the surrounding trees, but before he could examine anything else Alex noticed that the sun was about to rise.
"Shit!"
Immediately setting off in a panicked sprint the shadow spectre left the scene of his first kill.
"FUCK! Why is this happening to me!?"
Feeling a burning sensation all over his body Alex finally got sight of his cave, but the sun's deadly rays had already reached all the way down to just over his head.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"
With his body burning all over Alex crashed into his cave while he screamed out in pain as the white bones and black shadow like webbing was slowly dissolving, and then he lost consciousness for the second time in his new body.
---
On the outskirts of the Altas Kingdom, an old farmer picked up his humble bow and went out to hunt as he had some free time after dealing with the year's harvest.
"Well then, let's see how the forest is doing this year…"
While his goal was to hopefully score a fresh kill to help nurture the new young blood in the village, his hunt was more of a yearly ritual to see how the forest was doing and spent some time alone.
"Chaos, please grant us strength."
Swinging his filled quiver over the shoulder, the old farmer offered a payer to a small shrine in the corner of his room before leaving his humble home and heading towards the nearby forest. Arriving at a clearing about an hour later the old farmer immediately noticed that something was wrong, the forest was unusually quiet.
(This isn't normal… Could a bear have come down from the mountains to make its home here? If so I need to confirm something like that is the case before contacting some more capable hunters.)
In his youth, the farmer might have been able to take on a young bear in a fight, but he was keenly aware of the fact that his age was catching up to him. But old age wasn't all bad, spirit and aggression had been exchanged with knowledge and patience, making him a much more capable hunter than he had been in his young days.
(Something definitely came through this area, and fast…)
Finding multiple snapped branches and unknown claw markings together with markings on the ground, the old farmer prepared his trusty bow as he started taking extreme care to completely kill his presence and moved slowly through the eerily silent forest without making a sound.
(This can't be good…)
Catching the faint smell of decay while he started picking up the sound of crows, the old farmer knew that there was a considerable chance of dying a painful death if he went on, but he still moved towards the sound of the cadaver eating birds.
(I need to confirm this.)
Pressing on even as a bead of sweat rolled down his back, the old farmer inched steadily closer to what seemed to be an upcoming clearing.
"Chaos, protect us from evil…"
Coming across what could only be described as a true hellscape, the old farmer was so shocked at what he saw that he forgot everything about keeping silent for a short moment. One, no, he couldn't be absolutely sure it was only a single corpse had been brutality mutilated beyond all recognition and the resulting blood of such a sacrilicious act had been used to draw strange hieroglyphs all over the place.
(I need to get the knights!)
Rushing back to his village as fast as he could, the old farmer was sure he had lost at least a few years of his remaining life by just witnessing such a hellscape, not to mention the nightmares he would have about it for the rest of his life.