On the Eastern Fringe, a man tells a woman, to simply end it.
The man unwillingly and unwittingly became a pawn in the games of gods. A troubled birth, waking up in a pit of molten rock. having to wait in the sweltering heat until the gestation pod he was in, was carried by the current to a lava vent.
A cursed childhood, growing up alone, having to survive using his wits and courage. Jaded by the world around him, by the haunting visions of death, destruction and despair.
A lone young boy, feral and wary. Living in the shadows of broken dreams. Scavenger and pariah. Born in the dark. More monster than man. Everything was prey to him. Eating the prey taught him the language of those he hunted. Flesh of those who sought to hunt him taught him of the dark soul of man. A demi-god born in the dark, moulded by it. His savage tutelage, turn the man into more than a simple murderer or beast.
Dreams of wars in the stars. Mountains of corpses of planets yet unseen. The screams of tortured souls, who upon waking he would find to be real. Someone whispered to him in those dreams, preventing him from becoming the very scum he hunted. The Night Haunter, a name parents would use to quieten their children as they went of to bed.
Surrounded by sin since birth, he did not have to venture far to seek it. At first, single people would vanish, then whole gangs. Bodies found mangled to a point where identifying the corpse by sight was impossible.
His name went from prayer to plea of repentance. A year was all it took to break a world by sheer terror.
Crowned the Dark King, he ruled with an iron fist. Benevolent to those who did no wrong. Ruthless to those that dared to defy his will.
A "Delegation of Light" saw the Dark King leave with his siblings and father. A journey through the stars. Wars for no other reason than they were not a part of the empire. Entire cultures and ways of life wiped out simply due to the refusal to comply with the will of a god made flesh. Every time he looked at his siblings, he would see their demise, and in some cases rebirth.
He went of to father his own sons in a way. Knowing full well their cursed fate. They fought in the crusade, for that's what it was, with ruthlessness and terror. Just their name alone, would force rebels to surrender and comply.
He came to despise his sons. Scum raised to the level of demi-gods. Becoming monsters along the way. He tried to confide in his brothers, but they were of no help. Finding no other way to rid his sons of the rot. He destroyed the planet he raised himself on.
He rebelled against his father with half of his siblings. His fate clear to him. This was a way to remove the scum he called sons for good.
His father turned into a living corpse. He left to rain terror throughout the galaxy. The image of a cruel, mad, and deranged god is what people of the empire remember. Forgetting he had seen the demise of his brothers and father centuries before it happened. Haunted by the dreams and his environment, he became the very thing he saw in his visions. A monster.
He sent his sons of on a crusade for the chaos gods. Knowing their struggle will be in vain. It may take millennia, but in due time, they will be eradicated.
"...Death is nothing compared to vindication." Largely believed to be his last words by the galaxy at large.
Only his killer knew his final words, for she was there when a god died.
"Thank you."