Chapter 5 : Die.
"A skill?! It worked, Gramps!" cried Shame, jumping to his feet, raising an arm toward the night sky, proud of his training. But his body, pushed to its limits, couldn't take it anymore: he collapsed, unconscious, onto the ground.
"Well done, Shame, you make me proud as my grandson, even if I got my first skill in just one hour! Ahahahah!" laughed Grealf, a booming, powerful laugh that made the ground tremble.
"I have to train you hard, after all. I have plans for you, kid," he added with a hint of mischief before heading back inside the manor, leaving Shame lying alone in the garden, unable to move.
Grealf is an enigmatic man. To Shame, he's a savior. But everything seems too perfect. The old man appeared by chance when Shame was on the run, claiming he wanted to save the other members of the wave. A noble intention, perhaps, but too suspicious to ignore.
The relationship between Shame and Grealf is complicated. The young man sees him as a father figure, a role he easily grew attached to, having never known his parents. However, a doubt lingers in his mind.
"Gramps... once again, he left me alone in the garden after training. He's been doing this all week... does he hate me or something..." murmured Shame, lying on the grass, sighing.
"But then again, thanks to him, I have food… I can wash… I have clean clothes, and even my hair's combed. You can finally see my face." He flashed a small, satisfied smile at these little victories.
But reality struck him. He was still lying on the ground, motionless, alone, in the icy night.
He stayed like that for a while, until his body regained a bit of mobility. He pushed himself up, gathering his strength and getting dressed again. One night over dinner, Grealf had told him:
"Listen up, Shame, you only expose your body in a fight if... the fight takes place in a bed! AHAHAHA!" This phrase, repeated every dinner, had always left him puzzled. Growing up on the streets leave you with a lack of certain kinds of knowledge...
Suddenly, a growl shattered the silence beyond the manor's walls. Intrigued, Shame approached and noticed a shadow that seemed to be watching him.
"An intruder… Gramps is asleep… I'll scare him," murmured Shame, staring at the shadow.
"Hey! You over there! My grandpa, the guy who lives here, he's super strong! If you're after me or him, he'll tear you to shreds!" Shame shouted at the top of his lungs. But the shadow continued to watch him, unmoving.
A sinister thought crossed his mind: is that thing watching him even human? Grealf's manor is deep in the forest; no one else should be here. His thoughts began to spiral.
"Damn it, a monster! I thought my skill hadn't been working recently!" he yelled, understanding the urgency. He sprinted towards the manor's door to warn his grandfather, but the distance was too great. He'd never make it in time.
"I'll have to face it... I'll be fine if it's just one. Gramps trained me well," he murmured to reassure himself.
The shadow leaped over the walls and into the garden, first hidden in darkness, then revealed under the moonlight. Shame froze, and as he recognized it, he whispered:
"Oh—oh no... no, not you..." He took a step back, panic flooding his eyes. Standing before him was the same gray wolf that had massacred the other Envoys, leaving him traumatized. It was a monster he thought invincible.
"I—I can't do anything against that thing..." he murmured, before turning on his heel to flee.
A loud thud sounded behind him: the wolf had launched itself into a chase, ready to attack.
"Get away!" he screamed, but the monster didn't falter. In seconds, the creature caught up to him and lunged, jaws wide.
"I'm going to die!" Shame cried, throwing himself to the ground instinctively. The monster leaped over him and skidded on the grass a few meters away. Taking advantage of this close call, Shame scrambled to his feet and resumed running.
The wolf, furious, immediately pounced again. This time, Shame wouldn't have time to dodge: the monster closed in on him, jaws wide open. He instinctively raised his arm to protect his face, and the sharp fangs sank deep into his flesh.
"AAAAH!" he screamed in pain.
But his muscles, strengthened by Grealf's training, managed to resist, preventing the wolf from tearing off his arm, though its fangs sank in deeper and deeper.
"I—I'm going to die..." Shame murmured, feeling the blood dripping from his arm. In front of him, the wolf, massive and terrifying, devoured him with its eyes.
"N-No... I won't die. Never again will I let this happen!" he suddenly shouted, gathering all his courage.
"Show me my status, you useless system!" Shame yelled. At his words, a screen appeared:
[ Name: Shame Dracarys
Divine Name: None
Orb Level: 2
Status: Grandson of the King
Skills: {Guilt} {Determination} (New!)
Celestial Alignment: Star of the Guilty ]
"How do I use these skills?!" he shouted, staring at the magic inscribed on his status.
"AAAARGH!!!"
The monster bit down even harder, its fangs reaching the bone. Shame gritted his teeth, trying to steady his mind, to suppress the pain.
Shame gritted his teeth, his body wracked with pain, but his whispers became commands to himself: "Focus... focus..." Fear and anxiety tried to consume him, but he resisted with all his might, searching for an anchor.
[Skill activated: Determination]
Suddenly, the pain seemed to vanish. The trembling ceased, and the terror and panic in his gaze hardened into an unbreakable resolve. He was no longer the frightened child who ran; he was a blade, a will of iron. His left arm, still caught in the wolf's jaws, no longer hurt him.
With strength both sudden and incredible, Shame grabbed the beast's mouth with his right hand and forced it open with raw violence, wrenching his injured arm free from the deadly maw. The wolf let out a howl of surprise, shaken by the unexpected power of its prey.
"So, this is a skill..." Shame murmured, feeling this new energy in every fiber of his being. His wound was still bleeding, but it no longer fazed him. His mind wasn't absorbed by the pain but sharpened by a new awareness, his eyes frantically searching for a way to strike back.
He spotted a rock at his feet, and a dark smile spread across his face. "This will do." He fixed his gaze on the creature, and the wolf hesitated, recoiling from the cold glint in his eyes. Did the beast see it, that chilling defiance burning in his gaze?
"Come closer," Shame commanded, his voice thick with restrained rage. But the animal stood frozen, paralyzed by an instinctive terror.
"I told you to come closer, bastard." His voice darkened further, and the creature stepped back, unsettled.
Then, without waiting, Shame leaped toward it, rock in hand, his body propelled by newfound speed and an inhuman precision. The wolf, gripped by panic, tried to evade him, but it was too late: Shame was already upon it. A flash crossed the creature's mind.
In an instant, the predator realized that it was no longer the hunter — but the hunted.
Shame's rock-armed fist smashed into the beast's snout with a force so brutal that the wolf stumbled back, whimpering, blood trickling down its gray fur. In a final, desperate attempt, the creature swiped its claws through the air, but Shame dodged with a terrifying agility, leaping before landing a series of blows with chilling ferocity.
"Die."
His voice, calm and cold, contrasted with the fury of his movements. His fists rained down like hammers, driving the rock deeper and deeper into the creature's skull.
The wolf's fearsome appearance was reduced to a quivering mass, its strength crumbling beneath Shame's relentless force. Though grievously injured himself, his left arm useless, his gaze remained filled with unyielding determination. He refused to let go. Blow after blow, Shame shattered, crushed, destroyed the creature that had once terrified him. Until, finally, the wolf collapsed.
Out of breath, he knelt beside the lifeless body of the wolf. "If I had killed you the first time we met, none of them would be dead," he murmured, a cold hatred in his voice. He wasn't finished. Then, he smashed the rock down onto the carcass again until the wolf was reduced to a blood-soaked memory of his former fear.
From afar, a man observed the scene from a high window in the manor, a satisfied smile lighting up his weathered face. "I knew it... our Monster has returned," Grealf murmured, his eyes fixed on Shame.
In an ancient age, long past and nearly forgotten, a King and she who bore the Crown had birthed an heir. But the Will governing the worlds refused his existence: the child would disrupt the very balance of the universe, breaking laws and tearing apart the fabric of reality. So, this supreme force banished him, casting him into another plane of existence, far from his destiny and his original world.
This banished child, this anomaly... was back.