In a forest veiled by pale moonlight, the wind carried faint cries of agony through the trees. Each gust seemed to whisper of horror, spreading the lament of those who had fallen. The nearby river ran thick and red, a grim testament to the countless lives sacrificed, staining its waters in hues of death.
Beneath the dense canopy, far from prying eyes, a figure stood motionless at the edge of a yawning pit. His long black hair fell loosely around his face, framing hollow eyes that reflected neither hope nor remorse. He held a young girl by the neck, her frail body suspended over the void. She clung to his arm, fingers trembling, her nails digging into his skin as if to anchor herself against the inevitable.
"Why? Why are you doing this?" Her voice cracked, the words escaping in desperate sobs. "Haven't you killed enough already? You slaughtered everyone in my village… I watched them die." Her words grew weaker, broken by terror. "We all ran, tried to escape, but you… you hunted us down like animals. You're a monster!"
The man before her was known across the land as the Mad Sorcerer. For years, his shadow had swept through villages, leaving only corpses and desolate ruins in his wake. Even the Empire, built to withstand waves of monsters after the Calamity, had fallen before him, reduced to rubble and silence. Yet he was insatiable, driven by a hunger no one could understand.
As her words faded, he looked down at her, his gaze dark and distant, like staring into an abyss. His mind drifted to another face, one etched forever in his memory.
His little sister, her innocent face twisted in terror as she was taken by monsters long ago. He had failed her. The memory haunted him relentlessly, a phantom buried deep beneath layers of bloodshed and madness, surfacing only in his darkest, quietest moments. Nights stretched into eternity as he lay awake, her voice echoing through his mind, crying out for help he couldn't give.
A voice, cold and detached, rumbled from him, though his lips remained still. "I hope this will be enough," it intoned, empty and unnatural. "Or I will go out and search for more."
The girl's heart shattered at the words, and a hollow silence filled her eyes. With a swift, merciless twist, he crushed her neck. Her body fell limply, plummeting into the pit below, her blood splattering the edges as she joined the countless others entombed within the darkness.
He released her lifeless form and stared down into the abyss, waiting. The forest held its breath, and then, at last, the ground began to tremble. A massive circle of light blazed into existence above him, illuminating the trees.
The circle was golden, inscribed with the intricate patterns of dragons, each line pulsing with ancient, forbidden power. He stared at it, his face expressionless, but a single tear traced down his cheek. After years of bloodshed and sacrifice, he had finally achieved what he had sought.
In a forgotten ruin, he had once stumbled upon a spell "a dragon's magic", powerful enough to send an object to the past. Translating it had taken years, and the ritual required an unthinkable price: the souls of mana-bearers.
He had sacrificed everything, beginning with monsters, then spirits, and, at last, human lives. Now, with blood on his hands and an emptiness gnawing at his soul, he looked into the glowing circle, the tear on his cheek glinting in the golden light.
A whisper floated through the forest, soft yet piercing, "Sister…"
He reached into his robe, fingers trembling, and withdrew a small, worn piece of paper. With a final, hollow glance, he cast it into the circle, watching as his last hope vanished into the circle.