Fenrir's gigantic figure was circling around Ryder, evaluating, calculating, scrutinizing and planning. Not much different from how a wolf stalks it's prey, that thought didn't comfort Ryder's uneasy heart.
"There was never a mention of a wolf king among the stories i heard as a child, let alone this so called Predator of kings." Ryder tried to keep his voice from shaking as he tried to act calm Infront of Fenrir.
"Of course you never heard me, every trace of my kind has been either destroyed or buried by those noble kings of yours, after all it's easier to overcome your fear, when there is nothing to remind you of it." Fenrir's mocking voice echoed through the dark void as he continued to circle around Ryder.
"Fear? Why would they fear you? Aren't you all at the same rank? Why should they fear you when you all have similar strength?" Turning his head to the right, Ryder's eyes widened in fright as he found that Fenrir's blue eye was literally inches away from his face.
"Because....unlike the others, i clawed my way to become one. No noble blood like the pheonix nor lucky encounters like the lion and no divine intervention like the dragon. I slaughtered my way to the title." Gazing into the eye of Fenrir, Ryder could see fleeting glimpses of bloody battlefields and frightful encounters and dangerous situations. the truth was that the harbinger of ice and death was just a normal Tundra wolf.
But if anyone asked Ryder what he thought of Fenrir at that moment, only one answer felt appropriate to him, Manifestation of the Sin of pride.
"What exactly do you from me? What did you mean by being your successor?" Taking a deep breath and gathering his courage, Ryder asked this question as calmly as he can.
A shadow passed over Fenrir's eye before he blinked and rose to his full height once again and stood Infront of Ryder.
"Tundra wolves are creatures born to hunt, that's our way of living and our thrill in life. The stronger the prey we successfully hunt the stronger we become, in my case i hunted till i became strong enough to threaten all the other kings but by the time they gathered to get rid of me, it was already to late. I managed to kill 4 of them before escaping with the sever injuries and the next time we met there only option was to flee into their territories." Fenrir's appeared lost in thoughts as he continued to speak to himself more than anything else.
"Then one day, the strongest 4 kings among them came to me asking for help. The pit has appeared by then and started to spread itself outside the dead forest, corrupting everything in it's path, but that wasn't all. Some demons appeared outside the pit and despite them being low in numbers their strength exceeded the rest of the kings, they had to fight using numbers just to push them back."
"Back then i was confident in my strength too much to consider deceit and the idea of hunting more powerful preys was irresistible to me, so i took part in their war and with me as the spearhead we managed to push the pit's demons back." Fenrir's eyes were closed as if reminiscing.
"But the moment we got near the pit, a being more sinister and stronger than anything i have ever known before emerged from the pit and attacked us, the weaker among us died and the rest were injured one way or another, it didn't attack again but more demons and demonic beasts emerged and chased us, we started falling back but apparently the kings decided that this was the best opportunity to get rid of me and i was bisected from both sides."
There wasn't anger in his voice just pure disbelief. They just found out that there was something more powerful than all of them combined protecting the pit and while they managed to stop it advance for now, the root of the problem is still there and instead of working together they turned on the one with highest chance to beat it.
" what happened ? Did they kill you ?" Ryder was so engrossed in the story that he forgot the situation he was in.
"I am still here, aren't i ?.....it seems our time is almost up, so i will give you a choice, you can die like you intended to, or i can awaken your bloodline, if you ask me dying is way more comfortable but the look in your eyes tells me you want to live." Fenrir was about to continue speaking but the dark space they have been occupying for a while now started shaking and cracks started to appear.
" wait!! What did you mean by successor and why did you choose me ? I still have questions!" Exclaimed Ryder as he watched the cracks get bigger and the sound of glass breaking filled the place.
"We will meet again, now choose. Life or death." Fenrir's eyes shone with intensity as he waited for Ryder choice.
Ryder could feel the sincerity in Fenrir's eyes and whatever he choose he won't interfere in his choice. So he closed his eyes for a moment and tried to check his frozen heart and surprisingly enough he could feel it covered in a layer of frost with ruins and symbols engraved on it and it was quivering as if waiting to be released.
"I have made my choice." Ryder's eyes glowed softly as he looked at Fenrir.
**********
"Okay, no need to waste time, let just throw him into the forest and the beasts will do the rest." Said the notebook guy as he gestured to his friends to start moving.
"Sure, after i take a piece of this bastard as a souvenir." The skinny guy brought a small rusty knife from atop one of the boxes near and started moving toward Ryder's limp body.
But before he can get too close, a harsh cold wind started blowing through the streets and bringing with it ice shards and snow flakes as it started swirling around Ryder creating a whirlwind of ice and snow.
" what's going on ?!" The sudden drop in the temperature alerted Linard and he turned back to see his lackeys stepping back in fright and Ryder's body starting to float slowly in the middle of a small whirlwind.
"What are you impeciles waiting for?!! KILL HIM!" Linard roared at the top of his lungs, he didn't know what was happening but he had a bad feeling about this and wasn't going to wait to find out.
The skinny guy nervously gulped, but tried to pass through the whirlwind, stretching his hand Infront of him he felt the temperature dropping more and more as he got closer until he felt something solid pushing against him, trying to apply more strength resulted in him being pushed back and a sharp pain to spread across his arm, causing him to jump back in pain and fright, looking at his right arm, the sleeve was frozen stiff and the skin was bright red and felt numb, common signs of frost bite.
Seeing their friend holding his hand close to his chest in pain and the frightened expression on his face the others didn't dare to get close and opted to throw whatever they could find, so rocks, bricks, pieces of wood were thrown but the whirlwind blocked them all and send them flying away, one of the bigger guys found the iron bar on the ground and swung it at the whirlwind wind but a voice similar to glass cracking filled the place and cracks appeared on the place he hit but quickly it disappeared once again.
So now they could only helplessy watch as Ryder's body floated in mid air and snow flakes started to glow and orbit around him like fireflies, until one of them fell on his broken hand. There was a cracking voice and the bones seemed to snap in place before blue clear ice started to spread from the place of contact and covered his arm from the elbow to the wrist and from the wrist a gauntlet made of white crystal covered his hand and ended with a sharp edge at the finger tips.
Snow flakes started to touch varies parts of his body causing glowing runes to appear but nothing as radical as his broken arm and after few minutes the whirlwind started to die down and Ryder stood there motionless with his eyes still closed.
Linard felt something awfully wrong and his instincts told him to run as far away as possible, so without a word to his lackeys he moved toward the entrance of the alley, just before he left, he took one last glance behind him and what he saw frightened him.
Ryder's eyes were open but instead of their normal look, the pupils were slit shaped and vertical and his eyes were glowing with blue light. His hair color which was black a moment ago turned grey with a shiny appearance that it almost felt like silver.
Ryder's eyes stared intensely at Linard and for a second the light in them intensified and to his terror Linard felt something akin to a shiver that ran through his body before it settled somewhere deep inside him, leaving him cold and deeply frightened at the core.
***********
Somewhere close by, a luxurious carriage was moving calmly through the streets as not to disrupt the passenger inside it.
Inside the carriage on a soft looking sofa sat an elegant, beautiful lady that looked like she was in her mid twenties but the mature look in and the serenity on her face spoke of someone with much more experience in life.
Her snow white skin deeply contrasted with the black dress she was wearing not only was the dress black but everything she wore was black in color, from the silky looking gloves in her hands to the jewellery she wore and the socks that reached her knees.
Right now she, was resting her face on her palm and leaning against the window with closed eyes.
Suddenly, the women shivered and her eyes snapped open, showing a mixture of surprise and a hint of instinctual terror in them, her blood red eyes turned towards the alleys for a moment before she shook her head causing her shiny black hair to sway left and right, a spectacular sight that sadly no one was there to appreciate.
Raising her gloved hand, a black ring glowed softly, then a black cloak appeared in the carriage which the women wore and it managed to conceal her features.
"Wait for me here." The women knocked twice on the carriage window before a mesmerising voice echoed into the coachman ears causing his eyes to glaze for a moment before he gathered himself and stopped the carriage, but by the time he looked back there was no one there.
***********
Linard desperately looked at his body trying to see if anything has changed but he couldn't find anything out of the ordinary but he knew something has changed, so without a second thought he ran as fast as he could without looking back.
Back in the alley, Ryder's mouth stretched into a grin revealing two sharp canines while his pupils turned back to normal, as he saw Linard fleeing for now, then he his eyes turned to the rest of the gang who was abandoned by their leader.
The gang members stood there in not known what to do and were looking nervously at each other, no one was willing to make the first move.
Ryder assessed his situation, he still felt all the bruises and the broken bones in his body, the awakening didn't heal the wounds at most it aligned the broken bones and dulled the pain, so he despite the confidence and pressure he was emiting only he knew that his options were a bit limited.
But despite the injures, the restrictions and the danger, He only felt excitement. His blood was boiling and the urge to kill was almost maddening that it made it impossible to think logically. He could feel it, something primal, something instinctual was urging him to let it free.
Unbeknownst to him, the pressure he was emiting was only increasing, causing the gang members to start shaking and they gradually started stepping back, but they didn't get to more than a couple of steps before they saw Ryder bringing his unbroken hand to his face and used it to cover one of his eyes as he raised his head to the sky.
"ARGHHHHHHH!" Ryder's roar carried a sense of bloodlust with it, that it froze anyone who heard it in their place.
Then slowly, Ryder brought his face down still hiding his eye behind his hand before he looked toward the group of four who was now trembling in their place with pale faces and shaking knees, beacuse they saw that while Ryder left eye was normal, his pupil of right eye which was peeking from the gap of his fingers was fixed on them and it looked like it was shaking in it's place. A second late Ryder disappeared from where he was standing and the screams and the smell of blood filled the alley.
*********
"p-p-please l-let me go...i- i can be helpful, i-i ca- i can tell you where Linard is.." the notebook guy was crawling on crawling backwards on the ground on his hands and knees, there was a mixture of tears and snot and blood on his face and wet patch on his pants but he didn't seem to care as his eyes were unable to look away from the gruesome sight Infront of him.
His friends laid there dead on the ground, the bigger guys had their arms ripped out and multiple laceration covered their bodies and their facial expression was locked in a mask of terror and pain and their mouth was wide open in a soundless scream, the skinny guy fate was worse, his body was punctured in multiple places with ice stakes and his heart was gouged out while his face was frozen. And in the middle of all this, Ryder was standing there with an unsatisfied expression on his face as if this wasn't enough for him and then he started walking toward the notebook guy.
"Don't worry, he has been marked." Ryder's voice seemed to echo twice as if there was more than one person talking at the same time.
So with while his left hand was dangling uselessly in it's place, his right hand was rasied Infront of him and he was grimcing as if he was concentrating on something, suddenly ice slowly started to gather infront of him and a long dagger made of ice took shape Infront of him.
Taking a hold of the dagger Infront of him he started to inspect it with a serious eyes before he looked at the notebook guy.
That one look, made the notebook guy freak out and lose his mind and he stumbled to his feet and started running and screaming but he didn't get far before a dagger made of ice found it's mark in his neck, so with a look of despair he crumbled to the ground once more while choking on his own blood.
Finally the madness that was threatening to overcome Ryder settled down and he fell down to his knees panting with cold sweat covering his whole body.
"Fenrir, What was that?!" Ryder hissed at his mind, he could feel Fenrir's prescence there and he wanted answers.
Looking at his hand that was covered in blood, Ryder was shaken to the core, he never took a life before and now he killed 4 people without batting an eye and yet he felt nothing, there was no regrets, no hesitation and no second thoughts. The only thing he felt was a deep sense of satisfaction and calmness, which he knew was wrong but despite that his hand has never been this steady before. Something wasn't right with him and he knew Fenrir knew something about it.
" You should secure your own life first before asking questions, a troublesome someone has appeared." Fenrir voice echoed deep inside his mind and it caused him to snap his eyes toward the alley entrance.
There stood a tall figure covered in a black cloak. He couldn't see it's eyes but he knew it was staring at him.
the lighting rumbled and a heavy rain started falling at them but while Ryder's body started to get drenched, the rain evaporated before it could touch the cloak.
"Interesting, The night wasn't wasted it seems."