(Emperal's POV)
"Ugh… where am I?" My voice rasped, dry and rough, barely louder than a whisper. The air tasted of iron and decay, and my vision swam in the hazy, uneven light. Slowly, the world came into focus.
A crater. A massive, scorched pit drenched in blood, littered with mangled bodies.
I turned my head—wait, turned?—and froze. The motion was unnatural, too smooth, too effortless. I twisted again, deliberately this time, feeling the unsettling pull of something wrong. My neck rotated far too easily, the bone crackling faintly.
"No way…" I muttered, my voice trembling with disbelief. My lips quivered as a grin began to creep across my face.
With trembling hands, I raised my arms to examine them. Pale, skinny, covered in scars I didn't remember earning. Slowly, I stretched my fingers, watching the tendons shift beneath my skin. Then, curling them into a fist, I squeezed until blood seeped from my palm. The pain felt distant, like a faint whisper on the edges of my mind.
Throwing my head back, I laughed. A low, guttural sound at first, but it grew louder, rawer, spilling out of me in waves that echoed across the crater.
"Pff HAHAHAHAHA!"
"HAHAHAHA!"
"Haha…"
The laughter faded, leaving only silence. I sank to the ground, sitting cross-legged in the center of the carnage. Memories clawed their way to the surface—fragments of despair, humiliation, pain. They burned like hot iron pressed against my soul.
But that was over now. That weakling was dead.
(General POV)
Six bodies lay scattered around the crater, their twisted forms a grotesque testament to violence. Four men, two women—all unrecognizable, their faces frozen in expressions of sheer terror. Necks bent at unnatural angles, spines splintered. Blood pooled beneath them, dark and viscous, soaking into the cracked earth.
Flies buzzed around, their hum the only sound that dared intrude upon the eerie stillness.
Emperal stood slowly, his shadow stretching long and sharp across the crater floor. His expression was unreadable as he surveyed the carnage, though the faint curl of his lips betrayed a flicker of amusement.
"Some grand awakening," he muttered, nudging one of the corpses with his foot. Its head lolled grotesquely, the shattered jaw hanging open as if in silent protest.
The air around him felt alive, charged with an energy that prickled against his skin. It coiled within him, seeping into his bones like a drug, intoxicating and undeniable.
His gaze drifted upward.
Above, three suns blazed in the sky, their overlapping light casting everything in a surreal, golden-red glow. The surrounding forest loomed high and dense, the trees impossibly massive. Their bark was blackened, cracked like burned flesh, and veins of faintly glowing sap ran along their surfaces like wounds that refused to heal.
But it was the distant tree that drew his attention.
Far beyond the crater, a massive trunk pierced the horizon, its sheer scale beyond comprehension. It dwarfed everything around it, its bark black as night and laced with veins of sickly green light that pulsed rhythmically, like the heartbeat of a god.
"What… is that?" he whispered, awe and unease mingling in his voice.
A glimmer of water caught his eye, and he turned toward it.
...
The lake was eerily still, its surface reflecting the distorted light of the three suns. Kneeling at the edge, Emperal hesitated before leaning forward, his reflection rippling into view.
What stared back at him was both familiar and alien.
Heterochromatic eyes—one silver, the other red—gazed out from a face that was sharper, leaner, and more angular than he remembered. His ears, now elongated and pointed, twitched at the faint rustling of leaves. His hair was a wild tangle of green and red, falling in jagged strands that framed his face unevenly.
Then he saw it—the left side of his face. Burn scars carved a jagged path from his eye to his chin, the flesh twisted and blackened, like molten metal cooled too quickly.
"Hm? What happened?" he muttered, frowning as he traced the edge of the scars with his fingers. The skin was rough, uneven, but it didn't hurt.
"Well, whatever," he said, shrugging. "As long as I can see and move, everything else is fine."
He splashed his face with water, the cool sensation grounding him as he straightened.
...
A rustling sound broke the moment, sharp and deliberate. Emperal turned, his senses on high alert.
From the dense underbrush, a creature emerged—a grotesque abomination of muscle and fur. It resembled a lion, but its proportions were monstrous. Matted black fur covered its body in uneven patches, revealing pulsing veins beneath. Two enormous fangs jutted from its maw, dripping with ichor.
The creature's eyes glowed like dying embers as it roared, blue flames licking the edges of its maw.
Emperal didn't flinch. Instead, he tilted his head, a slow, unsettling smile spreading across his face.
"Oh, you're a big one," he murmured, his voice calm and cold.
The beast growled, lowering its stance. The blue fire grew brighter, pooling into a searing orb within its gaping mouth.
But before the creature could unleash its attack, Emperal raised a hand.
"Sit."
The flames snuffed out, the light vanishing in an instant. The beast froze, confusion flickering in its eyes. Then, with an invisible pull, it was wrenched into the air, its limbs thrashing wildly.
"You thought you were the apex predator, didn't you?" Emperal's voice was low, filled with disdain.
The beast let out a strangled whimper before its body contorted. The sickening sound of cracking bones and tearing flesh filled the air as its form collapsed inward. A moment later, it exploded in a shower of viscera, drenching the ground in steaming gore.
Only two bloodstained fangs and a pulsating heart remained.
Emperal crouched, picking up the heart with both hands. Its surface was slick with blood, still faintly warm. Without hesitation, he sank his teeth into it, the hot, metallic taste flooding his mouth.
"Ahh Yes," he whispered, his voice trembling with dark delight. "This is power."
"This world will know me," he said softly, his voice filled with quiet conviction. "And it will kneel."
As he strode into the forest, his laughter rang out once more—low, guttural, and unrelenting.