I quickly put the knife away unsure of what to do next, making sure it couldn't tear my bag open. I didn't really have a good way of concealing it for now and well I didn't know how to explain what just happened properly. That and whatever magic I had I didn't know how to use it. I knew something was there but it was like I had to say the right thing or do the right motion.
Either that or it was settling in so to speak, getting used to my body changing it in ways I didn't understand. For right now though I just shuffled the rocks back into place and went back to my position, which was just me sitting down on a piece of rubble. I was keeping watch technically speaking but well when the only people nearby were angry unarmed people well you didn't have e a lot to worry about.
You should still keep an eye on them but as long as no enemy soldiers or troops are nearby well you didn't have much to worry about. Even then I wasn't the only one on watch duty and I had a feeling I wasn't going to be of much help today or tonight.
Well as the old saying goes "Everything has a price" or some variation of that I honestly didn't know nor care enough to remember. Didn't really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. While I helped keep watch the rest of the soldiers were finally done burying the dead and it was finally night. Meaning that while a few of us including I kept watch the rest were getting something to eat, passing it around to the various soldiers including myself, and rolling out a few sleeping bags.
Mostly because the villagers didn't want us inside their houses for obvious reasons, although I guess we should consider ourselves lucky we weren't kicked out into the wilderness. Lord knows I would probably do something like that but still, we at least had some protection against the elements.
Eating some of the rations I could feel a bile rising through my throat, yet nothing was in it. As though my body was rejecting what I was eating but at the same time letting it go down. I hid my discomfort from the rest of my platoon as I could explain it away that I was getting sick or something like that but well that wouldn't hold up forever and I had no idea how long I would feel like this.
It was funny seeing that dagger made me remember a few things mostly about the show and the few things I remember about Mr. Gold or Rumpelstiltskin. When he was first shown as The Dark One it shows him stabbing the previous one at night but by morning he had fully become The Dark One. They didn't show the process or how long it took, even then though it was possible that the way this universe's magic interacted with it would change the process.
For right now though I would just let it all go through me, like puberty I just had to ride it out and figure out what to do next. Like what I needed to do next, sure I could help the allies win faster in the war but would that hinder the development of the atomic bomb or lead to more deaths? I mean I wasn't a fan of nuclear weaponry in the future but even I knew that some good things came of it alongside some very very bad things. Well, magic had a price, and technology does as well whether for better or worse, like gunpowder.
Used in both long-range weaponry either as guns or cannons, but it can also be used for fireworks. Not all prices were equal in either gains or sacrifice, although it was usually the price to pay was greater. Welp that was life for ya, always looking for ways to screw you over.
Eventually, my watch was over and they left me to my own devices and I got myself all snuggled up. I then got my dagger and took a look over studying its markings trying to figure out how this all worked, alongside the idea of it being a part of Excaliber. That or this dagger was supposed to be its own thing and it alongside Excalier weren't related.
I then blinked in surprise, at myself for remembering a random bit of trivia from the show. For right now though I just put it away and went to sleep not knowing what tomorrow would hold.
My dreams that night were not pleasant, it was full of darkness and screaming faces. Including the familiar visage of the old man I just killed today, meaning that these faces were the previous Dark Ones. Their hands were grabbing at me, trying to pull me apart as a dark substance began to seep its way into my body.
I could see my skin turning dark and reptile-like, my nails growing a tiny bit longer/sharper. I felt as though I was turning into a humanoid crocodile, only not as menacing as Killer Croc well depending on the iteration I suppose.
I couldn't tell if my body was going through this in real life or if this was my dream self's nightmare. That or was my dream just trying to make me get used to the fact my body would forever change whether I wanted to or not?
It didn't matter because I nearly woke up screaming, but I covered my mouth quickly making sure no one else was awoken. I felt my face, I felt every scale on my new skin, I felt my nails claw against my face and I got the dagger out.
I looked at myself on the reflective surface, studying my new visage taking it all in. I leaned onto my bag, just unable to process what I had become. I then heard someone click a rifle nearby, and I could tell it was pointed at me.
"W-W-Who the hell are you?"
I then waved my hand around and stopped them in place, getting up I looked around and saw a few soldiers had awoken and a few villagers as well. Getting up I grabbed a few items from my bag, including my journal stuffing it away in my pockets, kicking the rifle towards them.
"Well not this wasn't how I wanted to say goodbye, but nonetheless I must bid you all adieu."
I then gave a bow and disappeared as purple smoke covered my exit as I teleported to the middle of the forest far away from them. I just sighed looking at myself in the daggers reflection and then at my journal. I made sure to write down some basic accounts on the superheroes and magic users to look out for, including one John Constantine who I would probably have to out-deal or outwit or whatever the term was at one point.
Well luckily for me I had plenty of time to perfect the art of dealmaking although that was assuming he ever took the chance to find me. Lord knows that I didn't have any magic items on my person right now nor do I own any but I could feel the knowledge of the dagger flowing through me, it was how I knew how to teleport or freeze all those people in place, speaking of which. I waved my hand and unfroze them allowing them to process what just happened at their leisure.
Yet one thing remained though, the pain remained, the pain of the magic and darkness flowing through me. The screams of the previous Dark Ones who were suffering in hell or wherever they went after death.
Well, all magic comes with a price regardless of if we want to pay it or not.