Davey thought he was slipping into unconsciousness, perhaps even death.
The pain, the exhaustion... it was too much to bear.
He welcomed the thought of sleep, appreciating the chance as an escape the agony.
But reality was cruel.
A searing and violent pain jolted him awake, his body convulsed as his chest burned with an unbearable heat.
"Aghhhh!" he groaned in a hoarse voice, as his breathing grew ragged.
His eyes flew open, and the first thing he saw was the abomination standing over him.
The creature's grotesque, tentacle-like appendage was buried deep in his chest, grinding against his ribs as if savoring his agony.
Blood gushed from the wound, soaking his tattered clothes and pooling beneath him.
Davey's body felt numb, his limbs were heavy heavy and unresponsive.
The sharp edges of the pain were dulled, yet the torment he endured was still enough to make him groan and gasp.
His nose and mouth dripped with blood, and his vision blurred, yet he was still alive... even though, Barely...
The creature sneered down at him in a guttural voice, filled with twisted glee.
"Do you know how long I've waited for this moment?" it growled as its misshapen face shared a sinister grin.
"To see you broken, groveling in the dirt like the pathetic worm you are?"
It laughed... a low, guttural sound that sent shivers through Davey's battered body.
Davey couldn't muster the strength to respond.
His body writhed unconsciously, his hands twitched as if trying to push the creature away.
Yet his mind was elsewhere.
The strange dream he'd just had... the golden-haired man, the name... Lionheart... it clung to his thoughts like a haunting melody.
Lionheart…
The word echoed in his mind, bringing a strange mix of confusion and hope with it.
Who was that man?
What did he mean?
And why, even now, at the brink of death, did that name seem to give him strength?
But the creature wasn't done.
It yanked its tentacle free from Davey's chest with a sickening squelch, sending a fresh wave of blood cascading down his torso.
Davey collapsed to the ground, gasping for air, his body had become too broken to even scream.
The creature stood over him, raising its whip-like arm for one final blow.
"Goodbye, Davey." it growled, its voice dripping with mockery.
The tentacle shot forward, slicing through the air with lethal precision.
Davey's eyes widened as he saw his death reflecting in the jagged edges of the tentacle, the cruel finality of it all.
'This is it…' he thought.
For a brief moment, doubt crept into his mind.
'Maybe that dream… that name… Lionheart… maybe it was all just bullshit. A trick my dying brain conjured up to give me false hope.'
And then... everything seemed to have stopped.
The world around him turned to gray, as if all the color had been drained from existence.
The tentacle, just inches from his face, froze in midair.
Davey's heart skipped a beat.
His pupils dilated as he stared at the still scene before him.
"What… what the hell?" he muttered weakly.
The pain in his chest roared back to life, no longer masked by adrenaline or shock.
He clutched at the wound, his fingers trembled while blood the blood dripped down.
His screams echoed in the lifeless silence while his body convulsed from the intensity of it all.
But even as his pain reached its peak, something strange began to happen.
The unbearable agony subsided, fading slowly but surely.
His ragged breathing steadied, his heart no longer pounding like a war drum.
Davey slumped to the ground, his body trembling as the pain faded into a dull ache.
He took a deep, shuddering breath.
For the first time in what felt like an eternity, his body wasn't consumed by torment.
But his mind raced with questions.
"What's going on?" he whispered to himself in a cracking voice.
He stared at the frozen tentacle hovering before him, its jagged edges glinting faintly in the gray light.
"How… how is this even possible?"
His thoughts spiraled.
The events of the past day... if it had even been a day... played over and over in his mind.
From his capture to his torment, to the dream of the golden-haired man calling him a Lionheart, nothing made sense.
"Am I… dreaming again?" he wondered aloud.
Suddenly, a faint golden light appeared in the corner of his vision.
Davey blinked, his eyes narrowed as he tried to focus on it.
The light grew brighter, its warm glow cutting through the colorless world around him.
"What now?" he muttered in a voice tinged with both frustration and fear.
The light coalesced into a floating, rectangular shape.
It shimmered, its surface radiating a golden mist that seemed almost alive.
Strange symbols began to appear on it, glowing softly.
Davey stared at the screen-like object while his confusion only deepened.
Despite having no formal education... he had never learned to read or write... he found himself able to understand the words as if they were being spoken directly into his mind.
The glowing letters formed a message...
---
[Hidden Conditions have been met.]
[The Lineage of Lionhearts is at the brink of extinction.]
[The System has successfully detected the presence of the only remaining, as well as, the Chosen Lionheart.]
---
Davey's brow furrowed as he read the words.
"System?" he murmured as the unfamiliar term rolled awkwardly off his tongue.
"What the hell is a system?"
Before he could process the message further, the text changed.
---
[Awakening the bloodline of Lionhearts with the topmost qualifications… within the last survivor, Davey Lionheart.]
---
"What does that even mean?" Davey shouted, his frustration boiling over.
But before he could say anything else, the golden light enveloped him.
His body began to glow, the light seeping into his skin, his veins, his very soul.
Warmth spread through him, soothing his wounds and filling him with an indescribable power.
Davey gasped, his body convulsing as the transformation began.
The golden light grew brighter and brighter, consuming everything around him.
And then, with a final, blinding flash, the world went dark.