The wind glided gently over the blood, as if carrying the whispers of the dead. The sky was shrouded in dark clouds tinged with gray, and even the moon seemed too afraid to reveal itself. The sharpness in the air was not the sting of ice upon the lungs, but the touch of a demon seeking to freeze the soul itself.
The branches of the trees stood bare no bird, no leaf only the creaking screams of bark stained red could be heard. The earth was hard; the sky, a harbinger of death. Time had frozen, as if the gods themselves were trying to send a message to the world. Everything was a sign of the slaughter to come, of the darkness drawing near.
Then, a sound barely audible emerged from afar. It was so faint, it would have gone unnoticed without keen attention. Yet, accompanied by the howl of the wind, the crunch of snow began to approach. Though the footsteps were steady, the dreadful, unsettling Xhu that emanated from that direction was enough to make even the darkness recoil.
A cloak, pitch black, flowed from shoulders to ground, fluttering with each step in harmony with the wind. Long, snow-white hair danced across the face, swept by the breeze, but even in the dead of night, those cold crimson-shadowed eyes held a merciless gleam.
Stopping beside a pile of stones, Pegwalsge knelt and looked at a hand frozen stiff emerging from beneath the snow. It clutched something tightly, as though vowing to protect it until the very end. Pegwalsge did not attempt to pry open the hand. Instead, he severed it at the wrist.
A black flame ignited in his palm, reducing the rigid hand to ash. From within, a sphere emerged purplish, veined with thin black lines. As Pegwalsge lifted the orb, his lifeless eyes seemed to awaken. Even the tremendous Xhu radiating from the orb could not eclipse the unsettling, dominant Xhu he already possessed. When the black veins began to spread through his body, the pleasure it brought overshadowed the pain it inflicted.
“The wrath of the gods... what a curious thing,” he muttered to himself, a cold, bitter smile curling his lips.
Once he had fully absorbed the orb’s Xhu, he raised his head toward the sky. The darkness still concealed the moon.9Please respect copyright.PENANACrmgx8jn2h
“If I begged for mercy, would I be forgiven?” he asked aloud. That wicked grin widened he was mocking the gods. His face was now lost in shadow, and there was nothing human left in his eyes. No mercy, no pity only the fate he held in his hands.
“This world is not yours,” he declared. “This world is my destiny.”
The wind howled louder. Snow whipped not only from the skies but from the ground itself. His arrival could no longer be denied. With the Xhu he had drawn from the orb, Pegwalsge began to gather his strength. Without a glance at the path behind him, he set out to begin a new massacre.
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