"Where... am I?"
Everything around Soli was pitch black. He couldn't even see his own body in the oppressive darkness. He tried to move his limbs, but it was useless. It felt as if his body was bound by invisible chains, pinning him down, preventing any movement.
He could, however, move his head—or perhaps just his gaze. It was impossible to tell in this vast, consuming gloom.
It didn't take long for his memory to return: the fight with the feral lizard, the village chief helping him, getting wounded. The moment he remembered losing consciousness, a wave of pure panic set in.
He struggled against his bindings, he tried to resist, but it was no use. It was as if he had merged with the darkness itself.
"Dammit!.. No!.. NO!"
Then, suddenly, he felt himself falling, and fast. The world shifted from absolute blackness to a dark, gray fog. But it didn't last long before he broke through and looked down. He was approaching the ground at a terrifying speed. He squeezed his eyes shut, and the moment he did, the falling sensation stopped.
He kept his eyes tightly closed before slowly, very slowly, opening them. He opened one eye, then the other. But what he saw terrified him even more.
A gray sky. A dark sun, weeping a waterfall of crimson blood that slowly fell to the black earth, forming rivers of scarlet. There were dark, dead trees, with fires burning on some of them, and a gray mist hung heavily everywhere.
His eyes darted around in a panic, until a crashing sound nearby broke his focus. He turned and saw a group of people on their knees, their hands tied behind their backs, their eyes blindfolded with black tape. They were crying, screaming, begging for mercy. There were so many of them, maybe thousands, formed into row upon row.
His gaze swept the nightmarish landscape in terror until a sickening crunch of bone snapped his attention nearby. He turned to see rows of people, countless thousands, kneeling with their hands bound and eyes blindfolded by black tape. They wept, screamed, and begged for mercy, their voices a chaotic chorus of despair.
Then he saw it—a figure of pure darkness, a shadow with a human shape but no features. It moved methodically down the lines of helpless captives. It would raise a fist and bring it down upon their heads, shattering them, sending skull fragments and gore flying onto the row behind. This spectacle of brutality is what made the others scream even louder, their panic reaching a fever pitch.
The shadow stopped in front of a young boy, his face slick with tears and mucus, his small body trembling uncontrollably. As the shadow raised its fist high, the boy's pleas for mercy became a desperate whimper.
"S-Stooop!!"
Soli's scream was enough to stop the shadow just before it could crush the boy's head. Its fist was mere seconds from shattering the fragile skull. The screams and begs of the kneeling figures died down. The shadow straightened its posture in front of the boy, then suddenly, its pitch-black head snapped around towards Soli, who was formless, as if his consciousness was just floating there, untethered.
The shadow's face was an abyss of pure darkness, a void that seemed to pull you in. Where its eyes should have been were two crimson circles. The moment its gaze landed on Soli, a horrifying smile stretched from its right ear to its left, and its eyes narrowed.
Then:
hehehe!..hehehe!..haaaaaahaha!..haaha"
A sinister, unnerving laugh exploded from it, and the kneeling humans immediately joined in, releasing their own chorus of high-pitched, creepy laughter. Despite the tears and mucus streaking their faces, those same disturbing smiles stretched across their lips, and the laughter from the kneeling figures and the dark humanoid creature swelled. It then returned to smashing the heads of the laughing humans, while its own head remained twisted backward, still fixed on Soli.
CRAaaaaACK!
"Stop!"
Soli was screaming at the top of his lungs, trying desperately to move, but it was useless. The sound of the laughter and the shattering skulls drowned out his cries completely.
The dark figure kept killing the laughing humans: burly men, women, innocent children, weak and helpless elderly. It didn't discriminate; they all fell the moment their heads were crushed. It continued this way until it stopped in front of a woman who felt so familiar that a shiver shot down Soli's spine.
"No... please, no... stop..."
She was a woman with short black hair and pale, luminous skin, as if she were glowing in the pervasive darkness of the place. She wore a white shirt and a long woolen coat. She was different from all the other kneeling figures. The tape covering her eyes was white, and from beneath it, two lines of blood streamed down her cheeks instead of tears. She was perfectly still, not trembling, not begging for mercy. She was calm.
The shadow stopped in front of her and paused for a moment. Then, it raised its hands, gripped its own head, and slowly began to turn it. Soli's perspective twisted along with it.
"No!.. No!.. NO!"
Soli tried to resist, but the shadow applied immense pressure, wrenching its head around with brutal force and speed. Soli's viewpoint shifted violently, and he was now seeing what the shadow saw—no, he was the shadow himself. He looked down at his hands, now shrouded in darkness, then directed his gaze at the woman in front of him. A grotesque smile stretched across Soli 's face. He pulled his fist back.
"Please, stop!..."
He whispered the words in a shaky, broken voice even as the sinister smile remained and tears streamed from his eyes. He braced himself to throw a powerful punch.
"Stop!.. STOOOP!"
The woman raised her head toward Soli as if she could see straight into his eyes beneath that white tape, resigned to her fate. The punch launched with insane speed toward her head.
"Nooooooo!..."
Soli jolted awake, drenched in sweat and shaking violently. His breaths came in fast, heavy gasps. He looked around; everything had changed. He was inside a tent, sitting on a bed and covered with a grayish-green fur blanket.
"Goddammit!"
He screamed at the top of his lungs.
He brought his right hand to his face, his eyes wide open, before that pained and furious look returned to them. He commanded the screen to appear in front of him.
With a faint glow, the screen materialized, but with a slight change:
[Host: Undefined]
[Stage: Surging]
[Core: 4/500]
[Blood control : 0/100]
[Ascend your path of evolution for the "Final Verdict."]
"I don't care what the 'Final Verdict' means... But if there's even a sliver of a chance it holds a way to end this torment... I'll slaughter every last lizard in this world."
Sparks of pure rage and hatred seemed to fly from his eyes, but he had finally found a thread leading to what he desired. He had a new goal now: to complete his evolution and discover what the Final Verdict was, and whether it could end his immortality.
He inspected his body, noticing he didn't feel the usual exhaustion and heaviness. Finding no traces of blood, he immediately understood he had slept for a long time and the villagers had cleaned him while he was helpless.
He was naked under the gray-green fur blanket, so he looked around again for something to cover himself with. There, neatly folded beside him, was a set of clothes.
The outfit consisted of a lightweight, sleeveless shirt, pants, and a skirt-like garment made of tough, armor-like material. There was also a short-sleeved, wide-cut vest with a fur collar, along with arm guards, leg guards, a tie for his hair, and a pair of rudimentary shoes. The fit was perfect, confirming they had been left specifically for him.
He stepped out of the tent, dressed in the new attire. The dark colors of the clothing contrasted sharply with his white-and-black hair and his snow-pale skin.
A few villagers passing by offered him slight smiles and subtle dips of their heads, a gesture of respect. He mimicked the gesture, nodding his head slightly in return.
Just then, he spotted the boy. He was looking down with a sad, miserable expression, carrying something in his hands and walking slowly toward Soli's tent. But when the boy looked up and saw him, he froze for a few seconds before throwing what he was holding to the ground and sprinting toward him. The boy leaped into his arms, hugging him tightly, tears streaming from his eyes.
Soli felt a little awkward about the hug, but he let it happen this time. After all, he wasn't completely heartless.
After the boy finished his emotional reunion and wiped his tears, he motioned for Danny to follow him without saying a word. He was used to Soli not understanding their language.
They arrived at a large tent, bigger than the others, with an air of importance about it. Inside, six fur mats were arranged facing each other: three on each side, with one additional mat set apart.
The Chief was seated in his place, accompanied by four male and female elders. The moment they entered, the boy immediately quieted down. As the Chief looked at them, his sharp features softened into a slight smile. They all stood and bowed their heads to Soli, who remained unaffected by their courtesy and respect for the stranger who had saved one of their women.
The Chief invited him to sit, then said a few words to the boy beside him and gestured for him to leave. It didn't take long for the boy to return, followed by a full procession of villagers carrying food of strange shapes and colors. This was the first time Soli had seen a feast of this scale with such unique dishes. It seemed to be a celebration for his awakening... but why?
"All this just because I killed one monster?"
He wondered why they were honoring someone who had done so little. All he did was kill one monster, and he wasn't even alone—the Chief had helped him. But in the end, he ate from their feast.
The celebratory atmosphere eventually settled down. Some of the villagers returned to their tents, while others remained. The Chief then gestured for Soli to come closer, and he did, sitting down beside him.
The Chief retrieved something from beneath a fur blanket behind him—an object carefully wrapped in leather and hide. Soli took it, and as he unwrapped it, he immediately understood the reason for all this generosity.