Chapter 1: A Nightmare
"Help!"
"Brother!"
"Big brother!!"
"Father, help me! I don't want to die…"
"Great ancestor, why? Why are you letting them trample upon you like this!?"
Emmyr found himself standing upon a sea of blood and mountains of corpses.
The sky was dark, the ground littered with red. Lightning from time to time, illuminating the vast battlefield occasionally. Dark clouds loomed overhead, crimson moon hung high in the sky, overlooking everything.
Emmyr looked around blankly as if in a daze.
To his left, young children wept tears of blood, their tiny hands reaching desperately into the air.
To his right, men and women of every age lay scattered across the ground. Young adults, middle-aged warriors, frail elders. All of them screamed in agony as they struggled within the fields of flesh and the pools of blood.
The cries rose and fell like waves in a storm.
It was truly an apocalyptic scene.
Emmyr felt pity and sadness, but mostly puzzlement.
He did not know these people.
Yet the pain in their voices felt strangely familiar, it pierced through his heart like sharp knives.
A faint metallic smell filled the air, thick and suffocating. The scent of blood clung to his throat as though the world itself had become a slaughterhouse.
Emmyr felt like puking his his whole guts, but nothing came out.
His body involuntaly took a step forward, his foot sank into the crimson mud with a wet sound.
He froze.
The ground beneath him was not soil.
It was flesh.
Bodies were piled so densely beneath the surface that the earth had become soft and unstable like rotten fruit.
A wave of nausea rose within him.
"What… is this place?"
No one answered.
Only the distant thunder growled in the sky.
Then another voice cried out.
"Emmyr!"
The name cut through the air like a blade.
He turned sharply.
Among the countless corpses, a woman struggled to lift herself from the blood. Her clothes were torn, his chest pierced by several arrows and swords.
Yet her eyes were fixed on Emmyr.
"Emmyr… run…"
The woman coughed violently, crimson spilling from his lips.
Emmyr stared at her, his chest tightened.
He recognized this person.
"...Mom?" Emmyr muttered.
Emmyr watched as his mother struggled to get close. Despite wanting to run over and helped her this instant, his body wouldn't move an inch.
The woman finally reached him after some time. She took out a small knife, dug out her own heart and gave it to him.
"Emmyr, use… use this to escape, it can buy you some time. You mus… you must survive…"
Before Emmyr could respond, her body collapsed lifelessly into the field of blood.
The wind began to stir as alow rumbling spread across the battlefield.
At first Emmyr thought it was thunder, but the sound grew louder.
Closer.
Boom Boom Boom.
The ground trembled beneath an approaching army.
From beyond the sea of corpses, dark shapes began to emerge through the mist of blood.
Thousands of humanoid armored figures.
Their armor was black as midnight, their banners torn and soaked in crimson. None of them spoke.
They simply marched.
Their footsteps moved in perfect unison, like a single monstrous organism advancing across the land.
Instead of a chill that should be crawling down his spine, Emmyr felt a profound sense of anger and betrayal instead.
Each soldier carried a weapon stained dark with blood.
Yet none of them were looking at him, they did not dare. Only the leading figures with their own distinct armors dare to meet his gaze, though their eyes contained traces of fear and caution.
When they got closer, Emmyr's eyes opened wider in disbelief. That was because these leading figures exudes terrifying, suffocating pressure. Although they possessed humanoid form, they were not the least bit human.
Some had three eyes on their faces, some had beast heads with human bodies, some had no face at all. Some of these strange beings had scales and wings ran up their bodies while others possessed tails and tentacles that looked as if they have mind of their own.
The most normal looking one was a handsome man with azure hair and a pair of azure dragon horns on his forehead.
The army finally stop at five meters distance away from him, their faces full of vigilant.
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Then these figures slowly parted and a path was opened among them.
From within that path, a single figure walked forward.
It was a woman in dark, bloodied armor. She wore long crimson cape that swayed gently in the wind. Her face remained hidden beneath a helmet, but her presence alone seemed to distort the air around him.
Every step he took caused the blood beneath his feet to ripple like water.
When she finally stopped, she stood only a few dozen meters away from Emmyr.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
Then the hooded figure sighed.
"So you truly failed."
His voice was calm, almost disappointed.
Emmyr frowned.
"Who are you?"
The woman slowly lifted her helmet, crimson moonlight spilled across her face, revealing a shock scene.
Emmyr's breath caught in his throat.
The woman's face was identical to his own, just different gender.
The same eyes, the same features, the same expression.
It was like looking into a mirror carved from living flesh.
"How…" Emmyr whispered.
The woman smiled mockingly, "You always say that."
Lightning flashed across the sky.
For a brief moment the battlefield became blindingly bright.
Emmyr saw something that made his blood run cold.
The countless corpses surrounding them, every single one wore the same face.
His face.
Thousands of dead versions of himself lay scattered across the battlefield, grotuqe wounds and creatures dwelling upon them.
Emmyr staggered backward.
"No… this isn't real…"
The woman tilted her head, eyes looking innocent as if puzzled.
"It isn't?" She asked.
Then she drove straight for him and plunged her sword in his chest.
The distance between them was closed in an instant as she whispered into his ear with a crazed smile, "It very much is."
The wind howled violently.
Dark clouds twisted like living beasts above the battlefield.
The corpses began to dissolve into dust.
The soldiers vanished.
The sky collapsed like a burning curtain.
Emmyr felt the world twisting violently around him.
The last thing he saw before everything faded was the crimson moon shining brightly, his moon.
Then darkness swallowed everything.
—
Emmyr bolted upright.
Cold sweat drenched his body.
His heart pounded violently against his ribs as if trying to escape his chest.
The room around him was dark and quiet.
Moonlight filtered faintly through the window.
The familiar walls slowly came into focus.
He was in his bedroom.
Emmyr pressed a hand against his face and exhaled slowly.
"A dream…"
His voice sounded hoarse.
Outside, the night wind rustled softly through the trees.
Everything seemed normal and peaceful.
Yet the memory of that battlefield still clung to his mind like a lingering shadow.
Emmyr swung his legs off the bed and stood.
The wooden floor creaked softly beneath his feet.
He walked toward the window.
The moon hung high in the sky had turned crimson at some point.