Kai stood frozen, a cold sweat clinging to his skin, each ragged breath burning in his lungs.
The world no longer made sense.
In front of him, the remains of his parents were horrifyingly displayed on rough wooden stakes, with the stakes piercing their bodies from bottom to top. Their skin was pale and drained, their eyes—his mother’s warm, kind eyes—gone. Torn from their skulls, leaving only empty sockets. His father’s chest had been carved open, a mockery of an execution, entrails hanging like grotesque decorations.
Small divine barriers kept them preserved, like display pieces.
A warning.
A message.
His stomach twisted violently.
Even in death, they had been used.
"This wasn’t supposed to happen. This time was supposed to be different."
The weight of his grief pressed down on him, suffocating. His body shook. He had fought monsters in the dark, had commanded the dead and ripped the souls from living men, but none of it compared to this.
The world around him blurred, grief turning into something hot, volatile, unbearable. His hands clenched so tightly that his nails cut into his palms, blood mixing with dirt.
"I should’ve been here."
He could have saved them.
He could have protected Mari.
"Kai?"
A voice, soft and familiar, cut through the storm of rage and sorrow.
He turned.
And there she stood.
Mari.
She was older now, her face more defined, but she was still undeniably his sister. Her once-messy dark hair was brushed and pinned neatly behind her, her posture poised.
She was adorned in white robes. Pure white. Flowing and pristine, lined with delicate gold embroidery. She looked almost holy. A small scepter—a weapon of the church—rested in her delicate grip.
His blood ran cold.
"Mari..." His voice was barely a whisper. "At least they didn’t hurt you."
Mari frowned, tilting her head. Confused. Amused. Pitying.
"Who? The only one here who would hurt me is you."
The words struck like a hammer to his chest.
"You corrupted our parents," she continued. "And so you made me have to cleanse them."
Kai’s ears rang. His breath hitched.
"What?"
"Your entire existence corrupts people, Kai." Her expression softened, almost... almost gentle. "You should let me cleanse you as well, so you’ll finally be at peace."
Silence.
Then, his vision darkened.
"You... You killed our parents?"
She blinked. "They died because of you."
Kai stumbled back a step, his entire body numb.
"Why did you even come back?" Mari continued, watching him with something almost resembling disappointment. "To corrupt them further?"
His mind felt fractured. His thoughts blurred together, crashing into one another in a violent, spiraling mess.
"It’s been three years."
A thought barely held together. Something to ground him.
Mari scoffed. "No, it’s been a year since they were cleansed."
A year.
A YEAR.
"They’ve been like that for a year? Piked? For everyone to see?"
Kai’s stomach twisted violently, and he staggered back.
Whether they treated him well or not, Lila and Garrett were still his parents.
A choked breath left him.
"I can’t believe this..." His voice wavered, barely more than a whisper. "The girl who used to play in the forest with me. Who picked Bert from the litter of arcane pups and convinced our parents to keep him. My big sister who played so lovingly with Peter..." His heart clenched. "Gods, what happened to Peter?"
Mari’s expression didn’t change.
"Oh, so you care about Peter?" she said, almost mockingly. "He was just a baby, so Father Aldric didn’t tell me to cleanse him. He’ll be raised properly at the church."
Kai’s pulse roared in his ears.
"Father... Aldric?"
"Yes," she said simply. "He told me about you. How your evil magic gave him that scar. How you hurt so many people. Don’t you feel anything for the lives you’ve ruined, little brother?"
Something inside Kai SNAPPED.
"I didn’t ruin anything."
"You did."
His hands shook. His entire body trembled. His vision blurred—not with tears, but with pure, unrelenting fury.
With an unnatural calm, Kai’s shadow spread out behind him and his mother and father and sucked them into his shadow space.
Then, the whispers came.
The dead in his shadow.
They screamed.
Raging.
Calling for vengeance.
His mana spiked. The shadows beneath his feet twisted violently, writhing like living things.
Mari took a step back, her brow furrowing. "You’re not going to—"
But she didn’t get to finish.
Because the moment she saw Kai’s expression, the fight began.
Mari raised her sceptre, and a flash of golden light erupted from its tip.
’Shi-’
Kai barely had time to react before a blast of divine magic surged forward, striking the ground where he stood. He jumped away just in time, but the impact sent him skidding back.
Kai called upon Shade, his shadow twisting and lunging forward, sharp tendrils aiming for Mari’s legs.
She twirled, her movements elegant, practiced, almost... rehearsed.
Shade burned.
Kai grimaced.
’Holy magic.’
Kai summoned his arcane panthers.
’Restrain her!’
The group of undead swarmed into existence, agile beasts of fluid movement. They moved moved instantly, lunging at Mari, claws swiping.
She lifted her sceptre.
And the moment it met with them, their bodies disintegrated.
Kai gasped.
’They’re all defenseless. Maybe numbers can overwhelm her?’
Kai summoned all of the children from the shadows, and they charged at her.
The divine magic ripped through his undead, and in that instant, several more priests emerged from the alleyways, the doorways, the homes.
He was surrounded.
Their voices rose in prayers.
Golden runes ignited in the air, holy flames bursting to life.
And in mere seconds, half of Kai’s undead were reduced to ash.
The children.
His grip on his magic wavered.
His mind fractured.
"No..."
"NO!"
Merri, Finn, Rhea, and Joran survived. He absorbed them into his shadow space in time.
But the others...
The children...
Gone.
Gone.
All gone.
A scream ripped from his throat, raw, agonised.
And he ran.
His mind spun, his body moving on pure instinct.
His feet pounded against the dirt, past the horrified stares of the villagers, past the still-burning corpses of his undead.
Past his old home and the stakes that held his parents’ desecrated bodies.
He didn’t stop.
Not even when his vision blurred.
Not even when his body begged for him to turn back.
He ran.
West.
Because if he stayed, he would have killed Mari.
"Is everyone I ever meet going to die because of me?"