The Path of Ruin

The sun was slowly approaching its zenith in the gray sky. But... at this very moment, a shadow passed slowly in front of it.

Dark clouds had begun to gather, signaling that it would soon rain. The few that had managed to get in front of the pale sun had already blocked and would continue to block the light, which was not shining very brightly at the moment.

Birds were slowly roosting in the trees, squirrels were retreating to their homes. Anyone who looked at the sky could tell that a big rain was coming, including the animals. Who knows, there might even be a storm with not-so-good consequences... and no one wanted to be in the middle of it.

One of these animals looking for a place to hide was a little bird. It hadn't been born long, but it had been separated from its family very quickly. Left alone in the wilderness, it could hardly even fly.

Nevertheless, it flew on, entered a tree, and landed on one of its branches. If it had feelings, it would certainly have been relieved. But... it didn't have such things. So it continued to look around expressionlessly.

Then... suddenly, it stopped. Its jet-black eyes had caught something, something big... a young human being with closed eyes, lying a little to the side of the branch on which it had landed.

People were bad. Sure, there were some good ones... but mostly bad.

Should it move to another tree, or should it trust that this person was a good one and stay...?

Just then, the human's eyes twitched. The bird decided to turn around and jump from the branch to another tree in an instant.

The human who had just opened his eyes, the one it was afraid of... was of course Kael.

He stretched as he woke up, then slowly straightened up. He looked around, not seeing any threat. Then he sighed and looked up at the sky.

He frowned when he realized he couldn't see where the sun was. There were so many clouds in the sky that the sun, already quite pale, was nowhere to be seen. He couldn't tell what time of day it was.

And losing the sense of time... was one of the things Kael hated the most.

He closed his eyes, focused on his heart. Or rather... the crown just above his heart.

'Sixty-three hours... I had sixty-eight before I went to sleep.'

So he had slept for five hours. He had hunted all night, so he slept when the sun was just rising. That meant... it must have been around noon.

He sighed deeply, stretched his body a little, and jumped down from the tree to shake off the drowsiness. He noticed that there were no birds chirping or animal tracks and paused. Then he realized how... quiet the forest was. He had a bad feeling.

'The sky is quite overcast, no animals are visible... is a bad storm coming?'

Just as he was thinking this, a gust of wind hit him in the face, hard enough to knock the leaves off the trees.

Kael clicked his tongue.

It had been almost a month since he had fled the palace and he had already survived several heavy rains. But a storm that would cause animals to flee like this? He wasn't sure.

He thought for a while before moving.

He had come a long way through the forest. Really, really far. So much so that he was already past the center - he had gone around it, of course... he still didn't have the guts to go through it - and he was approaching the outer parts of the forest at the other end.

Hunting was harder than ever. Because... most of the animals and creatures that saw him ran away from him. During this month, he had learned to conceal himself quite well and to approach his target from behind, of course... but it still wasn't enough.

Because the number of animals had also dwindled considerably.

The relatively weak predators of the forest, such as wolves, goblins, creatures that resembled overgrown squirrels... everywhere he went, he was committing a kind of genocide on these species.

The maximum lifespan the curse had reached was eighty-eight hours, but it had already dropped into the sixties as he found nothing to kill these days.

He raised his hands, looked at his palms.

He wasn't sure if he could find anything out there to kill. But... he couldn't stay here forever either.

There was only one reason he had waited until now. And that was... to wait for things to calm down.

'But that's enough, isn't it?'

A month... he could come out now, he didn't think he needed to hide in the forest. Besides, coming out from the other side of the forest, he could present himself as someone completely independent of the palace.

'I was traveling with a group of merchants, we were attacked by bandits, but I managed to escape into the forest amidst all the commotion. Then I lost my way, I wandered around for almost a week and finally found a way out of the forest.'

That was the story in his head. Bandits were quite common, the world was also full of merchants who were not well known. So... it was the most perfect story he could think of.

He took a deep breath in and out.

He was strong now. Stronger, at least, than before.

He was much faster, much stronger than he had been a month ago. Although... his body wasn't in the best shape as food and water were a bit hard to come by, but he could still feel the difference.

And then there was this... power, which he had learned to use better. Now, he could use it for longer. And when he learned to control it a bit, he discovered new ways to use it.

He was pretty wounded, though... his body was full of scratches, cuts, and bruises. It wasn't easy hunting and trying to kill things all the time.

But he wasn't in such a bad shape. As long as he didn't break any bones, he didn't mind getting hurt, and he had been successful so far.

And, now...

His thoughts were interrupted by a sprinkle of rain falling right in the middle of his forehead.

'Ah...'

He looked up at the clouds. Then, another drop fell on his face.

'First... I have to avoid this.'

*******

The sound of lightning strikes echoed in his ears, as if they were going to split the sky and the earth where they fell. The winds had picked up speed and were constantly changing direction. The rain was coming down so fast and so abundant that the soil could hardly absorb it, even though he was in a forest.

It was one of the worst storms he had ever seen.

Well, it's not that he hadn't encountered similar ones... he had even had to work under storms when he was a little boy. But this was... different. Different in so many ways.

Still, it wasn't too bad. He had cut down a few trees with some difficulty, dragged and lifted them a little, even though his arms felt like they were going to fall off, and created a quite primitive artificial shelter for himself. He was surrounded by tall trees so he didn't have to worry about lightnings. Rain and wind weren't much of a problem either as he was close to the ground and in dense bushes.

He just had to wait for the storm to pass.

Still... there was an uneasiness inside him.

He looked at the three tree barks above him, then reached out his hands. He took a few drops of water that dripped between them in his palms, then drew them to himself.

He had already taken a few sips of water this way. His purpose this time was... different from drinking.

'Somehow... it feels familiar.'

The water in his palms, the gusts of wind, even the lightning... everything about this storm felt familiar.

He continued to study it for a while, doing nothing, just looking. He used his senses to the fullest.

And, finally... something came to him.

He focused on his heart, creating a warmth there, as he did when he wanted to strengthen himself. Then, he focused on this warmth.

He was right.

'This storm... resembles the warmth that strengthens me.'

He dispersed the warmth, spread his hands apart, and let the water just spill onto the ground. Many things were going through his mind. Yet it was clear what the foremost was.

'It's not natural, someone or something is causing this.'

But why? He didn't know the answer to that question.

He focused on the other thought inside him.

He was... a little afraid. Whatever it was that could cause such a storm was definitely not good. To think that such things could exist was... frightening.

But it was also exciting. Because...

'Can I also become that strong?'

This question was in his mind.

Well... he was sure he couldn't cause a storm in his lifetime. The curse he had in the first place was not fit for such a thing. He was only getting stronger as he took more and more lives... just that.

But that was precisely why he hadn't thrown away that excitement inside him.

What if he managed to become overpowered by his curse? He still didn't know what the curse was strengthening, but he thought it was something physical. And if that was true... even if he couldn't create a storm, maybe he would have the strength to tear the palaces in two.

That's why the only change of expression on his face was the curling up of his lips.

He dreamed of such a future, a future where no one could stand in his way, a future of absolute power.

He didn't care if it was impossible.

That was his goal.

And he was ready to do anything to accomplish it.