• Foreword:

    I lay on the ground, blood running down my face in streaks of warm red. My breathing, becoming heavier with each passing second, slows as my lungs get constricted. The tendrils of black that spawned from within me have now turned against me and are smothering me in an unrelenting grip. My body is a lifeless puppet at the mercy of the puppet master that is the Darkness.
    By the mountainside where I wait for my doom, the forest is ablaze and the town is nearly destroyed. The Castle is in ruins and along with it, the king dead. Countless lives massacred and I feel as though I am to blame.
    The beast stands in front of me, frowning, but holding back a devilish grin. He watches with a proud amusement in his eyes at my pathetic attempt to survive. The wind is silent and time appears still all around us. The only noise is the crackling fire, which is giving a warm crimson color under the starless and black night sky. The ear-piercing screams of the town slow as the souls that they once belonged to die. Penance, the monstrous being that he is, lifts my limp body up from off the ground. His claws tear through my shirt and scrape against my skin, drawing beads of blood. I can feel the warmth of his breath puffing down on my face.
    "Where is the warrior's strength now?" He asks in a mocking way. "The strong, the great, Devin Brookfield, brought down just like that!? You see Devin, you should have just joined me when you had the chance. You should hope that the Light take pity to your soul, for if not, you will fade into Oblivion."
    "The poor boy was willing to die to protect..." A voice from behind him emanates, but I cannot stay focused and I am in a dazed state, so the voices break apart mid-sentence. The shape of a humanoid man brings itself into my view. All I can really make out in my state is his mask. "Look... weak he is. It's pitiful... in this state."
    "This dog deserves... die... the rest." He lifts me higher and chuckles, then sends me flying across the ash-filled air. Tears flow across the path I make through the air as I realize that I have failed. My head hits a rock, knocking me unconscious. The last things that I see are shadows shifting in the distance by the blazing forest.
    I end up forgetting the difference between reality and dream, and seep deep into thought. My memories, like fragments, come back to me, piece by piece. The love, the anguish, the betrayal, and the revenge that I still long for. I fear that I don't have much time left...