Path of BlooDld

The body was trembling, not from cold, but from the weight of blood boiling inside his bones. Ashen, standing in the heart of the wilderness, could no longer tell whether the ground was moving beneath him or if it was his own heart pounding with terrifying force, hammering inside his skull.

He hadn't forgotten what happened the day before.

He had seen the cave where he used to cultivate transform into a living dream—into an entity whispering to him in a language that couldn't be understood, but was felt deep in the marrow.

The whispers had said: "The blood remembers you… and the blood will bring you back."

And that night, when the frost of darkness merged with the heat of blood, the wilderness split open as if the earth itself had opened a third eye. A strange sound echoed, like the cracking jaws of a giant beast belching after a feast of raw flesh.

Ashen froze, body stiff, but he felt something approaching.

Something beyond understanding, too vast to be seen or named.

Then… it appeared.

From the void… from the torn folds of the black sky, the air split, and from it emerged a being unlike anything he had ever witnessed. It was tall to the point of emaciation, its skin cracked ash pulsing with red pathways like veins of fire. Its face was a blend of human and nothingness, as if someone had begun sculpting it and stopped halfway, leaving features incomplete.

Its eyes: two dull embers, not looking at anything, but forewarning everything.

Ashen didn't dare to breathe. A sense of futility pierced through him.

It wasn't fear—it was the death of will.

He knew—without explanation—that this being could erase thousands with a blink. He felt how insignificant his existence was. Within it, he saw the corpses of countless creatures.

But the strangest thing… was that the creature didn't see him.

It walked through the wilderness trees with the lightness of the dead.

It passed right by Ashen, as if he didn't exist.

It didn't turn.

It didn't notice.

And yet, Ashen felt something strange—as if an unknown force had surrounded him. Something invisible had intervened.

The air froze for a moment.

Silently, from beyond the veil of awareness, Ashen's presence was disabled—as if he had been hidden from the eyes of the cosmos.

The demonic creature stopped in the middle of the forest.

It whispered in a broken voice, like the moan of mirrors:

"This land… hates us."

It spoke to itself, in a voice heard by blood, not ears:

"Our kind betrayed itself. We used to bend the worlds… deceive high bloodlines, plant summoning seeds in their clans. How many clans did we destroy? How many bloodlines did we taint with darkness?"

It raised its head toward the sky.

"But this wilderness… is not like them. It is alive. It is…" it paused, then continued.

"It is something else."

Suddenly, without warning, the earth beneath it split.

A rift—no, not black… but bloody.

The soil opened like torn flesh, and from it surged a red liquid like tar—alive, crawling, extending like tongues of cursed slime.

The demonic being screamed—but not in fear… in rage.

It released light—an explosion—thousands of black masses burst from its body: claws, wings, eyes, burning ritual symbols.

But it couldn't escape.

The blood clung to it, pierced its skin, devoured its bones.

It began to rip away its memory, name, form.

It screamed—and its scream was an explosion across the universes.

It tried to speak, but its tongue melted.

Its body unraveled, its soul writhed, and then…

Absolute silence.

Everything ended.

Only one thing remained…

An eye.

A blood-red eye floating in the air, with no eyelid, no soul, but it gave the feeling that it was searching.

It scanned the area.

It drifted slowly…

It approached Ashen.

It stopped.

Then left.

Ashen remained still, breathing for the first time.

He didn't

understand why it hadn't seen him.

The sky remained silent.

And the wilderness… swallowed and smiled.