The blackglass still smoked beneath Rael's feet. The sharp, glossy stone hissed under his blood as it healed — not cleanly, not gently, but violently. Muscles reknit. Tendons lashed into place. Skin sealed over scorched wounds like molten wax cooling.
Above him, far beyond the yawning cliffs and ritual towers, the Empire celebrated a sentence they believed complete.
Below, Rael Xirian stood at the threshold of a different truth.
[System Initialization: Complete][You have entered: Blackfall Abyss – Zone 1][Difficulty: Fatal][System Note: No quests available. No allies available. No mercy available.][Recommended Action: Kill something.]
Rael's lips twitched at the edge. Not quite a smile — more like the memory of one.
"Kill something," he muttered. "How poetic."
He turned, eyes scanning the broken expanse of jagged black pillars and crimson fog.
His body was skeletal. Weeks in chains had reduced him to an emaciated shadow of his former strength. But even now, there was heat building beneath the surface — blood boiling, flame thrumming, and something deeper.
Something… awake.
Then it growled.
A low, rasping snarl vibrated across the glassy terrain. Rael's head snapped toward the source as the fog parted, revealing movement. No — shapes.
The first emerged from the crimson mist. Gaunt, canine. Its fur was patchy, bones exposed, and its face was a bleached skull crowned with black horns. Where eyes should have been, two burning red sockets pulsed like coals.
An Ash-Hound.
Then another.And another.
Three of them, circling. Starved. Territorial. The first lunged.
Rael didn't retreat.
Instead, he stepped into the charge — a calculated half-pivot to the right — and raised his left arm. The beast collided with him, jaws clamping down—
Only to meet unyielding flesh, already reinforced by the bloodflame's regeneration.
"Too slow."
Rael's right hand shot forward, grabbing the creature's lower jaw mid-bite. Its bone snapped under his grip.
Then he twisted.
There was a sickening crunch as he ripped the hound's head sideways, throwing its body into the second beast. The two tangled — just as the third lunged in from behind.
Rael ducked.
He spun low and came up inside its leap, driving his elbow into its exposed ribcage with brutal force. Ribs shattered. The beast yelped and tumbled away.
The first one was already recovering, snarling, skull-face cracked but not down.
Rael exhaled and raised a single finger.
[Skill Activated: Blood Devour]
A red glyph flashed under his feet. The blood soaking the blackglass glowed. The wounded hound howled in panic as its blood reversed direction — siphoning out through its cracked snout and torn paws, floating toward Rael in thick red streams.
[Absorbing Beast Vitality…][Basic Instinct: Claw Reflex integrated][HP restored + Minor Strength increased]
He stood still as the blood entered him. One hound collapsed, dry and twitching.
The others hesitated now.
Too late.
Rael charged.
He leapt onto the second beast's back, grabbing its neck with both hands and slamming its face into the obsidian ground with such force that its skull splintered like glass.
The third tried to run.
"No."
Rael pointed. A small flame flickered on his fingertip — pale gold, nearly invisible.
[Skill Activated: Flame Rebirth – Fragment Spark]
The spark shot forward — silent, unimpressive — until it touched the beast's fur.
Then it ignited inside it.
The Ash-Hound exploded in a burst of internal combustion, flesh melting from the inside out as it screeched and flailed, disintegrating in a heap of steaming ash.
The battlefield was silent again.
Charred fur. Burned meat. Steam rising from scorched blood.
Rael stood in the center, panting once, then exhaling slowly.
[Ash-Hound Pack eliminated.][Level Up: 1 → 2][Level Up: 2 → 3][New Trait: Blood Memory – Primitive Beast Awareness unlocked][Craft Option: Bone Shard Blade (Corrupted)]
Rael crouched beside the last hound's remains and snapped off a jagged bone.
With a flick of his wrist, he scraped it against the blackglass and watched as a menu appeared, written in glowing blood-red script.
[Craft: Bone Shard Blade – Do you wish to infuse with Bloodflame?][Yes][No]
He pressed "Yes" with a smile so faint it looked like a scar reopening.
The blade formed in his hand — warped, serrated, dripping with a flickering red-gold glow. It hummed in sync with his pulse.
Rael rose, weapon in hand, crimson eyes flicking toward the deeper dark.
"First blood tasted good."
"Let's see what else this graveyard has for me to butcher."