"Kill.Kill them all."
A voice whispered to him.It wasn't human.It was himself—but darker.A shadow of his soul.Staring at him from the trees, smiling with dead eyes.
Alex didn't question it.
He was too far gone.
He tore at the grimoire again with his teeth.The noble screamed, and one of the guards raised his hand.
"Earth Spike!"
A jagged stone spear erupted from the ground—And pierced Alex's chest.
Everything froze.
He fell silent.Blood poured from his wound.Tears ran down his cheeks.Bits of the half-eaten grimoire fluttered from his hands.
The noble stomped his head with his boot again and again, laughing.
"Trash. Curse you! Rot in the dirt like the dog you are."
Then they left him to die.
Night fell.
Back at the church, worry spread.
Sister Lily, the priest, and the children searched for him.But Alex was nowhere.
He lay deep in the forest.Unmoving.Bleeding.
Wolves found him.Hungry.They bit into his leg.Ripped his arm apart.
And still—he didn't move.
Until—
Lightning.
A deafening crack shattered the air—A bolt of pure magic slammed down onto the earth.
It vaporized the animals in an instant.
And struck Alex's corpse.
Something awakened.
The broken pieces of the grimoire still in his hand began to glow—Not with light,But with a deep, hateful blackness.
Magic seeped into his body—Through the blood.Through the bone.Through every cell.
The grimoire wasn't just magic—it was alive.And now, so was he.
His flesh sizzled as it began to rebuild itself—Using the blood, bones, and meat of the beasts that had eaten him.
The pain was unimaginable.
He screamed.He howled.Lightning struck again.And again.
Each time, it carried a part of the grimoire's spell.Each strike welded his body with dark power.Magic wasn't flowing through him—
It was becoming him.
His cells absorbed it like blood.The blackened pages of the book became his marrow.
He suffered for two days.
Bones regrew.Torn flesh stitched itself.New limbs were formed from wolf muscle and deer blood.
It wasn't healing.It was creation.
And when the pain finally lessened…
He opened his eyes.
Alive.
Changed.
Hollow.
Crawling on his new limbs, he dragged himself toward a river he remembered nearby.
He drank the water like an animal.
Then, he found mushrooms—He ate without seeing clearly.
Too hungry. Too tired. Too broken.
But he'd made a mistake.
The mushroom was poisonous.
Within minutes, a new kind of pain exploded in his stomach.His insides twisted and burned.He vomited blood.His body writhed in agony.
For hours, he suffered alone.
And when it was over…
He lay on his back, staring at the sky, gasping for breath.
"This world tried to kill me again…""But I'm still here.""I'm still breathing."