Your Fate
1188 Words
Azareal advanced with the calm certainty of an executioner. Each footstep echoed across the desert like a death knell. In his grasp, the scythe dissolved into emerald light and reformed into a long, double-bladed sword, both ends crowned with roaring green flames that hissed and licked the air.
Karl forced himself upright.
His body screamed in protest. Every muscle trembled. His injured leg throbbed where the demon dogs had torn into him, and exhaustion weighed on his bones like lead. But he planted his feet anyway.
He wasn’t backing down.
He wasn’t dying today.
Azareal released a hollow, ghostlike sigh. Beneath the shadow of his hood, his eyes burned with an unearthly glow.
Karl raised his dagger and sneered.
Then Azareal vanished.
The spirit surged forward faster than Karl’s vision could follow. Karl reacted on instinct alone, slashing through empty space-
Nothing.
A violent impact exploded against his back. Azareal had reappeared behind him.
Karl was sent flying.
He hit the ground hard, barely managing to land on his feet. Pain detonated through his ribs, crushing his breath from his lungs. Before he could recover, Azareal was already upon him again, relentless as a storm.
Steel met steel.
Karl braced himself, arms shaking as he struggled to keep pace with Azareal’s overwhelming speed. The double blades carved arcs of emerald fire through the air, each strike heavy with killing intent. Karl parried desperately, sparks and flame bursting with every collision, his dagger barely holding against the spirit’s monstrous power.
Then it happened.
With a single, decisive strike, Azareal shattered Karl’s dagger.
In the same motion, he severed Karl’s arm.
Karl didn’t even have time to scream before Azareal spun his blazing weapon in a brutal circle, unleashing a hurricane of fire that tore through Karl and hurled him across the sands.
He skidded to a stop, face pressed into the grit.
Karl crawled forward on trembling limbs. His head rang. His chest burned. His bones felt shattered, his right hand gone. Tears streamed from swollen eyes as the truth settled in.
He was done for.
Still, he forced himself to stand.
Azareal waited, unmoving, allowing him the dignity of one last attempt.
Karl bared his teeth, stained red with his own blood, and growled through agony and fury. With shaking fingers, he drew a card from his suit and flipped it over, praying for a miracle.
Instead, a spear of light erupted through his back.
Karl screamed, clutching at the wound.
Two more spears tore into his torso from different angles. His strength finally gave out, and he collapsed to his knees, blood spilling from his mouth onto the sand.
Azareal extended his hand, and his weapon flew back into his grasp, its blades reigniting with vivid green flame. He walked slowly toward Karl’s broken form.
“Do you accept your fate, son of Wilhelm?…”
Karl couldn’t answer. His lungs could barely draw breath. His vision dimmed, memories flashing past in fragments. He tried to lift his head, but his body seized.
His fingers slackened.
The card slipped free and dissolved into dust.
Azareal took that as his answer.
“Very well…” the spirit said, raising his weapon high above Karl’s head.
“Die, Karl Wilhelm, and be reborn; a new and glorious creature…”
Karl felt his eyes close.
The blade fell.
And everything became nothing.
'Mission complete. You accepted your fate.
To live and die by the will of the fallen.
Totem Ascension, Phase 0 complete.
Do you wish to continue?'
'Yes.'
Karl’s eyes snapped open.
Faint voices called his name, distant at first, then growing louder.
So this was the afterlife. The ancestors were finally calling his-
“Karl!!!”
He bolted upright, drenched in cold sweat. His heart thundered wildly in his chest as he gasped for air. He clutched at himself, lungs burning, and found Olenna staring at him with wide, worried eyes. Beside her was an elven boy Karl hadn’t noticed yesterday.
“Where am I?!!” Karl asked frantically.
“You’re here, where you’ve been for the last, what, three days… You don’t remember anything?!!”
Karl wiped his eyes and looked again. It really was Olenna.
He was alive.
But deeply confused.
He grasped his pendant, and the phantom pain of battle still pulsed through him. It wasn't just a dream. It couldn’t have been.
“Karl? Are you okay?” Olenna asked.
“Yeah… just… just a bad dream.” he lied.
His gaze drifted to the elven boy.
“Oh-” Olenna said. “This is Eric…” She pulled him closer. Eric offered a nervous smile.
“…and he’s my best friend.”
“Right…” Karl said. He tried to stand, but his legs buckled. Olenna and Eric hurried to support him.
“I had the weirdest dream,” Karl murmured.
“What was it about?” Olenna asked.
“You know when you told me to speak with my totem? I think I did. I saw it.”
Olenna and Eric exchanged looks, eyes widening in excitement.
“No way!!” Eric exclaimed. “What did your totem spirit look like?!!”
“He was… scary.”
“Is that all?” Olenna asked, disappointed.
“It was like a ghost. Like a grim reaper. A spirit of death, the kind you see in books. But real. Very real…”
A small smile finally tugged at Karl’s lips.
“What else did you see?” Olenna pressed.
“Well, we kinda got into a fight. I called him what everyone said he was, Azareal, but he told me his real name. He called himself the fallen-”
Karl cried out and collapsed as intense pain tore through his skull. Reality warped and glitched around him as the agony surged, then abruptly vanished.
Olenna and Eric helped him up, moving faster now, drawing curious stares as they rushed him to safety.
Karl didn’t understand what was happening.
Why was his totem trying so hard to silence him?
They laid him on a recovery bed. His thoughts drifted as he clutched his pendant once more. He could feel it raging against his soul, angry, warning him. It spoke without words, its fury pressing directly into his mind.
“We'll just let you get some rest now, Karl,” Olenna said, brushing sweat from his forehead. She turned to leave.
Karl caught her hand.
She looked back, waiting.
He searched her golden eyes, then sighed and released his grip.
Soon, he was alone again.
That sound returned.
Karl pushed himself up as a glowing magic scroll materialized before him.
“Hm… you’re definitely real,” he muttered.
'Totem Ascension, Level: 1
Skill Level: 1.8
Items: One dagger, One healing potion
Stats:
Mana Coefficient: 100
Strength: 35/100
Durability: 28/100
Speed: 41/100
Intelligence: 43/100
Special Abilities: Nil'
“Hm…” Karl said quietly. “Is this an assessment of my abilities?”
'Yes.'
Karl froze. He didn't expect it to answer.
'To level up, you must complete my missions. Are you ready, son of Wilhelm?'
Karl smirked.
That voice.
It was Azareal.
“Of course…” he replied.
- Writer
