THE GOD OF RUIN

Chapter Three

Alex's POV

My smile was dangerous, a jagged thing born of madness. Beneath it, a fragile part of me was screaming. I lowered my head, staring at the filth and the rusted drain of the dungeon floor. I waited for the cold embrace of death standing before me. The air reeked of salt, rot, and the iron tang of old blood.

“What the hell just happened in the arena?” one guard muttered. He sat on a low stool, obsessively polishing a serrated knife. His fingers shook so violently the steel clattered against his ring.

“If my guess is correct, this piece of trash has a monster seed in him,” the other guard sneered. His scarred face twisted with cruelty as he jerked my head up by the hair. Pain shot through my scalp. He spat directly onto my cheek.

I forced myself to endure it. My body was a sack of broken bones and bruised meat, chained to the stone wall. The spit ran down my forehead, over my eye, and toward my mouth. I rubbed my face against my shoulder, but it only smeared the grime deeper into my skin.

“Fool. Pathetic. Do you think you’re strong because of claws?” he growled, leaning close. His breath smelled of stale ale. “I’ll deal with you personally, useless.”

He pressed the cold, sharp knife against my cheek. The steel carved through skin and flesh in a slow, agonizing line. I screamed. Pain surged like lightning, white-hot and blinding. Blood poured down my neck, soaking my tunic. I twisted in the chains, feeling each link bite into my wrists.

“I think he’s shouting! Woo-hoo!” the guard mocked. He laughed as the others joined in. “I thought you weren’t afraid of dying since you became a monster. Gosh, useless as ever. I don’t even know who your parents are. Did they throw you away for being a freak?”

The word parents struck harder than any blade. A hollow ache in my chest opened wider. I didn’t know my origins. I only knew hunger, chains, and a life of torment.

The guard didn’t stop. He drove the knife into my stomach and twisted it. Muscle tore. Heat surged through me. Blood rushed out, hot and wet, pooling at my waist. I screamed until my throat went raw, the sound echoing down the empty corridor.

No one came. In this palace, the screams of a servant were nothing but background noise.

My body was dying. No one loved me. No one cared if I vanished tomorrow. I was a tool to some, a monster to the rest. Tears mixed with blood, dripping from my chin. I sobbed, weighed down by the unbearable isolation.

Is this how they will treat me until I am erased from the world? I wished for death, but it was no longer a wish. My life was a candle flickering in a storm. But a dark instinct whispered: In my next life, I will pay them back. I will tear their world down stone by stone.

Footsteps echoed, heavy and rhythmic. Two people approached. I recognized King Leo’s arrogant stride—the walk of a man who owned the ground he stepped on. The other steps were light, graceful, and eerily quiet.

“Move aside,” Leo’s voice cut through, sharp as the blade in my gut.

I kept my head lowered, my heart thudding feebly.

“You reckless trash,” he spat, gripping my face. I heard my jawbone groan under his hand. “You nearly killed the heir. Today, you will be erased, and no history will remember you.”

He pushed my head back against the stone, signaling the guards. The woman beside him stepped forward. Lydia, the noble princess set to marry Kael, flipped her silk-black hair back. Her eyes weren’t full of hate like Kael’s. They were narrow, cold, and analytical.

“You carry something you shouldn’t,” she said, her voice quiet but haunting. “It is hidden deep. No one knows, not even you. Better you die completely now than become the danger you are meant to be.”

I froze. “I... I don’t understand,” I whispered, my voice fragile.

She gave a last look—a moment of mild pity—and walked away.

“Don’t leave anything of him,” Leo barked. “s*******r him. Throw him in the abyss. If he survives, keep torturing him. Understand?”

I reached feebly for mercy that wasn’t there. He didn’t look back. I let my head hang. The guard didn’t wait. He drove the knife toward my heart. I groaned as the world turned grey.

“Wow... the lively animal finally gives up,” he laughed, his face inches from mine.

I felt like I floated in a cold black abyss, sinking into a void. Then, a voice echoed in my soul—ancient, sad, and terrifying.

“He won’t survive. Neither will I. I must lend him the essence, even if it burns his life. It is the only way to stay awake.”

Suddenly, power surged through me like boiling oil. Skin stretched, bones snapping and reforming. My neck twisted with a sickening sound. I screamed as strength crushed my soul.

“What… what the hell!” the guard screamed, staggering back.

“Is he a monster? He’s breaking himself!” another shouted, his knife raised.

I opened my eyes. My neck twisted impossibly, my legs freed from the chains as claws erupted from my fingers. The guard struck at my chest. The blade shattered like glass.

“I’m going to die,” he gasped, staring at the broken handle.

I smiled, licked the blood from my lips, and let a cursed voice escape. “What delicious food. I’m just getting started.”

I seized his head. My claws sank into his skull like soft clay. “I told you to leave me alone. You didn’t listen.”

His body shook, hands trembling, his life draining into the dirt.

“Holy f**k!” the other guard screamed, dropping his torch.

I was already in front of him, moving like a shadow. Clapping my clawed hands, I sang a twisted nursery rhyme. “Oh boy... come closer. I won’t hurt you much.”

He staggered, tripping over a plate. I pounced and ripped his arm off in one tug. Blood splashed across my face. I licked it, fueled by fire. He crawled into a corner, clutching the stump of his shoulder, his eyes rolling back.

“Why run from your father?” I asked, my voice heavy with the monster’s growl. “You flogged me for dropping a tray while the kitchen watched. I begged. Remember?”

I grabbed the iron bars and tore them apart like silk. Pain vanished, replaced by cold joy. He tried to crawl away, but I blocked him. I drove his own knife into his skull, twisting until his screams ceased.

A flash struck my mind. I saw a man and a woman standing in fire, holding each other, crying. Then—boom—shadows killed them both.

I fell, smashing my head against the floor. “Who are they? My parents? Why are they dead?”

Tears returned briefly. But the monster surged, wrenching my head forward, eyes glowing deep red. That’s when I saw him. A man in a black cloak and a wide-brimmed hat blocked the doorway. Torchlight didn’t reach his face. He looked calm, as if waiting for this exact moment.

“Come with me,” he said, his voice steady and ancient. “I will train you to master the dangerous power within. Stay here, and you’ll become a beast.”

My body shifted back. Claws receded, bones cracked and popped into place. I fell to my knees, gasping, my vision blurring into shadows.

“I saw them,” I whispered. “My parents. They were killed. Murdered.”

The world spun. Darkness claimed me, and I slid into a dreamless sleep as the cloaked man stepped into the cell.