The cold clung to his skin like a second shadow, slowly seeping into his bones as a crushing heaviness kept his body suspended between consciousness and nothingness. Every breath felt like a monumental effort, as if the very air had decided to betray him. The light was faint, almost nonexistent, yet Koda perceived it in fleeting bursts—the blurry silhouettes of shifting shadows dancing around him, reinforcing that sense of isolation and vulnerability.
Koda felt as if he were floating in something dense, almost suffocating… a confused mix of shattered memories, lingering pain, and sensations he could not clearly distinguish. His mind oscillated between fragments of memory and void, like a frozen stream whose water struggled to break through the ice. Images formed and tore themselves apart, returning in no order, as if his mind still refused to accept what he had witnessed. Each memory struck with the force of a hammer but dissolved before he could even understand its meaning.
A street.
The sound of hurried footsteps.
The metallic clatter of weapons.
A circle of light that devoured everything.
Then—
Screams.
Bodies falling.
Blood.
Again.
And those eyes.
Immense. Fixed. Inhuman. Brilliant with a cold, cruel intelligence that seemed to pierce his soul, shredding his hopes and gathering his fears in a single gaze.
The Basilisk.
His heart raced, pounding against his chest as if trying to escape in his place. Each beat reverberated in his temples until it felt like the whole world vibrated in unison with his terror.
He wanted to look away. Run. Disappear. Anything but remain there, exposed and vulnerable.
But something rooted him to the spot, something indescribable. Perhaps the shadow of fascination. Perhaps fear mixed with an incoherent desire to understand.
The monster's gaze did not leave him.
Then, without his lips moving, without the air trembling…
He heard.
Clear.
Distinct.
As if the words had been forced directly into his mind:
> Not interesting.
The world tilted.
— "AAAAH—!"
Koda sat up abruptly, a scream tearing through the silence, seeming to echo in the invisible walls around him.
Pain exploded through his entire body, every joint, every muscle screaming on his behalf. His lungs felt like they might implode, each breath tugging at nerves already stretched to their limit.
His vision wavered violently, colors blending into a chaotic kaleidoscope of light and darkness. Familiar contours disappeared and reappeared, the whole world transforming into a moving nightmare.
— "Damn! That one's loud!"
— "Shut up, you piece of shit! You wanna die or what?!"
The voices struck him almost as brutally as the pain itself. They were harsh, unnuanced, shards of pure brutality. Every word sank like a blade into his already fragile mind.
He gasped, completely disoriented, breath short, eyes wide, searching for something stable, something to hold onto. His hands, still free for the moment, clenched as if to grab some imaginary anchor.
His eyes searched for something familiar… but there was nothing.
Only wood.
Bars.
And the slow, irregular movement of a cart that seemed to sway on an invisible sea. The creak of the wood beneath its weight added an oppressive dimension to this forced confinement, each vibration resonating through his clenched teeth.
His wrists jerked violently as he tried to move.
Bound.
His breath caught. The air, dense and humid, seemed almost solid, a physical barrier keeping him trapped in this nightmare.
— "Look at this… barely awake and already making noise."
A man walked beside the cart, visibly annoyed, radiating a casual but lethal air. Every step of his seemed to echo in Koda's skull like a sentence.
Another laughed briefly, a cold, dry sound, like a hard object hitting stone.
— "They're all the same. They scream, they panic… then they understand."
Koda blinked, still unable to gather his thoughts. His mind tangled in thick fog, incapable of deciding whether to feel, move, or scream again.
A movement drew his attention.
Across from him.
Two people.
Bound.
Like him.
A young man with a vacant stare, lips trembling, as if he could collapse at any moment. The pallor of his skin betrayed the fear eating him from the inside.
— "…are we… alive…?"
His voice was fragile, almost breaking, a whisper that seemed ready to vanish into the air itself.
Next to him, a girl clenched her teeth, her face pale despite the obvious effort to stay conscious. The muscles of her jaw were tense; every breath seemed a struggle.
— "Shut up…" she murmured faintly.
"…they'll hear us…"
Too late.
— "We can already hear you, idiots."
The tone was mocking. Weary. No effort to mask the cruelty in every syllable.
— "Enjoy your last quiet moments."
A heavy silence settled, as if the world itself held its breath.
Koda felt his heart speed up, arteries beating with mechanical precision, each pulse amplifying the terror and helplessness.
— "The… others…"
The young man across from him trembled more, hands gripping his chains as if he could snap them with sheer panic.
— "…where are they…?"
A laugh.
Short. Dry.
— "Dead."
The word fell without hesitation, cold, definitive.
— "All of them."
The young man's gaze shattered instantly. His entire posture collapsed as if his bones had lost the ability to hold him upright.
The girl closed her eyes, as if she had just been hit by an invisible force, a shock seeping into every fiber of her being.
Koda remained still.
No…
The images returned.
Sharper.
Crueler.
Blood.
Screams.
The monster's gaze.
— "We just take what's left," the man continued in a detached tone.
"Sometimes there are survivors."
— "And they sell well."
Koda felt his stomach twist violently. Bile rose, but he forced it down, unable to let his body betray the fury beginning to take root.
— "…sell…?"
His voice shook despite himself, but no longer from fear. He understood the world for what it was—brutal and merciless.
— "Still don't get it?"
The man looked up at him, a tired smile stretching across his lips.
— "Your kingdom sent you as an offering."
The world seemed to crack around him, every sound, vibration, and smell turning into an echo of despair.
— "Gotta feed the beast."
Silence became suffocating.
— "…offering…"
— "Otherwise it comes out… and the whole region goes down."
Another man spat to the side, a trivial gesture contrasting with the horror he had just voiced.
— "So we sacrifice a few strangers. It's simpler."
Koda barely breathed.
— "All kingdoms do it," he added, as if it were obvious.
All.
The word echoed in his mind.
Again.
Again.
Again.
His hands shook. Chains creaked faintly.
The young man across whispered, completely broken:
— "…we were… just food…"
No one answered.
Koda slowly lowered his head.
His mind still resisted.
But his body… had already understood.
And deep inside him—
One thing remained.
The Basilisk's gaze.
And that voice.
> Not interesting.
His fingers clenched slowly.
His nails dug into his skin without his noticing. A subtle but insistent pain, a physical reminder of what his mind had accepted.
A strange heat began to grow inside him.
Not comforting.
Not pain either.
Something more violent.
More unstable.
His breath became irregular. Each inhale felt like fire being drawn into his lungs.
His shoulders shook.
But it was no longer fear.
Nor despair.
It was something else.
A deep, smoldering rage. A burning anger inside, silent yet consuming, ready to devour everything.
Koda no longer trembled with fear.
He trembled with rage.