Squelch! Squelch! Squelch!
The cold, filthy mud felt like it was trying to swallow his boots whole. Eldrum ran over the wet ground, his messy, shoulder-length black hair plastered to his face. He wore a stiff, brown leather hunter's jacket, tattered black trousers torn in several places. The old scar above his left eye throbbed, an eternal reminder of his day of humiliation. His eyes refused to grow tired, fueled by fire—the real fire from the house he'd just burned behind him, and the fire of envy that burned far hotter deep in his chest.
He stopped running for a moment, panting, leaning his weary back against a wooden wall slick with moss. He stared at his bloody hands. His knuckles were raw and swollen. He had just punched a stone wall in a blind rage. His fist clenched. But it wasn't the pain in his hands that bothered him.
It was his brother's voice, Caine's, from a few moments ago. The same voice that used to worship him, now sounding panicked and full of concern... for *her*.
"D-Danica?..."
Eldrum snorted bitterly, spitting a glob of saliva and blood into the mud.
Eldrum:
"After that moment... after I slit Agurr's throat... you never called me by my name again, Caine. Always 'brother'. 'Brother', huh?"
A respectful title spoken in a flat tone, a title that felt like an insult. The name Caine used to keep his distance.
Eldrum. A name that had lost all honor, smeared in mud and blood, not just in the eyes of this cursed village but in the eyes of his only remaining family. Opportunist. Traitor. Brother-killer. Willing to kill his own brother for his own life. That's what they said. That's what they whispered behind his back.
His mind flashed back to that fateful day. The day outside the Dome.
(Flashback)
The forest outside the Dome was a frozen hell. The wind screamed like a banshee among the dead trees. Agurr, their eldest brother, lay on the snowy ground, his guts spilling from a gaping wound in his stomach, steaming in the cold air.
Agurr (flashback):
"D-damn it! I didn't expect the hunt... to be like this!" He coughed hard, fresh blood spraying from his blue lips.
Caine (flashback):
"L-Let's just go back to the Dome! It's already dark! The Lunarians... those winged things will be back!" Caine, the youngest, was shaking violently, his shotgun nearly slipping from his hands, frozen in fear.
Eldrum (flashback):
"What do you mean, Caine?! Go home empty-handed?!" he roared, frustrated. "You think I'll accept that?! We risked our lives out here with those damned winged freaks! No! I won't! Go back to a hungry Dome? You go back. I'll keep searching!,it has been three days since the last Sacrifice"
Caine:
"Brother is dying! Agurr is dying!"
Eldrum stared at the shivering Agurr, his brother's eyes starting to glaze over. Then he looked at Caine. "Yeah, you're right." He raised his axe, which was covered in monster blood.
Caine:
"Brother Eldrum? Wait... stop! What are you— STOP!"
SHHHLLRKK!
The axe came down with a sickening wet sound.
Agurr:
"Hurgh!!"
The sound was cut short. A terrible silence enveloped the snowy forest.
Caine:
"Brother!! You, what did you do?! WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
Eldrum:
"Noisy! Just shut up!" He stared at Caine with burning eyes, ignoring his brother's tears. "He's dead. Now, he's useful."
He carried Agurr's corpse on his shoulder. When he arrived at the village gate, people initially watched him with a bit of relief, thinking he was bringing back game. But...
Villager:
"I-It's... i-it's!"
Villager 2:
"A-Agurr!"
A fist flew at Eldrum's face, so hard it made him drop his brother's corpse into the mud.
Villager 2:
"WHAT DID YOU DO?! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?! YOU KILLED YOUR OWN BROTHER!"
Eldrum roughly grabbed the man's collar.
Eldrum:
"A sacrifice! That's what Danica wants, isn't it?! A sacrifice for her Father! Do you think it's easy out there?!"
Eldrum shoved the man aside, sending him sprawling.
Eldrum:
"Hurry up and call that girl!-"
*KRAASH!*
A glass bottle was thrown, smashing hard against his face. A sharp, blinding pain. The glass shattered, tearing the skin around his left eye.
Eldrum winced in agony, blood streaming down, blurring his vision. "Traitor!", "You're insane!", "Monster!" All the curses he heard that day. Eldrum spoke one more time, now calling for the only family he had...
Eldrum:
"Caine! Hurry up and call that bitch!"
He glanced back. Where was Caine? Where was his brother? Why was he standing here alone, surrounded by wolves?
*DHUK!*
Hard wood slammed into the back of his head. His vision went dark.
Villager 2:
"Hah! Got you!"
But, before Eldrum blacked out, he heard that sickening voice he hated. Calm, cold, full of authority.
Danica:
"Stop all of this."
Villager 2:
"B-But! Danica! He killed Agurr!"
Danica:
"And Agurr is dead. Now he is an offering. Hurry and take the body to the Altar. We will punish this one."
And that was the first sacrifice taken from the villagers themselves. Flesh of their own flesh. And Danica was the one who started it.
(Back to the Present)
Eldrum, still leaning against the wall, snorted in frustration, envy and anger towards Danica burning inside him. How could his brother, Caine, trust that murderer who also sacrificed others?
-"They look at me with disgust, yet they adopt what I did. I won't be ashamed, because they're all hypocrites. Believing this Dome will save me? Naive. Everyone just wants to save their own skin. That girl just wants her crazy Father to stay alive."-
Eldrum:
"And I just want my Honor and my Brother back."
A new fire burned in his eyes. Enough hiding. Enough crawling in Danica's shadow. He would take back what was his. He would kill Danica, and show Caine who the real leader was.
Eldrum then tensed. He looked at the roof of the house across the alley. It was about 4 meters away. He took a step back, his muscles tightening, preparing to jump and climb the wall to get to the roof, to assassinate Danica.The Weakened Barrier of Father is a confirmation,a confirmation of Danica's weak leadership and confirmation to kill her.
He jumped.
But it wasn't a normal jump. He didn't shoot forward. He shot *up*. It felt like a giant spring had exploded beneath his feet. He leaped incredibly high, with a strength he didn't realize he possessed, shooting vertically like a rocket.
His head slammed hard into the edge of the roof.
DHUAKK!
Eldrum:
"Agh!!"
He fell back down, landing hard in the mud, clutching his spinning head. The black mark on his neck, the Mark of Sin, throbbed hotly, growing even darker.
He looked to his side. In the spot where he had jumped, the muddy ground now had a small crater, as if a small bomb had exploded there.
Eldrum stared at the crater, then at his bloody hands, then up at the roof.
Eldrum:
"What... what just happened?"