Cain awoke to the sounds of screams, he quickly got to his feet searching through the church to find the door in the darkness.

“AGhhhhhhHHHHhhH!! The young’ens! Save the Young’ens!”

“Grab the tools! Grab sticks! Get what ye can and fight ‘em!”

“Its got Julie! Its got me wife! ‘Elp me!”

“Get The live folk to the church! We can hold ‘em back from the church!”

The church door slammed open, a couple of villages covered in blood and cuts racing around to light the candles followed by mothers carrying their children, all looking weakly and sick.

He grabbed the shoulder of a passing mother

“What’s happened? How can I help?!”

“We been poisoned and attacked Sir! We all got the sickness and Wyrms are attacking! ‘Alf we town is dead!”

Cain rushed out into the village. It was chaos, mangled bodies scattered everywhere. The ground saturated with blood. A few men barely alive holding whatever they could get their hands on, their eyes darting between doorways searching for the enemy.

“Ughhhh. Uh. Uh. ughh”

Sounds like someone’s hurt in the children’s hut

He unsheathed his blades and pulled his cloak tight, becoming close to invisible in the night, and started to creep towards the children’s hut

“Uh.. ‘elp.. someone please ‘elp.. me.. daughter..”

Peering through the doorway to find a mother laying on the ground struggling to breath. As he saw Cain appear she pushed the young child that she was clutching to her chest at him.

“Take ‘er! The sickness… got me. Ain’t save ‘ere.”

Cain reached forward to the mother

“It’s clear outside I can get you to the church as well if we hurry!”

“Take ‘er… quick… before… I kill… ‘er”

Shocked by the mothers words, he picked up the girl. She was too sick to walk. Locked the door on the mother and rushed back into church.

Did she do this? Did she kill everyone? She said she was going to kill her own daughter!

“Get ‘er outa ‘ere!”

“That young’ens too sick, she’ll be next!”

“Kill ‘er now! Save ‘er from it!”

Three of the villagers were walking towards Cain and the child, weapons raised. Cain placed the girl down behind him and withdrew his daggers.

“She’s just a kid! Its her mother that did this! Not her.”

“Move aside Sir, ye ain’t see what ‘appens.”

Cain stood his ground, waiting for them to make a move, he didn’t want to attack these people when only hours ago they were building a town together, but he wasn’t going to let a girl die because of three men and their conspiracies.

“She’s turning!”

“Get back!”

Cain spun around to see the girl convulsing on the floor, blood draining from the pores in her skin. Her chest shaking violating.

Wait, that’s not shaking, it’s wriggling, moving. There is something under her shirt.

The Wyrm shot out of the girl’s shirt straight towards Cain’s face. His blades catching it midair. Straight through the head. The girls body split open, a hollow cavity from her waist up. The Wyrm hanging from his daggers over two feet long, nearly longer than the girl it just broke out of.

What is going on here!

“Sir, we got a’nother one ‘ere turning!”

The elderly man was hunched in the corner vomiting blood, arms braced against the wall to stay upright. Then it came. His jaw dislocating from his head as the released itself from his mouth.

It’s over 7 feet long!

“Take the sick and lock them in the childrens hut! Be careful, a mother in there might have already turned! The healthy need to get to the other side of the village! We can’t lose any more people! I’ll finish this one and protect the sick!”

The Wyrm was approaching Cain, ignoring everyone else in the room.

“Cain boy! Can’t ye already see! We all got the sickness! It’s too late for us.”

The man raised his knife and stuck it straight through his heart. As he fell to the ground his chest shook, the sounds of bones breaking echoing off the walls before collapsing to the fall. Lifeless.

If you kill the host, you kill the Wyrm. That could make things easy if it all goes south.

“Change of plans. No one leaves this room. Lock the doors”

The Wyrm lashed its tail into Cain’s ankles knocking him to the ground. Grabbing a pillar with his arm he spun himself, kicking the vile creature across its head. Sending it across the room buying him enough time to get back on his feet.

Where’d it go?

The dimly lit room, scattered bodies and the groans of the sick villages provided the Wyrm with camouflage.

“Sir! We got more ‘ere turning! Do we get ‘em?”

“Yes. Get them early.”

It came from behind, its circular rows of razor sharp teeth sinking through his armour and into his back.

Critical Hit: 15 Damage. 60 Health Points Remaining

He swung his body hard but it wouldn’t detach. Its tail curled around his legs squeezing.

It’s trying to make me its new host!

He jumped high leaning backward. As he fell the teeth released from his back. The impact of his ruptured back on the uneven clay tiles taking winding him.

I guess I’m not going to get them that easily.

The Wyrm darted forward towards Cain’s face as he lay there catching his breath. One of the men managing to stab its tail with a pitchfork holding it in place just long enough for Cain to end its miserable life.

“Behind you!”

Cain side-stepped, the Wyrms teeth sinking into the villagers chest. He following through with his daggers, straight through the Wyrm and into the man’s heart.

Two in one.

The villagers were collapsing quicker now, there were at least 30 more Wyrms to come and he’d just killed one of the three people that could help him finish them.

They just keep coming!

The Wyrms darted at Cain from all angles.

Suicide Slash Acitivated!

Critical hit!

Critical hit!

As he swung his daggers the flood of Wyrms cutting them down before they could connect with him, the few smaller ones feeding on the carcasses laying on the floor quickly growing.

The battle was bloody, but the Wyrms were low level and Cain eventually slayed them all. Not without a few villager casualties in the process, using the dead and living as human shields in instances to project himself from their teeth.

“Cain.”

His blood still pulsing he slashed his daggers at the voice, only to be put off balance by the swings not connecting.

“If I were Marowit now, you would have killed him.”

“Daeva! I killed them… I killed all of them… there were children here… We nearly had the village back.”

“You must be disappointed?”

Cain was burning with new found anger

“DISSAPOINTED? I just killed innocent people, friends… You lied to me! You said you gave me a cure! You lied! You make me kill them! You were never going to let me join the Gods of Light! I’m just your slave…”

“Wrong. Think Cain.”

“Wrong? That is all you have to say for yourself? That I was wrong? Was I wrong because I trusted you? Wrong for wanting to be allowed in towns? Wrong for wanting to help?”

“You were wrong in your method to achieve your desired outcome.”

“You told me the water was the problem! You gave me the vials! I did everything right!”

“Think deeper Cain.”

“You cursed them… I had them saved and you didn’t want me to leave… you brought on the Wyrms.. this was your test.”

“Yes, this was a test.”

“You monster! How could you do this to these people!”

“Wrong. I did not, you did. Now think deeper. I will only answer your questions, not solve your problems.”

“Fine, I’ll play your stupid game. Why did they turn into Wyrms.”

“The water did.”

“Which Gods Fault was this?”

“The Gods of Light.”

“That’s the same rubbish you told me when I started the quest!”

“Correct.”

Cain looked over the broken bodies of the villagers he’d worked beside and the Wyrms that had ripped from his body.

What went wrong… What am I missing…

“The method, I did the method wrong.”

“Correct.”

“But I added the Symbol of life to the water, it should have cured them? You told me it would cure them!”

“Wrong. I told you the water was the problem, I provided you the Symbols as the means to solving the problem.”

What am I missing? I accepted the quest, I added the Symbol of life to the water, I gave it to the villagers as they arrived back in town… oh. Oh no.

“The Symbol of Life and Death had no effect on the water.”

“Correct.”

“The villagers said the water was cursed when they were walking back into the village, they had been off collecting clean water and edible food.”

“Correct.”

“I gave them hope, I said their water was cured because of the vial you gave me. You tricked me! Now we’re just back at the start of the same argument!”

“Cain. You have to think deeper! Why did I give you this quest.”

“Because it was a way to return to the Gods of Light.”

“WRONG!”

“THEN WHY!”

“To show you who you truly are. To show where you soul lies”

“And where does it lay then? With you? All you’ve done is manipulate me!”

“If you wish to become stronger Cain. You must stop accusing everyone and start asking yourself the real questions.”

“Fine! Did the vials contain anything at all?”“Yes, Symbols of Life and Death.”

“What did they do?”

“What all symbols do. Provide hope.”

“Did they contain anything that could cure the water?”

“Not in the way you used them.”

“What does that even mean?! Was I supposed to say a spell, or perform a ritual?”

“No.”

“Give me real answers! Tell me what was I supposed to do with these symbols!”

“Use them for what they are. Symbols.”

“How?”

“Not specific enough Cain.”

If I’m going to get any information of out this stupid God I better change my questions.

“You said the civilians had two weeks till they died. It took less than three days. Why?”

“Because they drank from the well.”

“Wh-what? They needed water!”

“Correct.”

Ughhhhh, he won’t tell me anything! Ok, ok ok. I’ll try something else

“What was cursed?”

“Good. Your questions are getting better. The water in the well was cursed.”

Cain collapsed, sick on the floor.

I brought them to their death. I really am as dark as he says.

“You still have not found yourself Cain. Ask.”

“Just tell me! I can’t handle this anymore! I get it, I am dark, I kill everyone. I’ll serve you if that’s what you want! I don’t care anymore, just get me out of here!”

“You will stay here, surrounded by the people you’ve killed until you find yourself. Ask!”

“There is nothing more to ask! I fed these people their death! What else is there to say.”

“You still have not found yourself. You still blame me.”

“Of course I still blame you!”

“Ask.”

“Where did I go wrong?”

“When you poured the symbol into the well.”

“What should I have done different?”

“Ask.”

“That was a question!”

“You should have asked me before the quest. You should have asked the man what was the problem. You should have asked the villagers who they were. You should have asked what they do.”

“How would that have changed anything!”

“You asked me the wrong questions before you started the quest, as you have been asking me the wrong ones now. You did not wait for the villagers to return to town to ask them what the curse was. You could have asked the villagers and found that they had an Apothecary in the woods nearby that could have identified the vials and told you they were merely Symbols and not direct cures.”

Realisation swept over Cain, the nausea growing, he felt dizzy.

“But what if I used the Symbol of Death?”

“You would have angered them. They would have attacked you. You would have killed them. They would have a warrior’s death. Their Gods would forgive their next generation. The towns curse would have been lifted.”

“So if I chose the Symbol of Death, the town would have gone to the Gods of Light?”

“Correct.”

“Then why?”

“I told you Cain, this was my test for you. I had no interest in this town.”

“Which God has control of this town now?”

“Gods do not own towns. It depends on the villagers. Though now the town is not occupied, and the Followers of Light are afraid of the curse. My followers will settle.”

“But what about the curse? Your followers can’t be immune.”

“I have lifted the curse.”

“Wh-what? You could have done that all along?”

“Yes.”

“You killed all those people then! Not me!”

“Wrong. You could have saved them. You killed them. Including the two that had not drunk the cursed water.”

“Two weren’t cursed?”

“You stabbed both through the heart in the church, the two strongest who weren’t becoming sick. If you were build of good you would have noticed and QUESTIONED this.”

“How? How weren’t they cursed?”

“They lived outside the town. Friends of the villagers, helping in a time of crisis. They had their own water and supplies where they lived and refused to touch the towns water in fear of the curse. If you had asked, you would have known.”

I murdered the few that were able to help me….

“Tell me! Tell me! What am I!?”

“You have a brain wired for self-preservation. You have lived a life where you can only trust yourself and can only care about your own safety. You do not have the ability to save those around you, even when you want it most. There were thousands of possibilities in how this quest could have gone, and yet every single one would have ended with the town dead and us having this conversation.”

“But that’s not who I want to be! I wanted to save them.”

“The best way you could have saved them would have been to end their suffering quick by offering them the Symbol of Death and cutting them down.”

“Is this really all that I am? A tool? A means of killing?”

“No, but that is for you to discover. You must ask yourself though. How many people have the strength and control over themselves to use another live healthy man as a shield in combat?”

“Please tell me, how. How would a devote Follower of Light complete this quest?”

“They would have spoken with the village, found the reason behind the curse and the problems the curse brought. They would have had the Apothecary identify the vials and came to the realization that they were not the cure. They would have restored the church and brought back faith, using the Symbol of Life to bless the town. They would have created system removing the chaos and fear. Trade routes would have been opened, water would have been transported in.”

“But the water would still be cursed!”

“The well would have been bordered up and the town would have lived on and grew until they had enough to convince the Gods to take them back.”

“I… I would have never thought of that.”

“Correct. You different Cain. You want conflict and power. You will take what is yours and this is why we will be strong.”

“What do I do now?”

“Do what you’ve always done. Move on. Find the next fight.”

“So.. I can leave this place? I have to leave this place.”

“Hand me your Cloak of Darkness Cain. I must reward you for completing the quest.”

“But I didn’t complete it…”

Cain slid off the Cloak and passed it over to Daeva where he started twisting and weaving new threads into it while he spoke.

“You have. You killed the villagers, realized who you truly are and our bond is stronger.”

Daeva held the new cloak out to Cain, it was no longer pure black but now a mixture of dull greys, greens and reds. He grabbed the cloak from Daeva and noticed the increased weight.

Inspect!

*The Cloak of Truth

-A Cloak made of demon hide laced with the clothes of friends slaughtered by the owners hand.

Cain threw it to the ground disgusted

“I will never wear that!”

“You will. It will be your constant reminder of who you are. You will bear the weight of their deaths on your shoulders always. It also provides you with everything you asked the Gods of Light to provide”

“What?”

“Your Favour is once again hidden, you can walk freely through the towns.”

Daeva vanished, leaving Cain on the church floor surrounded by the villagers he sent to their deaths.