Three days passed.
Three days of silence, rain, and whispers.
The slums were buzzing.
> "That crimson-eyed freak… he broke Kiro's jaw in one hit."
"Nah, he's cursed. I saw him smile after they kicked his ribs in."
"He's gonna end up dead or worse. Mark my words."
But Adexander?
He listened to none of it.
He trained.
Alone.
In the cold.
Under dripping rooftops and shattered moonlight.
Every night, his fists cracked stone.
Every morning, his body bled.
And he smiled—not because he enjoyed it—but because it meant he was remembering.
---
Then—
A scream.
High-pitched. Sharp. Near the eastern wall of the slums.
> "Someone fell into the Crawl!"
"Another kid? Forget it. They're already dead."
A shaky voice added—
> "It's... it's the bread girl. The one who helped him…"
The crowd turned quiet.
Adexander's eyes opened.
Crimson shimmered under his soaked hair.
He stood.
---
At the edge of the Crawl dungeon…
A jagged hole yawned wide in the cracked earth, exhaling black mist and rotten wind.
A man spoke nervously.
> "That place… it's alive. People go in. Nothing comes out."
Another spat.
> "Only monsters down there. Even the Guilds avoid it."
A woman whispered:
> "The girl's gone. No one survives the Crawl."
Then a voice cut through them like a blade.
> "I will."
They turned.
It was him.
Rain dripping off his shoulders, eyes like murder.
> "What?" a man stammered. "You'll die in minutes!"
Adexander didn't respond.
He just stepped forward—and dropped into the abyss.
---
Inside…
Rot. Blood. Echoes of something wrong.
The tunnels pulsed like veins. The floor writhed subtly underfoot.
And yet—
Adexander walked with purpose.
Every step deliberate.
> "This air…" he muttered. "Feels like war."
Suddenly—
Click.
A rune glowed beneath him.
WHOOSH!
Spikes launched from the wall.
Adexander caught the first mid-air, spun, snapped it, and used the jagged end to impale the second.
Blood trickled down his hand.
> "Cheap trick," he muttered.
He didn't stop.
---
Deeper...
Sobbing echoed through the tunnels.
The girl—small, scraped, terrified—trapped behind fallen rubble.
A twisted creature loomed over her, wings of bone and smoke, twin jaws dripping acid.
A Crawlspawn.
It turned.
Roared.
Adexander stepped between them.
The beast hissed.
> "Another fleshling. Good. I hunger."
Adexander tilted his head.
> "Then starve."
The beast lunged.
He didn't flinch. He rushed forward, spike in hand, parrying its first slash with his forearm.
It raked his side. He ignored the pain. Grabbed its neck.
> "Back then… I fought gods."
The beast laughed, black ichor spraying.
> "You reek of weakness."
Adexander's eyes flared.
> "That's what I want you to think."
He smashed his knee into its jaw.
Grabbed its wing.
Ripped.
The creature shrieked.
> "You'll pay—!"
> "Not today."
He slammed the spike through its skull.
It convulsed. Then dropped.
Dead.
---
The girl trembled.
> "Y-You… You saved me…"
Adexander didn't respond immediately.
He knelt, grabbed part of the beast's bone, examined it.
> "You fed me."
> "What?"
> "Bread."
He stood, lifted her onto his back.
> "We're leaving."
---
Back above ground…
People scattered as he climbed out of the Crawl, covered in gore, dragging part of the beast's carcass behind him.
He dropped the severed wing at their feet.
> "Mine now."
Nobody dared speak.
---
That night…
He sat by firelight, sharpening a bone blade.
The girl lay nearby, wrapped in his tattered cloak.
She looked up.
> "Why did you come back for me?"
He paused.
> "You didn't ask for anything."
> "Huh?"
> "You gave. That matters."
A rare, fragile smile flickered across her face.
She whispered:
> "Thank you…"
He didn't respond.
He just stared into the fire.
And muttered:
> "Soon."
---
Elsewhere…
Kael'Rith stood before an obsidian mirror, watching the flames shift.
> "He's awake."
Velessia's voice cracked from the shadows.
> "Then the Crimson King returns."
> "No…" Kael'Rith said softly. "Something worse."