Arterion was feeling his way in the darkness of the forest. Sniffing the air like an experienced hunter and following that familiar scent. After a short break from running for almost an hour, the adrenaline that stopped him from feeling the pain and exhaustion on his body finally ceased pumping through his veins. He suddenly felt waves of intense pain from his mulltiple wounds. His body felt heavy, making him trip a few times before getting back up and walking again.

'I know that smell, a little more, just a little more..' Arterion focused on this one thought.

Arterion, while surrounded by nothing but pitch black, suddenly thought of his life in the past. Lost in reminiscence about the little moments that he thought of to be the best parts of his life. He thought about his mom, that although sometimes strict and cold, he remembered the times she read him stories in his bed at night. For a noble woman, she was quite weird as she also helped in some chores in their mansion. Sometimes she would cook an amazing dinner for both him and his father, and they would eat together as a family. Sometimes she would even cook food for him alone! She was a strong woman, not always relying on his father to get things done. It was something about her that Arterion loved a lot.

Then his father, once a Baron of a land under the Free Kingdoms of Men. Contrary to other Barons that did everything to increase their territory, he often found his father in his private library. He was always reading ancient tomes and books in languages that Arterion couldn't understand. Sometimes he would sit in his lap for hours until he fell asleep, yet his father continued reading and reading. His extreme focus and persistence, maybe he got that from his father.

Arterion wasn't sure about the exact details, but he knew his father was a Mage. As to what level he reached, he didn't know, but his father once told him about his latent talent for magic and that was the last time the two of them ever talked about that subject.

'Arterion, child, someday you will understand your duty..' he suddenly remembered his father telling him while they were in his library.

'Duty? What duty?' Puzzled, Arterion frowned and caressed his bleeding forehead as he suddenly felt pain in his head. He was walking forwards when all of a sudden..

Schlip! Shwoo!

"Ah." he said as felt his body lunging forwards.

"AHHHHHHHH!", Arterion shouted as he slipped off a cliff. In the dark, along with a splitting headache, he lost focus on his treading and his footing that made him not notice a cliff up-ahead. He grunted over and over as he rolled downwards; spinning and tumbling his way into flat ground as his body was beat up again more than it already was. Arterion felt and heard some of his bones cracking, which made him scream in agony as he continued his fall.

Thud! Boom!

A loud crash rang in the night as Arterion finally fell to the bottom of the cliff. He kicked up an amount full of dust as his limp body was lying face down on the ground. He was hurting all over. He coughed several times in agony, not noticing that the said coughs came with some amount of blood. He was dizzy and on the verge of being unconscious. But as Arterion's body was breaking, his mind was still clear. He came to the realization that the smell he was following was stronger here!

"AGHHHHH!", Arterion did everything he could to move. Only managing to move his dominant right hand, he dragged his body further forwards. If he was going to die, let him feel home once more. He clawed up dirt and pebbles as he moved snail-paced forward, following the smell that grew stronger and stronger with every inch his body moved ahead.

'Please..Please..A little..more. A little more!' Arterion felt warmth on his face as tears flowed from his eyes once again.

He knew that his life was hanging on a thread. His vision was blurring, and he can't feel his legs. The only sensation he felt was his hand gouging through the pitch black soil of this forest as he dragged his body onward. He huffed with every stroke of his hand, and just when he was about to lose his strength, he found himself in a clearing.

It was a strange sight as for the first time since he went into the forest, he saw the night sky once again. There were no gigantic trees here, no glowing mushrooms, and no pebbles or rotting sticks and leaves on the ground. Instead, all he saw was a field of crimson red roses all over the clearing.

He struggled to push himself up to his knees, and laid his back on a nearby tree on the borders of the clearing. He narrowed his eyes to see clearly, and what he saw in the middle of the crimson flower field left him shivering.

It was a solitary macabre tree, no leaves, black as the abyss, pulsating with thin long red lines resembling blood vessels. It only had two braches jutting out from it's petite trunk. And on the right side branch on the tree hung what looks to be an apple, red as blood.

"Huma--, no.." a voice of woman sighed in the distance.

The voice rang in Arterion's mind. He felt chills listening to that voice. It sounded like it belonged to a higher being, looking down on all creation. What felt strange was that the voice was not speaking in human tongue, but Arterion understood her anyways.

"Hmm.. I see.. How interesting.." the voice spoke again with a hint of a chuckle.

"You.. are on the verge of death.. cursed one.. answer my question before you make your way to the Hells.."

Arterion seemingly on a daze not even minding the strange way that the voice adressed him, he also forgot about his injuries. He was focused on the voice itself. The voice was calm and indifferent, and yet he felt like her words held power that barred any refusal. It was bizzare, as if her voice embodied magic on a higher level. Recovering from his stupor when he was asked a question, he did his best to speak.

"What is it.. you want.. to know," Arterion coughed a mouthful of blood as he finished his sentence.

"How many years has it been.. since the war.. For the Overgod.. started.. and who was victorious?" the woman asked in a tone that sounded full of grief and not at the same time. Her voice embodied contradiction, which made her sound very strange.

"Overgod.. War..? Those times were an era of legends. All records about it are held secret. Not a lot of people knew what happened during that time, including me. But as for the time it started... approximately 200,000 years ago.." Arterion huffed as he almost ran out breath just by speaking.

"200,000 years.. Fufu.. Fuhaha.. Hahahahaha.. HAHAHAHAHAHA!" , the strange woman laughed. It sounded like hysterical laughing, but also intense sobbing combined. It sounded weird and bone-chilling.

"..haha.. *sigh.. You and I.. are the same, child. Cursed and on the verge of death.. I do not know what is it you seek that lead you to finding me.. I can see through everything in your mind.. but not what you want.."

"What is it that you seek, cursed one? ..Power?..Knowledge?..Hope..? An answer, perhaps...", the voice asked in a mysterious tone.

"If so, then we are exactly.. the same.."

"Fate..", a dying voice of a young man echoed out.

The woman's voice seemed to be deep in thought about Arterion's answer, it took her quite while before speaking out again..

"I see.. You are quite an interesting fellow.. maybe you are the one I am waiting for all these years.."

A arm white as snow suddenly appeared in front of Arterion. Her fingers exuded a natural aura of beauty. They were long and slender and looked to be as soft as clouds in the morning sky, making her crimson fingernails stand out.

In contrast to the most beautiful hand that Arterion has ever seen in his life, it was holding what looked like to be an apple. But this apple was pulsating with long red veins all around it. It was dripping with red juice, and was also surrounded by colors of red varying in intensity. It looked creepy and sinister.

"Know this.. everything comes with a price.. you shall bring calamity to those around you.. but will also give you a chance to be their blessing.. Eat this, and change your fate for eternity.."

Arterion while not stopping having to think about it at all, lunged forward and took a huge bite of the apple. He found it to be the most delicious thing he had ever eaten in his life. He took bite after bite as he wolfed down the apple, with red juice covering the sides of his mouth which he didn't bother wiping off. He licked his fingers clean of the juice that came from the apple. And closed his eyes in satisfaction. When unexpectedly..

"Ugh.. UGH..AGHHH! AHHHH!"

Arterion felt his whole body burning! He couldn't help but scream at the top of his lungs. The sounds of his screams felt as if it came from the deepest layer of the Hells, but at the same time, sounded like the choirs of Heaven. It was contradictory, with two opposite sounds cancelling and blending with each other.

Arterion felt his body squirming and his muscles hardening. Huge amounts of blood pumped out of his heart, restoring the blood lost from his wounds. The said wounds contracted and retracted as they started healing at an immense rate. He heard his decimated bones creaking back to their normal positions, while also hardening as if they were becoming indestructible. His internal organs tossed and turned, strengthening and giving way for another heart growing on the right side of Arterion's chest!

Arterion started convulsing with blood-red froth coming out of his mouth. His eyes, ears and nose were like water-falls gushing out blood. And if you look closely, Arterion's left eye started to have a crimson outline. After an intense change to his body and minutes of shaking out of control. Arterion felt the last dredges of his strength fading. And before he completely fainted, the last thing he heard was nothing but a strange woman's laughter echoing in the distance...