Tales of Undeath: The Von Virtus Chronicles

Disembodied voice: Wake up.

Virno slowly opens his eyes. In front of him was a lake with the same mysterious ruins he had dreamt of before, facing him, tantalizingly beckoning him to enter.

Disembodied voice: Your time is running out.

Try as he did, Virno still could not speak. Black smoke covered his mouth and seemed to clog up his throat. However, he was at least capable of moving his body. He turns his back on the ruins, walking away, entirely unfazed by the curse's attempts to taunt him.

Disembodied voice: Your father is dead. Your family's fortune is gone. What little friends you made have either been injured, poisoned, or both. Who do you think is to blame...? Who do you think is at the centre of all this suffering?

He does his best to ignore it.

Disembodied voice: You are, von Virtus. Perhaps you should follow your father's footsteps and kill yourself. You might just be doing the world a favor...

Virno turns around, performing an obscene gesture towards the ruins.

Disembodied voice: Your mother, the only family you have left, will perish. All your friends will follow suit. The homes you are so desperate to protect will be destroyed. Is all that pain worth this pathetic little attempt to feed your ego...?

Virno looks up towards the skies.

Disembodied voice: You are nothing. Make no mistake... You are as worthless and powerless as anybody else.

With no hesitation, he opens his mouth and shoves his hand down his throat.

Disembodied voice: ... Just as utterly useless as any of them.

He tries to grasp it, but it is slick like an eel. As it dodges around trying to escape his clutches, its movements cause Virno to throw up. He expelled something that resembled tar.

Disembodied voice: Hahahah...

With tears streaming down his face, Virno slumps to his knees as a seemingly unending torrent of tar pours out of his mouth.

Disembodied voice: Tragedy will shape you. Whether you break or bend... That remains to be seen.

Finally, the vomiting stops. Angrily, Virno summons his silver sword. He grabs its hilt with both hands, pointing the tip towards his throat. In one swift, decisive motion, he pierces his neck from end to end. He feels something squirming around inside it, wailing in pain.

Disembodied voice: What are you-

Mustering all his might, he pushes the blade against his skin, slowly decapitating himself. As his neck separates from his body more and more, he catches a glimpse of the creature. Its body was shiny and slimy. It had tens of legs, and a hardened carapace. A giant black centipede seemed to have made its nest inside his throat, and was now dying as it bled out the same tar he was puking earlier.

Disembodied voice: You would sever your own head...?!

Virno finally cuts of the rest of his neck. As he holds his bloody sword in one hand and his decapitated head in another, the centipede crawls out of his throat and falls to the ground, thrashing around frantically. He manages to pierce it through, nailing it to the ground. The creature stops moving shortly after.

Disembodied voice: What a foul being you are...

Virno was now walking towards the ruins, still holding his decapitated head.

Virno: All I want is to free myself from your clutches... Does that make me foul?

The voice does not answer.

Virno: "Yours is a battle of ceaseless sacrifice". You said so yourself. And I have come to embrace it... I will sacrifice my life. I will sacrifice the life of those who stand against me. But I refuse to sacrifice the lives of those I hold dear.

He places his head on his neck again. The flesh begins to heal rapidly, leaving only a dark scar where it was once severed.

Virno: Which is why I have no choice. Since I first heard you, you did nothing but threaten to take them... But that will stop now. I'm coming.

Disembodied voice: ... Pitiful creature! I am not the one responsible for taking their lives. I am merely an observer of the deaths you yourself bring.

Virno: Enough.

He walks faster towards the ruins.

Disembodied voice: Think about it, von Virtus! Were it not for you, your father would not have carelessly let his crimes be exposed. Were it not for you, your mother would still live in luxury. Were it not for you, your friend would not have been assaulted that night, and would not have been poisoned the following day...

Virno did not want to listen.

Disembodied voice: I am not the bringer of their misery... You are. And just as you have caused misery thus far, you will continue to do so. More will be hurt. More will lose their lives. It is not so difficult to see this...

Virno: Shut your mouth...!

Disembodied voice: HAHAHAH...! Time will prove my words right. I will sit and watch as countless more fall by your side.

Virno: As soon as I'm able to... I'm coming for you. I will make everything right.

The voice laughs as the path to the ruins starts bending upwards, looping over Virno's head.

Disembodied voice: There is no righting the loss of a life... Some prices are impossible to pay. You should learn to embrace this, too.

Virno starts running, trying to catch up with the ruins.

Virno: Never. I will kill Cabdan. I will kill Lunalus. I will rid this world of you. Whichever few die because of me... Their deaths will allow many more to live.

Disembodied voice: Is that how you cope with your terrible reality...? Fascinating. I can't wait to see what more destruction you bring...! You are turning out to be a far more interesting vessel than I could have expected...

The ruins were now directly above him.

Virno: You'll change your tune when it's your turn to be destroyed.

The world around Virno begins crumbling.

Disembodied voice: HAHAHAHAH! Such determination... Do you truly mean that...? Or is it nothing but false confidence? Nothing but the empty words of one who has not yet fully grasped the horrible circumstances they find themselves in...?

Virno: Not much to accept... All that happened could not have unfolded any other way.

The ground beneath him gives way, as he falls down a never ending pit of pitch black darkness.

Disembodied voice: Ah... Empty words they are, then. No blame to take, if there was no other way things could have unfolded... I did not take you to be a believer in fate.

Virno smiles.

Virno: Fate...? Wrong. What I said has nothing to do with fate. I have no illusions -- I know full well that if I had acted differently, things could have played out some other way. If I was stronger, smarter... Maybe father would still be alive. Maybe mother wouldn't have to work herself to death. Maybe Faya wouldn't be at death's door, waiting for an antidote that may never come... I know I have taken wrong turns along the way.

He fully commits to the fall, diving straight down.

Virno: But there's nothing I can do but learn from those failures. No point in wallowing in despair, or wondering about the what-ifs... I fucked up because I was weak. So I'll do my best to become stronger.

The silver sword materializes in his hand.

Virno: You've already told me who'll be dying around me, but you're mistaken. Let me give you the list of those for whom death will come, without fail:

He slashes vertically at the darkness. The sword slices it cleanly, and a green glow comes through the cut.

Virno: Cabdan...

Another slash, diagonally. More light shines through.

Virno: ... Lunalus...

One last diagonal slash, mirroring the last one.

Virno: ... And you.

The darkness fades away, as Virno grasps the light through the cracks.

Virno: I'm coming for all of you.

The voice laughs maniacally.

Disembodied voice: GOOD! I only hope you make each death more spectacular than the last...!

The light blinds Virno, casting him out of the dream. As his visions blurs, he could still hear the voice's laughter in the background...