The Forgotten Field

Clutching the button tightly in his fist, he doubled over the desk.

Something came crashing down upon the ruins that had already collapsed beyond repair.

It did not take him long to realize that what was crumbling so completely was his own soul.

Feeling himself shatter without leaving even a trace behind, he staggered to his feet.

Then he opened the desk drawer, took something from inside, and walked out of the bedroom.

He could feel the servants lined up along the corridor staring at him in alarm.

In an even voice, Varkas gave them a simple order.

"I'll be back soon. Don't follow me."

The servants' lips parted as though they wished to stop him, but the icy glare in his eyes made them flinch. They all lowered their heads at once.

He walked steadily down the corridor and descended the stairs.

It was still raining in the rear garden.

Passing through the thinning curtain of rain, Varkas crossed the garden path and headed straight for the chapel.

At that early hour, not a single soul was there.

Crossing the silent sanctuary cloaked in darkness, he stepped through the back door into the cemetery beyond.

Soon, two gravestones came into view.

Varkas stopped before them.

His unfocused gaze drifted across the rain-soaked marble.

His wife rested there beside their child, buried beneath countless flowers.

Quietly brushing the raindrops from the stone with his hand, Varkas reached into his sleeve and drew out a dagger.

The snow-white blade was instantly drenched by the rain.

He slowly raised it toward his throat.

Then...

Somewhere nearby, something rustled.

Turning his head, Varkas saw a gaunt, enormous wolf.

The beast was little more than skin and bones, as though it had wandered starving for a very long time.

Yet he recognized it instantly.

It was her wolf.

The one he had been unable to kill outright and had abandoned somewhere in the Armund Forest the previous autumn.

The beast staggered out from the dense bushes, looking as though it might collapse at any moment.

Varkas watched in silence.

The wolf's blue eyes trembled with despair, grief, and pain.

Within them, he saw a desperate hatred directed entirely at himself.

Without a word, he lowered the blade from beneath his chin.

The wolf's lips curled back, exposing rows of razor-sharp fangs.

In the next instant, the massive beast lunged.

Feeling those long fangs sink deep into the side of his neck, Varkas let himself fall backward into the mud.

The sound of the dire wolf crushing his neck echoed clearly in his ears.

Then...

Everything became silent.

With fading eyes, he looked up at the dark gray sky.

Cold rain continued to fall across his face.

He wanted to wipe it away.

But his arm no longer moved, as though every nerve had already been severed.

Feeling blood spill from his throat and trickle across his lips, he released one final, long breath.

At that moment...

The wolf lifted its head and looked into his eyes.

Its sorrowful blue gaze seemed to be pleading desperately with him.

He quietly looked back into those grief-stricken eyes.

Then, gathering the last remnants of his strength, he turned his gaze toward her grave.

But before he could even take in her name...

Darkness swallowed his vision.

Desperately, he reached toward her gravestone.

Yet his arm, already robbed of all sensation, did not move.

Inside his fading mind, he desperately tried to picture her face.

Even that slowly dissolved.

In the end...

The only thing he could still perceive was a cold so deep it pierced his bones.

The heart that continued pumping blood from the torn wound in his neck finally came to a halt.

Then an icy darkness engulfed him.

He felt his consciousness sink endlessly into a vast, bottomless mire.

So...

This was death.

He was absentmindedly thinking exactly that when a river flowing from somewhere swept him away.

His lifeless body instantly left its original course and drifted like floating weeds upon a crimson current.

A river of blood, with neither beginning nor end, slowly cut through the darkness.

How long he drifted helplessly upon its sluggish waters, he could not tell.

Then something suddenly seized him by the back of the neck.

Like seaweed caught in a fishing net, he was dragged somewhere.

A moment later, rough, parched earth pressed against his cheek.

Forcing open eyelids that weighed as much as stone, he dimly saw the mysterious being that had pulled him ashore.

The first thing that entered his vision was the enormous body of a beast covered from head to toe in sword wounds.

Then...

He saw multiple pairs of crimson eyes.

He knew this creature.

Long ago...

He had carved it apart with his own hands.

Had it come seeking revenge?

That thought had barely crossed his mind before the creature's enormous head descended.

Crunch.

He heard the sound of his own flesh and bones being chewed apart.

The pain was so overwhelming that his consciousness nearly shattered.

He writhed violently.

But he no longer possessed a mouth with which to scream.

His arms and legs, as though half dissolved into blood, refused to move.

All he could do was helplessly watch as his own body was devoured.

Each head quickly consumed one of his limbs before tearing into the rest of him.

The vivid agony continued...

Until even his head was chewed apart.

Reduced to shapeless fragments, Varkas slipped into the monster's stomach.

He felt his very existence slowly dissolve into the creature's flesh.

That bizarre and horrifying sensation was the last thing he experienced before sinking into darkness once more.

Only after an immeasurable span of time did his consciousness rise again.

Something warm surrounded him.

A slow, steady heartbeat echoed softly through the darkness, accompanied by gentle breathing.

Yet that peaceful moment did not last.

A flash of light burst forth.

Then something enormous snatched him away.

He was trapped inside a narrow, pitch-black space where he could no longer tell sky from earth.

He was tossed violently from side to side.

Soon afterward, a heavy impact slammed into his entire body.

Before he could even react to the blinding pain, a gigantic hand reached down and began pulling the living creatures sharing that cramped space out one by one.

At the same time...

Heartbreaking cries.

The smell of blood.

Savage shouting.

He had no idea what was happening.

Only a vague thought crossed his fading mind—

Perhaps...

This was purgatory.

Lost in confusion unlike anything he had ever known, he helplessly waited for his turn.

Not long afterward, another enormous hand grabbed him by the back of the neck.

Instinctively, he opened his mouth wide.

What burst from his throat was an inhuman, shrill cry he could scarcely believe belonged to him.

His vision, blurred as though covered in frost, swept frantically across his surroundings.

Within his strangely widened field of view, he dimly saw towering giants clad in iron armor.

He was still overwhelmed by the impossible sight when a cold blade pressed against the back of his neck.

The suffocating pressure forced another piercing cry from him.

But the blade only pressed harder.

At last...

He gave up struggling and closed his eyes.

Then hurried footsteps rang out.

The force pinning him down suddenly disappeared.

His eyes flew open.

Within his broad field of vision lay one of the giants sprawled upon the ground.

Another enormous man in iron armor was shouting furiously at someone.

He could not understand a single word.

The roar of the rain mixed with countless voices until everything blurred into meaningless noise.

He wanted to cover his ears.

His body refused to obey.

Collapsed in the mud, he desperately tried to move his limp limbs.

Then...

Something warm and soft wrapped around his body.

His breathing stopped.

The world, which had been nothing but endless gray, suddenly filled with dazzling waves of golden light.

Fine rain streamed through her long eyelashes and down her pale cheeks.

Following those tiny rivulets upward...

He found himself looking into an endless world of deep blue.

As he gazed into those clear, transparent eyes, he prayed silently.

God...

If this is a dream...

Please...

Before the prayer could even leave his heart...

The fragrance of heaven enveloped him.

Drawing him gently into warm, tender arms, the woman whispered in a voice as soft as a dream,

"From now on, your name is Khan."

Her deep blue eyes, shimmering with rain and tears, sparkled with bittersweet joy.

He stared at her without even blinking.

Then her ice-cold cheek came to rest against the back of his neck.

Smiling with quiet happiness, she whispered softly,

"Let's stay together from now on."

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