Path of BlooDld

The blood was still on his hands—warm, heavy, sticky. And with every new heartbeat, he felt something strange moving inside him. Not his blood… something else. Something awake.

Ashen sat beneath an ancient rock, his back resting against the stone wall, his body still trembling from the aftermath of the Blood Frenzy that had devoured him like fire, then vanished, leaving behind a smoldering ash in every cell.

His eyes were half-closed, his mind teetering on the edge. He tried to breathe slowly, but even the air had turned traitorous, as if the cave itself was breathing… and with every inhale, he heard a moan, a whisper rising from the depths—not from the walls, but from his own skin.

"Who commands the flesh? Who watches the blood?"

The voice was like a distant echo, stuck between dream and nightmare. But it wasn't an external sound. It was a voice he knew—and feared. His own voice… from another time.

---

His mind had split into two layers. One clung to reason, logic, survival. The other began to crumble, piece by piece, into madness—a bloody chaos feeding on his emotions, his rage, his pain.

He raised his right hand, watched it tremble. He remembered how, moments earlier, it had not been a human hand, but a mass of beastly flesh, cloaked in an aura like a bear's limbs, crushing stone and meat and thought alike.

"Am I… still me? Or have I become something else?"

---

He shut his eyes tightly.

But the darkness brought no comfort.

It was there, waiting.

A face… with no face. Made of blood, with black threads hanging down. Its eyes had no white.

"You are the seed… you will sprout… when you forget your name."

He gasped and awoke, cold sweat dripping down his forehead, as terror pressed on his chest like a stone.

---

He stood up with effort. Every muscle screamed. But it wasn't the usual pain.

It felt like separation.

As if something inside him was trying to escape—not to flee, but to exist on its own.

As if his body was no longer entirely his.

---

He looked at the stone ceiling above him… and saw them.

New markings.

Symbols that hadn't been there before. Twisting lines forming repeating circles. In their center—a bleeding eye.

He recognized that eye.

He'd seen it in his dream. In the veins of beasts. In his own blood.

---

"The body hardens… but the blood is tamed? No… the blood is unleashed."

The phrase came from nowhere. As if someone had whispered it inside his skull. He looked at his right arm—the one that bore the brunt of the frenzy. He raised it slowly… and beneath the skin, something pulsed.

Not a vein. Not an artery. Something else. A red flicker moving on its own.

He punched the arm with his other hand.

Nothing stopped.

His heartbeat only grew louder, as if it was declaring rebellion.

---

Then suddenly, he collapsed to his knees.

An image exploded in his mind.

The wilderness… but not as he knew it. Not rock and plant.

It was flesh. Organic. Alive. Its breath was red smoke, and its blood flowed in rivers.

And he was a tiny point within it.

"You are not alone. You are… one of its cells."

---

He screamed.

A hoarse, broken, insane cry.

But the sound didn't come from his mouth.

It came from within.

Every sound in the cave echoed with his voice—in different tones.

His voice as a child. When he saw his father killed. When he fled. When he burned. When he shattered.

They became a death choir… singing inside his chest.

---

He ran. He didn't know where. But each step was heavy. The ground was sticky. The air was poisoned. The walls breathed.

He ran until he fell.

He opened his eyes—and saw the sky.

But it wasn't the sky.

It was a massive eye… staring down at him. Without movement. Without mercy.

"Did I misuse the technique… or was I the target all along?"

He whispered, as if it was his heart speaking.

---

He returned to the cave later, crawling.

His body ached. His blood boiled. But now, he felt something different…

A sense of an invisible thread, connecting him to something greater.

Yes… the Blood Frenzy almost killed him. Yes… there might be nothing human left if it continued.

But…

There was power.

Greater than he dreamed. Greater than he understood.

---

He sat down and closed his eyes. He began to meditate. But this time, he didn't force the blood into submission.

He sat with it… as if speaking to it.

"You are me… but you are not all of me. I won't let you take control. And I won't fight you to the death. I will guide you."

---

He knew… the path ahead wasn't only toward strength.

It led toward the abyss.

But that abyss… might hold the truth his clan's blood had sought for generations.