Chapter 2: The Awakening
When Elias came to, his face was pressed against cold stone, and something soft and disturbingly warm was drooling on his shoulder.
He groaned, blinked twice, and tried to sit up—only to find a small, half-naked girl draped across his chest like a particularly clingy blanket. Her long black hair fanned across his torso, soaked and sticky with what he hoped wasn't embryonic goo. Tiny horns curled from her scalp like obsidian thorns. Her breathing was slow and even, her bare chest rising and falling softly.
And she was clinging to him with both arms. Tight.
"...Wha...?"
Elias blinked again.
Right. The cocoon. The explosion. The—
He froze.
His left hand burned.
He yanked up his sleeve and saw it: a mark etched deep into his palm, as if carved by molten metal. A rune—dark red, angular, and ominously alive—throbbed with a dull glow.
It looked like a crown made of horns, encircled by a ring of flame.
"Hell no," Elias muttered, pulling his hand back like it had caught fire. "No, no, no. This is not happening. Tell me this is a fever dream. Or a hallucination. Or a prank by the Diviner's Guild. Come on, stars above, give me a break—"