([color=f7941d]Darlien Garandinar[/color](MAIN), Omem.)

Darlien was alive.

He didn't know how, or why, or why he couldn't feel his limbs, or see, or why he felt no compulsion to breathe. He couldn't turn his head, so he simply blinked, unable to do anything else. He tried to speak, but all that came out was a rattling.

He laid there in the darkness for what felt like hours, unable to sleep or even feel from the neck down. He had no idea how he was even alive, had he not died due to the lightning? Had his body not been as horribly damaged as he thought? He could feel his eyes now, so they hadn't been fried as he had thought. His body was unfeeling, so he had no clue if his injuries were real or imagined. Probably imagined, considering he was alive.

Suddenly, the door swung open with a crash. A man in simple robes stumbled in, breathing heavily, two arrows lodged in his back. He made it to where Darlien was laying, crashing down onto the unknown object with a heavy thump. He let out a few haggard breaths out of Darlien's view, causing a small chain to rustle from near Darlien's neck.

"I will bring us immortality, I will live," he whispered between gasping breaths. Then, in the open door, a man became visible, wielding a crossbow on bowed legs. His mouth hung open and his white eyes stared blankly into the distance. Darlien had never been more terrified. He was injured beyond a mortal man's comprehension, and yet he was alive. Darlien could just see a silhouette behind him, a man in a cloak.

"You've made a mistake Damien," a voice echoed from the silhouette. "You'll never be able to control it. You should have just left well enough alone," he stated condescendingly, seemingly directing it at the half-dead man at Darlien's neck. The man who had entered first raised his crossbow, and fired a shot, it entered the half-dead man with a thump, and he groaned in agony.

"I didn't want to have to do this Damien, you should have stayed in Praelium. You should have given up."

Then the half-dead man, or Damien, he guessed, began to laugh. Harder and louder with each passing second. Then he stopped and collapsed to the floor in a heap. Just as he hit the ground, Darlien felt his body again, he felt cold metal around his neck, hard wood at his back. Pushing himself to a seat, he examined his hands. Unburnt, what a surprise. Then his nail fell out, and he sighed. Then the flesh peeled off his fingertips, leaving only bone.

Darlien felt his heart drop into his stomach. The peeling continued down his arms, no matter how loud he screamed and plead. It continued into his chest, and down his body into his legs, the flesh dropping off and then disintegrating into dust. As it reached his chin, he screamed and cried. When it reached his eyes, there was a flash.

He awoke not the same. He had memories now, of Damien watching him, of his confrontation with the Dominus, of Damien stealing his ruined corpse. Damien and Darlien both felt like names he'd been called before, and they felt equally as if they were his name. His eyes opened, and he stared at the two men who were now in front of him. The wounded crossbowman and a cloaked man, who was speechless and in awe.

[color=f7941d]"You murdered me, Kaiden."[/color]

"...Damien?" A massive skeletal hand came from the ground and wrapped itself around Kaiden, causing him to yelp and hyperventilate out of fear.

[color=f7941d]"Damien is dead, as is Darlien, I am both."[/color] The hand closed with a snap, and Kaiden's body twisted and spewed a fountain of blood. He collapsed to the ground, and the wounded man turned to dust.

Immortality had been his, but he didn't wish to share, honestly. The world was unfair, to both of his past selves. All men died, who was he to change the natural order of things?

It would all turn to dust eventually, he just needed to speed up the process, get revenge for the world's unfairness.

In this imagining, Darlien had failed to notice the cloaked men gathering around him in awe. He noticed them finally. Looking at each one up and down. He held up a hand, which was consumed in flame, they all stared, mouths agape. He would have smiled had he lips.

[color=f7941d]"Follow with me, and we'll end the age of the living."[/color]