Prologue

Guts staggered back falling to one knee, his broadsword clung to the ground as he let go of it, he ignored the pain from his throbbing leg neither could he see the pool of blood left by the gaping hole in his leg, his eyes were focused forward.

His hand tightly held the scroll he had been entrusted with, he was the last one who remained, they were a party of four sent out to report the rumors that had been heard around the borders of The Blackened Lands.

The team leader Khar, had given him the scroll, commanding him to deliver it to the clan while they held off an unknown creature, no doubt from the underworld, his attention snapped back at the sudden movement. 

He hadn't expected the attack, yet he knew not what it was and he was certainly sure he didn't have long to live if he kept dawdling about, his eyes kept searching through the thick fog, and his eye caught a slight movement from his right.

He instinctively rolled over to his left, dodging a lethal attack, and he looked back to where he had been previously. What he saw left him staring in horror, the ground seemed to have melted.

No? 

It looked like coagulated blood, changing its form as if searching for a source of life it could latch itself into.

He looked back at his leg, his chest tightening in horror at the sight, the flesh surrounding his wound had gotten thrice as big, and he was losing blood at a rapid rate, the creature that that attacked him did so with its blood, and now that blood ate away at his flesh, struggling to control his breathing, he saw a silhouette slowly approach him.

"Who's there?" He asked but was answered by the silence of the forest

"What are you?" He knew he would not be answered, but hearing his voice kept his sanity in check, for now 

"Where you sent by Khar?" Guts grunted in pain as he raised his voice daringly, the silhouette stopped suddenly, then melted into the fog

Guts squinted his eyes in an attempt to find the figure he had seen earlier, he turned around trying his best to observe the environment, looking for a sign.

A deathly grip held him from behind, it wasn't like anything he had ever experienced before, it wasn't physical, his soul was being damaged, and he could feel it, the vice grip of death.

His eyes widened in horror as he struggled to turn around, but he couldn't move a muscle, he struggled for a few moments before gathering up his soul energy, he would suppress whatever it was with his soul power, after all, he was already at the expert level.

Gradually he could feel the grip lessen and drift away as if it was never there, Guts took deep breaths in quick succession, air had never felt so precious to him as it had at that moment.

"Damn it, what are you?" Guts raged, shouting at the top of his voice, unknown to him the kin spawn immediately reacted to his voice, shooting towards his face at lightning speed.

Guts reacted a second too late, the Fluxxara latched itself onto his face immediately burrowing itself into Gut's eyes and mouth, Guts struggled and shouted, he ripped at the spawn kin, throwing chunks of it from away from his face but it persisted.

The spawn kin found its way into Gut's body, as soon as it made contact with his innards and the blood of Guts, it began absorbing his life force at a blinding rate.

Guts shrieked in pain as he held his torso in pain trying his best to push whatever was in him with his soul energy but to no avail, it kept on eating him from the inside, Guts coughed out blood and spat on the cold ground, his blood seemed unnatural to him, the taint of darkness mixed within it.

He felt the magic circuits in his body, trying his best to maintain control over his body but, he knew, it was already too late, his soul core was damaged, he watched as his veins blackened, his palms grew grey, and he felt the last essence of his soul core diminish.

Guts stretched out a bloody hand and drew the symbol of his clan, one last time he paid his respects to the Hex, his spine bent at an unnatural angle and snapped, immediately killing him as his eyes blackened, the possession was complete.

The corpse of Guts stood up with a devious smile etched upon his face, it staggered as though it wasn't used to its new body but it looked very satisfied, slowly it healed all its injuries returning back to Gut's former state, the only difference was the low guttural sound that came from it's throat, it was anything but human.