The Blood of Fate ✧ min yoongi ✓

𝐓 𝐖 𝐄 𝐋 𝐕 𝐄

CHAPTER 12 | BLOOD BOILING
"Humans are born with different capabilities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, none of them are free. The mind surrounds themselves depending on the society they recognize and represent. Therefore, they follow the concepts of false expectations. That is the greatest ability of mind control for those who are blind."
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YOU

I placed the last body onto the wagon, the weight of it final and heavy. With a grim sigh, I slapped my hands together, the dried blood still clinging to my skin like a sickening residue. The feeling made my stomach churn, but I ignored it, focusing instead on the task at hand. My gaze turned to Yoongi, who stood silently, watching as one of his servants held a flame to the corpses. The fire caught quickly, searing into the dead flesh, and in moments, the bodies were engulfed in flames. They writhed and crackled under the heat, their skin blistering, then disintegrating into nothing but ash. I couldn't look away from General Valerio Osiris as his body was reduced to bone, his flesh evaporating in the flames. The process was slow, but at least he wouldn't experience the hellish agony of being burned alive. That kind of suffering was far worse, I thought, than a quick death by a slit throat.

Axel, however, had his sights set on a far more puzzling target—Markarth, the kingdom of the ancient Dark Elves. The Dark Elves were long gone, wiped out in the "Great War of Creation" that had ravaged the land millennia ago. Once an elegant and powerful people, the elves had slowly been corrupted over time. Their bodies and minds twisted, they became mindless slaves to their own power, and their once-proud race devolved into something unrecognizable. They became the Goblins. The war between the Goblins and the Dark Elves, known as the "War of Attrition," left the Dark Elves nearly extinct. A handful survived, but the Goblins flourished, their numbers swelling with every passing generation.

Now, there was only a single monument left to offer a glimpse into their past. Legends told of a people as tall as nine feet, with skin as black as the night sky. Their eyes shone white, like the moon itself, and their long, curly hair cascaded around their shoulders in wild waves. Their ears were pointed upward and outwards, giving them a strange, otherworldly appearance. Their bodies were powerful—muscular, not lean—and they wore garments crafted from animal teeth, leather strips, and the hides of beasts. These were not frail creatures, but warriors forged for battle, strong and imposing in both form and spirit.

But the question lingered in my mind: Why Markarth? The city was practically forgotten. There were no known residents, no clear reason to care about its ruins. The Dark Elves' temples had been destroyed centuries ago, their treasures looted by thieves and scavengers, their secrets long buried. Even the most accomplished Warlocks of the present age would struggle to unlock the mysteries of their advanced technology. So why was Axel so interested in this barren land?

It could be that the land itself was what drew him. Markarth, in its decay, held secrets—ancient ruins, hidden knowledge, the faintest traces of a forgotten civilization. But something about it didn't sit right. Axel wasn't one to chase after empty ruins. There had to be something more, something significant that he was after.

To find out, I would have to go there myself. There were too many unanswered questions, and the more I thought about it, the clearer it became that Markarth held some kind of key. Axel had never been one to waste his time, and if he was focused on this forgotten place, then there was something worth uncovering.

The thought of traveling there was both unsettling and necessary. Markarth was a land of mysteries, its history lost to time, and yet its ruins still whispered of a civilization that had once been far more than the ghosts that haunted the area now. If I were to understand Axel's motives, I needed to see for myself what had drawn him to this forsaken kingdom.