1 Chapter 1: Prologue

Hello everyone, I want to tell you a few things with the story. First of all, English is not my first language. So I apologize in advance if there are spelling mistakes or pronoun mistakes. I check as much as I can but sometimes I still miss them.

Painful!

So painful!

Muttering in pain, the young man opened his eyes and the first thing he saw were snowflakes falling from the white clouds. His dream world, where he felt as if needles were pricking his body, had been shattered, leaving him alone in this cold place.

Stunned, the young man tried to move his limbs and stand up, but the pain was so intense that he couldn't even make a sound. He blinked his eyes and watched the cold penetrate him from where he lay, desperately trying to move his body.

Confused, he tried to think what he was doing here, but his mind was hazy. He found it difficult to control his thoughts and analyze the situation. Throbbing pain enveloped the young man and he finally managed to move slowly.

Gasping for breath, he rolled onto his side. With his hands on the floor to support him and lift his body up, he waited for the pain to subside and to come to his senses, his knees and hands on the floor, his head bowed. When he stood up shakily, his eyes darkened and he staggered, but he finally stood upright on his feet.

He wrapped his arms around himself, shivering as the cold snowy wind penetrated him. He didn't understand how he got here, wearing a black summer t-shirt, jeans and slippers that were definitely not suitable for this snowy weather.

"What am I doing here?" he muttered nervously. He turned his head and looked up. Although he couldn't see it because of the snow falling in a blizzard, he realized that it was a mountain. When he took cautious steps forward, he couldn't see anything below either. He was stuck in the middle of a mountain.

Knowing that he would die of cold if he stayed like this any longer, he decided to climb up. The reason he decided to go up was simple. There were strange animal sounds below that he could not understand and he had discovered a path leading upwards.

Determined, the young man began to climb up. He made his way up the winding path and waded deeper and deeper into the snow. His feet began to turn blue from the cold. The slippers on his feet had long ago disappeared into the snow. It was snowing heavily and it was difficult to see ahead. His breathing was heavy, as if his breath was stuck in his throat, causing pain in his chest.

I am going to die here!

This thought had been gnawing at his mind since he woke up. His body was about to give up. The only reason he could keep going was because he didn't want to become food for wild animals. After a while, the young man came to a plain and gasped at what he saw.

He saw bodies freezing on the snowy field. When he approached them with cautious steps, he saw that they were all dead. Despite the modern clothes they were wearing, he frowned when he saw primitive weapons such as swords, bows and spears.

The young man took off the clothes of one of the men closest to his height and weight and put them on. He sighed, feeling warm for the first time since waking up. He searched the bodies, trying to find something useful. But disappointed to find nothing but a lighter, he carried the bodies and left them in the corner. It was sad, but it was the only thing he could do for them. Without wasting much time, the young man left and continued on his way.

He decided to spend the night in a small cave he found in the darkening weather. He took the wet brushwood he found, went into the small cave and tried to light it with a lighter. After the tenth attempt, the fire finally lit and he took a deep breath.

He put his hands and feet close to the fire and tried to warm them. As the sound of the wind reached his ears, he thought about what to do next. He didn't know where he was or how he had gotten here, but the last memory he had before coming here was on the road.

He remembered reading a web novel in his one-room house. The novel he was reading had given its last chapter. The young man had written bad reviews, frustrated by the absurd ending of a good novel. Then there was a knock at the door and when he opened it, a man wearing a hoodie had stabbed him in the stomach with a knife and run away.

He frowned as he asked himself, "Am I dead and reincarnated in another world?"

"Maybe I'm in a coma and this is all a dream."

But no matter how much he thought about it, the pain in his body, the cold that penetrated him, told him that this was not a dream. His hungry stomach was also making things difficult enough for him. He had somehow melted the snow and taken care of his water needs, but he knew that he had to somehow solve the problem of food.

Wearily, the young man leaned his head against the cave wall behind him. When he heard voices outside, he quickly sat up and paid attention to the sound. When he heard growling, he quickly grabbed the snow from his side and put out the fire.

Although the surroundings were suddenly plunged into darkness, his vision did not diminish at all. He listened with bated breath. With the growling sounds coming closer and closer, he thought it was a wolf. It didn't take long for the young man to decide whether to leave the cave or stay.

Knowing that if he stayed in the cave he would be trapped, he decided to leave. When he came out of the cave with careful and silent steps, he crouched down and looked down the mountain. His vision was clear, but he could not see the animals. Instead he could hear their growling voices. This made him think they were getting closer.

The young man left where he was and continued up the path. As he got further away from the sounds, he breathed a sigh of relief. The blizzard increased and he continued walking on the snowy road. The next moment the road ended and he started climbing the mountain. He continued unconsciously, not knowing what he was doing.

His hands were bloody and bruised. His muscles were tense and his body was giving up with every step he took, increasing the risk of falling. Yet he did not give up. He didn't want to die miserably, so he kept going.

He didn't know how long he climbed because it got light and dark many times. It had been days since he started climbing and he had finally reached the top of the mountain when he started. His muscles ached enough to make him scream with every step. In front of him was a black structure. It looked like a temple of black granite. With its four pillars and the altar in the center, it looked eerie.

The young man frowned as he realized that the ground beneath his feet was trembling as he was absorbed in the eerie yet radiating majesty of the structure before him. Soon after the tremors increased, he saw a monster beside him, the most terrifying beast he had ever seen in his life.

This gigantic beast was seven to eight meters tall and had multiple jointed arms and legs. Its head was small compared to its body, but its elliptical eyes were jet black. When it opened its mouth, revealing its fangs, a forked toungue poked out.

When the beast stepped forward and looked at where the young man was, he gasped. "Fuck!" he muttered as the beast roared horribly. Blood came out of his mouth from the pressure of the beast.

As soon as the beast lunged at him, he turned around and ran quickly towards the temple. He didn't know how this temple, which was open on all sides, would help him, but intuitively he felt he had to get there as soon as possible.

He tried to run there at full speed without looking at the monster that was getting closer and closer, but the monster threw him forward with a claw on his back. The young man fell into the temple and more blood poured out of his mouth from the indescribable horrible pain in his back.

When the beast turned him over and trapped him between its claws, he felt that his life here would end with a claw in his stomach. These were his last moments. Just then, at the altar, a terrible aura startled both the beast and the young man. The pressure was so heavy that the monster withdrew its claw from him and stepped back. When the young man looked to his side, half unconscious, he saw a being emerge from the shadows.

The figure looked like a human being. But it was not clear whether it was a man or a woman. His feet did not touch the ground and his clothes fluttered in shadow. When the shadow stepped towards it, the monster groaned in pain and bowed its head.

As the beast lowered its head and shook it from side to side, black chains from the ground began to wrap around its feet and arms. It tried to break free but was unsuccessful. Finally, as the chains around its throat tightened and began to strangle it, the monster's body shattered.

There was no trace of the monster that had been menacing seconds before. The young man was pulled back from where he lay on his back. His wounds were severe. He knew he would die here, with heavy wounds in his stomach and back. More blood poured from his mouth. His vision was blurred. As he leaned his back against the altar behind him, the shadow turned to him.

He felt his internal organs rupture from the terrible pressure that grew on him as the shadow drew closer. His nose, eyes and ears were bleeding. The shadow stopped, leaving two paces between them. Vomiting blood, the young man now wished only to die. He wanted nothing more than to end the pain he was now experiencing.

When the shadow reached out its hand towards him, the young man's body began to rise in the air. His face flushed red as he gasped for breath as if an invisible hand was holding his throat.

''Hmm,'' the shadow murmured, tilting his head to the side, ''You smell like me. Why do you have the smell of darkness?"

The shadow took its pressure off the young man suspended in mid-air. His lip curled upwards as he brought the young man, breathing again, closer to him and examined him carefully.

"I see, so the child I was promised has arrived," he said as he looked the young man up and down. He could see his pierced stomach and the blood flowing from the deep wounds on his back. The shadow looked into the gray eyes of the young man he had brought closer to him. He reached out and touched the young man's forehead.

When his palm touched his forehead, the young man's eyes slipped and turned white. A black crescent-shaped pattern formed in the center of the young man's two eyebrows. When the shadow reached out his other hand, a portal opened, swirling around them.

''You will heal soon, my child. You will heal and become one of the best in the world," the shadow said and the young man continued to stare at it, holding his breath. "Go now, my child, it is time to change your destiny," the shadow said and guided the young man's body into the portal.

After the young man's body disappeared into the portal, the shadow continued to stare at the spot where he disappeared for a while. ''Child of the night...'' he muttered and disappeared.