Chapter 3 - The Daggers of the Black Heart

 Falling through the unstable ground, Rein tumbled into the forgotten depths of the desert temple. At the bottom, he saw a mural-a boy wielding twin daggers, standing alone against a monstrous deity. Beside him stood a girl with long silver hair, her eyes glowing with something not her own. A whisper echoed in his mind: "This is where you began..." Two daggers lay on an altar. One pulsed with dark energy, able to absorb magic. The other shimmered with a thin edge that could cut through anything. Inscribed on the wall: "These daggers shall be wielded by the one with a Black Heart." The moment his fingers touched the hilts, memories returned-of betrayal, of a cruel king, of a battle he wasn't meant to win, and of a girl betrayed alongside him, now lost to the deity's possession. Rein did not cry. He stood. "This world cast me aside once. I'll burn it down before it does it again.