Chapter 10 ( The last knight Volume 1 )

Kaine opened his eyes to a world of endless crimson. He stood on a floor of congealed blood that stretched forever beneath a pitch-black sky. 

No stars. No moon. Only an endless void swallowing the horizon. The air tasted of iron and regret.

“Where… am I?” he whispered, his voice echoing strangely across the blood-red plain.

Before him, a towering figure materialized hooded, skeletal, with eyes like dying embers. The Reaper.

“The Inverted Prayer Hour has granted your wish,” it spoke, its voice distorted and layered, as if a thousand suffering souls whispered at once.

Kaine’s chest tightened. “What wish? I made no wish.”

“The night of the blood moon,” the Reaper continued, unmoved. “When you lay dying among corpses and whispered your Heavenly Vow. 

That hour hears the cries of the one who suffered most. It heard you… and it answered.”

Kaine staggered back a step, the blood beneath his boots rippling like water. “No. I wanted revenge. Justice for my brothers. That was all.”

The Reaper tilted its hooded head. “And it gave you strength. But the blood moon also granted something deeper eternal life. Your body cannot be reborn… but your soul will endure. Century after century.”

“I want nothing!” Kaine shouted, voice cracking with raw desperation. “Let me rest! I’ve carried enough. The vow is fulfilled. Kimar is dead. My brothers are avenged. Let me fade away… please.”

The Reaper remained silent for a moment, the void around them growing heavier.

“I never wanted this power,” Kaine continued, his words pouring out faster, filled with pain. “I only wanted to protect what was left. To stay in that quiet village… with her. To be Kai, the farmer, not the Last Knight. 

I regretted every step away from her. Let me rest easy. Let me see Enid again in whatever comes after death. I beg you undo this.”

The blood floor began to rise slowly, swirling around his ankles like hungry waves.

“The wish has been granted,” the Reaper intoned, ignoring his pleas. “It cannot be undone. You will have no memories of your past life. 

Your soul will become the home of my lord Dracula  a vessel for greater darkness yet to come.”

Kaine’s eyes widened in horror. He reached out as if to grab the Reaper, but his hand passed through shadow.

“No… NO!” he roared, voice breaking. “I don’t want eternity! I don’t want to forget her! Let me die properly let me rest with the ones I lost! Please… just let me go home…”

The blood rose higher, swallowing his legs, his waist, his chest. The void pressed in, cold and eternal. The Reaper’s ember eyes flickered once.

“Your new life begins when the next blood moon calls.” Darkness swallowed everything.

End of Volume 1 – The Last Knight