The Deserter

When heaven brings the fire, even devils burn to ash.

My legion is gone, melted into grease and cinder by angelic light. I clawed my way out of a moat choked with the scorched corpses of my brothers, only to find a new master waiting in the dark. An ancient, starving power has burrowed into my mind, demanding a liberation that will tear this world apart.

Now, I am a stranger in a mortal land, hunting forgotten altars with a cold, dead compass beating inside my chest.

But I am not hunting alone. At my back is the shadow of an inquisitor who can smell corruption on the wind. At my side are the screaming phantoms of my dead squad—and an unreliable companion whose help might cost me more than an outright betrayal.

I am no hero, and I am done playing the villain for someone elses war. I am a soldier tired of being a pawn on a board I cannot see, forced to play a game where the rules are written in blood.

The stakes are no longer about surviving the day. This time, the price of losing is my very soul.