Disembodied voice: "Wake up."

  Virno's eyes fluttered open. Before him stretched the familiar sight of a lake shrouded in mist, with the ominous ruins he had seen in earlier dreams towering on its far side. They seemed to call to him, the ancient stones whispering promises and threats he couldn’t decipher.

  Disembodied voice: "Your time is running out."

  Virno tried to speak, but dark smoke clogged up his mouth and throat, sealing his words. He could move his body, however. Turning his back on the ruins, he walked away, resolute and seemingly unshaken by the curse’s taunts.

  Disembodied voice: "Your father is dead. Your family’s fortune is gone. What little friends you’ve managed to keep are either poisoned or gravely injured. And who, do you think, is at the center of all this suffering?"

  Virno kept walking, ignoring the voice's accusations.

  Disembodied voice: "You are, von Virtus. It all revolves around you. Perhaps you should follow your father’s example and end your miserable existence -- you might just do the world a favor."

  Virno stopped, turned, and raised an obscene gesture toward the ruins.

  Disembodied voice: "You can mock me all you like, but your mother, the only family you have left, will perish. Your friends will follow. The homes you so pathetically try to protect will burn to the ground... Is it all worth this delusional attempt to feed your own ego?"

  Instead of replying, Virno raised his face toward the empty, oppressive sky.

  Disembodied voice: "You are nothing. Make no mistake... You are as worthless and powerless as anybody else."

  He opened his mouth wide and forced his hand down his throat.

  Disembodied voice: "... Just as utterly useless as any of them."

  His fingers met something wet, writhing, and impossibly slick. It slithered away, and in its escape, it triggered his gag reflex. Virno fell to his knees, vomiting a torrent of black tar onto the ground.

  Disembodied voice: "Hahahaha... pathetic!"

  The black substance poured out of him, thick and unending, as if it came not from his stomach but some deep, corrupted reservoir within. Tears streaked his face as he retched, but he kept going, determined to expel the source of the voice’s power.

  Disembodied voice: "Tragedy will shape you, Virno. Whether you break or bend... that remains to be seen."

  Finally, the torrent ceased. Panting, Virno glanced at the puddle of tar before him. His fingers twitched, and he summoned his silver sword into his hand.

  Without hesitation, he raised the blade to his own throat and plunged it through, the tip emerging bloody on the other side. Something within him shrieked. His flesh burned with the squirming, frantic movements of a creature trapped inside.

  Disembodied voice: "What are you doing?!"

  Gritting his teeth through the pain, Virno dragged the blade sideways. As his neck opened further, a grotesque creature emerged -- a black centipede as long as his forearm, its glossy carapace glinting with his blood. Its many legs flailed as it tried to remain inside him, but Virno pulled harder, severing his own neck entirely to force it out.

  Disembodied voice: "You would sever your own head...?!"

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  The centipede hit the ground, writhing and screeching, tar spilling from its wounds. With grim determination, Virno drove the sword through its body, pinning it to the ground. He stood, clutching his decapitated head in one hand and the sword in the other.

  Disembodied voice: "What a foul being you are..."

  The centipede twitched once, then went still.

  Virno: "All I want is to free myself from your clutches... Does that make me foul? "

  Virno lowered his head back onto his neck, holding it in place as his flesh knit itself together.

  Virno: "'Yours is a battle of ceaseless sacrifice' -- you said so yourself. And I have come to embrace it... I will sacrifice my life. I will sacrifice the life of those who stand against me. But I refuse to sacrifice the lives of those I hold dear."

  When he was whole again, he turned to the ruins and began walking toward them with renewed purpose.

  Virno: "Which is why... I've come to the conclusion that I have no choice. Since I first heard you, you did nothing but threaten to take them -- and take them you have. But that will stop soon-- as soon as I destroy you. I'll be the last of your victims."

  Disembodied voice: "Pitiful creature...! You blame me for your suffering, but I am merely an observer. It is you who spreads misery wherever you tread."

  Virno ignored the words, quickening his pace.

  Disembodied voice: "Think about it, von Virtus. Without you, your father would not have been exposed. Your mother would still live in luxury. Your poisoned friend would still walk unscathed. The blood that stains your hands is your own doing."

  Virno clenched his fists.

  Virno: "Shut your venomous mouth…!"

  Disembodied voice: "Hahahaha... I don’t need to speak the truth for long. Time will show you what you are. More will die because of you. And when the last one falls, then you will truly grasp what it means to have nothing."

  The ruins loomed closer, yet they seemed to stretch endlessly higher. The path to them curved upward, looping impossibly over his head.

  Disembodied voice: "There is no righting the loss of a life, you know... Some prices are impossible to pay. "

  Virno broke into a sprint, his silver sword gleaming in his hand.

  Virno: "Wrong. Cabdan, Lunalus, and you... As long as the three of you perish, their deaths will not have been in vain -- they will have allowed many, many more to live."

  Disembodied voice: "Is that how you cope with your terrible reality...? Fascinating. I can't wait to see what more destruction you bring...! You are turning out to be a far more interesting vessel than I could have expected..."

  The ruins seemed to loom closer, though they still stretched endlessly into the sky.

  Virno: "You'll change your tune when it's your turn to die."

  The voice's laughter echoed around him as the ground gave way beneath his feet.

  Disembodied voice: "HAHAHAHAH! Such determination... Do you actually mean that...? Do you really believe you can make things right? From where I'm standing, you’re just a boy pretending to hold the weight of the world... In reality, you fail to understand just how much you truly control."

  Virno: "Not much to understand... All that happened so far could have hardly been avoided."

  Virno is plunged him into a void of endless blackness.

  Disembodied voice: "Ah... A coward's stance. So you take no blame in it? Do you surmise this was all pre-destined...? That it was fate that brought you here?"

  He fell, the wind rushing past him. Yet he didn’t flinch. Instead, he clutched the sword tighter.

  Virno: "Fate...? Don't be foolish. What I said has nothing to do with fate. I have no illusions -- I know full well that if I had acted differently, things could have played out some other way. If I’d been stronger, smarter -- if I’d made better choices -- maybe my father would still be alive. Maybe my mother wouldn’t have to work herself to death. Maybe Faya wouldn’t be poisoned, waiting for an antidote that might never come."

  The silver sword gleamed brighter.

  Virno: "It's all too easy to look back *now* and see that... But *now* is too late. There's nothing I can do but learn from those failures. No point in wallowing in despair, or wondering about the what-ifs... I fucked up because I wasn't good enough. So I'll carry those failures, learn from them. Become better because of them."

  He raised the blade high, slashing through the darkness surrounding him.

  Virno: "You’ve wedged your bets on who'd die around me. Now, let me tell you my predictions..."

  The first slash tore the void apart, green light pouring through.

  Virno: "Cabdan."

  A second slash, faster and fiercer.

  Virno: "Lunalus."

  The final slash shattered the darkness entirely.

  Virno: "And you."

  Green light flooded the space as Virno reached for it, his voice firm.

  Virno: "You all have your days counted."

  The voice cackled, its laughter echoing even as the dream began to dissolve.

  Disembodied voice: "Good! Bring your destruction to my doorstep, Virno von Virtus. Let’s see how far your resolve takes you!"

  The light consumed Virno, and he awoke with a sharp gasp. His ribs ached, his body was drenched in sweat, but his eyes gleamed with renewed determination.