This darkness was not total, however, as it was only broken by the erratic crackling of a solitary campfire, whose flames danced according to an air current that Kaiser could not locate.
He woke up in a state of total confusion, his senses struggling simultaneously to interpret the signals of atrocious pain that saturated his nervous system. His mind desperately tried to connect the last memories to the present situation, but no coherent link could form.
"Fuck, my body hurts like hell."
This pain was not superficial; it pulsed in rhythm with his heart, radiating from his bones to the surface of his skin as if his entire body was burning from the inside because of the Sundering Eclipse.
He lowered his eyes toward his torso with considerable effort and saw that it was entirely covered with bandages already soaked by the blood escaping from the fine cracks marking his body.
His silver hair, now of an excessive length, fell in disarray along his back.
"Am I alive?"
