I was a broken man, sleeping, counting the days. I felt like I was going insane, I kept seeing visions of Demine, shaming me for what I had done. She told me it was my fault she died, I WAS WEAK. It was all true, I had never been strong, I was always just pretending. I should have known that all good things end, especially when you are not strong enough. I found myself disappearing for days at a time into myself, not moving, just sitting there on the rocky floor. I think it had been a year in the prison, but it felt like 10 either way I digress. I was approached by the guards, and they told me I was wanted. I disgruntledly replied to them “There is no one that wants me anymore, I’m worth as much as a rat in a prison”. 

“Even rats have a purpose in life.” I still remember him saying that. Now you might wonder who he is, well I will get to that as soon as I feel like it. Either way, I was invited to join a brotherhood, who promised to protect the innocent and fight against the demons that were always a threat to Vraukis. I don't know for how long I was imprisoned before the brotherhood came but I think I had counted up to 600 days before I gave up. Either way this brotherhood needed desperate recruits with some amount of combat experience who were willing to do dirty work, and I was exactly the type of person they needed. This brotherhood was a project that was created by the Maigres in cooperation with the army, although the whole project was extremely secretive and not even the king knew about it (Prick was fucking oblivious at times but other times he was as sharp as a fucking hawk). The brotherhood was supposed to be above the state, all in secret we would defend the kingdom from threats in the shadows. And for what it was worth it was a noble idea. Noblest of us all was our leader: Grandmaster Pargrak, a minotaur that one. He believed in each and every one of us, we all trusted and followed him. The first five years were just training, but it was harsh and every day I collapsed into my bed. We were trained by the best the church had to offer, paladins and clerics alike, but all that training could never prepare us for fighting a demon. I remember it, like it was yesterday. The screaming….. the pain…the shrieks…. the ungodly sounds…. even now I wish for none to experience what I had to. Only 8 of us returned back to our hideout, out of 50 only 8 survived. Some died because of the blood, others because of normal attacks. But it was horrifying. We had become hardened after this experience. Not only mentally but bodily, we had gotten our first taste of mutations. No matter what the church did they couldn’t cure, for 5 months they tortured us in pitiful attempts of trying to cure us. But they got nowhere, the best they could do was give us holy symbols and other such items in preparation for the next time. After they decided to give up I started realizing what a boon the corruptions were, they made us stronger, faster, more intelligent and many other things. And it almost enabled us to think like the demons, it was the first time in a long time I felt a strange sense of power. It was like we had gained a type of superiority over the rest of the people. Most of my mates agreed but the Grandmaster Pargrak was adamant that we should still be resistant to this strength and deny our newfound powers. Weeks went by and me and my mates were just training, no demons within sight. I decided one day to talk to Pargrak and convince him that these powers were a blessing, but that's when I found him talking to a strange hooded man with a bird-like mask. “I am currently developing a controlled way of demonic evolution, and I think we could work together in this regard, considering your… *he signals towards the wall* other recruits” The man smugly chuckled. “Demonic CORRUPTION, is evil and shouldn’t be experimented with, I have no interest in your offers” Pargrak aggressively retorts. “Fine then, enjoy the rest of your day, if you change your mind meet me here” he whispers as he laid a letter on Pargraks table. That conversation is still so vivid in my mind. After hearing the man talk I was caught on to his word… controlled demonic evolution… the sound of it enticed me, more power I could finally use to be strong. I stole the letter that night, the next day it led me to a local tavern. There I found the man, he referred to himself as a concerned citizen and offered an exchange. I would give him a demon that was still alive and he would “enhance” me. I accepted the deal blindly, he told me he would be aware of its location, I just had to make sure my mates didn’t kill it. It was tearing at my mind, was I going to betray my mates for more power? I needed the power, I needed to feel strong, to feel like I could finally not be weak. It took a couple of months but then our order got word of a demon ravaging the area. We managed to defeat it, but before one of my brethren put in the killing blow I stopped them. I managed to convince them I wanted to get out some anger and wanted the final blow. They left me and started returning to our fort. And true to his word the masked man come not too long after, he said something about saving the world but I didn’t care about that, it didn't mean anything to me, I only wanted my part of the bargain. The demon had slowly been regaining its strength and suddenly tried to strike the masked man, but it was incredible. Before the bloody demon even had gotten close to the masked man it simply shrank by about ten times its size. The masked man swiftly put it in some kind of glass which the demon seemingly couldn’t break. He closed the jar and picked up some kind of rock from the ground. It had some kind of runes all over it but I couldn’t quite pick out anything specific. But all that was quickly lost in my mind as he was holding what I needed, strength in the palm of his hand. He handed me a syringe with a black purplish liquid. Without any hesitation I immediately injected a vein in my left arm, the pain was unbearable, at first it felt like my whole arm was burning inside. Next it was like my whole arm was being torn apart skin meat and all, the pain was so incredibly unbearable that I passed out. When I woke up there was a mix of fear and utter amazement, my whole left arm had been turned into what looked like a literal demonic arm. Black skin with purple veins pulsating. My head was pounding and I felt like shit, but the utter power I realised I had at that moment was more than anything I had felt before. I went into the local city and everyone avoided me with fear in their eyes. It was amazing. Never before had I had such power and intimidation. I acquired some writing supplies and wrote a letter, left it right outside of the fort.