The heavy oak door of the workshop groaned under the impact of a battering ram. Outside, the rhythmic chanting of holy prayers mingled with the clanking of steel armor. The Church of Eternal Light had arrived to "purify" the witch and recover their fallen hero.
"Alaric, open your eyes!" a booming voice echoed from outside. It was Commander Valerius, Alaric's former mentor. "We know the witch holds you captive. Step aside so we may cleanse this filth!"
Alaric stood trembling, his fingers wrapped around the hilt of the black blade Evelyn had given him. His vision blurred—shifting between the cold, stone floor of the workshop and a predatory heat-vision that highlighted the pulsing veins in the soldiers' necks outside.
The hunger was clawing at his insides.
"They aren't here to save you, Alaric," Evelyn whispered, standing right behind him, her breath cold against his neck. "They are here to see a miracle. And when they see what I've put inside you... they will call you an abomination."
CRACK.
The door splintered open. Three Paladins rushed in, their shields glowing with holy light. They stopped dead when they saw Alaric. He wasn't the broken, dying man they expected. He was standing tall, surrounded by a dark, oppressive aura that made the air feel heavy.
"Alaric?" one of the knights gasped, lowering his shield. "Your eyes... what has she done to you?"
"Stay back," Alaric growled. The Chimera heart in his chest thudded like a war drum. Kill. Feed. Protect the Maker. The instincts of the beast were starting to override his years of knightly training.
"He is tainted!" Valerius shouted from the doorway, raising his silver claymore. "The witch has turned our brother into a monster! Slay them both!"
The knights charged. Alaric moved before he could even think. He didn't use the graceful strikes of the Paladin Order; he moved with the blurring speed of a shadow. In one fluid motion, he parried the first knight's sword and drove his shoulder into the man's chest, sending him flying across the room with inhuman strength.
Evelyn watched from the shadows, her eyes gleaming with pride. "Beautiful," she murmured.
Alaric stood over the fallen knight, his blade trembling. He had just harmed his own brother-in-arms. The golden glow in his eyes intensified. The scent of fear in the room was intoxicating.
"Is this what you wanted?" Alaric roared, turning to Evelyn even as he blocked another strike. "To make me a traitor to my own blood?"
"I wanted you to live," Evelyn replied calmly, stepping over a pile of discarded bones. "Now finish it, or the 'blood' you speak of will spill yours without a second thought."
With a roar that sounded more like a lion than a man, Alaric turned back to the remaining knights. The Paladin was gone. Only the Chimera remained.