Chapter 6 The Name He Lost

Darius stood motionless among the fresh corpses of the scouts, the echo of the woman’s scream still ringing loudly inside his skull. The memory refused to fade or leave him in peace.

“Who was she?” he muttered under his breath, pressing one cold hand firmly against the side of his skull-like head. The green glow in his empty eye sockets flickered unsteadily, as if struggling under the heavy weight of the vision forced upon him.

Rhen watched him closely from a few steps away, that faint dry smile on his face slowly fading into something more serious and concerned. “Commander? You’ve been staring off into nothing for too long now. What exactly did the System show you? Talk to me. Don’t shut me out.”

Darius didn’t answer right away. Instead, he began to pace slowly between the bodies of the dead scouts, his boots making wet squelching sounds in the blood-soaked mud. The memory played over and over behind his eyes without mercy, the woman screaming desperately as royal soldiers dragged her away from their home. She had fought hard against them, reaching back toward him with everything she had. Her face was burned clearly into his mind. Beautiful and fierce, eyes full of love mixed with raw terror. The way her hand stretched out toward him as the soldiers pulled her away roughly. She had mattered to him. She had mattered more than anything else in his old life.

But the name stayed just out of reach, like a word sitting on the tip of his tongue that refused to come forward no matter how hard he tried to grasp it.

“Elyra?” he whispered quietly, testing the name to see if it would finally stick this time. The moment it left his lips, sharp pain exploded through his head like dozens of needles being driven deep into his brain. He dropped suddenly to one knee, clutching at his skull tightly with both hands. A low, rattling groan escaped his throat, sounding far more like a wounded beast than anything human.

“Stop that right now,” Rhen said sharply, stepping closer with quick movements. “Whatever you’re trying to force, just stop it. I can see how much it’s hurting you from here, Commander.”

Darius forced himself back onto his feet with visible effort, breathing hard even though no real air moved through his dead lungs anymore. “She was important to me. I know it deep down in what’s left of me. The soldiers took her. They dragged her away while I could only watch helplessly. Why can’t I remember her name? It’s right there but I can’t grab hold of it no matter what I do.”

He tried again, focusing his thoughts even harder this time. “Ely… Elyra…”

The pain struck him much worse than before. It felt like his entire skull was cracking open from the inside out. Dark spots swam violently across his vision and his legs nearly gave out beneath him. The System flared up immediately in his mind, delivering its cold warning with merciless precision.

[Memory access restricted. Resistance detected. Emotional erosion accelerating.]

“Damn it all!” Darius snarled loudly, slamming his fist hard into the ground beside him. The impact left a noticeable crater in the mud. “They took her from me and now they’ve even taken her name? How much more do they want to steal from what’s left of me?”

Rhen crouched down beside him, his glowing green eyes steady and watchful. “Listen to me carefully, Commander. I remember bits and pieces too. Faces. Sounds. Old battles we fought together. But everything feels wrapped in thick fog. When I push too hard against it, it feels like I’m tearing myself apart from the inside out. You’re doing the exact same thing right now. Keep resisting the System like this and you might shatter whatever is left of your mind completely.”

Darius looked directly at his lieutenant. Rhen’s face still held clear traces of the man he had once known so well, but the dry humor now carried a colder edge of detachment that unsettled Darius deeply. It was like talking to a shadow of his old friend.

“I need to know the truth,” Darius said, his voice low and filled with raw frustration. “She was my wife. I can feel it in what remains of me. Every single time I see her face in that memory, something inside my chest twists painfully. They murdered her, Rhen. Or did something even worse than death. And I was too busy serving their rotten crown loyally to protect the one person who truly mattered to me.”

Rhen nodded slowly, his expression thoughtful. “Then we find out the full truth the only way we can now. By taking it from them piece by piece. One body at a time until they have no choice but to tell us everything they know.”

Darius continued pacing restlessly, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. The hunger for revenge grew sharper and colder with every failed attempt to recall the woman’s name. He could see her face so clearly, dark flowing hair, strong determined eyes, the way she used to smile at him during their rare quiet moments together. But the name kept slipping away every single time he reached for it.

He tried whispering under his breath once more. “My wife… her name was…”

The pain lanced through him again, far worse than the previous times. He staggered backward several steps, nearly falling over one of the corpses. The System responded right away with another clear warning.

[Warning: Continued resistance will result in permanent memory fragmentation.]

“Enough of this!” Rhen grabbed his arm firmly to steady him. “You’re shaking the bond between us. I can feel it weakening. Push any harder and you might lose more than just her name. We need you whole and focused if we’re really going to burn their entire kingdom to the ground.”

Darius shook off Rhen’s grip, but the warning had sunk in deep this time. He hated every part of it. He hated how this Necromancer System now controlled pieces of his own past. The kingdom had already taken his life, his honor, his future, and his love. Now even his most important memories seemed to belong to this cursed power inside him.

“I won’t forget her,” Darius said quietly, his voice raw with fierce determination. “Even if the System tries to lock her away forever, I will tear every single answer out of their corpses until I remember everything about her and what they did.”

Rhen gave a small, crooked smile that almost looked like the old days. “That’s the Commander I chose to follow into every battle. Just don’t break yourself apart before we even get started properly. We have time now. We’re already dead after all.”

Darius looked out toward the distant flickering lights on the horizon where the kingdom border lay. The rage burning inside his hollow chest felt cleaner now, sharper and much colder than before. Revenge wasn’t just about simple justice anymore. It had become something deeply personal, about reclaiming everything they had stolen from him, starting with the woman whose face continued to haunt his every thought.

He turned back to face Rhen directly. “We move out soon. We gather more souls. We build something they will never be able to ignore or stop. And when the right time finally comes, Lord Merrick and every last one of the bastards who gave those orders will scream her name to me before I rip their throats out with my own hands.”

Rhen nodded without hesitation. “Good plan. I’ll follow you every step of the way. Just like I always did before.”

Before Darius could say anything more, a brand new System message suddenly appeared in his mind. The text burned in bright blood-red letters, far more insistent and threatening than anything he had seen before.

[RECOVER MEMORY FRAGMENT: REWARD AVAILABLE.]

Darius froze completely in place. “What is this now?”

At exactly the same moment, the sound of distant marching boots reached his sharpened ears. Heavy footsteps. Well-organized. Many men moving steadily across the battlefield directly toward their current position.

Rhen’s head snapped up instantly, alert. “More are coming. Sounds like a full patrol this time. And they’re not far away at all.”

Darius stared hard into the growing darkness, the blood-red System message still glowing vividly behind his eyes while the woman’s desperate scream continued to echo loudly inside his hollow chest.

They were coming for him again.