Prologue

The end draws closer. Once we were many. Now we are remnants. We are patches and shards of the great culture we built. We were all morality. Who are you to judge us? We laid every foundation you've built upon. What will you do when you have destroyed the last of us? You will perish as the wolves perish when they have grown too strong and reaped all the flesh from the thickets. You overindulge in our decay and soon you will have nothing left to feed your future. You may have brought me to my knees in these woods but my execution will be your undoing; the mystery dies with us. Finish me quickly foul one - I can feel the silence of this forest giving voice to the screams building in my mind.

“A quick end is too good for your kind. I prefer to enjoy your ramblings as the madness ends you.”

“You are pitiful. My madness will bring you no pleasure this night.”

“It's a little early yet to know for sure.”

“How can you hunt us so tirelessly? A thousand, thousand years I have watched your civilizations rise and fall and never before have I seen such wanton destruction from a single being.”

“I'll let you in on a little secret, since I doubt you'll be able to share it. I'm not exactly one of them. You could say I'm their first child.”

“Mankind bears no children. They cannot weave the fabrics of our ancestors as we have.”

“That's half true.”

“How then have you come to be? Even if Man were to learn the secrets of creation, he could not use them to craft a being greater than himself. The universe would not let it be so.”

“Listen to you. As ancient as you are, your understanding of molecular engineering is so primitive. The universe would not let it be so? I didn't realize the ancient terror believed in a higher power.”

“Impertinent child. There is always a power greater than yourself.”

“That may be true, but is still sounds absurd when you reduce science to mystical jargon.”

“Use whatever words you wish, abomination. The magic remains the same.”

“Whatever you say, old man. I'm getting tired of you. I'm impressed that you've stayed lucid this long. Usually those toxins I shot you full of should eat their way through your senses on their way to your nervous system. It would be much more fun to watch you babbling about space invaders while you're twitching on the ground.”

“You are a fool to drive us to extinction. A greater evil than you is descending on this world and you delicate beings will need all the allies you can muster.”

“There is no greater evil than me, night-walker.”