I had no idea that my quiet steps behind my flock of sheep, atop Mount "Arkzal," filled with silence and shadows, would lead me to the beginning of my fall into a vortex of darkness and madness.
When my foot slipped on a cold stone, it was no ordinary stone. It pulsed with an eerie stillness, as if guarding a deep secret untouched for centuries. The stone cracked slightly, revealing a piece of shining black metal wrapped around a burnt wooden box.
With trembling hands, I pulled the box and cautiously opened the lid. Inside was the book, covered in frightening leather, bearing an open eye that followed me with harsh gazes, from which shadows of a mountain emerged as if hiding behind a curtain of curses.
The book did not open until I uttered a word I don't know how came out of my mouth, nor remember hearing before: "Arkzal."
From that moment, everything changed. I felt something breaking inside me, a dark force being freed, as if mysterious powers began flowing through my veins.
I opened the pages of the book, and the letters danced before my eyes as if alive, pulsating in a language I only understood with my heart. Inside, I found ancient wisdom, not of this world — the secret of all existence and the key to the gates of hidden realms.
> "O you who walk the paths of shadows, know that wisdom is not mere knowledge, but a living being that scolds and disciplines, opening its doors only to those who transcend fear and embrace madness.
Wisdom is the secret of the first cause, the light that reveals the darkness of dimensions, the door that opens onto worlds unknown to human minds."
I discovered the book was divided into four treatises:
A treatise on the stars that watch from above, and the forces of talismans that govern fate.
A treatise on cosmic shapes and the secrets of the union of elements that move reality.
A treatise on mysterious rituals: enchanted smokes and potions that open eyes to the unknown.
A treatise on ancient magic, tricks and deceptions dared to be spoken only by those who sold their hearts to darkness.
Each word carved a new wound in my soul, and every secret revealed a deeper darkness.
And I, the simple shepherd, became the guardian of a gate that opens only to the worthy, in a world where light fades and souls become prey for shadows.