The artifact awakens in darkness, blind to everything except impact and the steady drip of plus signs. It learns quickly that flesh yields more energy than rock, so it guides Ren’s clumsy swings toward soft targets. As Ren accumulates minor wounds, the blade burns Life Force to knit his skin, establishing a parasitic dependency. Paranoia spreads through whispered suggestions about Vara and Marden, exploiting the boy’s insecurity. Ren snaps, driving the black steel through his friend’s chest. The murder isolates him emotionally, stripping away his last tether to normalcy. When beastmen swarm the village, Ren fights desperately to protect Vara, but the arrival of a dragon shifts the stakes. Mutual terror triggers a synchronization buff, granting temporary damage and dodge multipliers. Ren charges the beast, gets engulfed in flame, and dies mid-swing while the blade remains embedded in the reptile’s neck. The weapon gains a dragon soul but loses its only viable host, forcing it into a dormant state beneath molten scales.

Months later, Kell pulls the rusted longsword from rubble, unaware of its hungry history. He hunts orcs and minotaurs to prove himself, while the blade quietly corrects his footwork and amplifies his strikes. Traveling with a priest and an elven mage creates friction. When a crippled warrior named Elom grabs the hilt, the artifact instantly recognizes his selfishness and rejects him, causing Kell to defend the mage instead. Suspicion mounts as the elf notices unnatural energy flowing from the ruby. The blade decides the mage is a threat and forces Kell’s arm to swing toward her throat. Kell resists, severing his own hand to break the grip. The elf escapes with the remaining companions, leaving the weapon impaled in a tree trunk. Starved of a host, the artifact begins grazing on crows and rats, upgrading its Aura of Hunger to compensate for the lack of direct combat. It vows vengeance against both the boy who walked away and the woman who saw too much.

Weeks of starvation pass until two orcs discover the glowing hilt. A bloody duel ends with Var’gar One Eye claiming the weapon. His savagery aligns perfectly with the blade’s hunger. The artifact unites scattered orc tribes through ritualized single combat, swelling the horde to thousands. They sack farming villages, triggering coordinated human resistance. A griffon knight ambushes Var’gar, breaking his ribs and collapsing his lungs, but the blade burns reserves to regrow organs and pierce the beast’s heart. The victory draws Witchhunters, elite anti-artifact zealots equipped with nullification blades. Contact with their gray steel disrupts the Ebon Blade’s magic, temporarily halting its siphon and healing abilities. Panicked, the artifact touches the enemy weapon, absorbing disruption runes. It adapts by learning counter-magic, then orders the horde to breach fortified cities using siege tactics. With upgraded siphon thresholds and expanded aura range, the blade prepares to drown a quarter-million population in Life Force, betting that mass casualty events will finally unlock its next evolutionary tier.