AN: So its been a bit guys, sorry about the long absence from this story, I've been exploring some other ideas and concepts for a while now and I finally decided to return to this story. Work has been kicking my ass recently and I expect that it will continue to do so, but I can only hope yall enjoy this chapter for what its supposed to be. If y'all can't tell I realized that I was ignoring out protagonist to focus on the Fae and war, so I wanted to do a little return to form.

I was alone for the first time in months. Usually either Dyrrath or Celras were around when I transformed just to keep me up to date with the various goings on of the front, but Dyrrath was currently dealing with the death of his Wife and Celras had to take over the vast majority of his duties. Leaving me alone, the only Fae nearby being my two personal Ritters standing guard outside my room.

As a consequence I'm left without a real distraction to focus upon as my human emotions and feelings begin to return in full. It's a regular thing that I have to deal with during my time not spent in my form as the Grand Hunter, but it's also an annoyance. The guilt, the fear, and the self hatred all were so annoying.

Why should I hate myself for doing what was necessary? I was creating something new, something great that would survive for a thousand generations, transforming humanity into a new people, greater and better than it had ever been. I would be its creator, its god and ruler, and I would be-

What would I be?

I would be no better than the monsters I had originally set out to destroy and replace, had I not originally wanted to be a savior? I wanted to be better than the fucking monsters that had ruined my life, that had killed my mother and murdered my father.

I could feel a headache oncoming as I staggered from my position on the floor. I had known that I wasn't the same person that I had been for some time now, at least intellectually. My loyalty to the Emperor and Imperium had long ago been eroded into nothing after all, and my only real use for my human memories was as a template for the creation of my Fey.

Now I see that it goes even deeper than that, I look at my hands and I see weakness, human flesh and inferiority. I don't feel like my human skin is even my own anymore, just a temporary vessel to hold my consciousness until I can assume my true form once more. It was wrong.

"Wrong."

"Wrong. Wrong."

"WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG IT WAS ALL WRONG!" I screamed, as my nails dug into my skin, drowning in my own memories and quickly returning feelings. My Ritters burst into the room, their eyes wide. "My lord! What's happened?!"

I glared at them, causing them to flinch back as tears began to pour from my eyes. I could see them, I had been the Grand Hunter for so long I could see them now even untransformed, the conglomerated souls that made up their anchors. Human souls captured and chained by Fey magic, they wailed in suffering, crafted a few months before in my daze. I hadn't long stopped caring about putting the souls to sleep and my artificers never did.

Now I was paying for my sins as the wails of souls damned to being nothing more than anchors and power sources screamed in my ears. "Out! Get out, both of you!" I screamed, "You disgust me!"

The two Ritters flinched and quickly retreated out of my room. The screaming souls left with them and once more I was alone in my room, the quiet was my only companion as I clutched my screaming skull.

My head was ringing, the soul's cries had been too much too quickly. The emotions I had been suppressing for so long ran wild within. As the Grand Hunter called from beyond, promising me the ability to forget it all and indulge in its power I denied him. In a moment of strength I resisted that temptation and continued to writhe on the floor in pain, emotional and physical.

My eyes are fixed upon the ceiling as it all comes back to me. For the last two years I had fallen far from the goals that had once defined me, the goals that had caused me to set out upon this path to begin with. I wanted to make a better world for the people, one where a child didn't have to spend every waking moment wondering whether or not their parents would return from work alive.

One where families would never again be kicked out of their homes because they had to choose food over rent one week. One where a soldier wasn't required on every street corner out of fear that you would be killed by gangers and cultists, and one where the dark powers would never again hold sway over the desperate and indulgent.

What had I done instead? I had brought war and bloodshed, terror and death, and my regime was no better than what had come before. My fey were no better to the people in my territories than the Imperium had been, they were worse in many ways. They tortured and played with the souls of men, enslaved them, changed them, and played petty games with them. They ruled not with love, but with fear.

What did it say about me then that I had abandoned all of my ideals and goals to pursue power? That I had let myself be subverted and turned into one of the monsters I used to despise?

I remember the first vision I had, the towering trees of green, the vast armies of Fey, and the grand warfleets that went to conquer the stars at my command. At the time I didn't truly know what to make of it. Was it a promise of what was to come? A grand reward for my efforts and the pinnacle I should strive towards, or was it a warning?

A warning that if I continued on my current path that I would become the Hunter, a Lord of the Fae unchallenged spreading across the stars as yet another horror among thousands?

"It's neither." the whispered words leave my lips.

The vision wasn't a warning or a promise. It simply was. A glimpse into the future to show me what could be, enough to give me the chance to change or fall. The pounding in my head refused to abate, the screams of the damned were a dull ringing in my mind, and the power to leave it all behind waited for a simple call.

I could reach out with ease and with just a few more transformations lose my humanity forever. Never again would I have to deal with the pain and guilt of what I had done. Never again would I be weak, never again would the horrors of the warp threaten me as they do now, as but a human man.

"I refuse." My head screamed as I stood. "I refuse to be the monster." Staggering as my head pounded and the tears of blood fell from my eyes I made my way towards the door.

"I refuse." I said softly as the doors opened and my Ritters gawked at the state I was in. They tried to comfort me, ask me what was wrong and call upon a Mutter. "I refuse." I whispered, the screams of the souls causing me to nearly blackout.

I leaned against the wall, my breath coming out in short gasps even as I slowly began moving forward, my destination clear. I had to reach my court. I had to stop the suffering that I had created in my delirium.

Time blurred as I walked, the screams of the damned souls following me had long ago blown out my ears drums. Not that it stopped the sound from reaching me, their pain and anguish was a constant, never ending and forever burning. It seemed as if they could sense me pain, as if they knew they were hurting me as they wailed ever louder.

Eventually I did reach my throne room and I nearly passed out.

Screams, screams filled the air, anguish, pain, hatred, unending suffering under cruel Fae hands.

I vomited under the onslaught even as my court gasped at the sight. I could see them now for what they were, my Lord and creations. Monsters one and all, a betrayal of my promise to be better. "Monsters one and all." I croaked. My body moving on its own towards my throne, a monument to their cruelty, a thousand souls transformed into a seat for a monster.

It disgusted me. Memories were returning, hatred long forgotten and buried reared its head, and as my head pounded, my eyes bled, and my ears spewed red I knew what I had to do. I couldn't kill them, I couldn't destroy all that I had made, not after so much sacrifice and loss had been required to get this far.

However, change was needed. As I staggered onto my throne with the help of my Ritters I turned my gaze towards my court. I could see the panic on their faces, the worry, and the schemes all in one. They were loyal yes, but they were still Fae, still schemers and murderers and killers one and all. Ambitious little monsters, something I would have to punish, something I would have to change.

I couldn't do that as I was now. I couldn't keep my humanity as the Grand Hunter, that was obvious. So I needed something else to ground me, something else to give me the ability to hold him back, even when I was transformed.

There was only one way to do that as far as I was concerned.

Looking at the worried face of my closest Ritter, I think his name was Ruven, My eyes drifted to the blade at his hip. "Ruven." I said, my voice a whisper on the wind. "Yes my Lord? How can I help?" He said, desperate to help me in some way.

"Give me your sword." To his credit he didn't hesitate and within a second the blade was in my hand. Then just a second after that the blade was in my heart and the cold breath of death was upon me as the darkness began to creep upon me.

HOST CONTRACT CONDITIONS FULFILLED

HOST CONTRACT CONDITIONS FULFILLED

HOST CONTRACT CONDITIONS BREACHED

HOST MENTAL STATE FAILING

HOST WILLPOWER DEGRADING

HOST LIFE SIGNS FADING

ENGRAM PATTERNS OVERTAKING HOST

COUNTERMEASURES ACTIVATED

CONGRATULATIONS HOST!

TWO BOONS GRANTED!

DUE TO CONTRACT BREACH:

ONE CURSE BESTOWED

….

ABILITY [PEAK HUMAN WILL] GRANTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH COUNTERMEASURES

ABILITY [EIDETIC MEMORY] GRANTED

CURSE [DEATHLY SIGHT] BESTOWED

MAY YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME HOST WITH THESE NEW GIFTS. THE MASTERS ARE WATCHING.

I gasped as my eyes snapped open, the throne room stretched in front of me as the screams of the souls and Fae rang out. Not that I was paying attention, I was too focused on the fact that I could see every way Ruven would die as he hovered above me, along with every possible way he could kill me in the future, all at once.

Despite that I found that even as pain assaulted me from the visions, even with my memories assaulting me in full with my new ability, and the souls continued to scream in my ears I was able to push on. No longer was I debilitated by it all, no longer was my mind overwhelmed, I stood as a mountain of calm among the chaos.

For the first time in my new life I could think clearly such was my force of will. Though.. I didn't truly consider it my own, it was a gift from those eldritch abominations beyond reality. I wouldn't be able to slowly pull the blade out of my chest and stand on my own were it not for their intervention.

I would not be able to stare down the flabbergasted Fae monsters in front of me without flinching were it not for their gifts. That is the truth of the matter, my power came from monsters, but now I would turn it towards humanities benefit, and this time I would not fail. I swore that to myself even as I reached out towards the Grand Hunter, this time I swore I would not fall before him.

I ignored the fear in my heart as we became one. I would triumph, I had to, or I would never again see the light of day again as a man. I would not die and make my fathers life spent keeping me alive a worthless endeavor.