[Folian]

Tick.

"How many people..."

Tock.

Tick.

"Have I drained for all they were worth..."

...

"Before they wasted away?"

Tock.

...

---

"Dear Journal..."

"It's been too long since I've picked up this old tome. "
"A testament to my acts, and my sins alike."
"A constant reminder of the prices I've paid to get where I am."
"Perhaps one day my children might gleam something of worth from these ramblings."
...
"They say introspection is an important thing for one to have."
"To be able to learn from your mistakes."
"To look upon the past and see how you could do better."
"And I am nothing if not an innovator upon past ideas."
"Masterpiece upon masterpiece forged between my fingers... Each creation greater than the last."
...
"It's almost... Entertaining, to look back on my past."
"A starry-eyed youth with the world ahead of me, fresh off the boat from Barsburg."
"A stirring ambition burning in my heart..."
"The same drive that brought me to riches and fortune."
"With my own two hands, and upon the backs of those who would follow me I found my success."
"Izzie, Avilov, Nico, Camilla..."
"The Gilded Hearts."
"An empire that served as a monument to my insatiability."
"...Now none who stood by my side in those days remain."
"Retired, driven away, betrayed... It makes no difference."
"It is only I who remains."
...
"But."
"It truly was never enough."
"No matter how much wealth I gathered..."
"The pit of avarice in my soul."
"Every coin in the world could not quell its hunger."

"And then I sold it too."

"My core essence for an eternity."
"A rejection of my humanity."
"Drown yourself in pleasure, and embrace stagnation forever."
"Become no better than an animal."
...
"What a joke."

"If I am to grasp true eternity, it will be with my own two hands, forged by my own will."
"I'll prove that mutt wrong."
"This power will be my own."
...
"That project is long since underway of course, the creation of the pinnacle of alchemy."
"But first..."
"...it starts truly with getting back what is rightfully mine."
"From Azrael's greatest mistake."

[Folian]

Life,

and death.

The cycle by which mortals find themself consigned.

A constant thought unbreakable.

One laid upon mankind from their very inception.
Forged by those above in their likeness...

Yet made to live their lives as but fleeting moments on the pages of history.

Many have strived to break that primordial mold.

To surpass their own mortality.

To be...

Eternal.

For such is the curse man was left in lieu of divinity:

Ambition.
To strive ever upwards in search of that which is thought impossible.

Acts of the most vile nature have been committed in the name of human drive.

Souls cast unto beings who proclaim themselves higher; used as but a bargaining chip for these corrupting pacts -- A vain effort to escape the cycle.

A force of duality.
Both sin and virtue built upon its back...

It too remains as constant as man's time limit.

And I?

What did my ambitions drive me to?

To break that very mold.

My goals; my life's work... Eternity of my own creation.

Not bestowed by a self-proclaimed 'higher power'.
But forged betwixt my own hands.

The price?
Irrelevant.

I at last stand rid of Cain's influence.

His shackles upon my soul broken.

Not cured by the will of the divine--
But by my own genius.

Through years of perfecting my craft; of countless days spent scouring the world for forbidden knowledge...

Satisfaction.

As those above created man in their image, so too did I remake myself.

If I am a monster, I am one of my own making.

A step above mere mortal.

...

Yet now... I can rest.

My aims reached, my desires are... Fulfilled.

It is a strange feeling, for one with such bottomless avarice as I.

---