Sinner and Hero

People always thought highly of themselves, and Winchester was no exception. He had confidence in himself, believing he could resist the corruption of the Crown of Horns. In truth, that confidence was not without reason. In any era, he would have been an exceptional prodigy!

At the age of eight, he could already cast 0-level spells. Though they were merely the most basic cantrips, there was no denying that his talent ranked among the very best of his time. At nine, he became a formal mage, and at twelve, he invented a spell named after himself. Though it was only a first-level spell, it was already an extraordinary achievement.

Afterward, he became an archmage before the age of twenty-five, and by twenty-nine, he had already touched the threshold of legend. With such talent, apart from the genius-filled era of Netheril, he could truly be called astonishing.

Unfortunately, it was precisely this talent that made him too arrogant. When Athkatla faced the crisis of destruction, he put on that cursed helmet. Though almost everyone at the time tried to persuade him not to attempt something so dangerous, they ultimately could not dissuade that confident genius.

What happened next was simple. He put on the Crown of Horns and wielded the deathly power it contained, slaughtering his way through the enemy and crushing the demon army attacking the city, saving the entire city!

But that was not the end of Athkatla's crisis. On the contrary, something even more terrifying had only just begun!

The longer Winchester wore the Crown of Horns, the more he slipped into a state of alternating madness and lucidity. At the same time, large numbers of unnatural deaths occurred in the city every day, while undead began multiplying throughout it like weeds. The entire city began transforming into