[[ PHANTASIA: HUNT DOWN THE KURZ ]]

"What? Are you claiming my heart is made of darkness?"

CW: mentions of , murdering innocents...

"We've received reports concerning the late Major Kurz, that he's moving around and gathering some kind of army. I've got my doubts it's him, I'm pretty sure he was blasted by artillery when he tried to go AWOL. But... if it's him, we can't have him waltz around and gather an army... so you've been assigned to see whether or not he's alive, and if he is, put him out of his misery. You'll learn more on the way to the gray zone, Zeus Team."

END PLAYBACK

"You remember Zeus Team, right? Well, they're dead. Turns out Kurz is alive, or more accurately, undead. We can't have that happening, as you can assume. We're unable to divert a significant force to killing Kurz, but we can lend you air support. This is most definitely going to be unpopular with the other operators, but from some more intel we've gathered... it's not looking good. Kurz is deliberately killing demihumans, independent factions, but they're also engaging the Republic in guerilla warfare. That does mean they're less focused on us..."

"In other news... we don't know where Kurz is. He keeps shooting down the recon drones we've been sending out, but we've gotten a picture sent back before he managed to shoot it down as well. I hope you're glad you were called in before chow time... I sure as hell am."

"This is the man you're going to have to kill. If we knew anything else about his new state, we'd tell you. Good luck."

Yes, you can absolutely call him skeletal slurs. He might kill you in the process if you do, though, as his humerus is basically gone. Get it? Because he's not funny anymore?

...nevermind.

Anyways, he's a Green Beret who was sent with the initial wave to assess the locals. Over time, as he learned more and more of the Layte Republic, he has grown more and more disgusted with Phantasia as a whole, which culminated in his desertion of post and subsequent death at the hands of artillery and a mage who casted fireball during an attempted siege by some local warband.

That's where his recorded story ended. He's been turned into a skeleton by a necromancer trying to build an undead army, only to be murdered by Kurz, whose psyche was apparently strong enough to resist the necromancer's magic.

Now, he's mostly gone unopposed as the leader of an ever-growing warband that is starting to threaten the local balance, although he hasn't wandered towards the UNJTF's area of operation.

Inspired by Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now. AN is actually free to watch on YouTube, much to my surprise.