Ignis Viventem

In the shattered wastelands between the trenches, where mud swallows men and the air itself reeks of cordite and rot, rumors spoke in hushed tones of the Ignis Viventem — The Living Fire. A grotesque fusion of punishment and salvation, they were not soldiers by choice, but condemned souls, deserters, war criminals, and the mad, volunteering for redemption through inferno. Their bodies were bound in tattered coils of rope. Strapped across their chests, thighs, and backs were crude satchels of vo