The sun slowly rose with shining orange rays across the border town's cracked roofs.
Riven hobbled past the southern gate's stone pillars. His boots were covered in dust. In the dry wind, his coat fluttered, torn from the beast fight. His eyes were too sharp for a boy his age, and he appeared half-dead and covered in dirt.
Nobody even bothered.
They didn't even enquire who he was.
However, they stared at him.
Yes, it was enough to draw attention when a lone teenager entered from the edge of a forbidden forest.
Riven kept his head down and his hood low. Compared to the city he had left behind, the streets were quieter despite being busy. fewer security personnel. More hunters. Sweat, burning oil, and the aroma of roasted meat blended.
He walked past leaning houses, rusty lanterns swaying in the wind. A blacksmith's hammer rang out somewhere. People traded coins in whispers. Some watched him pass. Others didn't look up. One thing was clear—this town played by its own rules.
"So this is the border town…" Riven murmured.
A place where survival was more important than secrets.
He stopped near an old wooden board nailed to a crooked pole.
Dozens of posters fluttered in the wind. Missing persons. Local bounties. A couple of hand-scrawled notes for odd jobs.
And one of them caught his eye.
A hooded figure drawn in charcoal, rough and vague.
No name.
Just a warning.
"High priority. Cursed individual. Report sightings. Reward 10,000 keos."
Riven's stomach twisted after seeing that.
He thought "Damn, why can't they leave me in peace? Huh?"
They were already hunting him.
From behind, he heard whispers—low, casual voices drifting through the air.
"They said someone survived the Forest of Balinha. Some cursed brat."
"Yeah? That place eats people alive. If someone thinks they saw him enter, they'd just assume he never came out."
"The Inquisitors passed through two nights ago. Said they're tracking him."
"Idiot kid. He'll wish he died in that forest once they catch him."
He clenched his jaw and turned away, pulling his hood tighter.
"They think I'm dead. Good. Let them keep thinking that. But still, I should be careful from now on."
Hunger pulled him forward as his stomach started growling.
He took a meat skewer and slid what few coins he had left to a street vendor. Food was food, even though it was salty and dry. He ducked behind a row of stone buildings into a narrow alley and leaned against the wall to eat, letting the grease drip down his fingers.
The alley was quiet, tucked between two shops that stank of old ale and rotting wood.
His eyes were half closed as he chewed slowly.
His mind wandered.
The forest. The relic. The voice.
"Prepare yourself…"
He let the skewer drop to the dirt and touched the mark on his chest—the V-shaped symbol, faint and pulsing like a second heartbeat.
"Why me?" he asked.
He didn't expect an answer.
Not in this place. Not right now.
However, the burden in his chest only grew heavier.
He sensed it then.
A shift in the atmosphere. The alley felt a pressure.
Then there was silence, a complete silence.
Riven heard the footsteps.
Someone else was here.
He felt it coming. But the chains didn't move.
From the depths of shadows, a man stepped forward, creating a heavy pressure.
One thing was sure for Riven: the man was coming for him.
Tall. wearing a black outfit. Devil-like horns curled slightly from the sides of a cracked, bone-white mask that concealed his face.
However, the eyes
From behind the slits, they gave off a faint but sharp red glow, like ruby that shined.
The man tilted his head.
"Didn't expect to find one like you here. Wait aren't you the one on the poster.," he said, voice calm.
"You walked out of Balinha alive. Impressive," the man continued. "But whatever's clinging to you… That's the real reason I'm interested."
"What do you want?" Riven finally asked.
The man chuckled softly.
"Curiosity, mostly. That thing wrapped around your soul—it's not a curse. It's a leash. Or the leash in the form of a curse."
That word again.
Leash.
Before Riven could ask what he meant, the man moved.
He was quick.
Claws made of whirling shadows swung out towards him .
Riven hardly ducked as the claws hissed and sliced the wall behind him.
Rolling, he leaped to his feet and threw out his arm. Metal shrieked through the air as the chain exploded forward, determined to hit no matter what.
The attacker dodged and twisted in mid-strike.
"Seems like you are not experienced," he muttered mid-combat, "but not bad."
Riven didn't answer.
He concentrated, allowing the rage to subdue the fear he has when facing him. Once more, the chain broke and whipped across the alley, breaking and shattering walls and road.
And the chains shot up towards the man.
This time, it grazed the masked man's shoulder, tearing a bit of fabric and drawing black smoke instead of blood.
The man grinned beneath the mask.
"It listens to you. Even when you don't speak. As I knew, your power is not simple. But you've barely scratched the surface."
With shadow blades in both hands, he dived once more, slicing like twin fangs.
Riven ducked, dodged, rolled, and —his chain coiled upward and struck like a serpent. It slammed into the man's ribs and sent him flying against the wall.
The dust exploded.
After a single cough, the man got up and pushed the debris away as if it didn't matter.
"I liked it, honestly. But listen to this. One day, when it's too late, you'll realise."
Before Riven could move again, the shadows behind the man rippled—and he was gone.
Vanished. Like a smoke.
There was silence again.
Riven was panting as he stood there. His arms shook. The chain faded and coiled softly back into his skin.
"Who was he? I felt something similar. He must be a dark bearer. It seems like I got involved in something that I shouldn't have."
He glanced down at his hand.
He was still trembling.
Though he was still alive.
"A leash, huh…"
His voice was barely a whisper.
"If I'm on a leash… who's holding the other end then? The voice inside me?"
He didn't wait to find out.
Behind him, the alley came alive again, as if nothing had happened.
Riven pulled up his hood, stepped back into the street, and vanished into the crowd.
He wasn't merely running anymore.
They were hunting him.
However, something had changed inside of him once more, as if a new puzzle piece had fallen into place.
The chain was pulling once more.