The nightmare began, as always, with the sound of chains.
They clinked in the dark like bone chimes in a crypt wind—soft at first, distant, like a memory trying to claw its way out of a grave. Then louder. Closer. Alive.
Kael Draven jolted awake.
His chest heaved, heart galloping against his ribs. The room around him was dark, cold, and real—wooden planks underfoot, the iron frame of his cot creaking beneath him, and the shattered window through which moonlight leaked like blood down stone.
Another dream. No… another warning.
He sat up and ran a hand through sweat-drenched hair. The chain marks on his forearm burned faintly, just beneath the skin.
They were back.
Outside, the world of Ardyn slumbered restlessly under a sky painted in ash and smoke. The city was a labyrinth of crumbling towers, rusted scaffolds, and iron bridges suspended above streets crawling with the lost and the broken.
Kael was one of them. A nobody. A street ghost.
Until two weeks ago, when the Hollow Veil touched him.
That was the night he died.
And came back… changed.
He left his room quietly, boots silent on the floorboards. The orphanage was asleep. No one would miss him. No one ever did.
Kael walked the narrow alleys of District Blackridge, the only part of Ardyn that still stank of life and death at the same time. Neon signs flickered overhead like dying stars. Rats scurried. Somewhere, someone screamed. No one looked up.
He reached the abandoned railway yard by instinct. That's where the Veil usually found him. Where reality weakened, where dreams bled into existence.
He didn't have to wait long.
The air rippled—then ruptured.
Like a curtain being torn open, the Veil descended, casting everything in sickly violet light. The stars vanished. The world tilted. And Kael stood alone on a different plane.
The Hollow Realm.
A reflection of his world—but twisted, broken, hungry.
He had entered the Nightmare Circuit.
A rustle. A snarl. Then silence.
Kael didn't move. He had learned not to panic. Panic meant death.
From the mist emerged a creature that looked like a wolf—but larger, its body segmented like insect armor, eyes glowing with liquid gold, and its mouth… wrong. Jagged. Smiling.
[Nightmare Detected: Lupin-class — Rank F+]
[Battle Recommended]
Kael exhaled slowly. The voice in his head was part of the brand now. It gave names. Warnings. Sometimes lies.
He reached down and felt the cold coil of Oblivion Chain at his side—a living shadow wrapped around his arm like a serpent made of smoke.
"Let's eat this thing," Kael whispered.
The chain unraveled.
In an instant, it lashed out with serpentine grace, striking the creature's leg and pulling. The wolf-thing yelped, tumbled, then scrambled back to its feet with unnatural speed.
Kael charged.
He ducked a swipe, slid beneath its lunge, and rolled, coming up with a dagger forged from shadow—his own will hardened into a weapon.
He slashed the beast's flank.
The wolf howled, its body unraveling like ink in water. The scent of rot filled the air.
Kael raised his hand. The chain responded.
[Nightmare Defeated: Soul Core Available]
[Bind to Host? Y/N]
"Yes," Kael said aloud.
The core—an orb of pulsing golden light—shot into his chest. Pain tore through him. His knees buckled. The chain hissed and tightened.
Then the world went silent.
[New Trait Acquired: Shadow Reflex — Speed +1]
[Oblivion Chain Status: Evolving]
Kael gasped, clutching his chest. When the sensation faded, he stood slowly and looked at his hands.
He felt… sharper. Clearer.
Stronger.
But the Hollow wasn't finished.
The ground shook.
Cracks spidered through the concrete. Something enormous approached from the mist—its breath a furnace, its shadow longer than any streetlight could cast.
Kael backed away.
From the fog, a Titan-class Nightmare emerged.
Its body was stitched from dozens of corpses, limbs fused with metal, eyes stacked in vertical rows along a head that scraped the sky. It dragged a blade the size of a train, leaving a molten scar where it walked.
Kael froze.
This wasn't a fight he could win.
Not yet.
The chain coiled tighter around him.
[Warning: Nightmare Rank B — Survival Chance: 3.6%]
[Recommend Evasion]
He turned and ran.
Behind him, the Titan roared, its voice like a building collapsing.
Kael dashed through twisted corridors, leapt over fences that weren't there in the real world, and ducked past shattered mirrors that reflected not his image, but memories of pain he hadn't lived.
He reached the breach point just as the Titan's blade came crashing down.
Too slow.
Too late.
The sword struck.
Kael screamed.
But it wasn't steel that split him. It was light.
The Veil fractured, ripping him from the Hollow, hurling him back into the real world with a force that slammed him into the gravel outside the railway yard.
He rolled over, coughing, blood in his mouth.
Alive.
Just barely.
The mark on his forearm glowed brighter than ever. The Oblivion Chain pulsed.
It had shielded him.
It had saved him.
But for what?
Kael lay on the ground, eyes wide, staring up at the polluted Ardyn sky.
His body trembled—not from fear, but from hunger. A gnawing void in his chest.
The more he fed on the Hollow… the more the Hollow fed on him.
What was he becoming?
Far above, beyond mortal sight, figures watched from the ruined spire of the Dreaming Court.
"He's adapting faster than expected," said one cloaked observer.
"Too fast," murmured another. "The Chain stirs. That shouldn't be possible yet."
The tallest figure turned, eyes glowing behind a porcelain mask.
"Let him rise," it whispered. "The deeper he dives, the tighter the leash will pull."
Kael didn't sleep that night.
Instead, he stared at the chain wrapped around his arm, wondering how long it would be before it stopped being a weapon…
…and became a shackle.
Kael sat in the ruined alley behind the train yard, his back against a rusted crate, the pain in his side flaring with each shallow breath. Blood had dried across his ribs, and the mark on his forearm continued to throb—not with pain, but with pressure, like something beneath the skin wanted to break free.
The chain curled loosely at his feet, dormant now, but twitching every so often like a sleeping snake dreaming of violence.
He hated how alive it felt.
He hated how… connected he was to it.
I need to know what this thing really is.
A small screen in the far corner of his mind flickered to life, lines of violet code pulsing across it like a heartbeat.
[Soul Synchronization: 22%]
[Cognitive Link Initiated]
[Memory Imprint Detected]
[Warning: Unauthorized access to Nightmare Memory Archive]
Kael blinked. "What?"
Before he could react, a searing flash of light tore through his vision.
Suddenly, he wasn't in the alley anymore.
He stood in a great chamber carved from obsidian, illuminated by floating lanterns filled with screaming shadows. Around him stood towering, hooded figures—silent, watching, unmoving. In the center, bound in chains of burning light, knelt a man. Or what remained of one.
His body was broken, twisted, corrupted by something ancient. And yet, he laughed.
Laughed with eyes that glowed just like Kael's.
"You'll never break me," the chained man rasped, blood running from his lips. "I already broke the cycle. I already saw it."
The tallest of the hooded beings stepped forward, its voice echoing like thunder in Kael's skull.
"Then let the Chain remember your rebellion."
The scene exploded in violet fire.
Kael was ripped backward—screaming, his vision fracturing into shards of shattered memory. His body convulsed as the dream collapsed and the alley around him returned.
He coughed violently and gripped his temples.
The voice of the chained man still rang in his mind.
"They will come for you, Kael Draven. Just like they came for me. But you… you have the last link."
A soft crunch.
Kael's eyes snapped open.
Someone else was there.
A figure in a long coat stood at the edge of the alley, face obscured by a hood, silver light gleaming off the mask covering their lower face.
"You're early," the figure said, voice smooth and calm. "The Chain shouldn't have awakened yet. Not without the Catalyst."
Kael staggered to his feet, one hand gripping the chain instinctively. "Who are you?"
The figure tilted their head, amused.
"Let's just say… I'm here to make sure you survive long enough to become what you were born to be."
The stranger tossed something onto the ground between them—a small, black stone etched with a familiar violet symbol. It pulsed once, then cracked open.
The fog returned.
The Veil opened again.
And Kael was no longer alone.
Next Chapter: "A Chain of Memory and Flame"
What secrets lie in the Nightmare Archives? Who is the masked figure? And why is the Chain awakening early?