---
The sky cracked like shattered glass.
Lorian Valen stood at the edge of the Sanctum Citadel, robes torn, blood dripping from his lips, and betrayal burning in his chest like poison. All around him, the golden halls of the Empire—the very place he had sworn to protect—were in ruins. Flames licked the marble statues of the gods, and the sacred bells rang out like screams.
He held no sword. No spell in hand. Only truth.
And that had always been the most dangerous weapon.
> "You were our hope," whispered High Seer Kaelis, standing before the Grand Altar with a thousand holy knights behind him. "But hope can rot. You went too far, Arcanist."
Lorian's voice came low, broken, yet unyielding.
> "I showed the people that your 'divine blessings' were forged in laboratories. That the gods you worship… bleed."
The crowd behind Kaelis gasped. Some stepped back. Others, the smarter ones, began to doubt.
That was enough.
But it wasn't enough for the gods.
> [Divine Decree Activated: Soul Severance Initiated.]
A pulse of white energy hit him like a thunderstorm to the chest. Light seared through his core, burning his arcana, crushing his mana veins one by one. He fell to his knees, choking on ash, reaching toward the collapsing sky.
> "This is mercy," Kaelis said coldly. "Be erased."
And then—
Darkness.
---
There was no sound. No breath. No light.
Just a hum. Cold. Constant. Alive.
And then, a voice—metallic, ancient, impossible.
> [ERROR: User Soul Corrupted.]
[Reconstructing… Initiating Shadowbound Protocol.]
[Host: Lorian Valen — Status: Forsaken.]
[Welcome to the Void.]
---
Lorian gasped.
Not air. Not pain. Just… awareness.
He opened his eyes, but there was no sky. Only swirling black mist, stretching forever in every direction. He floated above a shattered temple, upside down yet grounded, and his body—no longer flesh, but something darker—shifted like smoke held in human shape.
> [Shadow Core: Stable.]
[System Functions at 12%.]
[Echo Memory Recovery: 3% complete.]
> "Where… am I?" he muttered.
The system answered with a ping.
> [You have been reborn in the Void. You are now Shadowbound.]
---
He stood—not quite walking, but forming himself—and stared into the blackness. In the far distance, he saw a flicker. A pale light moving like a ghost through the ruins.
And a whisper, not from the system, but from something else:
> "You were never meant to die, Lorian. Just forgotten."
His fists clenched. He felt it now—a pulse in his chest. A fragment of power… a hunger.
And in that moment, one truth burned through the darkness:
> They tried to erase him.
They should have buried him deeper.
Because now…
he walks in shadow.
---
To be continued
---