Riven was already asleep in a corner near the camp. The fire was put out due to the risk of attracting nearby monstrosities, but Eros was awake, keeping watch to reduce the chances of monsters attacking the camp. But that didn't mean Eros couldn't mistakenly fall asleep during his watch. Well, it didn't matter. Riven woke up, but he wasn't in the camp. He was in a room. It was dark, but a light bulb hung from the ceiling, casting a pale orange glow. At the far end of the room sat someone it looked like Riven.
To be more precise, it was a figure that resembled Riven. The figure stood up and walked toward him. Riven, sitting on a chair, spoke in a cold, tense tone.
"Eryx."
The figure now known as Eryx smiled with a cold, sinister grin. Eryx was the one who had told Riven to find somewhere to hide when those torso-less abominations were chasing him. Eryx was Riven or, more accurately, he was Riven's personality given form. Riven's mask was known as the Abyssal Mirror. It wasn't called that because it sounded cool. No, it was called that because it had the ability to bring one's personality to life.
Eryx was the cold, calculating part of Riven able to kill without hesitation. In other words, he was the closest thing to perfection the Order wanted. Eryx wasn't evil, but neither was he good. He wasn't Riven's ally, but neither was he an enemy. He did what favored him in that moment. He had helped Riven because they shared the same body. But the fact remained: Eryx was still a part of Riven. If Riven died, so would he. Whether he liked it or not, he couldn't let Riven die.
Eryx walked around Riven in circles, the orange light from the bulb illuminating his shadow. No matter how many times Riven met Eryx, it was always strange to see his own reflection talking back at him. Riven was starting to get a little annoyed.
"Eryx, what do you want? I'm trying to sleep."
Eryx looked at him and laughed.
"Well, you're asleep... kind of."
Riven raised an eyebrow, his legs still stretched across the chair.
"Ah, is that so? What do you want, Eryx?"
Eryx replied, "Nothing much, really. I just wanted to ask how did you allow yourself to get caught?"
Riven sighed, annoyed.
"I know you saw what happened. It was that guy Eros, or whatever his name is. I couldn't hear his footsteps at all. Yes, my eyes were closed, but I use my ears more than my eyes. I still don't understand how he caught me."
Eryx walked forward, his back facing Riven.
"Maybe he's of the Phantom class. It would make sense if he's one. Any mask type of the Phantom class is more or less like assassins. And on that note, he's a Veiled that's probably how he did it. Or he's just able to teleport to a certain location, which I highly doubt. Then again, you let your guard down, thinking you were safe. Well, no point dwelling on it now. All we have to do is find a way to escape."
Riven looked up at the light bulb, considering Eryx's words.
"Good point. By the way, where are we?"
Eryx looked at him with a confused expression.
"Huh, your gloomy mind. This place is boring. There's nothing here just a bulb and two chairs. That's one of the reasons I called you here to think of something better. Like... I don't know. Something."
Riven suppressed a laugh.
"Okay, I'll think about it."
After a while, Riven woke up again. It wasn't morning yet, but the sun would rise soon. He heard someone beside him, sharpening a blade. It was Eros. Eros looked at him and said, "Couldn't sleep, huh?"
Riven didn't want to reply. He hesitated for a moment but then spoke.
"When will this goddamn night be over? It's been almost forever at this point."
Eros looked at him for a moment and then started laughing.
"You're funny, you know that?"
Riven looked at him and said, "Funny how? I didn't say anything funny."
"You wouldn't understand," Eros said with a smirk.
The others were asleep. If Riven wanted to escape, this was the best opportunity. But it wasn't the best idea. It was still dark. Yes, the moon gave some visibility, but it wasn't enough. Who knew what he might run into? Probably some Eldritch horror. One of the main reasons why monsters hadn't attacked them was due to the fact that they were somewhat close to the garden where the Reaper once dwelled. It gave them some small protection, since it was the Reaper's territory. No abominations dared to walk in there without risking their life.
Riven hesitated for a bit, but continued. He wanted to ask about the Reaper, and it seemed Eros knew something about the Reaper's death. Eros looked like a somewhat nice guy who would answer Riven's questions.
Riven looked at Eros, as much as he could, and said, "The scythe bastard... why did he kill himself?"
Eros locked eyes with him for a moment and then looked up at the moon.
"It's just a theory, but I think the Reaper was a guardian for the garden, or at least something in the garden. And after it saw the destruction it caused to the land it was meant to protect, it killed itself because it failed to protect the garden and even helped in the destruction through its madness. Well, it's just a theory on my part. I don't understand how monsters work."
Riven looked at him and said, "Huh, probably. I have a question about those things that were chasing us—the ones without legs. What are they called?"
Eros replied, "Oh, those guys? We call them Sunderkin. No one knows why they look human-like, but for some unknown reason, they don't have torsos. There are some monsters that try to imitate the human form, so maybe they didn't evolve completely or whatever. It's strange—they usually live in the sewers, so they shouldn't be on the surface."
After Eros spoke, the sun began to rise, and some of the Firstborn were already awake. Nira was the last to wake up, probably because she was the most exhausted. Eros hadn't gotten much sleep either, but before Nira woke up, about an hour after his conversation with Riven, he wanted to sleep. He managed to sleep for about an hour. One of the Firstborn, the male from before who had told Nira that they could help, approached Riven. He was still locked in chains, his hands bound, and he sat at the edge of the camp while they cleaned up. The Firstborn looked at Riven with disgust.
Riven looked at him and said, "What?"
The Firstborn bent over a little and said to Riven, "One of the three Firstborn you killed that was sent ahead before us was my friend."
Riven looked at him and replied, "I know. I remember each of their faces, and I wish things had gone differently. But down there, it was either them or me. That doesn't make it right. It doesn't make it easier. I didn't want to fight them... I just wanted to survive."
The Firstborn hissed, "Tch, you bastard. You'll get what you deserve soon enough."
It was time to go. Riven didn't know where they were taking him, but to be honest, he didn't know if he could leave the ruins by himself. With three Veiled chasing him, he might as well follow them.
They moved through the broken city, feet crunching over dust and shattered stone. Cracks split the ground like old scars, and shattered archways leaned over the path, half-swallowed by time. No one spoke.
The Firstborn kept their distance. A few walked ahead, others behind. The Veiled moved at the front quiet and unreadable, a dark shape among the crumbling walls.
Riven's wrists ached. The chains dragged with every step, metal biting into skin worn raw. He didn't look up much just enough to keep walking. His eyes passed over collapsed buildings, broken statues, and walls scorched black by fire or worse. Whatever this place had been, it was long gone.
The wind moved through the ruins, low and dry. Somewhere in the distance, something groaned a piece of stone falling, or the wind pushing through hollow bones.
The Firstborn didn't look at him. They walked with their heads forward, eyes scanning what was left of the world around them.
Riven moved with them. Not one of them, but moving all the same.
After a while, Riven moved closer to Eros and said, "It's going to rain."
Eros looked at him and said, "How did you know that?"
Riven didn't want to reveal the fact that he had good hearing. So, all he said was, "I could feel it."
The Firstborn from before looked at him with an annoyed expression and said, "You can feel it? Like hell you can. You don't feel the weather."
As he said those words, a massive thunderclap resounded in the air. Behind them, massive clouds of darkness. They had to find shelter fast.
The sky was split in two.
Behind Riven, the world had turned dark swallowed by a massive wall of storm clouds that seemed almost alive. They rolled and twisted in slow, heavy coils, like something beneath them was stirring. Lightning kept flickering deep inside, not in quick bursts, but in a steady rhythm, like it was breathing.
In front of him, the land still held onto the last bits of light. The sun hadn't fully gone down yet, and golden light stretched across the rocks and trees. But that brightness was shrinking, being swallowed inch by inch by the storm behind him.
Something was in there. Inside the storm.
It wasn't clear. Not really. But every time the lightning flashed, it showed pieces of something huge. A claw, maybe. The shape of wings. Not two more than that. Four, maybe. Spreading wide across the sky like they were ready to strike.
The thunder came before the lightning. It was strange, like the sound was dragging the light behind it, shaking the air, rumbling deep in the chest.
Riven couldn't see it fully, but he could feel it. Something was inside that storm. Something alive. And it was coming.