Night had fallen deep within the forest. Clayton sprinted through the shadows, urgency in every step, with seven skeletons following closely behind. His face was tight with worry, as if a heavy weight pressed against his thoughts.
As he ran, he occasionally glanced at his skin, where strange symbols pulsed faintly, glowing and flickering like some unnatural heartbeat. Each time they flashed, a sense of helplessness crept over him. He couldn't stop replaying the memory—the vision he had seen after using Scroll 48 on that archer.
Those symbols were Stigmas—magical marks capable of broadcasting a person's location to a designated tracker, functioning like a magical GPS. These one-time enchantments were triggered automatically upon the death of their original bearer, latching onto the killer as a beacon.
Typically, Stigmas were engraved by their owners using intricate magical rituals and costly ingredients. Each bore a unique tracking spell tailored to the intentions of its creator.
