Chapter 2 - Puppet's First Cut

The streets narrowed into veins of stone, pulsing with bioluminescent ichor that lit Riven's path. He dragged his feet deliberately, savoring the host's internal thrashing—like a rat gnawing its own cage. "Feel that?" he murmured to the empty air. "Your panic is my fuel." A nearby vendor cart shuddered; its occupant, a hooded figure with eyes like drilled voids, toppled forward. Strings of ether trailed from its limbs.Riven knelt, snapping a thread between gloved fingers—no gloves, just manifested memory from Earth. The puppet jerked, mouth gaping in silent calculus. [Echo Resonance: Minor Severance] flashed in his periphery, the system now a loyal parasite. Sanity dipped to 76%. Power surged: a phantom scalpel materialized, edge humming with devoured screams.He carved experimentally—a shallow line across the puppet's throat. Instead of blood, equations spilled: formulas for loyalty, obedience, control. Riven's eyes widened in delight. "Transmigration gift," he breathed. The host surged: Stop! We're not a killer— Riven crushed the thought with a mental twist, like snapping a spine. Pain bloomed exquisite, coherence fracturing further.Footsteps multiplied. Three enforcers emerged from the mist—spire wardens in rune-etched plate, blades humming void-energy. "Fracture-walker," the lead growled, voice gravel and ozone. "Surrender the anomaly." Riven tilted his head, grinning. Strings dangled from their joints, invisible to lesser eyes.[Target Analysis: Puppet Cluster. Strings: Intact.]He yanked. The lead warden spasmed, blade plunging into his ally's chest. Gore sprayed—viscous, alive, crawling back toward Riven like supplicants. The second lunged; Riven sidestepped, severing its strings mid-air. It collapsed, twitching into a mandala of limbs. The third froze, Riven's scalpel already at its throat. "Tell me of the Sovereign's Throne," he demanded, voice silk over razors.It burbled: "The... heartspire. Where fractures... fuse or shatter." Strings quivered under Riven's grip.A deeper toll shook the spires—reinforcements? Or the city's awakening? Riven released the warden, watching it crumple. The host clawed faintly: Monster... "We're just beginning," Riven whispered, pocketing a severed string like a trophy. The path to the heartspire beckoned, shadows parting eagerly.