"We're almost there, swordsman," an old man called out, coughing a little after he used the long pipe.

Ayren opened his eyes, glancing at the road ahead.

That morning, after his encounter with the village chief, Ayren had come across the old man and his wagon, stacked high with hay—likely on its way to another village. The man hadn't hesitated when Ayren offered him some gold in exchange for a ride.

Now, Ayren lay on the hay with his arms crossed over his sword, resting against his chest. The old man couldn't tell if the black-haired warrior was sleeping or merely closing his eyes, but Ayren always seemed alert, as if constantly on guard.

He observed the sky, noticing how clear it was that day. The sun shone brightly, though the cold of winter still lingered. The forest surrounding them was still drenched from the heavy rain the night before, and a gentle breeze tugged at Ayren's long black hair, the red tips shifting like whispers in the wind.

He felt something—a faint murmur in his ears—but dismissed it as a trick of his tired mind.

"We'll be here for a while," the old man said as he stopped the horse. Ahead of them, a long line of wagons blocked the road. They had reached the border of the Emperor's lands.

The Emperor's domain encompassed the vast majority of the country, where strict laws were enforced by heavily stationed soldiers. Unlike other regions, the Emperor maintained a tight grip on the inner territories, leaving the outer lands neglected. Small villages on the fringes of his domain suffered from lawlessness—plagued by violence, kidnappings, and death.

Ayren wasn't from any village or city. He was a drifter, always moving, always searching for new missions that would bring him enough gold to survive and move on.

His past was steeped in blood and pain. Somewhere along the way, he realized he was cursed—doomed to live with the torment. From that moment on, he sought only the thrill of battle, chasing anything that could make him feel the rush of adrenaline once more.

Everyone knew the legendary swordsman, a formidable warrior, known by young and old living beings. His fighting stance always looked deadly but at the same time you could somehow... see in a glance the shadow of someone, like a ghost, a fragment of who he was before his madness, his rage... Before the curse, Ayren indeed had a story...

He had everything, but lost it all that night..

He jumped off the wagon and left some money on it "Thanks, old man, don't get killed"

"Huh? Where are you going?" the old man turned and looked at Ayren, who was walking inside the forest away from the main road.

"You took me where I wanted," Ayren turned for a moment to look at the old man "Good luck."

The stare looked more like a warning not to ask anything else. Ayren was looking cold-blooded and always ready to slit your throat, even if the face itself sometimes would even look calm.

Maybe it was the rush during battles that would turn him into the devil to the point of somehow enhancing his own sword with his cursed life mana and become unstoppable against humans.

The legendary swordsman was known across the country for his shifting personality. Even if he was a monster, in the end he was also the hero of those forgotten villagers against kidnappers, robbers and merchant slaves.

Truly, who wasn't a monster in that world? Ayren didn't care, he didn't care or had anymore a conception of "whose side are you on". He just wanted to somehow get rid of his thirst for blood, fights, and find someone who'd give him the final strike to put his mind at ease.

Truly his madness was the shadow of his own desperation to end his own cursed life and get back to his only family. Destiny apparently wasn't planning for him anything like that anytime soon, and the swordman reached the point of just following an endless path full of blood and fear to completely lose all his memories about who he truly was.

But was it worth to remember?

Is it worth to keep the fragments of someone who is not you anymore?

Is it worth to live the shadow of someone who used to be different?

It is told that our past self is nothing but the foundation of who we are in the present and who we will be in the future, but this couldn't really be applied to Ayren, as the human was living a life he wasn't meant to live.

As every human being, his time to be gone was meant to happen years ago. Immortality is not meant to be lived by Humans. Ayren's shifting was also due to many moons he lived.

He wasn't worthy. His past self would never have wished to live for so long.

Ayren was meant to die for his purpose in life and yet... yet he got cursed, and ended up alone, swallowed by the shadows and death mana harvesting his own soul and placing its roots in his heart.

"Are you going to question me more?" Ayren asked, tilting his head to a side as he noticed the old man lost in his thoughts, but he soon coughed embarrassed, making him narrow his gaze. The old man did tremble and shook his head, and that's how the two did part their ways.

Ayren followed the faint traces of a road nearly swallowed by the surrounding vegetation. The village chief had mentioned this area, and given how little attention the Emperor had ever paid to it, it was no surprise that the forest had begun reclaiming the path.

He crouched low when a large ruin came into view, its entrance guarded by several soldiers. A massive stone door loomed ahead, its once-intricate engravings now partially hidden beneath creeping vines and moss.

Beyond the entrance stretched a long corridor, its floor a shimmering blend of blue and azure marble. On either side, pillars stood in varying states of decay, worn down by the relentless passage of time—and perhaps human hands as well.

"Interesting," Ayren mused, his eyes narrowing as he counted the guards patrolling the area. "Even though this place is forgotten, the former Emperor thought it necessary to station so many guards around a dead ruin." His lips curled into a smile as he observed the ten guards moving about the perimeter.

He didn't even try to study the situation, he simply walked in the middle of the corridor, staring at the ruins. It looked like it was a temple back in the time, but why would an Emperor care to guard a place like that?

"Hey! Stop right there!" a guard shouted, pointing his sword at Ayren. The swordsman raised his hands, feigning surrender. "This place is off-limits to anyone but the Emperor's units."

"Oh? Is that so?" Ayren asked with a smirk, noticing the other guards closing in around him, while the one speaking stood by the stone door with another guard. "I heard this place is of interest to treasure hunters."

"This place is of interest to those who seek death." the guard replied coldly as the soldiers drew their swords, pointing them at Ayren. For a brief moment, the swordsman glanced at his shadow on the ground, almost as if he was hiding the grin spreading across his face.

"Huh? That just makes it even more appealing," Ayren laughed, confusing the soldiers with his response. "But let me ask you something: you're really not going to let me in as a favor, from one guard to another?" His eyes scanned the area, already picturing the soon-to-be bloodstained ground.

"What is he even talking about?" one of the guards muttered, sensing a strange tension in the air, like a premonition of danger. But there was no logical reason to feel threatened—after all, they outnumbered him greatly, and the man seemed unhinged.

"Enough," the captain of the guards said, stepping forward. "If you refuse to leave, we'll be forced to take your life." His eyes widened as Ayren drew his sword, tapping it against one of the soldiers' blades as if in mockery.

"Do you even realize the position you're in?" another guard asked, struggling to keep his composure in the face of Ayren's arrogance and provocations.

"I asked you a question, and none of you idiots even answered," Ayren replied, sounding bored as he let the tip of his sword graze the ground.

"No one will ever enter this place. The Great Emperor of the Moon commanded it to be guarded in life and beyond. No one can enter, and no one will leave here alive," the captain declared. "Now, die."

Ayren smiled darkly. "How amusing." With that, he parried an attack from a guard, quickly turning to block another before driving his blade through a soldier's chest without hesitation.

"He's fast..." the captain muttered through gritted teeth, deciding to join the fray despite knowing it was likely a lost cause.

The guards suffered more wounds than Ayren. Cuts and piercings riddled them as Ayren's eyes gleamed red with exhilaration. The more he was struck, the more he seemed to relish it.

From behind, the captain saw his opportunity as Ayren stood over a dying guard, too absorbed in the moment. He aimed for Ayren's back, but before the strike could land, Ayren swiftly dispatched three guards in front of him and whirled around, blocking the captain's heavy blow.

"You're a captain, yet you fight like a coward," Ayren sneered, his eyes locked on the man. "At least your guards faced their enemy head-on. How did you even earn that rank?" The taunt sent the captain into a rage, and he slashed wildly, managing to scratch Ayren's arm.

"What... are you?" the captain gasped as Ayren stared at the cut on his arm. A trickle of blood oozed from the wound, and the captain shuddered at the sight of Ayren becoming even more excited by it.

"Tell me you didn't try hard for this awful performance." Ayren laughed, charging at the captain with a series of ferocious strikes that seemed effortless to him. His red eyes gleamed with manic delight. "Give me a real fight! Aren't you supposed to be a guard?!" he shouted, driven by madness.

The captain fought back, but eventually, he lost his balance. In that fatal moment, Ayren, no longer interested in playing, delivered the final blow. The guard was on his knees, as blood was flowing out of his body from a big wound in the chest. Ayren looked at the scene with a disgusted face.

"I hope there are more of you, I am not done." said as he pushed the body of the dead guard on the ground.

Without hesitation, Ayren wiped the blood from his beloved sword on the body of his fallen opponent. He continued walking until he stood before the massive stone door. The door featured a large panel divided into four engraved sections, likely representing something from the sanctuary's religious origins. Overgrown with vegetation and worn down by time, the engravings were hard to discern. Not that Ayren cared enough to study them closely.

Pushing open the heavy stone door, he was greeted by a set of marble stairs leading down into an underground chamber. The passage was dimly lit by blue flames—magical, immortal fire that only a select few sorcerers could conjure and control. It was clear that this sanctuary had once been dedicated to a powerful god.

Descending the stairs, Ayren's eyes gleamed as he reached a large rectangular room, where treasures of every kind were scattered across the space, gleaming in the eerie blue light.

"If this isn't my lucky day... That fool of an Emperor didn't want to share his treasure even with his son?" Ayren asked as he was playing with a golden necklace that was laying between gold, jewels and refined weapons.

He blocked himself as he heard a sound echoing through the room. It was a bit distant, but he hadn't only sharp eyes, but also an amazing hearing.

He smirked as he threw the necklace and stand-up "I see..." he looked around, noticing how the blue flames were shining. The blue and azure marble of the floor and the walls felt like the whole place was alive. He was feeling like it was a sanctuary underwater "No wonder why the place inside looks like it's still used" he laughed as he saw the pillars having statues of different mystic creatures hanging around a statue of a half man with a tail. For some reason everything looked intact except the statue that would represent a half man.

He could hear sounds of metal and pants echoing in the ruined temple he was sent from the villagers to seek for treasures. He reached out for this sword, feeling already his eyes, his heart excited, hungry for a fight, for blood once more.

He made on purpose his sword touch the ground, as he was walking to the room where the sounds were coming from, to warn the poor souls who were hiding there, that he was coming. He was like a black lion, playing with his prey.

Even if he heard sounds getting closer, he couldn't understand at first where the room was. It looked like those thieves or guards were hiding in a secret room.

Ayren looked around and kept moving slowly around the big fortune room, till he stopped his sword from scratching the marble of the floor and smiled towards a wall behind the previous Emperor's statue.

Ayren turned and moved the body strength fully on his weapon that slashed the statue of the Emperor, hitting also the wall behind that was filled with mana. Ayren stepped till his hand reached the wall that at his touch it moved like it was a wave, it was water.

"So, you were hiding behind this... stupid mana wall?" He laughed once he stepped forward through the wall.

The first thing he noticed was that the room was empty, compared to the main room. There was no light, but there was no need since at the center of the room there was a beautiful but weird object shining of pure light.

It was a big hourglass, instead of sand, it had blue, azure mana, shining and moving like it was one of the clearest seas a human has ever seen.

He noticed how the hourglass was so full. It looked like the mana itself had life on his own as he noticed how some of it formed branches, like a tree, that were attached to the roof.

The roof was full of veins of mana, but the hourglass seemed like it was meant to keep it, to contain it somehow.

Ayren was interested but he got back on guard as he again heard those pants and chain sounds. He started to laugh as he noticed someone was running behind the hourglass.

He noticed whoever was running had chains as those were getting slowly pulled from the walls, a sign that the prisoner was trying to get more distant.

"Who are you?" Ayren asked as his hands were touching the blade of his sword "I will give you some advantage before killing you." he walked slowly, following the chains, making his blade scratch against the marble floor, playing again with his prey.

At every step, he could notice the chains getting tighter.

Literally they were both going round and round around the hourglass.

The situation slowly became a little... embarrassing.

"Can you stop being a coward? It's not fun." Ayren said annoyed, as he began to run.
He gnashed his teeth as he noticed the other part was running as well.

"This.... seriously." Ayren sighed and blocked himself.

His hands reached the chains and pulled them a bit, making the shadow that was trying to hide in the dark corner flinch.

He smiled excitedly. "Now, this is better." he held the chains more and pulled a bit, feeling more strength from the other side not to move "Oh? Do you think you're going anywhere?"

The shadow didn't say anything, but it looked like it was struggling with its breath.

"If you do not wish to show yourself like a coward, then I must." Ayren smiled as he held more the chains and pulled them in a firm and strong grip towards himself.

His crazy and excited smile disappeared as soon as the shadow came out of the dark corner, and he could look better at what he had in front of his eyes.

The man who was on the ground on his knees, had long black hair, chains around his neck, wrists and feet. He tried to catch his breath before raising his head and showing his shiny blue eyes to the swordsman, who looked confused for a moment.

Ayren was crouched down in front of the man, his right hand was holding his sword, the other one the chains which were connected to the main lock around the neck of the man.

His red eyes laid on the long white tail with blue fur that did resemble the one of a dragon and the jade horns the man had on his head. Ayren smirked insanely and pulled more up the chains to force the man to be closer to him. At the same time, he left his sword on the ground, to reach out the chin of the prisoner, to keep his head up and make him meet his red eyes.

"Well, well..." Ayren said seeing how the man in front of his eyes wasn't talking, but just panting as if he was without any energy to even react .

"What's a dragon doing here, chained and imprisoned in this forgotten temple?"