Rin hadn't spoken in three days.
The village healers called it shock. Kai didn't believe them.
He sat at her bedside, watching the faint shimmer of the sigil still glowing faintly on her wrist. A curse? A seal? No one knew what it was—but they were all too afraid to touch it.
> "She's changing."
The thought haunted him.
Since that night, Rin had stopped eating, stopped sleeping. But her body never weakened. Her skin looked even paler now—almost ethereal. And the way her eyes followed people… like she saw through them.
She was Rin. And not Rin.
---
Meanwhile, deep below the surface, Xal'Tharos walked for the first time in millennia.
His chained harem knelt silently in reverence, their bodies bound by divine shackles, their minds long shattered. Only one, a storm goddess named Velin, dared lift her eyes.
> "You said you'd never walk again until the world was yours," she whispered.
> "The world is already mine," Xal'Tharos replied. "It simply hasn't realized it yet."
He passed his hand over a crystal mirror. It shimmered, revealing Rin's sleeping form.
> "She bears my mark. The first link."
> "She's not yours yet," Velin said through gritted teeth.
Xal'Tharos smiled, cold and patient.
> "She will be. In time, even stars break beneath chains."
---
Back in Reinar, a storm was coming.
Dark clouds loomed unnaturally fast. Thunder cracked like splitting stone. People gathered in the square, afraid, whispering about omens and curses.
Rin finally stirred.
She sat up slowly, ignoring Kai's gasp of relief.
> "He's coming," she said.
> "Who?" Kai asked, heart racing.
She turned to him, her voice calm, otherworldly.
> "The Chainlord. He's already here."
Lightning struck the shrine, shattering it into dust. From within the rubble, a black mask rose—hovering in the air, pulsing with red veins of light.
Rin stepped forward, drawn to it.
> "Rin, stop! That's—!"
Too late. The mask fused to her face like liquid, and when her eyes opened behind it—they weren't Rin's anymore.
> "Link two… complete," the voice whispered from the sky.
Chains fell from the clouds.
---
[To be continued…]