**[STEVE – THORNVALE, AFTERNOON ]**
Steve grabbed Any's hand and ran.
He didn't think. Didn't plan. Just *reacted*.
Adrian's shout exploded behind them — **"GUARDS! ARREST THEM!"**
The world became a blur of irregular stones and shocked faces. People jumped out of the way, shouting indignation. A fabric merchant watched his stall topple, the expensive cloths dragging through the mud.
Any's hand was small but surprisingly strong, pulling Steve with absolute determination. She didn't hesitate, didn't stumble — she ran like someone who had planned the escape route long before that kiss.
Steve, on the other hand, almost fell three times in the first ten seconds.
— **Why did you DO that?!** — he shouted, voice coming out higher than intended.
— **I'll explain later!**
— **LATER?! We're going to be ARRESTED!**
Any turned sharply to the left, pulling him into a side street. Narrower. Old wooden houses leaned dangerously against each other, almost touching at the top. The smell changed — garbage, sewage, something rotting in some hidden alley.
Steve risked a look back.
Four guards. Polished armor reflecting the afternoon sun. Unsheathed swords. Running with the mechanical efficiency of trained soldiers.
*Shit. Shit. Shit.*
— **Keep going!** — Any shouted, feeling him slow down.
They turned right, plunging into an alley so narrow Steve had to turn sideways. Stacked crates blocked the exit. Any leaped over them with feline agility, landing on the other side without stopping.
Steve tried to imitate her. His foot caught. He fell face-first, knee hitting the stone with an impact that drew tears.
— **OW! DAMN!**
— **GET UP!** — Any was already extending her hand.
He grabbed it. She pulled with force impossible for someone her size, lifting him as if he weighed nothing.
*How is she so strong?*
No time to ask. They kept running.
The alley ended at a market in full activity. Dozens of people, stalls selling everything from fruit to improvised weapons. Voices mixed in a cacophony that made Steve's head throb.
Any plunged into the crowd without hesitating, using people as a living shield.
Steve followed, trying not to lose sight of the black hair. He bumped into a man carrying baskets. The vegetables flew, scattering like a green and red explosion.
— **HEY! YOU LITTLE HELL-RAISER!**
— **Sorry!** — Steve shouted over his shoulder, without stopping.
They crossed the market like a chaotic hurricane. On the other side, Any turned onto a descending street.
The ground changed — irregular stone, wet, covered in slippery moss. Steve almost fell twice. The houses leaned even further, completely blocking the sunlight. The air cooled rapidly, carrying a humidity that clung to skin.
*We're going down. A lot.*
— **Where are we going?!**
— **Just trust me!**
— **I DON'T KNOW YOU!**
Any looked back, and even through the exhaustion, Steve saw the smile.
— **Exactly why it's fun!**
*She's INSANE.*
The street grew narrower, darker. Torches fixed in rusted brackets cast shadows that seemed to move on their own. Steve felt a shiver run down his spine.
*Where is this lunatic taking me?*
Any stopped abruptly before a staircase. Not an ordinary staircase — steps carved directly into living rock, descending in a tight spiral into almost total darkness. Torches every ten steps created weak circles of orange light. The air rising from below was freezing and carried the smell of wet earth and something more... ancient.
— **You're joking** — Steve whispered.
— **Go down!** — Any was already starting.
— **This goes WHERE?!**
— **To the Depths of Thornvale!** — she answered, as if it were obvious. — **Come on!**
Steve looked back. The guards were rounding the corner, only twenty meters behind.
*No choice.*
He went down.
---
The steps were irregular, worn by decades — perhaps centuries — of constant use. The stone wall was wet to the touch, covered in moss that glowed faintly pale green. But there was something more — **symbols**.
Carved into the rock. Ancient. Worn almost to unrecognizability, but still visible under the torches' weak light. Circles within circles. Lines crossing in patterns that made the eyes hurt if observed too long.
*What is this place?*
Steve counted. Twenty steps. Thirty. Fifty. Seventy.
*How much further down do we go?!*
— **They went into the tunnels!** — a guard's voice echoed from above, distorted by the strange acoustics.
— **Call for reinforcements! Block all exits!**
Any accelerated even more. Steve stumbled, hitting his shoulder against the wet wall. Sharp pain shot through his arm, but he didn't stop.
They finally reached the bottom. A wide passage opened up — clearly excavated, not natural. The marks of ancient tools were still visible in the stone, alongside more symbols. Torches every ten meters created islands of orange light in the darkness.
— **What is this place?** — Steve gasped, doubling over, hands on his knees.
— The Depths — Any answered, breathing surprisingly controlled. — Thornvale was built on the ruins of Vel'Tharion, a city that existed more than a thousand years ago.
She touched the wall, fingers tracing one of the worn symbols.
— Nobody knows why it was abandoned. Only that when Thornvale's founders arrived, they found these ruins. And built on top. These tunnels connect everything — the districts, the palace, even the water wells.
Steve looked around with new understanding.
— And you know this place... how?
Any hesitated for the first time.
— Because I spent years exploring — she admitted. — Running away from etiquette lessons. From family meetings. From Adrian.
Her voice broke slightly on the name.
Steve straightened up, still panting.
— **Now** — he said, voice firmer — **explain. Why the hell did you do that?**
Any turned her face away. Even in the weak light, Steve saw the expression — something between defiance and raw vulnerability.
— Because I needed to end things with Adrian. Publicly. In a way that couldn't be ignored or reversed.
— **And I got involved HOW?!**
— You appeared at the right moment — she said simply. — Perfect. Strange. Non-noble. Someone Adrian could never trace afterward.
Heavy pause.
— So yes. I used you.
Rage exploded in Steve like long-contained fire.
— **Do you have ANY idea what you did?!** — he stepped forward. — I came to do a simple mission! To look after you! And now I'm being **hunted** because you decided to use my face to publicly humiliate a **noble**!
— I know —
— **You KNOW?!** — Steve gestured violently. — This isn't a game! Those guards are going to **arrest** me! Or worse! And Dagon's going to kill me when he finds out that I—
— **I HAD NO CHOICE!**
Any's scream echoed through the tunnels like thunder, cutting Steve off mid-sentence.
She pushed away from the wall, hands closed in trembling fists.
— You think it was easy? — voice breaking. — Adrian isn't a bad person. He loves me. Truly. I know that. I see it in his eyes every time he comes looking for me.
She breathed deeply, trembling.
— But **I don't love him**. Never have. And my family doesn't care. My father had already arranged everything. Marriage in two months. Contract signed. Alliance between houses. No discussion. No choice.
Tears began to stream.
— So yes, I used you. Because if I ended it in private, Adrian wouldn't believe it. He'd insist. Beg. And I'd give in because I'm **weak**. But doing it like this... publicly... humiliating him in front of everyone... — her voice broke completely. — Now he's going to **hate** me. And that hatred... that hatred sets me free.
She covered her face with her hands, crying silently.
Steve stood motionless, the rage draining away like water through a hole in the floor.
— You... — he started slowly — ...couldn't you have just run away?
— To where? — Any laughed without any humor, wiping her face. — I'm a noble. I'm seventeen. My face is known in three provinces. I wouldn't last three days alone before being found and brought back.
She looked at him directly.
— Sorry for involving you. Truly. But I was desperate and you... you were perfect. And I'm selfish enough to have dragged you into this even knowing the risk.
*Honest, at least.*
Steve sighed, rubbing his face with his hands.
— This is complete madness.
— I know.
— And I'm an **idiot** for having followed Dagon without asking anything.
Any let out a broken laugh.
— Probably.
That's when they heard it.
Footsteps. Many. Echoing down the stairs above.
Steve and Any looked at each other.
— **We need to move** — she whispered urgently.
— Where to?
— Deeper.
---
They ran through the labyrinthine tunnels.
The passages branched in dozens of directions. Any seemed to know every curve, every fork, turning without hesitating. Steve just followed, trusting because he had no other option.
They passed through abandoned chambers — ancient storage rooms with rotted barrels, rusted tools covered in thick cobwebs like ropes. Rat skeletons — some the size of cats — scattered in the corners.
The air grew colder, more humid. Constant dripping echoed from somewhere invisible, creating a hypnotic rhythm that made Steve want to stop and rest.
*No. Keep going.*
— **There!** — a guard's voice echoed from somewhere behind, impossible to determine the distance.
Any turned another corridor, pulling Steve—
And they stopped.
**Five guards** blocked the path ahead. Unsheathed swords. Raised torches.
Steve felt his blood freeze completely.
— Exit blocked — said the lead guard, voice echoing. — Surrender peacefully and no one gets hurt.
Any instinctively retreated, pulling Steve with her.
They turned—
**Three guards** emerging from the corridor behind, cutting off retreat.
Perfectly surrounded.
— **Shit** — Steve whispered.
The lead guard stepped forward, sword pointed but not yet threatening.
— Lady Any, this has gone too far. Come with us. Lord Adrian just wants to talk.
— **No!** — Any shouted, hiding behind Steve.
*Why is she hiding behind ME?! I don't know how to fight!*
— Boy — the guard turned his attention to Steve, voice hardening. — Step away from her. Now. This isn't your business.
Steve looked at Any over his shoulder.
Saw the pure fear in her blue eyes. Her hands trembling. Her entire body tense like a rope about to snap.
*She's terrified. Completely.*
Something inside him **clicked**.
Not rational thought. Not heroism. Pure protective instinct.
*I'm not going to let this happen.*
He stepped forward, placing himself completely between Any and the guards.
— **No** — he said, voice steady for the first time.
The guard frowned.
— Boy, don't be stupid. Step aside or—
— **I SAID NO!**
The HUD **exploded** in Steve's vision.
Not a soft flicker. A violent **invasion**.
**[EXTREME EMOTION DETECTED]**
**[CONNECTION: 5% → 6%]**
**[PERCENTUAL SYSTEM: FORCING ACTIVATION]**
**[LIMITED DURATION: 30 SECONDS]**
**[WARNING: FRAGMENT_001 IS WATCHING]**
Steve felt it.
Not pain. **Transformation**.
Every cell pulsing. His body becoming light — not normal lightness, but as if gravity were a suggestion. His vision sharpened brutally — he could see every movement of the guards before it happened, every muscle contraction, every drop of sweat.
And he felt **her**.
*"Protect her..."*
Nessira's voice whispered directly into his mind. Not threatening. Almost... **encouraging**.
*"Show them... what you can be..."*
Steve's right hand began to burn.
Purple and black pulsed beneath his skin like veins of liquid energy, crawling up his arm, climbing to his shoulder.
The guards hesitated, sensing something deeply **wrong**.
— What... — the lead one started.
Steve raised his hand.
Not fully conscious. Just **knowing**.
— **Fall back** — the voice came out distorted, echoing with an impossible harmonic.
Energy **detonated**.
Not an explosion. A **wave** of purple-black force that expanded like an invisible tsunami, distorting the very air.
It hit all five front guards simultaneously.
They were **launched** backward violently, bodies slamming against stone walls with the sound of breaking bones, falling in disjointed heaps and groaning.
Steve turned slowly to the three behind.
They were already **running** in the opposite direction, armor clanking.
The power disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared.
Steve staggered, falling to his knees, gasping. The world spun. Vomit rose but he forced it back down.
**[PERCENTUAL SYSTEM: DEACTIVATED]**
**[ENERGY: COMPLETELY DEPLETED]**
**[FRAGMENT_001: SATISFIED]**
Behind him, absolute silence.
Steve turned his head slowly.
Any was completely motionless.
Eyes wide to their maximum. Mouth slightly open. Face pale as paper. Body rigid.
An expression of pure **terror**.
She wasn't looking at him.
She was looking at **something in him**.
— What... — she whispered, voice trembling — ...what **are** you?
Steve didn't answer.
He couldn't.
Just gasped, feeling the emptiness where the power had been. And something worse.
The distant echo of feminine laughter inside his own mind.
*"Well done... my fragment..."*
---
**[DAGON, JELÍM, KEARA – THORNVALE, NIGHT]**
The crescent moon faintly illuminated three figures dressed completely in black.
Cloaks covering them from head to foot. Masks concealing their faces completely. Just shadows moving through Thornvale's deserted streets.
The palace rose ahead, towers illuminated by dozens of torches that created orange halos in the night fog.
Keara broke the silence, voice muffled by the mask.
— Dagon... don't you think it was risky leaving Any with Steve?
Dagon didn't slow his steady pace.
— Relax — he replied, unconcerned. — She put on a veil to hide her face. And we clearly told them to stay far from the palace.
Pause.
He remembered the conversation at the guild. The attendant — the one with the scar on her face — explaining about the "delicate matters" involving the royal families. Problems that Rank B adventurers or below couldn't touch. Political assassinations. Convenient disappearances. Things that required... discretion.
A smile appeared under the mask.
— Besides... — he said, voice carrying satisfaction — ...it's **boring** pretending to be weak all the time.
Jelím turned his head slightly, mask reflecting the moonlight.
— You mean you just want to show off, then?
— Maybe — Dagon admitted without shame.
Keara sighed, but smiled under the mask as well.
The three stopped before the palace's main gates.
Guards in position. Dozens of them. Full armor. Spears and swords.
Dagon adjusted his mask, making sure it covered his face completely.
Jelím did the same, beginning to float slightly above the ground.
Keara traced a rune in the air — soft golden glow pulsing between her fingers.
— **Let's go** — Dagon said simply.
And they advanced.
Straight into the heart of Thornvale's power.
Ready to show why veterans played at a completely different level.