Beneath the Silence
Riven knelt, his hands still stained with Elira's blood.
On the battlefield, even the wind had stopped breathing. The sky had turned gray, the ground blackened by blood. The fallen were silent; the air itself seemed to wait.
Only Riven's heartbeat could be heard — heavy, slow, cracking through the silence like thunder.
Elira's eyes were open, but they saw nothing.
Riven lowered his head and gently touched her lashes.
"I couldn't protect you enough," he whispered.
There was no anger in his voice.
Only emptiness. A decision.
He reached out, lifting her body. She felt light — too light, as if her soul had been completely drained away. He held her close, rising to his feet.
Every step he took pressed blood and ashes deeper into the soil.
Behind him, Darel and Corven watched in silence.
No one dared approach.
Riven's eyes no longer looked human — nor heroic.
They were white. Colorless white.
As if every hue in the world had died inside them.
He walked for a long time. Each footprint he left behind looked like a scar burned into the earth.
Even the falling leaves seemed to avoid touching him.
Darel finally stepped forward.
"Riven…" he called, voice trembling.
But Riven didn't stop. He didn't even turn.
---
By the time he reached the village, the evening had fallen.
Roofs were half-burnt, houses broken, the air heavy with the smell of smoke and death.
When Riven appeared in the village square, still carrying Elira's lifeless body, whispers rippled through the crowd.
"He's back…"
"Is that… him?"
"The girl… is that Elira?"
A woman screamed. A man began to pray.
Riven lifted his head; his gaze swept through the frightened villagers.
He spoke only one word:
> "Darel."
Darel rushed forward immediately.
Riven extended his arms, offering Elira's body.
The weight of it seemed to pull something from his soul as well.
> "Hold her," Riven said — his voice neither command nor plea.
"Don't ever let go."
Darel's hands trembled as he took her.
Riven's blood dripped between his own fingers.
He said nothing more and began walking toward the center of the village.
---
Then a voice shouted:
> "Murderers! You brought this curse upon us!"
An elder slammed his staff into the ground.
"This war came because of you! You're all cursed!"
Men began to step forward — some with axes, others with stones.
Darel yelled:
"He saved you! He saved all of us!"
But no one listened.
They shouted Riven's name like a curse now.
"Riven!"
"Cursed Riven!"
"May the gods damn you!"
Riven stopped.
He took a step.
A stone fell to the ground, splitting the silence.
And then — the wind changed direction.
He lifted his head.
A faint line appeared across his eyes — shifting from white to red.
Slowly, he raised his hand.
The air froze.
The villagers hesitated.
One of them shouted,
"He's not human anymore!"
Riven smiled.
It wasn't the smile of a man.
It was empty — a smile stripped of anger, sorrow, or mercy.
> "If that's what you believe," he said, voice blending with the wind,
"then I'll stop acting human."
---
What followed happened in an instant.
Time twisted.
The wind collapsed.
The villagers tried to move — but couldn't.
Riven opened his hand, and from it burst a wave of white and black energy.
The sky roared.
The earth split open.
The first scream shattered the air — and then there were no more.
Riven didn't move; he simply watched.
Each step he took, another life fell.
There had been more than a hundred and fifty.
Minutes later, only a third remained alive.
A hundred lay still — some bathed in blood, some simply breathless.
The rest were on their knees, trembling and crying.
Darel, still holding Elira, could not speak.
He couldn't even breathe.
He didn't dare look at Riven.
Corven's lips quivered as he whispered:
> "That's… not him anymore."
---
Blood splashed across Riven's cheek.
A single drop slid down and hit the ground.
The village square was silent now.
No screams. No prayers.
Only the sound of the wind.
Riven walked to the old village well.
He dipped his hand into the water and lifted it.
The red drops evaporated instantly.
He splashed his face, eyes flickering between white and shadow —
as if he were fighting with something inside.
> "Elira…" he whispered.
"I carried you.
Now I'll let you rest.
But this world will never be quiet again."
He closed his eyes.
A drop of water fell — no one could tell whether it came from the well or from his eye.
---
Far away, in the Divine Realm, a tremor echoed through the silence.
Zet raised his head.
His eyes darkened.
> "I felt it again," he said.
"A soul… that's no longer human."
Ax swallowed nervously.
> "How strong this time?"
Zet's answer came without hesitation:
> "Strong enough to silence a god."
Above them, the sky cracked — a thin white fracture spreading like lightning.
Zet lowered his gaze and whispered:
> "Riven…"
---
When the silence returned, the village was empty of him.
Darel knelt in the square, Elira's body in his arms, tears falling onto the dirt.
"I wish," he whispered, "I wish he'd died that day too…"
Corven rested a trembling hand on his shoulder.
Neither of them spoke.
Because they both knew — Riven was no longer a friend.
He was fate.
Up on the mountainside, a figure walked alone.
Riven's silhouette was swallowed between darkness and white light.
With every step, the world grew colder.
> "I'll protect no one anymore," he murmured.
"I'll only make them silent."
The wind carried his words away.
And from that night on, no one in that village ever understood
why the wind never blew the same direction again.
---
💀 End of Chapter 46
"Beneath the Silence" — The moment Riven's humanity finally shattered.
---