Chapter 1 (1/2)

In the darkness of the corridor, muted footsteps can be heard

A youth dressed in thin pajah the chill froh to stop the youth in his tracks He passes through the silent gloom of the hallway, the utterly ruined stairs, and enters into a deserted grand hall But, the youth doesn’t slow in his pace; the ground in front of him, neat and flat only aa bottomless abyss

A blue-green firelight appears, casting aside the darkness, illu a mysterious path

For any normal person, the scene would have elicited a reaction, but the youth is almostbefore his eyes His footsteps do not cease; he walks directly into the subterranean passageway Behind hi its sacrifice, s the youth’s silhouette

Droplets of cool dew fall upon the youth’s face, giving him involuntary pause Suddenly, the listless eyes recover their spirit

“This place is …”

The youth widens his eyes in a at the scenery before him

In the vast underground temple, the jump and flicker of viridian flaht Intricate patterns are traced fro the surroundings, giving the space an air of peculiarity and mystique

“What happened to me, exactly?”

The youth shakes his head in an effort to coht before his eyes, but he quickly discovers that his body is entirely immobile

Like being captured by an invisible force, he cannot h his senses are all clear and present still, his body itself is like a frozen statue, completely unresponsive

“This, this is …!”

Faced with a situation beyond his wildest iinations, the youth seerits his teeth, instinctively wishi+ng to break free of his bonds – a bootless endeavor Nevertheless, the youth doesn’t give up, focusing his ain control of his own body Because of this, the youth is oblivious to the slowly lengthening shadows under the firelight; like a penumbral cobra, it creeps slowly, silently, to the youth’s side, wrapping itself tightly around his body

The youth’s body is i itself into his marrow The intense pain destroys any of the youth’s inhibitions, and he opens his mouth in an attempt to scream But al the youth’s entire figure within In the darkness of the abyss, both he and his unformed scream are wholly crushed

The shadows dissipate

The youth stands quietly in place as before, but the terror and unease have coe Similarly, his dark eyes exude a previously unseen leisure and placidity If one were to subject him to closer scrutiny, other differences would be found: compared to the lanky youth prior, the him at present is clearly a bit more well-built, and the ht black His thin face no longer discloses its possessor’s weakness, but rather self-assurance and pride

The new body isn’t bad

You Lian rehearses his fingers, looking with satisfaction towards the last speck of anima in his hand – the previous master of this body, now under his control, was les and wails in an atte which can be tolerated