ACT I — ZACH

Zacharia stood in front the open window of his home, looking out at the streets of Haven. It was early morning, but he had been standing there since the night before. He had trouble sleeping. It had been two weeks since he returned to Haven from his mission to investigate the destruction of the town, since he had found out that it had been Ryun who had destroyed the town and killed the people that had been under the government’s protection. And Zach had let him go.

And now he wasn’t sure if he had made the right decision. He had been shocked when he found Ryun, when he learned that the Governor had captured and killed Ryun’s town, that Melody was dead. A part of him had been glad that Ryun had killed the Governor, that he had avenged Melody’s death. But another part… Ryun had killed everyone, that hadn’t been justice, it had been pure revenge. But Ryun had been his friend, and Zach had felt the same pain when he learned that Melody was dead.

Zach still remembered Gloria’s words to him when he returned and told them what he had done.

“You let him go?” Gloria yelled at Zach. “He murdered an entire town!”

“The governor murdered his people first!” Zach told him. “He murdered my friend!”

“And that somehow makes things right?” Gloria asked angrily. “He didn’t retaliate only against the guilty, he killed the innocents too! I know that you have seen what he had done! I read the reports, and just that was enough to make me sick! Doors kicked down and people murdered in their beds! Bodies decapitated, still on the floor kneeling as they begged for mercy that never came! I’ve read about the carnage, the bodies with their limbs torn off, people that had their bones pulverized as they were stomped into the ground. Men, women, warriors and not. You think that that was an appropriate response?”

Zach didn’t answer, he had been struggling with his decision since he had made it.

“Zach…” Gloria started again, her voice calmer. “Those were not the actions of someone who is stable, who is in control. What if he decides that the death of the guilty wasn’t enough? What if he goes after more innocents?”

Zach had no answer for that. Ryun had been angry, he had been suffering. A part of Zach had wanted to stay with his friend, to talk to him to help him. But the look in Ryun’s eyes… it scared him. And there was the fact that he was needed at Haven, that there were other people that needed his help.

“I’m not sure that I could’ve forced the issue,” Zach said after a few moments.

“He is that strong?” John Grisom asked. “I thought that he was a cultivator?”

“He is,” Zach answered. “He had always been powerful… Now I think that he is even more so. I don’t think that I could’ve brought him in alive.”

Gloria ran her hand through her gray hair. “That is only one more reason why we shouldn’t just let him go. What if he decides to attack another settlement?”

Zach closed his eyes, trying to imagine if it was possible for Ryun to go on such a rampage. His instinct was to say no, but… the devastation in the town painted a different picture.

“If you will not go after him, at least let me send people to watch him from afar,” John said.

Zach grimaced, and then nodded.

The conversation had continued for hours. And by the end Zach had made the other swear that they would only watch, and report back in case that Ryun went after the innocents again. A small team, of only three people that had stealth abilities would be tasked with following Ryun. Zach had made it clear that any attempt to assassinate Ryun would bring a harsh response from Zach himself. And while there were more of them, Zach was still the strongest one among them.

“Zach,” a voice from behind him startled him, and he turned around, only to see Linda standing there with her suitcase packed. “We are ready.”

Rayleigh grinned from ear to ear from behind her, excited for their trip. Zach was glad that she could smile like that. Zach walked over to them and looked down at their luggage.

“Maybe you should still wait,” Zach told them as he met Linda’s eyes. “I don’t think that my hunt will last for more than a few days.”

The two of them were preparing to join the caravan leading north to New Dallas, where Linda’s parents lived. It was a big occasion, Linda hadn’t seen them since the Framework arrived and had thought them dead. The fact that they were still alive made Zach have at least some hope that his family might still be alive out there somewhere.

Linda gave him a sad smile. “It’ll be fine. You said yourself that the caravan is safe, and that the adventurers protecting it are good enough that there shouldn’t be any issues.”

Zach grimaced, he had said that, and now he regretted it. He was supposed to go with them, but a big boss monster had spawned in the south near one of their cities, and Zach had to take his team to take care of it. It had already killed one adventuring team that tried to hunt it down.

“Right,” Zach sighed.

“Don’t worry, you’ll come and join us once you are done,” Linda smiled at him.

Zach looked in her eyes and he could see the sadness there. He had told her about Ryun and Melody, about what happened. Linda and Melody had been best friends, just like how he and Ryun were. Their parting hadn’t been bad, they had just wanted different things out of life. But to learn that Melody was dead, it had hit Linda bad. He knew that the reason why she wanted to go to New Dallas as soon possible was because she was worried that she would miss the chance to see her parents again.

The Framework run world was brutal and unforgiving. Any of them could lose their lives at any time.

“Alright,” Zach told her at the end.

He knelt down and Rayleigh hugged him tightly and he did the same. “You’ll take care of your mom for me, won’t you Ray?” Zach asked seriously.

“I’ll keep her safe,” Reyleigh nodded her little head seriously.

Zach smiled at her and mussed her hair, eliciting a cry of outrage from her.

He helped them carry their luggage and escorted them to the caravan. And an hour later he stood at the walls of Haven looking out as the caravan slowly rolled out of the city, heading north.

He took a deep breath and then walked down, sending a runner to gather his team. The sooner he dealt with the monster, the sooner he would be able to join them in New Dallas.

ACT I — RYUN

Ryun blinked and then frowned as he looked around himself. He was… in a forest, next to a small shack. He tried to remember how he had gotten there, but he couldn’t. He recognized the shack, he had been living there for at least a week. Although he wasn’t really sure if that much time had passed. He had been losing time. He would go out to hunt, and suddenly he was among the dead monsters covered in blood and gore. Or he would go to sleep in his bed and wake up in the river nearby. It was… troubling. And he couldn’t think straight, sometimes he was more aware than others, but almost always he had issues. He needed help, he knew that, he had made a plan on what to do. He was sure that he could cure himself, he just needed to talk to the Dealmaker. He looked at his screens navigating to the shop and then he paused. He frowned… he was trying to get… something. He forgot what he wanted to do. Ryun stood motionless as he tried to remember. But then he thought that it was probably unimportant since he couldn’t remember.

He looked around, searching for Melody. He knew that he should let her know about his problems, maybe she had an idea about how to fix it. He didn’t remember speaking with her about it—

A pillar of fire, ash on the ground.

Ryun’s vision flashed red. Melody was dead, dead, and dead—Dead DEAD DEAD DEAD. He shook his head and realized that his fist had punched through the wall of the wooden shack. Slowly he pulled it back, frowning at it, not remembering why he had done that.

He looked around, he was near a shack in the woods. Ryun blinked, he didn’t remember arriving there, but it did look familiar. He walked around it, seeing that it was small.

I live here. He realized, slowly remembering. Right, I live here. He said to himself more firmly. He saw a ring on his finger and looked at it closely. He could feel something about it, and then he remembered. Storage, spatial, right… where did I get this? He focused on it and looked inside, and then he pulled out a sword. It was all black and straight, a short sword. It looked powerful. He had used it before, he knew, but somehow he wasn’t sure when. He shrugged and put it back inside.

He walked to the front of the shack, and then heard something in the distance. He looked around, remembering something. He was being watched, by people. He knew that, they didn’t bother him so he didn’t worry about them. At least that was what he thought. Ryun just couldn’t remember if he had decided to do something about them or if he... Perhaps he should ask Melody, he looked around trying to find her.

But then the sound started getting closer, and he frowned. It was footsteps crunching the leaves, they were coming toward him. He frowned, his mind churning quicker. He knew that they were watching him, but no one had approached him yet, at least he didn’t remember them approaching. Did he blackout again? Or was he just mistaken? It wasn’t important, ten people walked into the clearing around his little shack.

They had weapons in their hands, swords and axes, their clothing varied and with a red paint splattered all over it. He wondered why they approached, they had been content to watch him from a distance so far. He looked around, waiting for Melody to come. She should’ve noticed them by now.

“Hey there!” A man spoke at Ryun as he stepped forward.

Ryun looked at him, frowning. Did he know this man, he wondered? He couldn’t remember.

“Why did you approach me?” Ryun asked, he remembered speaking with someone, telling him to leave him alone. Had he made an agreement? He thought that he did, to be left alone… yes, he had done that.

“Well, we noticed that someone was living here in the forest, all alone. We thought that strange, especially since the city is nearby. We wanted to check it out, see why someone would choose to live all alone surrounded by monsters.”

Ryun frowned at the man, his head was shaved, and he had red lines drawn over his face and head. He was pretty sure that it wasn’t paint, but blood.

“I just want to be left alone,” Ryun said, although he didn’t quite remember why he wanted that.

“You have to be pretty strong if you can survive here all alone,” the man said with a grin. “We could use someone strong, how about it? Maybe you could join us?”

The other people around him snickered, Ryun could tell that they were surrounding him, and he frowned. They wanted me to join them… like—like how the others wanted that. They spoke with Melody and then…

She is dead, dead, dead, dead—

“Hey, you okay there buddy?” Someone asked, but Ryun didn’t care, she was dead and nothing else mattered. They killed her, burned her in a fire.

“We are the Blood Riders, a—” the sound around him turned to whistling in his ears, the man was speaking. His mouth opening and closing, but Ryun couldn’t hear anything. They took us to the city, they imprisoned us, they killed us. They burned her. Ryun looked at the man in front of him, saw him frowning and shifting uncomfortably, the others around him were doing the same. Did he say that they were from the city?

“You are from the city? From the government?” Ryun asked softly.

The man looked at his friends, then back. “We… city… town really… you… talking about New Dallas… have plans… Soon.. ours. You… want to help us… it? If you help… cut… we find—”

“I just want to be left alone,” Ryun managed to say, trying to listen was making his head hurt. “Leave and don’t come back, or I will kill you.”

Ryun’s vision was dancing and his hearing going in and out. The man was smiling, a predatory smile that reminded him of people standing above the hole. They killed her— or… where is she? In the city? Or…

The man took a step closer, hefted the axe in his hand, and Ryun’s reacted, his sword appeared in his hand and his Qi surged through his body. Everyone froze, they were yelling at him, the noise making his ears hurt. Red paint was spilling into his vision, and Ryun shook his head. She is dead, dead, dead, dead, dead—DEAD.

The man with the axe took a step forward and Ryun’s vision turned crimson.

He blinked and found himself in the middle of the clearing, his sword dripping with blood. He was surrounded by bodies. He saw heads in the grass, blood painting everything. One of them had his entire front part burned, like in a fire. She burned before my eyes! They killed her! I told them to leave me alone! They didn’t listen!

Two men were on the ground, whimpering in pain. One was holding his side as blood seeped through his fingers.

Ryun grimaced at him. He wanted to be left alone. That was all that he wanted. They… they violated his land, he should kill them too.

He shook his head as he felt his mind clearing up. He stepped closer to the injured man.

“Please don’t!” The man cried.

“Get up, both of you, go back to your people and to your leaders. Tell them that I claim these lands for my own, deal with me as you would a sovereign nation. Do not violate my lands, and I will not violate yours. If I see you near my home again, I will kill you all.”

The man nodded his head as he got up, helped by his friend and then they started backing away. A few steps later they turned and ran, getting away from Ryun. He watched them for a moment, then blinked and frowned.

There were bodies around him, and someone running away. He wondered if he should go after them. But then he looked down at the bodies and forgot about the man. He should clear the mess up, Melody should come back soon and it would be… She isn’t coming back, she is dead.

Ryun closed his eyes and felt tears roll down them. His mind was clearing a bit, he knew now that Melody had died, that he was all alone. He remembered Zach, remembered telling him that he only wanted to be left alone. Did Zach send them here? Ryun wondered. He should go to them, kill them all for what they had done. He kept his eyes closed, and let the tears fall.

Then, more footsteps, and Ryun turned. He saw three people walk into his clearing slowly, and he felt something thrum inside his head. Had the ones that ran away, come back? No, he didn’t recognize them. Ryun was frowning, wondering if he had lost time again. Perhaps he blacked out, maybe these three were reinforcements, they felt stronger.

“I told you to leave me alone,” Ryun said softly.

The man in the lead looked at the dead, then up at Ryun. “We are not… do… help?”

Ryun shook his head, his head was killing him and he could barely hear him. It didn’t matter, he didn’t need anyone. He told them to leave him alone and they ignored him. His vision was darkening again, he could feel himself losing control. He was going to black out again. He fought against it.

“I made a promise, and here you are. Standing on my land,” Ryun whispered. Why can’t they listen? Why do they not just leave me alone!?

The three raised their empty hands, shaking their heads. Their mouths were moving, but he didn’t listen. They were on his land. He sprang forward and decapitated the first one. The other two tried to run, but he was faster. It took him barely a couple of seconds to kill them.

They were weak, worth nothing. He looked at their bodies, then back at the bodies of the others. Was it the same day? He wasn’t sure, he blinked as he realized that he had Essence, and quite a lot of it. Did I hunt monsters? He remembered something about that.

He walked to the small shack, sitting down on the front step while the bodies on the ground cooled. He looked at his screens. I should advance, shouldn’t I? He was sure that he should do that. He put his Essence in, and then stopped, remembering that he should cycle it through. He was sure that that was the right way. He had a lot of Essence, enough for what he wanted to do. He advanced, gained a new perk from his Path Quickened Mind. He felt that it might help his memory. As he picked it, he could feel slightly better. He looked at his stats, seeing that he still had more Essence, so he put it all into his Class, gaining a few levels.

Then… he stood up, and got to clearing the dead.

He heard them coming, even though they tried to keep silent. He wondered why they came back, he had told them what was going to happen if they violated his land. And this was the third time. He couldn’t let them leave. He had to kill them all. He made a promise after all, he remembered that those should always be honored.

He pulled his sword out of his ring, and stepped out.

They didn’t know what hit them. A field of red exploded out of him and he surged around them. Killing them one by one, they screamed and asked for mercy. But his mercy died in a fire.

And then he was done. He looked down at the bodies, seeing the red marks on their faces and their clothes. They came at him again… He shook his head as it started to feel a sharp pain behind his eyes. He needed to make an example… They said something about a city… New Dallas? Ryun remembered them saying something. He should find it, give them all one more chance.

He just wanted to be left alone.