The wind howled through the crumbling execution grounds, a dirge sung by the forgotten dead. Moonlight spilled over broken stone and rusted chains, painting the world in shades of silver and sorrow.
Cain stumbled forward, wrists bound, blood dripping from a split lip. The pain didn't matter. Not yet. What mattered was the man walking beside him—the one who had always stood by him, ever since they were boys.
His cousin, Darius.
"Where are we going?" Cain muttered, his voice hoarse from the beating hours earlier. The torch Darius held flickered in the wind, casting orange shadows that danced like spirits around the ruins.
Darius didn't answer. His jaw was clenched. His eyes—those same gray eyes that once laughed beside Cain in the training yards—were hard now. Cold.
Cain's stomach twisted. "Darius… what did they tell you?"
Still nothing.
Only the silence of guilt.
They reached the edge of the pit. The stones here were ancient, cracked and overgrown. The air was colder—wrong somehow. Cain knew this place. All Beastbinders did. They called it The Pit of Silence, where the Order of Purity executed their kind in secret.
He stopped walking. The hairs on his arms rose.
"No." He turned toward Darius. "You wouldn't."
Darius raised the torch, his face illuminated from below. There was sorrow in his eyes… and resignation.
"I begged them for your life," Darius whispered. "I told them you didn't know. That your Core awakened by accident. But the mark was too strong, Cain. It wasn't random. It was bloodline."
Cain shook his head. "You don't understand. I never asked for this power. I—I didn't even know what it was."
"That doesn't matter to them. Or to the gods."
Cain felt the bindings loosen. He took a step back, confusion mounting.
Then Darius drew his dagger.
The silver blade shimmered in the moonlight, engraved with the sigil of the Order—a flaming spear piercing a bestial eye.
"No…"
Cain barely had time to raise his arms.
The dagger plunged into his side. Deep.
He gasped—staggered back—his legs buckled beneath him. He collapsed to the cold stone, choking on his breath.
Blood soaked through his shirt, hot and fast.
Darius knelt beside him, lowering the torch to the ground. His face was unreadable.
"I'm sorry," he said softly. "But you were never meant to rise."
And with a final glance, he pushed the torch into the pit.
Cain barely heard it hit the floor far below.
Then came the shove.
The world spun.
And Cain fell.
He awoke to darkness.
Not the kind of darkness you find at night. No, this was the kind that swallowed sound, sense, self.
He was at the bottom now.
He could taste blood on his tongue. His body screamed with pain. Breathing was hard. Cold stone bit into his skin, slick with damp.
He tried to move—his arms wouldn't respond. His vision blurred.
Am I dying?
He remembered the stories. The old ones, whispered by Beastbinder rebels. That the Pit was built over a sealing ground—a place where corrupted beasts were once imprisoned beneath the earth.
A myth, they said.
A warning.
His breath rattled in his chest. He turned his head, just enough to glimpse the crumbled sigils on the stone beneath him—runes long dead, flickering with a faint, unnatural light.
Then he heard it.
A voice.
Not from outside.
From within.
[Soul Integrity: 11%… 9%… 7%...][Unbound Beast Core Detected.][Initializing… Beastbind Protocol.]
Cain gasped.
Light—cold, silver-blue—bloomed over his chest. A symbol etched itself into his skin, glowing like a brand: a broken circle with three claw marks slashed through it.
[Beastbinder Class: Activating...][Warning: No Guardian Beast present.][Searching…]
His heartbeat slowed.
Time fractured.
And then… the shadows stirred.
Something answered.
A presence surged through the darkness, vast and ancient. A howl echoed—not of sound, but soul. It clawed at the edges of his consciousness, digging into his thoughts.
You bleed like prey… but your soul does not kneel.I am Nyx. Cursed daughter of the Moondark Pack. Slayer of Stars. Betrayed. Forgotten.Do you call me, mortal? Will you chain me?
Cain shivered. His voice barely escaped his throat.
"I don't want a chain… I want a weapon."
The shadows purred.
Then we are alike.
[Beast Detected: Shadow Wolf – Nyx (Corrupted)][Soul Link Compatibility: 73% — WARNING: Incomplete Core. Fusion Risk High.][Proceed with Beastbind?]
Cain didn't hesitate.
"Yes."
[Beastbind Accepted.][Forging Soul Link…]
Pain erupted.
It wasn't just physical. It was metaphysical—his soul being flayed open, reshaped, rethreaded with something wild and fanged.
He screamed. His back arched off the stone. The world became nothing but shadow and silver fire.
His memories twisted—he saw a vast silver forest beneath twin moons. Eyes glowing in the dark. Teeth sinking into stars. Blood, howling, betrayal.
And then silence.
Cain awoke, gasping.
But it wasn't his breath alone anymore.
He felt… her. The Shadow Wolf. Inside him. Watching. Breathing with him.
His hand twitched.
[Beastbind Status]Host: CainSoul Rank: E (Awakening)Bound Beast: Nyx – Shadeborn Lupus (Corrupted)Affinity: ShadowFusion State: Partial (Right Eye – Lupine Vision)Skill Unlocked: Umbral Sight (Lv. 1)Condition: Stable. Healing Accelerated.
He rolled onto his side with a grunt.
The pain was still there. But it was less now—dulled, like someone else bore part of it.
He touched his face. His right eye burned faintly. When he opened it, the world shifted. Shadows lit up. He could see the edges of things—the footprints in the dust, the claw marks in the stone, the trail of blood that had led to this cursed place.
We are bound, little shadow, Nyx whispered. And your hunt begins now.
Cain rose to his knees, every movement aching.
He wasn't alone anymore.
And this time… he would be the one to draw blood.