'Don, you must survive!'

Hope's mind was filled with a plea, but he couldn't voice it.

He was running through the streets of the city, the same one he had grown up in, realising just how little he truly knew it. He had never wandered freely here, so every nook and cranny had seemed new. Hope knew only the direction of the great gate and ran toward it.

Unnatural silence hung over the darkness. Hope looked up at the sky and checked the Chancellor's words. The moon was no longer visible. It had disappeared, just as he had been warned. This event had happened without any prophecy. Humans didn't possess the necessary fragment of this knowledge, and no one was prepared for it.

The day he received the Mark and spoke to the gods, the moon disappeared. As soon as Hope had advanced to the first level of Binders and become Eclipsed, the moon immediately evaporated. The distant, tiny celestial body was nowhere to be seen. The world was deprived of even the slightest light that the moon provided.

Hope realised that he was the cause of everything, although he couldn't explain the circumstances. He ran on, his mind fixed on survival.

Leaving the city wasn't difficult for him. He'd only miss a few people, and they were in danger. He didn't look back. As much as he wanted to stay and help, he knew he'd only complicate matters. Hope's life didn't belong to him alone; his role was much more important.

'I want to see Avi.'

Hope wanted to say goodbye to the girl, tell her that he would face adventures and next time they met he would be victorious. To tell her how happy her gift and words made him; her presence kept his hope alive through the darkest of times.

If Hope gave hope to others, Avi was his source of hope.

But he couldn't even reach her. So he ran, getting closer to the gate, though it seemed to drag on forever.

Dreadvale wasn't a small town. Luckily, he wasn't at the far end of it, and he was relatively close to the gate.

What's more, he was physically well-prepared. Today was the only day he hadn't gone to the gym. His discipline was strict but rewarding.

But there was something new. Something that had gone unnoticed until now. Hope only noticed it after running nonstop. His lungs were stronger, and his heart had more force to contract. His bones had become sturdier, and muscles had gained elasticity.

'It's the fragments. They told me I had to collect them. I made a covenant with the prophecy and received the Mark. Technically, I'm a Binder now.'

To be more precise, Eclipsed – the first stage of Binder, when the power gained is most uncontrolled and dangerous. At this stage, Mark is still new, and the adaptation period hasn't yet passed.

At this point, abilities are often activated without intent, often against others.

Hope did not feel such resistance. He simply ran, occasionally changing paths to confuse his pursuers.

He felt perfect. Hope was full of energy. It would have been good to sit down and analyse the situation, but he didn't have time for that.

Finally, the boy approached the gate. It was raised and open.

'They left it for me?' he thought.

The answer became grimly apparent as he got closer to the gate. The ground was slick beneath his feet. There were bodies against the walls, and blood covered the stone. Hope wanted to avoid looking too closely but forced himself to. He had seen much worse before.

He took in the scene, grasping the harsh reality itself; someone had killed the city guards. Their bodies bore the effects of the Binder. Each one seemed to have been shot into the air and then dropped from a height.

Hope saw the trail of almost disappearing fragments, but he didn't have time to study it.

He passed through the gate and knew that this wasn't the end. His pursuers wouldn't give up so easily.

Even after leaving Dreadvale, he expected difficulties, but he hadn't expected what he faced. Shon was pursuing him, a bald man who was far away, but his speed was much greater than Hope's.

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The man's head lit up in the darkness, a sign that he had used his Mark.

'This is bad. Why did he have to show up now when I was so close to safety?'

Dreadvale was a city located near the forest. Drylock Grove stretched for several hundred kilometres. He hoped to find safety deep within the trees. The main thing was to get out of the city. He would think about the rest later.

As if fate were playing tricks on him, he was pursued by Shon, the man responsible for restricting his freedom.

'He's catching up. I've got at least a kilometre to the forest, and before that, there's only an open field.'

"Shon, don't come any closer; turn around and tell the chancellor you couldn't catch me." It was his last attempt. He was breaking his words into breaths, but his guard maintained a familiar silence.

"Shon, I swear, I want to save the world. I promise I will. Just let me go this once."

His words had no effect. A man appeared next to him in a few seconds. He tripped the boy and knocked him to the ground.

The fallen boy spun around several times in his haste. He fought the pain, used his momentum, and was back on his feet again, running.

This time, Shon grabbed him, immobilising him with an iron grip. "Wait a minute," he said, grabbing the boy's hair.

"What are you doing?" Hope asked and saw the answer.

The man pulled a few strands of his grey hair away. It was painful, as if too much skin had been torn off his fingers.

"Run," Shon commanded, looking away.

"Huh?" the boy exclaimed. He could see the man's tattooed head glowing. The mist started to form around them.

Shon tossed the strands of Hope's hair to the ground. He wanted to use the fog to amplify his power, but it was too late.

Each strand of hair transformed into a faceless figure. All clad in dark robes, and they immediately lunged at Shon.

He barely had time to react. "I told you to run." The timbre of his voice had never been so human. Did Hope see emotion in him?

Unfortunately, the boy was cut off from escaping. One of the faceless figures stepped in front of him. "Hope, Hope, Hope! If you ask me, Despair is a better name. Stronger, more effective." He tried to approach the boy with measured steps. Shon quickly moved between them.

Because of this, blood suddenly gushed from his leg.

"Wow, would you look at that!" says the second guy. The renowned Shon does so much for one little boy. You even broke your oath for him and killed ordinary people. It's almost poetic… and cute."

The third was about to attack from behind, but a thick mass of fog knocked him back several meters. Then it hit him hard, and he sank to the ground on his knees. The faceless didn't get up, as if nothing had happened, even though he could no longer move.

"And how much time do you have left? Before you turn into a monster? Before you lose control? Did you think that what you did for this child was worth it?"

Shon was silent. He had to watch Hope and the triplets with one eye. The bleeding from his leg wouldn't stop, either.

"I thought you were quiet because of your oath. It turns out you're just a boring person," the first one spoke again, trying to get closer to him.

The boy's protection was playing its role meticulously, as they couldn't even touch Hope.

"You know, if you hadn't come, we would have let the boy go to the forest. We would have waited until he tasted freedom and caught him right at the peak of his happiness." The second faceless walked in a circle. He strayed from the darkness, sometimes merging with it.

The third remained down, unable to rise. "I wonder how long you have left after breaking your oath. I'd be happy to know, and you're a suitable subject for observation."

Shon had to act, and soon. Using the mist to stop the bleeding was easier than swallowing saliva. But he didn't do that. All of his Echo skills were focused on defending and fending off multiple opponents at once.

The blood that had pooled on the ground mixed with the mist.

In the darkness, the unity of his mist was revealed and became visible. The man looked at the boy. He wanted to tell him to close his eyes but realised that Hope wouldn't take his words into account.

Hope was docile and always obeyed his every request. Unfortunately, or fortunately, today was a different day. He would not listen. No, he should not listen. He wasn't the little boy Shon once knew.

The blood-splattered fog took shape. At first, it turned into a door. It even had a handle, which Shon could open and enter. After that, his steps, his breath, and every movement of his body echoed. Repeatedly, an intense sound presented a peaceful melody to Hope and a tormenting sound to the faceless.

Then the shining echo would bind the twins to the ground. It would drag them into the depths and overcome any resistance on the surface. The bodies tried to scream, to say more, but their own echoes drowned them out.

The fog settled on the bodies buried in the ground and then wanted to be expelled. To do this, it had to come out of the bodies, and as a result, it caused them to burst. Too much blood was produced. What happened underground then came up above the ground.

Hope watched intently. His stomach rebelled, but the boy managed to suppress it. Today wasn't the first time he had seen the death of a human.

"I won't look away from this. I have to see what Shon has done for me." Then he looked at the man, who now grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the forest.

"Thank you," Hope managed to say, feeling that he had finally understood the mystery of Shon's silence.

"You really did break your oath." It turned out that he couldn't hold himself back much longer. The Serenity Oath was strict, and he would be punished for breaking it.

The only answer was a nod. They ran into the forest, and Shon was showing the way.

"Don. Do you know what happened to him?" Hope asked.

"Dead." Shon had once again summed up the significance of the situation in one word.

Hope gritted his teeth, cursing his weakness. He was trying to make sense of what had happened when he noticed that the man was still giving instructions. As if the boy would have to continue his journey alone.

And then there was silence. Shon, who had been clearing the path ahead, fell to the ground without warning. With his eyes wide open and his heart beating, Shon died instantly.

His punishment had come, giving the man a momentary death. Then his body seemed to be gone from the world. It disintegrated into fragments and drifted toward Hope.