They reconvened in a quiet back alley behind the inn, the city casting long shadows as the sun began to dip. Karn had “borrowed” a small, beat-up cart from a stable near the southern gate. The wheels squeaked. The wood looked ready to snap. It was perfect.
“This thing’s falling apart,” Towan said, tapping the edge with his knuckles.
“Exactly,” Karn replied. “Makes you look poor enough to be easy targets, but not too poor to be worthless.”
He tossed a sack onto the cart. Inside: rags, stones, and a carefully wrapped fake jewelry box made from wood and glitter. Towan squinted.
“This is our bait?”
“Looks convincing from ten meters away. That’s all we need.”
Elliot tied a dark scarf around his mouth, blending into the alley shadows like he’d done it a hundred times before. He adjusted his cloak, made sure the hood fell just over his eyes.
“I’ll keep distance,” he said. “Let you walk ahead until someone makes a move.”
“Use your senses,” Karn added. “Watch rooftops, alleys, even the trees. These guys are silent.”
Towan stretched his arms. “You sure you don’t wanna be the bait, big guy?”
“I’m too recognizable,” Karn said with a smirk. “And your acting skills are just bad enough to be believable.”
“That’s not a compliment, is it?”
They rolled the cart out of the alley and onto the quiet road leading east, just outside the outer market. The city noise faded with each step. Only the squeak of the cart and Towan’s light chatter broke the silence.
Elliot followed from a rooftop path, eyes narrowed. He extended his Essentia through his feet, sensing for vibrations—footsteps, movement, anything off. Learn this move from a book of Leon’s library back at the dojo
Karn kept back further still, lingering in the deeper shadows. Watching everything.
Ten minutes passed. Then twenty. A breeze picked up.
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A twig snapped.
Elliot turned sharply toward the treeline.
There was movement—too fast, too fluid. Not just one shadow. Three. Maybe more.
Towan noticed it too. He gripped the edge of the cart like it was a blade. “We’re being followed,” he said with a sign of hands, so Karn would see
“Good,” Karn muttered. “Then the fun’s about to start.”
Towan rounded a corner into a narrow alley and came to a stop, silent as breath. He stood just past the bend, one foot raised—ready to slam a kick into the first idiot who followed.
Footsteps echoed.
But his instincts screamed something else.
Behind you.
He twisted, pivoting into a backflip. His leg snapped out mid-air and caught something solid. A body dropped hard behind him—unconscious before it hit the ground.
Towan landed, teeth clenched.
But then—two more figures appeared at the alley’s mouth.
They didn’t charge.
They didn’t speak.
They just walked… too fast.
Their movement blurred like corrupted shadows, their auras leaking something foul that curled the air.
Towan flinched as a sudden chill prickled across his skin. “What the—?”
And then—
They hugged him.
Not in the “we missed you” way.
In the “Essentia-burning, soul-snatching, you’re-coming-with-us” way.
Everything went black for a second.
And just like that—Towan vanished.
Elliot and Karn skidded around the corner moments later, just in time to see:
Empty alley.
No bandits.
No cart.
No crates.
No Towan.
Just a faint crackle of corrupted energy hanging in the air like smoke.
“Towan…?” Elliot called out, voice quiet.
But he already knew.
The alley was empty.
No sound.
No movement.
Just a faint crackle of corrupted energy clinging to the air like burnt ozone.
Elliot’s fists clenched. His pulse hammered in his ears.
Then Karn stepped forward, unusually calm. He pulled a small, rune-inscribed artifact from his belt—an oval-shaped disc, faintly glowing blue at the center.
“Didn’t think I’d need this,” Karn muttered, turning it over in his hand. “It’s worse than I thought.”
Elliot blinked. “What is that?”
Karn knelt beside the lingering corruption. “Something I picked up a while ago. It reads residual Essentia flow—shows which direction it went.”
Elliot leaned closer, heart pounding. “You mean we can track him?”
“They couldn’t have gone far,” Karn said, activating the artifact with a quick pulse of his own Essentia. “They used a Teleportation Bind.”
“Teleportation?” Elliot echoed. “I thought that wasn’t even possible anymore.”
“It is,” Karn replied. “Technically. But it’s extremely limited. You have to bind someone’s Essentia to a location beforehand. Can’t be undone once it’s done. It burns massive amounts of energy. That’s why it’s been banned and buried.”
Elliot’s gaze dropped to the dark smear on the ground—the last trace of his brother.
“I’m sure the corruption has something to do with it,” he said, his voice firm now. The fear still sat in his chest—but something colder wrapped around it. Focus.
“We’re not letting them keep him,” Elliot added.
Karn stood up beside him, the tracker pulsing in his hand.
“Then let’s go get your brother back.”