Nyxborn-The Forgotten Etherium

Renar stood frozen at the village's outskirts.

His mind refused to accept it.

The banners of Solmaria still flew. The market still bustled with merchants and farmers. The world had moved on.

Without him.

Without his family. Without the name Ardentis.

It was as if they had never existed.

Renar's fingers curled into a fist. He had seen betrayal before—felt it—but this was different. This was something else.

Something deeper.

Something unnatural.

His breath steadied. Panicking wouldn't help. He needed answers.

And to get answers, he needed to act like he belonged.

The Village

He pulled his cloak tighter—one he had scavenged from the ruins. It was tattered, but it would do. If no one remembered him, then no one would recognize him.

He stepped forward.

The villagers barely gave him a glance. He was just another traveler, another wanderer passing through.

His gaze swept the streets. The smithy stood where it always had, the inn at the center of the square, the merchant stalls lining the roads.

Everything was the same.

Yet he was a ghost among them.

He reached the town board, scanning it for any mention of House Ardentis. A decree. A memorial. A footnote in history.

Nothing.

But what caught his eye was something else.

A bounty poster.

A traitor to Solmaria.

Renar's breath hitched. Could it be him?

But as his gaze locked onto the name—

It wasn't.

The face on the parchment was unfamiliar. A man with sharp, angular features and dark hair, a scar running down his jawline. The name beneath it read:

"Eryx Valen. The False Prophet. Wanted Dead or Alive."

Renar frowned. He had never heard that name before.

And yet, something about it felt familiar.

Before he could dwell on it further—

"You."

A voice.

Sharp. Low. Suspicious.

Renar turned, meeting the piercing gaze of a hunter.

A man in dark leather armor, a bow slung across his back. His eyes narrowed, flicking over Renar's face, his cloak, his stance.

Something in his expression shifted.

Not recognition. But something close.

Suspicion.

Renar's muscles tensed. He had been careful. There was no way anyone should remember him.

So why was this man looking at him like he had seen a ghost?