It began with a sound—not a scream, but something quieter.
A breath caught between steel and sorrow.
After surviving the Trial by Blood and Fire, Ryon was granted two days of "recovery." But the South did not offer rest.
It offered warnings.
> "If you survived Kaela's trial, you must face the Queen of Chains."
"She doesn't kill quickly. She makes you beg to be broken."
Ryon asked once: "Who is she?"
The only answer: "The woman even the Matriarch keeps caged."
> System Alert: New Thread Identified
Name: Queen Nyssha Darei – The Chain Mistress
Status: Warden of the Southern Dungeons
Virgin Soul Status: Suppressed Tier (Emotionally Dormant)
Bond Level: 0%
Risk Level: LETHAL
System Note: High-Risk Path – Proceed with extreme caution
A Throne of Restraint
He was taken to the lowest level of the palace, beneath the Temple of Silence, where even light seemed afraid to linger.
And there she sat.
Queen Nyssha.
Clad in a silver gown made from chains. Skin like onyx silk. Eyes wrapped in a blindfold of threads forged from law and blood. Her body curved like temptation, but her aura crackled with suppressed violence.
She sat on a throne built not of gold, but restraint—collars, cuffs, manacles once used to tame the South's worst monsters.
And yet, she was free. And they feared her.
She didn't rise as he entered.
Only tilted her head, lips curling faintly.
"Another trial toy," she murmured. "Sent to see if I still bite."
Ryon said nothing.
She sniffed the air. "You smell of fire… and guilt."
"You know who I am?"
"Everyone in chains knows the scent of the one trying to escape their own."
Test of Chains
A priestess placed two sets of cuffs on the stone between them.
One glowed white with purity seals.
The other, black—spiked, heavy, cursed.
Nyssha's voice rang like thunder in velvet.
"Pick your chain, curseborn. Purity or punishment?"
> System Choice Triggered
A) Pick the white chain – Choose submission, gain trust
B) Pick the black chain – Accept challenge, test power
C) Refuse – Break the ritual, gain enemy
Ryon stared at the two chains.
And slowly picked up the black one.
Nyssha laughed—low and delighted.
"Oh… you're going to be fun."
A Game of Pain and Power
The test was brutal.
The cursed chain bound his wrists—then dragged his secrets from his skin. Each link that tightened forced a memory into the open.
His brother's screams. The mage father who abandoned him. The guilt of wearing a dead boy's body.
Nyssha circled him like a predator.
"Everyone breaks," she whispered. "Will you?"
Through gritted teeth, he answered:
"Not for you. Not for anyone."
> System Response: Resistance High
Chain Master Path Triggered
Bond Level: 0% → 8%
Subconscious Submission: DENIED
Dominant Spark Detected
Nyssha's Emotion: Awakened
Nyssha knelt.
Unlocked the chain.
Then traced a finger along the red marks left behind.
"You are not my prisoner," she said.
She leaned close.
"But I might want to be yours."
The Promise of Power
She walked to the back of the dungeon, opened a vault with a blood key, and returned with a scroll wrapped in a chain-sigil.
"This is a key to the binding spells used by the Matriarch's inner court," she said. "Use it wisely… or foolishly. But understand—if you try to bind me..."
She smiled darkly.
"You'll have to earn every link."
> System Update:
Nyssha Darei Bond: 8%
New Ability Unlocked: Chain Insight – Reveal magical restraints & seals
Soul Thread: 5 / 30
Core Status: Curse Integrity – 81%
Time Remaining: 5 Days, 6 Hours
Subplot Unlocked: The Shackles of the South
Ryon left the dungeon bruised, aching—and carrying the weight of power few dared to touch.
Another soul unlocked.
Another path revealed.
And somewhere far above, the Matriarch whispered in a garden of glass:
"The chains have moved. The world shifts again."