**The World of Echronia – Seven Fallen Heroes**
Midnight. The Kingdom of Echronia.
The smell of iron filled the air. Not from the rain that would fall, but from the blood that had pooled in the palace courtyard.
Maya tightened her servant's cloak as she ran down the corridor. Her heart pounded—not from running, but from the suffocating silence. Where were the guards? Where were the footsteps that usually echoed throughout the night?
When she reached the main courtyard, her feet froze.
Corpses littered the ground. Dozens of the kingdom's finest guards lay in unnatural positions—some still gripping half-drawn swords, as if death had come faster than their reflexes.
And in the midst of the chaos stood a single figure.
A tall man, wearing a black robe that billowed in the wind. A dark metal mask covered his face—no eyes, no mouth, just a flat surface reflecting the faint moonlight. Fresh blood still dripped from his sword blade.
Maya wanted to scream, but her throat was dry. The figure didn't turn, as if her presence meant no more than a shadow.
---
Then the sound of swirling wind broke the silence.
The air churned. Dry leaves lifted in a perfect spiral, and from the sky someone descended like a controlled storm.
Loid, the Hero of Wind—one of Echronia's Seven Heroes.
His silver hair whipped about, his sharp blue eyes sweeping across the scene. His gaze froze. His lips parted slightly, as if unable to believe what he was seeing.
"This..." he whispered. "All the elite guards... in a matter of minutes?"
His eyes shifted to the masked figure. "You did this, didn't you?"
No answer.
Loid smirked, though doubt crept in. "A killer masquerading as a hero, eh? I'm sick of your type."
With an elegant hand gesture, wind swirled around him. The air vortex thickened, transforming into invisible blades that shot forward at the speed of sound. Palace walls cracked. Trees snapped. The ground lifted as if hit by an explosion.
Dust billowed.
When the air cleared, the figure still stood. Unmoving. Only slightly scratched.
---
"Impossible," Loid hissed.
In the blink of an eye, the masked figure vanished.
Maya didn't even have time to blink when she saw him appear behind Loid—sword drawn, moving in perfect shadow toward the hero's neck.
Loid's instincts reacted. A wall of wind materialized behind him.
*Clang!*
Sword met a wind wall as solid as steel. But then something terrifying happened.
Red flames coiled around the sword blade—flames that didn't burn, but absorbed. Loid's wind wall began to crack, then shattered like glass.
The sword broke through.
Loid had no time to react. The blade grazed his shoulder, leaving a fatal wound. Blood spurted.
He staggered, fell to his knees, gasping for breath. "What... who are you?"
The masked figure stepped closer. His voice was deep and echoing, as if coming from a very dark void:
"Loid. Hero of Wind. Protector of justice."
The wind around them blew softly.
"You're just a liar."
Maya saw Loid's body tense.
"You let dozens of families lose their children in the 'cleansing operation' ten years ago. You called it sacrifice, but what you killed were children and elderly who should never have died."
"That... that was—"
"Justice? Law? Sacrifice?" The figure raised his sword. "How many more will you kill in the name of that false righteousness?"
Loid tried to stand, summoning the wind with all his might. But his power was fading. The wound on his shoulder was no ordinary wound—something was eating away at his strength from within.
Flames ignited at the tip of the sword.
"No more."
*Slash.*
---
Maya squeezed her eyes shut.
When she dared to open them, Loid was no longer moving. The Hero of Wind, one of the Seven Protectors glorified throughout the kingdom, lay among the corpses of the guards.
The masked figure stood there for a moment, then turned. His steps were calm, as if what had just happened was merely a nightly routine.
Maya hoped he would leave. Hoped this nightmare would end.
But the figure stopped. His head turned toward her.
Though the mask had no eyes, Maya felt his gaze.
"Servant of the kingdom."
The voice made her bones tremble.
"Deliver my message to the others."
Maya nodded unconsciously.
The figure stepped into the shadows. In an instant, he vanished as if he had never existed.
Leaving only the smell of iron, silence, and one name that would shake the entire kingdom:
He was called Raksha.
Not a hero.
Not a villain.
But a living hell—for those who call evil justice.
---
TO BE CONTINUED...