"Please… spare me…"
The man begging was trembling so hard his armor rattled like loose chains.
Riven stared at him in silence.
Smoke drifted through the ruins around them. The battlefield was quiet now — too
quiet. The kind of silence that only came after screaming had ceased.
"Spare you?"
Riven's voice was hoarse, hollowed by something far deeper than rage.
"Why would I do that?"
He steppedforward slowly.
"You took everything from me."
The kneeling man tried to crawl back, fingers digging into blood-soaked dirt.
"All I ever wanted… was peace."
Riven's hand tightened around the hilt of his blade.
"I fought your wars. I killed your enemies. I became your weapon."
His voice cracked.
"And when I finally laid the sword down… when I finally chose my family…"
His breathing shook now.
"You hunted me."
He paused.
"You slaughtered my wife."
"My child."
"You burned my home to ash."
The blade hummed as pale silver light gathered along its edge — Aura responding to grief so deep it had long since become part of his bones.
"And now… you beg for mercy?"
The man sobbed.
Riven raised the sword.
"The only mercy I have left to give… is a swift death."
One clean motion.
What followed was silence.
The head rolled across broken stone.
For a long moment, Riven didn't move.
Then he knelt beside the corpse, shoulders trembling.
"I did it…" he whispered.
Tears slipped down his face, disappearing into the dirt.
"It's over… my love… You can finally rest."
He turned the blade toward himself.
"I'm coming, my love
Steel pierced his heart.
Darkness swallowed everything.