**A man in a black hood at midnight is walking through an dark alleyway. The men seems around 5'8 Feet tall with black hairs and average looks. He seems to have a face with multiple bruises and scratches. His dark black pupil still have some sparkles of dreams in them. But The alleyway he walks in smells of the filth of the sewers that are nearby. It is situated inside the slum area making it increasingly more dangerous of theft and robbery. Quite contrast to his sparkling eyes , the alleyway is pure darkness and without any hopes left within it. The alleyway has lost its value a long time ago. Now As the men walks down the alleyway he comes to a stop in front of an vendor.**
Pranjal was tired after coming back from his work. He saw a vendor in a dark ally of the slums he lived in. He thought inwardly ;
Hmm…What is this vendor doing this late at night? Usually at this time vendors and shop owners close their shops down. The theft cases are usually observed at this timing. And Why the hell is the vendor only displaying one item… An watch…
"What is this watch you are selling?" Asked Pranjal
The mysterious dark figure grinned, showing his disarranged stained teethes and replied -"Oh kind sir, its just an old watch that my father had… I am in a bit of trouble nowadays due to the debt left behind by my father. So to acquire some more funds to repay the debt, I am selling this watch… Would you be kind enough to buy it? Its only for 200 Echoes, But for you I can lower it to 100 Echoes.." ( Echoes is the currency of this world. )
Pranjal again thought inwardly that the vendor's eye seemed pretty desperate.. His voice has a deep and trembling effect, his back is hunched and his arms are frail looking. He is clearly malnourished. Atleast he doesn't seem to be lying.
Due to living in slums for over 12 years Pranjal was quite in need himself. So he used the bargaining skills he had and said "I don't have 100 Echoes on me.. you know how the current state of the city is.. everyone is oppressed and we lack jobs. The rich has built themselves away from our part of the city in the Upper Eidencourt. This lower Eidencourt has been reduced to slums now. We don't have that kind of money… All i can offer you is the 60 Echoes i have.. Only because you seem in much more need of it then me."
The vendor showed another grin, but this one felt like it was had a much darky intentions. He replied in a bright manner, completely opposite of his smile "O-Ohh Kind sir…. I Am very Thankful to you.. I can finally pay off a portion of my debt. Thank you kind sir. Here have the watch…."
Pranjal takes the watch while handing the money to the vendor and starts to walk towards his home. After seeing Pranjal leave, the vendor Snickered in the dark shadows and let out a faint whisper that reached the ears of Pranjal
{ I hope you don't break.. unlike the previous one.}
I looked behind in the same dark valley. The spot where the vendor once was, is now completely empty. It felt like there was no one there to begin with. The mumble that entered my ears made me have chills down my spine. It almost felt like I had made a huge mistake somehow? But ignoring this chains of overthinking thoughts. I walk towards my home.
I reach at a house built by the cheapest of bricks. The house had a dark eerie feeling for those who visited it the first time. The bricks seemed to be cracking up, windows were shattered but fixed with duct tape and cardboard. The sewer smell was present even here. The doors seemed like they would fall apart even in the smallest of jerk.
I opened the door, which made a very creepy creaking and flinching sound.
After entering in the house, on my right side there was a desk with both of my parents picture frames. I lit the incense sticks kept in front of their picture in a holder and touched their picture frame in hopes that they give me some blessing from the dead realm.
They both passed away 12 Years ago When I was 8 years old due to an disease. We didn't have any echoes for their medicine back then, that led to their demise. Now I am 20 Years old. Somehow I have survived this long all on my own.
In a voice filled of nostalgia Pranjal said " I...I am back home mother and father."
"Sighs" The work today was very rough today. Even though Its usually less tiring on normal days...
My work seemed very simple from outside. I scavenge metal parts and scraps from the junkyard pile as high as an mountain that is present at the end of the left side of the slums. After I find some worthy enough parts , I put them all together and do a little bit of engineering I learnt from the books I found in the same junkyard to build something that can be sold in the night black market for a suitable price. This is what is considered my livelihood.
Today the junkyard had some radioactive waste material disposed on it. This made todays job especially tough to complete and to find the scraps that were untainted by that heap of radioactive material was a miracle. This made me leave my job very late.. I couldn't find anything worthy enough to sell today.
The junkyard pile was once an river, but slowly the filth and wastes mixed with multiple defective machines of the Upper Eidencourt were discarded here, leading to a buildup of an pile. Even now they use it to dispose anything that isn't useful to them.
**A sound of growling comes from the stomach of Pranjal all of a sudden**
Slightly embarrassed Pranjal remembered that he didn't have any money to buy the food today.
Understanding that this issues that are common for folks of slum, Pranjal said "I will have to just deal with this problem the way I always do. Just got to drink enough water to fill my stomach and go to sleep in hopes of finding some scraps good enough to be built into some kind of machines to be sold tomorrow.."
Pranjal took a glass, and put a filter upon it. He then put the glass under an tap and turned the water on and filled the glass to the brim. He took huge gulps of water and was repulsed by the taste of metal and chemicals. Yet.. He had to somehow fill his stomach. He did the same routine 3 to 4 more times.
He then puts the glass down and then walks to his bed which was just a wooden bed with few blankets and pillows on top of it. He sits on the bed and enters a profound state of thinking yet again.
-Last month someone found an Soulforge artifact in the junkyard. The artifact seemed to have a affinity for close quarter combat and the man was going to sell it for an absurd price. Just enough echoes to enter the upper Eidencourts some say. But… He was mysteriously found dead in the bed next day. The artifact was also deemed missing by the investigators sent by the nearby bureau of Crown Inquisitors.
I clench my fist in the air hoping to grasp my own destiny. But the only thing that I grab is the air present around me. I hope someday I find an artifact and get out of this damned place.
The topic of artifact makes me remember what I had once read in a book thrown down in the junkyard. The books content were something like this :
Ever since the fall of the civilization 2000 years ago, most of its history has been erased.
This nation once known as India is now called as the Ashvalok, The World of Ash.
Most of the ancient technology history and culture has been lost in time. The rare artifacts that remain of it are sold for a absurd price. These rare artifacts of the lost civilization are divided into three known categories so far, and are continued to be converted to more categories after more of them are discovered.
The 3 Categories so far for the artifacts are
The Veilbreakers.
Veilbreaker was crafted by the exiled scholar-priest Aravind Kael during the lost civilization era. Obsessed with glimpsing the realm of spirits, Kael infused the artifact with distilled "soul-iron"—a rare metal smelted alongside the tears of a banshee.
They are A relic whispered about in every shadowed corner of the world, said to rend the boundary between life and death.
It is believed that they have complete control over either the matters of the living, or the dead. Sometimes both. Some believe it could be used to gain an immortality. Nobody that has seen these artifact in the past 250 years.
After this the Soulforge.
It is believed that, When the world was young and the boundary between spirit and flesh was thin, the Titan-smith Jwala the Everflame forged Soulforge at the heart of an erupting volcano. Drawing power from the volcanic core and the first breath of humanity, she shaped an anvil of living obsidian and brimstone. Myth holds that the first sparks that danced upon its surface were the souls of fallen gods.
These artifacts are known to bind with the soul of the user rendering others unable to use them.
Though shaped by will, each Soulforge carries within it a predefined affinity—a slumbering instinct, etched deep into the relic's core, that influences how it chooses to manifest.
Some Soulforge's awaken as close-combat avatars: gauntlets, blades, claws, or shifting armor, favoring those with a visceral, confrontational will—souls who face danger head-on and bleed with purpose. Others stir as ranged instruments—bows of light, railgun-like constructs, throwing sigils—drawn to minds that value precision, strategy, or distance in chaos.
But rarer still are the Soulforge's that manifest as magic itself: conduits of elemental force, spectral illusions, or raw aether shaped into form. These occur when the soul's nature leans not toward conflict or control, but toward imagination, memory, or metaphysical will—souls that do not fight in one plane, but across many.
Scholars once theorized that this affinity is a forgotten echo of the Soulforge's original creator—a trace of the ancient spirit that forged it into existence. Others believe that the artifact simply reads the shape of the user's fear, desire, or truth, and responds accordingly.
And yet, no affinity is final. A soul can evolve—and so too can the Soulforge.
The last category is known as the Riftkey.
Who made these artifacts is currently unknown. But one thing is believed that these artifact are able to break the fabric of space by the will of the user. They are believed to bend the space and recreate them into any shape the users wishes for. They are also believed to be able to shift between the different dimensions of the world and explore the multiverse of the every world. Only the unsalvageable broken ruins of these artifact was once found in a archaeological dig site. It was believed to have been used by the person deemed utmost worthy of it by the temple priests in the oldest of times.
**As Pranjal finished recalling the content of the books, he took out the watch he got from the vendor and put it on his wrist just to check how it felt and if it looked good on him. As soon as he put it onto his arms, suddenly Its gears started to shift..**
The watch on Pranjal's wrist trembled, its black steel casing splitting open with a dry click. From between its gears slid a cluster of needle-fine tendrils, each thinner than a spider's leg and glistening with acid-bright liquid that seeps from hidden pores of the watch, burning through tissue to make room for the mechanism.. They struck his forearm like a thousand pinpricks—then burrowed deeper.
** As Pranjal screamed from the unimaginable pain, he seems to loose his consciousness and Falls to the ground. **
The watch didn't stop.Beneath the surface of the flesh, the metal limbs coiled through sinew, unspooling as they went, carving out hot channels of living flesh. Skin split with a wet, tearing sound, pale muscle flapping back like curtained doors. A slick bead of dark blood welled where the tendrils had forced their way, then dripped to the floor in crimson drops.
Pranjal's arm convulsed. The watch's hollow hum vibrated against bone, as if it were a living thing, hungry for marrow. Tendrils snipped at nerves with mechanical precision, leaving raw, ragged edges that oozed fury and blood. In the harsh lamplight, the edges of the wound curled back—flesh peeled like wax from a candle—revealing pink-white layers beneath, trembling where the watch's cold hunger had reached.
And somewhere inside him, a pulse of electric violet light marked a new incision, the watch asserting itself under his skin: not content to be worn, but determined to become part of him..
Pranjal felt his some light on his eyes. He opened his eyes and entered a state of profound confusion "-W-What happened? I remember a burning sensation and some gears of the watch shifting. What happened to the watch? Huhhh? Where is the watch? Where did it disappear to? I clearly remember wearing it. Why does my hand and wrist feels so strange... What is this sigil on the wrist glimmering in purple colour?"
Pranjal tried to get up but seemed to suddenly loose all his strength and again falls backward after becoming unconsciousness.
In the physical world , A pale Violet light starts to flash around his wrist forming an circle with several triangles in a circular pattern arranged.
What will happen next? Stay tuned to find out.