Chapter 370: Plans Set in Motion

"Exactly... Soren... It was a suicide mission you sent him on." The voice spat venom.But he did not... He could not. He would not!

Riven's lips quivered. His throat bobbed as he swallowed hard, trying to breathe. "I—I'll do it," he croaked weakly. He looked small. Too small. "I'll sever it."

The real Soren—present Soren—shook his head, his voice breaking. "Stop this!"

But the visions continued, ignoring his plea.

The memory shifted. The sound of paper crackled—Soren's own hand flipping through documents, contracts, letters. His vision blurred as his mind filled in the missing pieces.

There it was. The seal. Ronan's. It was unmistakable.

Transfer deeds.

"No…" he breathed, stepping closer, though there was nothing he could touch. "No, I wouldn't—"

He would not give Riven back to Ronan just for a few mines.

He had agreed to trade Riven.

For mines. For resources. For leverage.

For power.

The voice chuckled darkly, feeding on his denial."You would never? You already did. You signed him away. You tore him apart, piece by piece."

The scene shifted again.

Now, Riven stood beneath the light of a full moon. The air was still. A lake spread wide before him, its surface glimmering faintly. Beside it grew a bed of red roses—some in bloom, others wilting.

He looked so lost. The moonlight washed over his bare shoulders, his hands trembling as he clutched a ceremonial dagger—silver, old, the kind used to symbolise the severing of bonds.

Soren's breath hitched.

"Riven…" he whispered, reaching out instinctively, though he knew it wasn't real.

Riven's chest rose and fell unevenly. He stared at his reflection in the water. His eyes were red, his tears glistening like starlight.

"This is for the best," he whispered, his voice small and broken.

The wind blew gently, scattering rose petals into the lake.

He raised the dagger to his chest, his other hand pressing over his heart. "I release you," he said quietly. "From this bond… From me."

He drew an 'x' on his chest, right where his heart was, the blade glowed faintly, light curling around him like smoke. His body trembled violently, his voice cracking as he whispered, "Please… Let this end."

"Riven, stop!"

His own words—his own cruelty—echoed in his head.

"Either it consumes you or you sever it."

Soren watched the scene unfold before him, not through eyes of flesh, but through memory twisted and cruel, like watching a play that mocked him.

The Riven in the vision stood still, his chest rising shallowly. His pale hands were stained red where he had tried to hold the wound closed, but the blood slipped through his fingers like fine sand. The ritual circle around him had broken halfway, the candles snuffed, the thread soaked crimson.

The severing had failed.

Soren could see Ronan stumble into the clearing, his voice hoarse from shouting Riven's name. The moment he saw him, Ronan dropped to his knees and caught him before he hit the ground fully. His cry tore through the silence, raw, animal, desperate.

"Riven! Stay with me, please—"

Riven's lips moved faintly, but no words came. He tried to breathe, to sustain himself, but it was in vain. He went still.

Soren saw the cold version of himself standing not too far away from them. His expression was still cold, distant, detached, though deep in his chest, something violent twisted.

"I gave you what you asked for!" Ronan's voice broke, his hand clutching the back of Riven's blood-soaked shirt. "You said if I gave you those mines, you would return him to me! Why did you do this?!"

The Soren in the vision scoffed, a sound that didn't even sound human, more like a defence mechanism of a man who'd already lost himself."I did not do anything," he said, voice calm, cutting. "He did not want you. He chose to die rather than be with you."

"Shut up!" Ronan's shout echoed through the trees, but Soren's gaze didn't waver. His hand trembled only once before curling into a tight fist. His mask of control cracked slightly, revealing the storm beneath, jealousy, regret, bitterness all festering in one unbearable emotion.

The scene blurred; he turned away from Ronan and Riven, their silhouettes fading into shadow as he walked into the dark. Each step he took seemed to echo that one poisonous thought looping in his mind:

"If I can't have him…" His jaw clenched, the air around him heavy with hate and grief. "Then no one else can."

The words burned.

"I was not strong enough back then," it hissed, echoing from the walls, from the floor, from within Soren's very chest. "But now I am.""I will sever the bond. I will sever all bonds. This time, I will win."

Soren froze, his pulse hammering. The voice no longer sounded like a stranger. There was something uncomfortably familiar about it.

"What do you mean?" he demanded, his voice rough as his eyes darted across the dim hallway. "What bonds? Who are you?"

But there was no answer. No whisper. No echo.The silence was almost worse.

He stood there for a long moment, trying to steady his breathing.

He didn't know what the voice meant, but the way it said sever the bond struck him wrong, as if it were a threat.

"Riven…" he whispered under his breath.

A chill ran down his spine.

Without another thought, he broke into a run. The mansion disappeared behind him as he shifted mid-step, his body snapping and reshaping into his snow leopard form.

He didn't know why he was so afraid, only that he'd felt this before. This heart-clenching panic, this desperate urgency. It was déjà vu, heavy and suffocating. He knew exactly when he felt it, he did not want to remember it.

Soren ran faster. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was already too late.

The voice that threatened him had already set their plan in motion.

And it would ensure that no one could undo its work.

"I have died ninety-nine times... I refuse to continue..."