The world moved on without him.
As the city rebuilt its broken walls, as banners were raised for a new dawn, Jayden slipped into the nameless forests beyond the northern cliffs — alone.
No armor.
No crown.
Only a battered coat, a scarred heart, and silence.
At night, he lit no fire.
He spoke to no one.
He was a ghost trailing through the wilderness, hunted not by enemies — but by memories.
The laughter he'd lost.
The lives he couldn't save.
The faces that faded every time he closed his eyes.
Each step deeper into the wild was a step away from the boy he used to be.
---
Meanwhile, far across the sea, in a land where skyscrapers kissed the sky and neon lights never slept, a different kind of chaos brewed.
In the sprawling metropolis of Novalon, an underground council convened.
Powerful figures.
Untouchable tycoons.
Silent kings.
They called themselves The Architects.
And they weren't mourning Gloria's fall — they were furious.
> "We invested in her. Groomed her. Funded her war. And now? Crumbled. Because of one boy." a voice growled from the darkness.
> "Jayden." Another spat the name like venom. "He doesn't even realize he's dismantled the first pillar of our empire."
They made a vow that night.
Jayden would not be allowed to vanish into peace.
They would hunt him down.
Corrupt what he loved.
Poison whatever future he thought he could build.
And when he was at his lowest — they would make him kneel.
> "Let the next game begin."
---
One evening, Jayden stumbled upon a broken village hidden among cliffs — a place so remote it seemed untouched by time.
The villagers stared at him like he was a myth walking into their dreams.
Tattered children peered from behind doors.
Old men smoked in silence, watching his every move.
But one face stood out.
A girl with fire in her eyes and a blade at her hip.
Aria.
She confronted him the second he crossed the village threshold.
> "We don't want trouble, stranger. Keep moving."
Jayden didn't answer.
Not at first.
Something about her — the way she stood, fearless against the world — reminded him of Bella.
Of everything he had lost.
Maybe that's why he stayed.
Maybe that's why, for the first time in weeks, he spoke:
> "I'm not trouble."
"I'm just... lost."
Aria narrowed her eyes.
> "Aren't we all."
Against her better judgment, she let him stay.
---
In the weeks that followed, Jayden helped rebuild crumbling houses, fished with old men who barely spoke, and taught wide-eyed children how to defend themselves.
Laughter returned to his world in small, cautious doses.
Not the wild, careless laughter he once knew — but a quieter, sadder kind that lived in the cracks of broken things.
He wasn't healed.
But he was learning how to live with the scars.
And every night, as the stars whispered above, Aria sat beside him by the cliff's edge.
They didn't always speak.
Sometimes just sitting there — broken people under an endless sky — was enough.
Until one night, Aria asked:
> "Who are you running from?"
Jayden didn't answer.
Not with words.
He just stared into the black ocean, haunted.
Because somewhere beyond that horizon,
The Architects were moving.
And peace...
was just an illusion.
---