The city was drowning in an eerie silence. Night had fallen like a heavy ceiling over its deserted streets, where the dim lights of the street lamps were scattered, reflecting on the ruined walls of the old buildings, as if they were hiding secrets that no one could discover. This city, which was once full of life, had long been neglected, and had become a home for the unknown.

Arian was running. His heart was beating like a war drum, and his feet were dripping with sweat on the wet ground. There was something strange in the air, something heavy pressing on his chest and making him feel as if this whole world was trapped inside him. The book he was holding in his hand, that old book whose pages looked as if time had eaten some of them, was a source of anxiety for him. He knew that the book contained secrets that could change the course of his life, even the course of history itself, but what if those secrets were too dangerous for him to discover?

He looked behind him. Something was chasing him, something beyond human senses. In the darkness, the shadows were moving of their own accord, wrapping around him like invisible arms, as if the city itself had suddenly come to life. Faint whispers filled the air, whispers that were almost inaudible, but nevertheless reached the depths of his heart.

His heartbeat accelerated as he ran towards the narrow alley in front of him. The alley was dark, as if the shadows of the past had gathered in this place. He stopped suddenly, his eyes racing to search for the source of that hidden voice. And suddenly he saw something strange, a figure sitting in the dark, sitting on a dilapidated wooden chair, its eyes glowing in this darkness.

"You are not running away from something ordinary, Arian," the figure said in her quiet voice that was like the whisper of the wind. It was not a completely human voice, but it had a strange tone, as if it had come from a place beyond this earth. "Every step you take brings you closer to your destiny, and you have no escape from facing it."

Arian tightened his grip on the book in his hand, as if the words contained on the pages took on another form in his mind. "Who are you?" he asked in a low voice, but it held real terror in it. The figure in front of him, although its features were not completely clear, but it carried in its eyes a mysterious trait that could not be ignored. "How do you know my name?"

The figure laughed, a light laugh that passed over its lips like a whisper of death: "My name is not important now, but you, you, are in a place from which you can only emerge with a truth that may be harsher than you imagine."

Arian felt something strange wrapping around him, as if the shadows themselves were listening to the conversation. The air began to grow colder, as if time itself was affected by what was happening here. "I want to understand... This book, what does it contain? And why is it being pursued by all these people?"

"A book is not just paper, Arian. It is not just something you write letters on. It is a portal… a portal to truths that have not yet been written. To truths that could change the balance of the world, that could destroy everything you knew about reality. Don't think that escape is the solution. If you are trying to escape now, know that you are not escaping from something ordinary. You are escaping from your destiny. From the shadows of the ages."

The character's words cut through his mind like knives. He knew that he did not fully understand, but he felt that these words touched something deep inside him, something that had been hidden for a long time. "The shadows of the ages? What do you mean?"

The character answered her calmly, her face gradually beginning to appear under the dim moonlight: "Everything in this world is not as it seems. There are events that have happened since ancient times, events that were erased, that were hidden. But they did not die. They are still alive. And we, we are the ones who carry them… we are the ones who will bring them back to existence."

Arian felt the desire to escape, but he knew that this was not a real option. The book in his hands was the answer, but every page in it hid another mystery, something that had always been missing, but at some point, the whole truth would come out, and events would accelerate unbearably.

"Who are these people who follow me?" he asked, his voice agitated, as if waves of terror were creeping into his being.

"They are not ordinary people. They are the Guardians. The Guardians who kept the secrets. But now they are turning into something else, something darker. If you do not find the right path, they will destroy you, and they will make you part of the shadows they follow."

Arian felt his feet sink into the ground, as if the place began to move around him, turning into a maze of time and space. He saw the shadows gather and condense more, as if they were turning into invisible monsters. Then he looked back at the book, to find that the words had begun to change on the pages.

"Time has begun to change, Arian. And there is no going back. There is no escape now."

Suddenly, he felt something strange creeping through his body. The book was pulsing, as if it were reviving something lost within him. The shadows had grown denser, as if they were beginning to devour everything around him. Ariane, who had begun to understand part of the puzzle, realized that this was not just an ordinary chase, but the beginning of something greater. The book was the key, and everything that would happen after a moment of time was a starting point to the end, or perhaps to something he could not imagine.