The city was silent. Too silent.
Riven Steele moved like a shadow, slipping between alleyways, keeping to the darkness. The streets felt wrong—too clean, too empty, as if something had scrubbed away the chaos that cities usually carried. No crime. No emergency sirens. No distant hum of hero patrols.
That last one made his stomach twist. There should have been heroes.
There had always been heroes.
And yet, the world had moved on without them. Without him.
A massive screen flickered on the side of a high-rise across the street. The same news anchor from before smiled, her voice calm, sterile.
"Experts continue to dismiss conspiracy theories regarding so-called 'superheroes.' Psychologists say that these collective delusions are common among those who seek meaning in outdated myths."
Riven's jaw tightened.
"The truth remains: there has never been an age of heroes."
The words sent a cold chill through him. It wasn't just history being rewritten. It was reality itself.
He needed answers.
He pulled the hood of his borrowed jacket lower, blending into the sparse foot traffic. The few people on the streets moved with quiet efficiency, eyes down, minds elsewhere. No one questioned anything.
It made him feel sick.
Then he saw it—trouble.
A few blocks ahead, a group of enforcers—uniformed, armed, faces concealed by sleek black helmets—had cornered a young man against a concrete wall. The kid couldn't have been older than twenty, his hands raised in surrender. His face was bruised, his lip split.
One of the enforcers aimed a sleek baton-like weapon at him. A pulse disruptor.
Riven tensed.
"Please, I don't know what you're talking about!" the kid pleaded. "I swear, I didn't—"
A charge built up in the disruptor, glowing faintly blue.
"Unauthorized abilities detected," one of the enforcers droned. "Surrender for processing."
Abilities. He was powered.
Riven took a step forward, instincts screaming to intervene—
Then the kid vanished.
No explosion. No body. No sound.
One second he was there. The next, he wasn't.
Riven froze, his heart slamming against his ribs.
The enforcers didn't even react. They simply turned, deactivating their weapons, and walked away as if nothing had happened.
Like the kid had never existed.
Riven's hands clenched into fists.
Something was erasing people. Heroes. Powers. Anyone connected to the past.
And no one even remembered them.
He swallowed hard, forcing his mind to stay focused. He needed information. Needed to find someone who knew what was happening.
There was only one name in his mind.
Daemon Vex.
The best hacker in the underground. If anyone still had answers, it was him.
Riven turned and vanished into the city's depths.
Nobody, no blood. No one even remembered they were there.