Before the human, there was Aya.

Following a tip from a trusted friend, the legendary Blackrunner dubbed 'Slayer' travels to the isolated settlement known as Carmine, investigating unusual activity near the Blackzones. She's accompanied by her young acolyte, Loken, and a promising young warrior, Takhi. They are met by the oldest and wisest shaman in all of Illayla: Za'hna the Wise.

But what Aya discovers shatters her understanding of the Blackzones and own imagination. Soon the three visitors find themselves fighting for both their lives and their sanity. 

At the same time, Aya harbours a terrible secret that she is forced to confront: one that she alone must take to her grave.

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Hey all! Ryuo here!

This is a side-project that's finally ready for release! I've been working on this between builds since build 4 as a stress-relief from producing the main visual novel. It's my first time at writing a straight-up story and I learned a lot doing it, but I might be a bit rusty so forgive any clumsy prose! Trust me, writing in past tense after so long using present tense really screwed with me! A special thanks go out to Sidmon for his front cover illustration and Ortho for doing a really comprehensive proof-read!

It's around 16k words, and tells the story of what really happened at Carmine, as well as giving us a tonne of lore about some of the unseen characters in Soulcreek, especially focusing on the childhood of the goodest hound and his mentor, Aya! You can download it alongside the main game from the download links in PDF format.

If you've not read Soulcreek yet, it's best to pick this up after getting a bit more familiar with the lore. I'd say reading up to the end of day 5 is a good bet so that you've at least met Kaius.

In the meantime, Build 8 is still around 8k words into writing so it'll be a couple of months before that is ready and there's no release date set for a while. I hope you enjoy this little snack while you wait!

-Ryuo

CONTENT WARNING

This story contains some intense graphic violence and scenes of horror that some people may find distressing.