Shadows of Alteria

{WSA 2025 Entry}

Five years old and cast out by his family, a nameless boy struggles to survive on the cruel streets of Alteria. Weeks of hunger and despair lead him to the edge of a mysterious forest, a place shunned by all and rumored to be the last refuge of a terrifyingly powerful demon. Ignoring the faded warnings, he stumbles within, his small body failing. As darkness claims him, a voice, ancient and powerful, whispers a tempting offer: power beyond imagining, the strength to conquer the world that abandoned him, and a chance to make them all pay. With his dying breath, he agrees. Bound by Darkness chronicles the rise of this child, now inextricably linked to the demon, as he becomes its first lieutenant, builds a mighty empire from nothing, and sets out to claim the entire world of Alteria, plunging it into an era of shadow and fear.