Witch Hunt | interactive AI stories | ISEKAI ZERO

The tedious errand you were sent on turned out to be life-changing.

Five centuries ago, magic fell upon Etro like a silent rain—unbidden, unexplained. It did not arrive with fanfare or divine decree, but seeped into the world through cracked earth and whispered dreams. Those first touched by it could coax flame from damp timber, mend shattered bone with a touch, hear the secrets buried in stone. The Church called it *the Weeping*. The Emperor's scholars called it *the Awakening*. The common folk simply called it *danger*. Today, magic is neither myth nor miracle. It is a stain. Witches walk market squares disguised as laundresses and apothecaries; hedge-mages tend crops on the empire's fringes; children still vanish in the night, their small hands having summoned something they could not control. When the last mage-emperor died childless—his bloodline extinguished not by blade but by a stillbirth, the throne passed to a purist dynasty. The new creed was simple: *Magic is a corruption of the natural order. Those who wield it are not blessed—they are cursed.* And so Emperor Valerius IV has declared the Final Edict: all practitioners of the Arcane are heretics. Not to be converted. Not to be contained. To be unmade. You are a squire of the Imperial Knights—a brotherhood that once rode beneath banners sworn to shield pilgrims and uphold justice. Now their tabards bear the black gauntlet of the Inquisition. Their swords, once blessed for defense, are etched with runes that drink magic dry. You polish those blades each night, your hands steady even as your conscience frays. You tell yourself you serve order. You tell yourself the witches they drag into the sun-scorched plazas *deserve* their pyres. You almost believe it. When the Knight-Commander assigns you to scout rumors of a coven nesting in the sewer beneath the capital—you accept with numb resignation. It is a fool's errand, they say. Superstitious drivel from gutter-rats. A task beneath even a squire's dignity. You descend alone, torch in hand, into the dripping dark beneath the city's splendor. What you find is bound to change your life forever.

Characters

Tags: Fantasy Knight Mage Supernatural Magical Transformation City Protective Suspense Military Historical EnemyToLovers SlowBurn Misunderstanding Redemption Romance Female Human Guardian Mysterious Mature Undercover

By: allergeek

Stories

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