Chapter 2
Kael Ardyn – POV
People think betrayal is a blade in the back.
It's not.
Betrayal is the silence of the one you love as the blade enters your chest.
I wasn't born special.
Not in my first life.
No noble blood. No god-blessed name. Just a commoner's son, digging trenches in a plague-infested village near the Blackridge mines.
But fate has a cruel sense of humor.
The day the sky bled red during a lunar convergence, I touched a dying soldier's staff and accidentally set half the mountain on fire.
They called it a curse.
The Archmages called it something else.
"Chrono Affinity. Mixed with raw Voidstream. Dangerous. Unstable. Impossible."
But they took me.
They took me and trained me. Not out of kindness—but curiosity. To them, I was a living experiment. A magical mistake with too much potential to ignore.
I spent years in their towers. Years perfecting what others feared. I learned faster than anyone, memorized runes by listening to their hums, bent time like ribbon, cracked reality to glimpse the past.
I wasn't just a prodigy.
I became something more.
[The Seven Moons]
When I turned seventeen, I was taken to the Moonbound Trials, a sacred pilgrimage only the greatest of mages undertook once in a lifetime.
Each of the Seven Moons represents a primal source of magic:
Ignis – Flame & Fury
Aquael – Water & Spirit
Terranox – Earth & Endurance
Zephyra – Wind & Thought
Umbranox – Shadow & Secrets
Luxira – Light & Purity
Chronis – Time & Memory
Most mages connect with one. A rare few can access two.
I touched all seven.
The priests fainted.
The seers cried.
The gods went silent.
"You are not Moon-Touched," they said. "You are Moon-Forged."
From that moment on, everything changed.
I rose to the rank of Archmage before twenty.Led troops into wars.Slayed mythic beasts.Negotiated with elven kings and titan ogres.Unified cities under the Council of Moondawn.
I became the mage they sang about.
But heroes… are easy to envy.
And power? Easy to fear.
[The Woman I Loved]
Her name was Elaria Veyne.
Daughter of High Commander Veyne. Heir to the Moonfire House.
She was fierce. Brilliant. Reckless. A noble who challenged everything the court believed in.
And she loved me.
"I don't care if you were born in a gutter, Kael. You're the only mage who makes the stars feel closer."
She was my sword. My home. My heart.
Until… the war.
[The Breaking]
The War of the Seven Moons wasn't started by men.It was started by gods.
Or rather… by one of them waking up.
Chronis, the Moon of Time, had been sealed for centuries. But during an astral event, its essence seeped into the world—into me.
The other Moons grew afraid.
And through them… so did the people.
I began to see fragments of the future.
Cities burning.Kingdoms falling.Me… standing in the center of it all, crowned in voidfire.
"He'll bring ruin," the oracles said."Seal him," the priests commanded."End him," the kings whispered.
And those closest to me began to vanish.
My allies. My students. Even Elaria… started looking at me like I was a prophecy she couldn't outrun.
Then came the Trial of Moonfire.
They lured me into a peace summit under false truce. The High Mages circled me. The knights of the seven houses raised their blades.
Even Elaria stood behind them.
Eyes glassy.
Lips trembling.
Saying nothing.
"You're too powerful, Kael," said the Crown Prince. "Too dangerous."
"This is mercy."
I screamed.
Not from pain.
From grief.
I never fought back.
Not because I couldn't.
Because I didn't want to hurt them.
"Kill me then," I said. "But know this—if fate ever gives me breath again… I will not save you."
[And then… Rebirth]
The void was cold. Timeless. I floated in it for what felt like centuries.
But something whispered to me.
A spark.
A laugh.
A flame.
A second chance.
"One of the Seven must fall. One must rise."
And I woke up.
In a broken body.
In a rotting cell.
In a world that had forgotten me.
But not for long.
[Now]
I stood beneath the moonlight of a dying world.
The stars were different. The cities rebuilt. The Moonshrines abandoned. Magic… unstable.
But me?
I remembered everything.
"You killed me once," I whispered."This time, I'm not dying quietly."
❖ END OF CHAPTER 2 ❖