"What's in a name, if even the stars have forgotten it?" – Unknown Fragment from the Codex of Echoes
**
The wind howled through obsidian cliffs as though mourning a name long lost to time.
Kayn gasped, his chest heaving violently as he broke through the surface of a shallow stream. The cold water clung to his skin like icy fingers trying to drag him back into the abyss. His eyes shot open—silver irises flickering like burning starlight, scanning the unfamiliar world around him.
His rebirth was complete.
Except… he didn't remember the name he had once feared the gods with.
"Initializing system bind," chimed a voice—mechanical, ancient, calm.
A translucent interface blinked before him, bearing runes from languages both known and forgotten.
[Welcome to the Supreme Sword System]
Host Signature Detected: Status – Partial Lock
Reclaim Identity Fragment: 0.7%
Quest Initiated: Survive the First Trial – "Claim the Name"
Reward: Access to [Memory Echo Shard] + Unlock Combat Protocol Tier I
Kayn grimaced, gripping his temples. There were gaps—gaping, black holes in his consciousness where entire centuries should have been. Yet instincts remained. Reflexes sharpened by a thousand lifetimes whispered to him.
He was a warrior.
No… more than that.
He had been something feared. Worshipped. Betrayed.
His fingers curled into the earth. "Azarel," he whispered instinctively.
A flicker in the interface.
Name Fragment Detected: AZA---REL
Verification Incomplete. Continue Data Recovery.
"Tch." He stood, drenched and half-naked, the scent of wet soil and blood faint in the air. Around him, jagged trees reached for a sky bruised with violet and ash. Moons—two of them—hovered overhead.
Not Earth. Not any realm he remembered.
A world shaped by cultivation… and code.
The Cité des Vents
12 Hours Later
It took him the entire night to walk from the river's edge to the outskirts of civilization. Or what passed for it.
Massive bronze gates stood at the edge of a floating city. Suspended by energy pillars, the fortress buzzed with activity—avatars and real-life cultivators mingling, trading, dueling. Semi-transparent menus floated above their heads.
[Player: FrostMonarch_13 – Level 87 – Swordpath: Azure Wind Style]
[NPC: Mistress Huna – Questgiver, Apothecary Guild]
[???: Signal Unknown – Classification Error – Alert Sent to Admin Core]
The last tag flashed above Kayn's own head until he focused. With a thought, it disappeared—cloaked.
The System had protected him again.
"Let's try this the polite way," he muttered, stepping toward the line of new recruits waiting to enter the city. A young woman clad in a forest-green martial uniform turned to him. Her avatar glowed faintly, indicating an awakened spiritual core.
"Whoa. You must be new," she said, smiling.
Kayn said nothing.
"You came in through the southern forests, didn't you? Lucky you didn't get eaten by the Whispering Beasts. They tear apart newcomers like paper."
He tilted his head. "And yet you're all standing in line instead of fighting them."
Her smile faltered, intrigued and a little nervous. "Because we have brains?"
Kayn's reply came slow. "Brains don't win wars."
The girl blinked. "You're… not from the Academy, are you?"
He didn't answer.
[New System Prompt]
Skill Tree Recommendation Unlocked
Choose Primary Path:
[Swordmaster of the Celestial Flame]
[Voidstep Assassin of the Twelve Moons]
[Primordial Reaper – LOCKED]
The last option pulsed faintly. His former power… still sealed.
Kayn chose none for now.
Instead, he focused on the gatekeeper—a tall man in red robes, surrounded by flickering talismans.
"State your identity and purpose."
Kayn's answer was immediate.
"I seek conquest."
Silence fell. Even the wind paused.
"Conquest?" the gatekeeper repeated, raising a brow. "Of what?"
Kayn stepped forward, eyes burning silver.
"Everything."
First Combat: The Arena of Dust
He didn't need a tutorial. Combat was instinct—almost biological.
When a gang of low-tier cultivators mocked his strange attire and silence, they tried to mug him behind the Guild Hall.
They didn't leave standing.
[System Alert]
Host has gained 1.3% Memory Recovery
Fragment Unlocked – "The Eyes of the Void God"
New Ability: [Stellar Pulse Slash Lv. 1]
Blood dripped from his fingers, but his expression remained cold. Detached. Almost… disappointed.
"You rely too much on numbers and items," he muttered, eyes flicking toward a hovering guild badge, its glow dimming with the death of its owner.
He looked to the horizon, where the sky shifted into a deeper crimson.
The multiverse was fractured—and something was watching him.
A presence.
A ripple of energy passed through the fabric of space itself.
Someone—or something—had noticed his return.
The Woman in the White Veil
That night, as Kayn meditated under the Broken Sky Tree, a silhouette approached.
He sensed her long before she arrived. Her energy was strange—not high-tier cultivation, not divine.
But… familiar.
Too familiar.
She moved like a memory. Wore silence like a blade. When she stepped into the moonlight, the world dimmed around her. Her long silver hair fluttered in the wind, and her eyes—moonlit pools of sorrow and strength—met his.
"Have we… met before?" she asked, voice like a song trapped between lifetimes.
Kayn felt it then—a fissure in his soul.
"Who are you?" he asked, almost too harshly.
"I don't know," she answered honestly. "But when I saw you, something inside me… shattered."
The System reacted instantly.
[Legendary Encounter: The Wife Who Forgot]
Quest Chain Unlocked: "Fragments of the Legendary Union"
Objective 1: Gain Her Trust
Reward: 5% Identity Restoration – Phase I
Her name wouldn't come to him. But her presence... it was fire and rain all at once.
He didn't realize his hand had moved until he was touching hers.
A jolt.
And then—
[Memory Surge Detected]
Fragment: "The Wedding Under Nine Suns"
Visual Playback Unlocked
Images crashed into his mind.
A cathedral of stars. Her in violet flames, walking barefoot on air. A vow exchanged not with words, but with essence. A kiss beneath collapsing universes.
Then—war. Blood. Her being torn away.
Lyana.
His heart seized.
She looked at him now, confusion and fear blooming.
"You're crying," she said.
"No," he lied.
Guild Interference – The Black Order Moves
Elsewhere in the city, a man cloaked in obsidian silk viewed the meeting from a floating mirror screen.
"The God of Destruction lives," he whispered, voice thick with venom.
A message flared in his HUD.
From: VARION
Status: [High-Priority Protocol – Intervene]
Directive: Do Not Let Them Reunite.
Secondary Order: Secure the Wife.
The man bowed before the projection. "As you wish, Tyrant."
He turned to the shadows.
"Send the Crimson Assassins. Tonight, if possible. If the 'Wife' awakens too quickly, the multiverse balance will shift."
"And if she remembers who she is?"
The figure smiled, darkly.
"Then kill her before she remembers him."
**
Chapter Ending Hook: Betrayal in the Moonlight
Back at the ancient tree, Lyana leaned against Kayn, breathing slowly.
"I don't know why, but I feel… safe with you."
He looked at her, jaw tight.
"I'm not safe. I never was."
"I don't believe that," she said, smiling. "And neither do you."
A faint vibration pulsed beneath them. Kayn's senses screamed.
[Warning: Hostile Forces Approaching – Combat Level: B+]
Enemies: Unknown – Guild Signature: [Crimson Assassins]
He stood, cloak flowing, eyes sharp.
"It's begun."
Lyana rose beside him, confused. "What's wrong?"
"They found us."
"Who?"
He drew his hand back—and summoned a blade of pure starlight, as the sky above exploded with crimson runes.
"The past."
**
Azarel, reborn as Kayn, begins his path of restoration and revenge, but an unexpected meeting with a woman tied to his lost love triggers a memory surge—and puts them both in mortal danger.
Next Chapter Preview – Chapter 4: Quest: Conquer the City of Winds
An assassination attempt, a mysterious dream from the Void, and the first public duel of the reborn God of Destruction. Who is Lyana really… and why does the Tyrant want her so badly?
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