The capital burned beneath a crimson sky.
Ash fell like snow, swirling through the air with the smell of blood and betrayal. Kael Varian stood atop the obsidian steps of the royal citadel, his armor cracked and blackened, his sword snapped at the hilt. Smoke curled around him. Behind him, the great doors to the throne room lay shattered. Before him, corpses littered the courtyard—his men, his brothers, his friends.
And not a single one of them had died an honorable death.
Kael staggered forward, one hand pressed against the deep gash across his ribs. His other arm hung limp, broken. His left eye was sealed shut with blood. He had given everything in this war—for the kingdom, for the people, for the man he had once called king.
And now, the man stood across from him, wearing royal regalia and an expression carved from cold stone.
"Alric…" Kael breathed, barely able to speak. "Why?"
King Alric Thorne—the man he had raised to the throne, defended for two decades, and bled for through every campaign—stared at him with no hint of regret.
"You were always the better man," Alric said. "The soldiers follow you. The nobles whisper your name with reverence. You've become a symbol, Kael. And symbols are dangerous. Unpredictable."
Kael's knees buckled, and he dropped to the blood-slicked stone. "You... ordered them to turn on me."
Alric stepped forward slowly, sword drawn. "You weren't supposed to survive. The final battle was a trap—for you, not the enemy. But even now, look at you… dragging yourself back here, half-dead, just to ask why."
"I gave you this kingdom," Kael growled. "I gave you your crown."
"And I thank you," Alric said, raising the sword. "Now sleep. Let your legend end before it becomes a curse."
The blade plunged into Kael's chest.
He gasped. The pain was sharp, immediate, and final. The breath left his lungs as his body collapsed. He felt his heartbeat stutter. Then silence. Cold. Darkness.
But death didn't come.
Not in the way it should have.
[SYSTEM RESPONSE INITIATED...][HOST TERMINATED: "KAEL VARIAN" — SOUL STATUS: CRITICAL][TRAIT DETECTED: "BETRAYED HERO"][MATCH FOUND: SHADOW REALM — SLOT AVAILABLE][INITIATING DIVINE RECLAMATION PROTOCOL…]
[WARNING: TIME GAP EXCEEDS 100 YEARS.][SOUL COMPATIBILITY AT 67% — PROCEEDING WITH EMERGENCY ASCENSION PATH.]
[YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN BY: SYSTEM OF ETERNAL NIGHT]
[REINCARNATION IN PROGRESS…]
147 Years Later
Pain.
It was the first thing he felt—raw and alive. A sharp, biting cold sank into his bones like frost through old stone. His lungs screamed for air as he jolted upright with a ragged gasp.
Kael coughed violently, his body shivering. He tried to sit up, but his muscles were weak. His arms were thin. Malnourished. Barely functional.
He blinked slowly, adjusting to the low light.
There was no sun.
Only an endless sky of shifting violet mist, where pale stars flickered in and out like dying embers. Blackened trees twisted from the earth around him. Cracked stone walls formed a circle—a ruined temple long forgotten, half-buried beneath the roots of time.
He was lying in the center of it.
Kael pressed a hand to his chest.
No wound.
No scar.
Just silence… and the echo of something ancient stirring inside him.
[REAWAKENED: "KAEL VARIAN" — IDENTITY CONFIRMED][BODY STATUS: CRIPPLED ORPHAN — RECEPTACLE GRADE: F][ERROR: BODY INCOMPATIBLE WITH DIVINE CORE][INITIATING SHADOW ASCENSION PROTOCOL…]
[SYSTEM OF ETERNAL NIGHT — BINDING COMPLETE]
[DIVINE PATH UNLOCKED: SHADOW GOD (Dormant)]
[MAIN QUEST INITIATED: "RISE FROM OBSCURITY"]➤ Objective: Survive➤ Objective: Awaken your divine core➤ Objective: Reclaim what was stolen
Kael sat there for a moment, shivering in the ruins of a world that felt both alien and eerily familiar.
He had died.
He had truly died.
And now he lived again—reborn in a world he did not recognize, centuries removed from everything he had once known.
Was Alric still remembered? Was Kael? Or had even his betrayal been buried by time?
A sharp growl broke his thoughts.
He turned.
From the trees beyond the ruin's edge, shadowed figures crept forward—quadrupeds with glowing red eyes, jagged fangs, and sinewy bodies that flickered like smoke.
[ENEMY DETECTED: SHADOW BEAST — CLASS: D-RANK][NUMBER OF HOSTILES: 3][WARNING: CURRENT BODY CONDITION — NON-COMBATANT][TEMPORARY DIVINE SKILL GRANTED: SHADOW BIND (Lv. 1)][TEMPORARY DIVINE SKILL GRANTED: ESSENCE DRAIN (Lv. 1)]
[FIRST BLOOD BONUS: AWAKENING SPARK TRIGGERED]
Kael's fingers twitched.
He reached within himself.
The moment his mind brushed against the system's presence, something awakened—an ancient pull from deep inside his soul.
Dark tendrils flickered along his arms like smoke.
He raised his hand. The beasts lunged.
And he whispered a command not taught by any swordmaster, but spoken by instinct, by blood.
"Bind."
From his fingertips, shadows erupted.
They twisted, snapped, and lashed forward like living chains, catching the first beast mid-leap. It howled, suspended in mid-air as the dark energy coiled around its throat and limbs.
Kael stepped forward, his legs trembling, his breath ragged. The second beast moved in—but he was ready now.
He opened his hand.
"Drain."
A pulse of darkness surged through the tether.
The beast convulsed.
Energy—cold and tainted—poured into Kael's body. He gasped as power rushed through his veins. His muscles strengthened. His stance steadied.
[ESSENCE DRAINED: 23 Units][BODY CONDITION IMPROVING…][DIVINE EMBRYO STABILIZING…]
Kael's heart beat stronger.
The world no longer spun.
And for the first time since his rebirth, he felt alive.
Truly alive.
The third beast paused, growling, uncertain now.
Kael met its eyes—and smiled.
"Run," he said softly, his voice still hoarse, but heavy with promise. "Tell them a god walks again."
The creature snarled and darted back into the woods.
Kael turned toward the night sky, the stars above like dying embers in a sea of black.
He didn't know what had happened to the kingdom.
He didn't know if Alric's bloodline still ruled, or if anything of the old world remained.
But it didn't matter.
He was back.
And this time, he would not fight for kings.
He would become something greater.
[SYSTEM UPDATE: DIVINE QUEST UNLOCKED — "ASCENSION OF THE SHADOW GOD"]➤ Objective: Gather Worship➤ Objective: Build a Temple of Dusk➤ Objective: Eclipse the Light
The world would come to know his name again.
Kael Varian, Shadow God of the Eternal Night, had returned.