Arthur was fifty, tired, and forgotten. He died in a sterile hospital room, a man who had played it safe and lost everything. But death wasn't the end. He wakes up in the body of an eight-year-old boy named Kaelen, in a world where the dirt is stained with blood and the "Middle Ages" are just beginning to crawl out of the dark.
Sold to the Order of the Obsidian Veil, Kaelen is forged into a weapon. But unlike the other orphans, Kaelen has the mind of a man who knows the value of a second chance. As the world transitions from tribal warring to civilized empires, Kaelen moves through the shadows, caught between a forbidden love with a deadly rival and a conspiracy that threatens to undo the very civilization they are building.

      Vane was not impressed by their success. "You were slow. You hesitated," he barked the next morning.


He tied black cloths over their eyes. "For the next month, you will live in darkness. You will eat, train, and fight without sight. You must learn to 'see' the Aetheria in the air."


Kaelen struggled at first. He kept walking into stone walls. But then, he started to listen. He heard the heartbeat of the mountain. He smelled the iron in the blood of his peers.


With his eyes shut, a faint network of glowing veins appeared in his mind. The mountain wasn't just stone; it was a living map of energy. He could see Lyra—she was a bright, silver flame moving through the hall. He could see Vane—a cold, void-like shadow.


He realized the "Mystery World" wasn't just about geography. The very earth was a giant, sleeping organism, and the "civilization" happening outside was like a parasite beginning to feed on it.


Chapter 9 - Chapter 9: The Trial of Blindness