The night air hit Kael like a blade.
After years in the underground fortress, he expected the world above to feel warm, free—alive. Instead, the cold bit into his skin, carrying the scent of wet stone and distant smoke. The sky stretched endlessly overhead, a black canvas pierced by indifferent stars.
He hated it.
Too open. Too quiet. Too… empty.
His bare feet touched the soil beyond the fortress gates. Shadows curled beside him, rising and falling like silent wolves waiting for a command.
Behind him, the massive stone doors—covered in blood, cracked and broken from his escape—groaned as they shut themselves for the last time.
The place of his birth.
His prison.
His grave, had he been weaker.
Kael didn't look back.
He walked.
Each step forward felt strange, like stepping into a world he wasn't meant to exist in. He didn't know where he was going, only that he would never return.
But the world did not welcome him.
As he reached the edge of the forest, a rustle broke the silence. Figures emerged from the trees—clad in dark armor, blades drawn, torches burning bright.
Noctharion soldiers.
A scouting patrol.
Their leader stepped forward, helmet raised, eyes widening as he saw the boy covered in blood, shadows coiling at his feet.
"By the Abyss…" the captain breathed. "You're the experiment that escaped."
Kael tilted his head, expression unreadable.
Experiment.
That word again.
The captain gestured sharply. "Seize him. Alive if possible. The Emperor will reward us if we bring him back."
Bring him back?
To the fortress he destroyed?
Kael almost laughed.
The shadows around him stirred, sensing his amusement.
The soldiers charged.
They didn't make it far.
Kael raised a hand lazily, like brushing away an annoying insect. The shadows burst forward, slicing through armor, flesh, and bone. Torches fell to the ground. Bodies followed.
In seconds, silence returned. Dark, heavy, final.
Kael stood among the corpses, heartbeat steady.
This world was no different from the dungeon that birthed him—filled with predators, chains, and monsters pretending to be men.
He would become the greatest monster of them all.
A faint whisper echoed behind him.
"Help… please…"
Kael froze.
That voice was small.
Weak.
Definitely not a soldier.
He turned and found a girl—barely fourteen—hiding behind a tree, trembling violently. Her clothes were torn, face streaked with dust and tears. A silver pendant glowed faintly at her neck.
Kael stepped closer.
She flinched, wide-eyed. "Don't hurt me… please…"
He stared at her.
Fear.
He recognized it. Lived it. Slept with it.
The shadows around him pressed forward, eager to silence her.
But Kael lifted his hand.
And for the first time in his life—
—he hesitated.
Her eyes weren't like the mages' eyes.
Not like the soldiers'.
Not filled with cruelty.
Only fear.
Something unfamiliar twisted in his chest.
He didn't know what it was.
He didn't like it.
The girl swallowed. "Who… who are you?"
Kael didn't answer.
He didn't have one.
Instead, he turned away and walked into the forest, shadows trailing behind like loyal beasts.
But as he left, her trembling voice followed him:
"Thank you… for not killing me."
Kael stopped.
Just for a heartbeat.
Then he continued walking, disappearing into the night.
He didn't understand why he had spared her.
He would not understand for a long time.
But fate had already begun weaving the threads of a story he could not escape.
A story of blood, darkness…
…and one day, love.