The world had long forgotten the color red.
Not the red of spilled blood on battlefields, nor the red of sunsets fading behind mountains but the ancient red. The kind of red that had ruled before gods were born, before laws were written, before mercy existed.
Deep beneath the fractured continent of Avarn, far below cities that called themselves eternal, something stirred.
Thump.
The sound did not travel through stone or soil. It traveled through existence itself.
Chains forged from divine authority rattled. Seals carved by dead gods and traitorous heroes trembled. For the first time in tens of thousands of years, the prison began to weaken.
A thin crack appeared. Crimson light leaked out like blood from an old wound.
Isaac Ardent woke with a scream.
He had been dreaming of fire. Burning heavens collapsing into ash. Stars screaming as they shattered beneath an unseen throne. Crowns broken like glass beneath a single, immense step.
He coughed, choking on his own breath, and tried to calm himself. Grayhaven's streets lay silent outside his small room. The usual chaos drunken mercenaries, shouting guards, wandering monsters was gone. Even the wind seemed hesitant.
Isaac had never known his parents. He had been found as a newborn at the edge of the Red Wastes an impossible place where heat warped reality and crimson storms tore flesh from bone. Yet somehow, he had survived, untouched. Not cursed. Not burned. Just… found.
The villagers called him Ardent, after the strange red glow of his eyes. They said it was a blessing.
They were wrong.
He placed a hand on his chest. A dull ache pulsed beneath his ribs.
Thump.
Pain bloomed like molten iron in his veins. His vision blurred. He collapsed to the floor, clutching his head as memories that were not his own forced their way into him.
He saw:
Thrones made of bones and shattered laws.
Gods kneeling, screaming, begging.
Chains tightening around a being vast beyond comprehension.
A voice spoke not aloud, but in every fiber of his being.
"My vessel…"
Isaac screamed. "W-what… who are you?!"
The presence's gaze fixed on him. In that instant, Isaac knew one truth: this was no god. God had existed beneath it, and failed.
"I am the First Sovereign," it said.
"The King Before Kings. The Law That Existed Before Law."
One of the seven seals restraining it cracked. Isaac felt a surge of power invade him, flooding his veins, mind, and soul. He stumbled backward.
"I… I don't want this!" he cried.
"You were never given a choice."
The surge merged with his being. Not possession. Not control. Inheritance.
When Isaac opened his eyes again, he was sprawled across cracked earth outside Grayhaven.
Screams echoed through the streets.
Crimson veins crawled across the walls of buildings, pulsing like living arteries. The sky twisted unnaturally, clouds spiraling as if bowing to some unseen presence. Animals fled. Humans collapsed in terror.
Isaac gasped, clutching his head. His body felt different stronger, heavier, yet every movement felt like walking through molten iron. Symbols burned across his skin before sinking beneath the surface, leaving a strange warmth that he couldn't describe.
Then it appeared.
A translucent interface, glowing crimson, hovered in front of his eyes.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION – CRIMSON DOMINION]
Host: Isaac Ardent
Status: Compatible Vessel – Confirmed
Bloodline: Sovereign Fragment (Unsealed)
Title Acquired: Heir of the Scarlet Throne
Authority Rank: Dormant Sovereign
Seal Status: 1 / 7 – UNSTABLE
Core Authorities Detected:
▸ Tyranny of Reality (Partially Unlocked)
▸ Law Devourer (Dormant)
▸ Existence Subjugation (Locked)
Current Condition:
▸ Vessel Integrity: 12%
▸ Mental Stability: Critical
▸ Divine Hostility: IMMINENT
Isaac staggered to his feet. "A… system?" His voice trembled. The world around him felt wrong too alive, too heavy, as though it waited for him to make a move.
Nearby, a priest fell to his knees, pale with fear.
"That aura… it shouldn't exist!" he whispered. "The… Scarlet King?!"
Isaac's stomach sank. "I'm… I'm not a king," he muttered. "I don't want this."
From deep inside his soul, the ancient will stirred.
"You will be."
The ground trembled beneath him. A shockwave shattered stone, sending armed guards flying like ragdolls. Isaac screamed again, instinctively raising his hands to contain the surge.
High above mortal skies, beyond the reach of men, divine thrones shook. Gods who had not known fear in millennia felt it claw its way back into their hearts.
The Scarlet King had found a vessel.
And this time the chains were already breaking.