Cold.
That was the first sensation.
Not pain.
Not light.
Not even breath.
Cold.
The Shadow King opened his eyes to a sky the color of dying embers. Smoke drifted lazily overhead, carrying the scent of burnt wood and scorched earth. For a moment, he did not move. He simply stared.
He was alive.
That realization alone was impossible.
The execution spear had erased his body. His soul had been swallowed by divine light. There should have been nothing left.
Slowly, he raised a hand.
It was smaller.
Unarmored.
Unscarred.
Human.
His fingers trembled—not from weakness, but from calculation.
This was not his body.
He pushed himself upright and the world spun violently. He was lying in the ruins of what appeared to be a small village. Charred huts. Broken carts. Bodies covered in ash.
A massacre.
Fragments of unfamiliar memory pierced his mind—
A young boy.
Seventeen winters old.
Name: Kael Arden.
Orphan.
Insignificant.
Recently dead.
The Shadow King inhaled sharply.
So this was the vessel.
A powerless nobody in a world that reeked of lesser magic.
He attempted to summon darkness.
Nothing answered.
No abyssal tide.
No whispering shadows.
No crown.
Silence.
For the first time in centuries, he felt it.
Weakness.
Footsteps crunched against gravel.
Kael's—no, his—new instincts reacted instantly. He dropped back into the rubble, masking his presence.
Three armored men entered the ruined street, their armor marked with a silver sun emblem.
Light faction.
Even in another life, it seemed, light hunted shadows.
"Search the bodies," one of them muttered. "The artifact has to be here."
Artifact?
Interesting.
The Shadow King observed carefully. Their movements were disciplined but not elite. Mercenaries, perhaps. Or low-ranking knights.
Pathetic.
And yet, in this body, even one of them could kill him.
His jaw tightened.
He had lost everything—his empire, his power, his immortality.
But he had not lost his mind.
A king without a throne is still a king.
As the soldiers moved closer, something stirred deep within his chest.
A faint pulse.
Like a dying ember refusing extinction.
Then—
A translucent panel flickered before his eyes.
[Shadow Authority Detected]
Compatibility: 1%
Core Fragment Recovered
The soldiers froze.
"Did you feel that?" one whispered.
The air grew colder.
The Shadow King smiled faintly.
One percent…
More than enough to begin.