Chapter: The dual flame ignitesWalter's eyes narrowed as he leaned on his curved sword which was planted in the earth like a marker between worlds. "Are you ready?" Walter echoed, his voice dry as cracked parchment. He glanced at Nyra and Selene, standing a few paces behind. Nyra's spear rested against her shoulder, her expression was guarded. Selene's gaze was serene, but her presence hummed with unspoken power, like a storm held in check. Adam nodded, his fists tight. The flame inside him was raw and hungry pushing against his ribs. "I've seen too much. Lost too much. Teach me to control this." Walter's lips twitched, as he held back a smile. "Control? Boy, that's the least of it. Come." He turned, leading them deeper into the Bloodpine Forest. The trees grew thicker, their bark etched with faint runes that glowed when shadows fell across them. No beasts stirred. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath. They walked for hours, until the canopy opened to a clearing ringed by ancient stones. Moss-covered pilla
Last Updated: 2025-12-22
Chapter: Blood awakening.The ground rumbled beneath Adam’s feet as he stared at the girl suspended within the crystal. Her eyes were glowing red, like molten gems never left his face. Her voice had been soft, barely more than a whisper, yet it echoed in his bones like a thunderclap.“Help.”It was not just a plea.It was a command.The black altar below her pulsed with ancient runes. Runes older than any kingdom Adam had ever heard of. Nyra stepped forward, lips moving silently as she read the etchings.“This isn’t human magic,” she muttered. “It’s something else. Old. Primal.”Adam’s sword hummed at his side. The Essence within it surged to life, resonating with the crimson aura surrounding the girl. It was as though the blade recognized her.Or feared her.“What is she?” Adam asked.Nyra’s eyes were grim. “Not what. Who? That is a Bloodbound. A being created by fusing a soul with raw, unstable Essence. They were wiped out during the Age of Splintering.”“Wiped out,” Adam repeated. “Then why is she alive?”N
Last Updated: 2025-12-09
Chapter: The shattered path.The forest between Skyreach and the Maw was known only as the Gray Veil.Legends whispered that its trees were older than the kingdoms, older than the gods, older than death itself. Each step Adam took down the moss-covered path felt like walking through the bones of something ancient and slumbering.No birds sang here. No wind stirred the branches. Just total silence and eyes.Always, the feeling of being watched.“Keep your blade loose,” Nyra whispered. “The Gray Veil doesn’t forgive mistakes.”Adam nodded. His fingers hovered near his sword. A faint, ghostly light pulsed in the depths of the woods. Essence drifted from cracks in the bark of dead trees. Spirits, perhaps. Or remnants of old battles.He stepped over a fallen root, and the air shifted.Then he heard the whispers again.But these were different from the ones in the ravine. These were clear. Familiar."Adam..."He froze.That voice wasn’t Nyra’s nor was it anyone in this world.It was his mother’s."Adam, why did you lea
Last Updated: 2025-12-09
Chapter: Baptism in blood.The winds shifted at dawn.Adam stood at the mouth of the cave, watching the eastern sky bleed orange and crimson. The land before him a broad, cracked valley riddled with bones and the rusted ruins of old siege towers seemed to tremble under something vast and unseen.Something was coming.Even Nyra, usually so sarcastic and bold, was silent.She crouched beside him, running a finger along the length of her spear. “Do you feel it?”Adam nodded slowly. “Like thunder. Afar off.”“Not thunder,” she said. “Footsteps.”He looked at her in surprise. “What kind of footsteps?”She smiled grimly. “The kind that don't stop walking until there's nothing left.”It began like a whisper.Low and steady. A tremor beneath the ground.Then the birds stopped singing. The wind stopped blowing. The very air seemed to still, as though the land itself was holding its breath.Then came the roar.A thousand deep, inhuman voices howling, bellowing, shrieking as one. Trees trembled. Rocks rolled down the hill
Last Updated: 2025-12-09
Chapter: Into the crucible.The borderlands stank of death. Not of fresh death that was sharp and coppery. This was old death, woven into the soil, thick in the rivers, clinging to the very wind. It smelled of rust and ash, of ancient bones ground into powder beneath decades of boots and beast claws.Adam walked the edge of a cracked road, flanked on either side by scorched trees and decaying fences. His boots were caked in dried blood. His blade still plain to look at hung loosely from his hip, its essence now humming beneath the surface like a sleeping beast.He hadn’t seen another living soul in two days.But he wasn’t alone. Not truly.He could feel them now. Aura signatures. Hidden energies flickering in the distance like lanterns under murky water. Some were small animals, human, dying. Others were vast and cold and wrong, waiting behind the trees like forgotten gods.This land had once belonged to men.Now it belonged to war.He crested a ridge at dusk and saw them: the war camps.Dozens of them spread li
Last Updated: 2025-12-09
Chapter: Ashes and oaths.The smoke lingered for three days.Even after the last pyre had burned down to ash, it clung to the air like a ghost that refused to leave. The village was silent. No hammers rang, no chickens clucked, no songs were sung. Only the wind spoke now, low and mournful, as though mourning with the living.Adam stood atop a scorched roof as his eyes surveyed the ruins of what once resembled life. The chapel still stood though half collapsed, with splintered beams and stained glass shards glittering among the weeds. Around it, makeshift tents had been erected. The survivors, those who did not flee, gathered there each evening to whisper, to cry, or to pray.The village was not dead. But it was dying.And in that decay, Adam felt a bitter familiarity. Just like his old world, it was full of fragile people hoping monsters wouldn’t come again.Yet they always kept coming and somehow they would always be survivors.“You’re leaving, aren’t you?”A voice came from behind him. Clara White, dirt-smud
Last Updated: 2025-12-09
DARK WAR REBORN; From Magicless Boy to World's Hidden Hope
Lord Dryk and all his followers were defeated centuries ago. Or so the white mages believed until the reincarnation of his very own mistress, Ramona and her campaign to resurrect the dark lord.
Yet darkness could return without the promise of a savior.
Wayne a mage born without the gift was shipped off to stay with his uncle Alard and his daughter Calley, another abomination to the line of magic, while his father goes off with the other mages to find the savior and bring an end to the campaign of Ramona.
But in the rarest of times, when no one expected, Wayne’s gift awakened, not in the manner which everyone thought it would be, and no one sensed it except Alard, yet that wasn’t all, Calley also awakened the gift like every other mage in history attracting the eyes of both good and evil, forging the prophecy to take a form no one saw coming and with it, the beginning of a long-avoided war.
***
“I am tired of waiting for saviors, Fifteen years they have searched and found nothing. My father risks his life on a prophecy that may be empty. And we sit here like sheep, praying some child will appear to save us.”
“In the old tales, it was not only mages who broke Dyrk’s host at the Battle of Broken Chains. It was the swords of men, thousands of them held the line while the archmages sang their spells. Common steel bought the world its freedom when magic faltered. If this Ramona comes again, let her face more than spells. Let her face men who will not wait for miracles.”
Alard studied him for a long moment, something unreadable moving behind his eyes. “And what would you have, nephew?”
“Train me,” Wayne said.
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Chapter: Chapter 8: Bonds in the DarkIn the frozen heart of Alnor, where the fortress walls wept ice and the wind howled like damned souls, the black riders returned. Their horses steamed in the bitter cold, flanks lathered from the punishing ride north. Snow swirled around them as they passed through the great iron gates, which groaned shut with a finality that echoed across the barren courtyard.At the center of the group rode the leader, his shadowed helm concealing all but the gleam of crimson eyes. Slung across his saddle like a sack of grain was Calley bound in chains of inky darkness that pulsed with malevolent life. She stirred weakly as they dismounted, her broken wrist throbbing and her temple bruised from the blow that had silenced her screams.Ramona awaited them in the throne hall, a vast chamber carved from black granite, lit by torches that burned with unnatural blue flames. She sat upon her obsidian seat, Kaleb a silent sentinel at her right. When the riders entered, dragging Calley forward and forcing he
Last Updated: 2025-12-18
Chapter: Chapter 7: The Gates of Hidden PlagueThe road to Hidden Plague climbed steadily through pine-clad hills, the air growing thinner and colder with every mile. Snow lay thick on the ground now, muffling the world into silence. Wayne and Calley had been traveling for weeks, hunting small game, melting snow for water, avoiding roads and villages. Calley’s gift had grown stronger in fits and starts: she could summon fire reliably now, and once, when Wayne twisted his ankle on icy stones, a soft golden light had flowed from her hands to knit the bone whole.They spoke little of the future. Only of the next meal, the next shelter, the next step toward the great white city where the Conclave held court.At last, on a morning when the sky was the color of polished steel, they crested the final ridge. Below them sprawled Hidden Plague, its towers of pale marble rising from the valley floor, walls gleaming like frost, banners of silver and blue snapping in the wind. The great gates stood open, guarded by sentries in white cloaks.“W
Last Updated: 2025-12-18
Chapter: Chapter 6: Flight and FireWayne and Calley stood motionless, the weight of Garrick's glare pressing on them like a physical force. The room smelled of sweat, smoke, and the faint metallic tang of blood from the recent battle. Calley's stomach growled audibly, a traitor in the tense silence, and Wayne felt his own exhaustion pulling at him like chains. They had run for days, eating roots and berries, sleeping in snatches under brambles. Answers could wait but survival could not.Calley spoke first, her voice steadier than Wayne expected. "Captain... we're starving and tired. We've been on the road for days. Food and rest, please. We'll answer everything in the morning. On our word."Garrick's eyes narrowed, flicking between them as if measuring the truth in their faces. He was a hard man, forged in border skirmishes and long winters, but there was a flicker of something softer, shred of pity perhaps or memory of his debt to Alard."Alard's kin," he muttered, rubbing his bearded chin. "Fine. But mark my words to
Last Updated: 2025-12-18
Chapter: Chapter 5: Whispers from the NorthFar beyond the settled lands, where winter never truly released its grip, the fortress of Alnor crouched against a jagged peak like a beast frozen mid-snarl. Black stone drank the weak light of the polar sun; banners of crimson and shadow snapped in the eternal wind. No living tree grew within a hundred leagues, only twisted stumps bleached white by frost and sorcery.In the highest tower, Ramona waited.She was five-and-twenty now, slender and pale, with hair the color of spilled ink and eyes that held no warmth at all. The vessel had served her well, beautiful enough to bend mortals to her will, strong enough to contain the ancient power coiling within. She wore robes of deepest violet, embroidered with silver threads that shifted like living smoke when she moved.A single black raven circled the tower twice, then dropped through the open archway to land on the outstretched arm of the man who stood at her side.Kaleb did not flinch as the bird’s talons pierced leather and flesh. Blo
Last Updated: 2025-12-18
Chapter: Chapter 4: Echoes of FireWord traveled faster than any horse when carried by mage fire.In the shadowed halls of Hidden Plague, where the Conclave gathered beneath their banners a white-robed messenger knelt before the council circle. His voice rang clear against the vaulted stone.“A spark of healing flared in the midlands, my lords. In the village of Norwick. Our seekers rode there and found nothing, no mage, no child of power. The villagers swear no gift has touched that place in years. Yet the weave does not lie.”The archmages murmured among themselves. Another false trail. Another dead end in their endless hunt for the prophesied child or for the vessel of Ramona herself.Wade stood at the edge of the circle, cloaked in travel-stained gray, his face gaunt from weeks of scrying and riding. When he heard the name Norwick, the world narrowed to a single terrible point.His son.The gift had not skipped Wayne after all or perhaps it had manifested late, raw and uncontrolled. Either way, the spark had paint
Last Updated: 2025-12-18
Chapter: Chapter 3: The Spark and the Shadow
The training yard behind the manor was a patch of packed earth ringed by low stone walls and a rickety wooden fence. Dawn after dawn, frost still clinging to the grass, Alard would drill Wayne without mercy. Footwork until the boy’s calves burned, parries until his wrists ached, thrusts and cuts repeated until the motions etched themselves into muscle and bone.Calley always watched from the fence rail with legs swinging as she occasionally called out corrections in a voice that carried the smug authority of someone who had been swinging a blade since she could walk.On the fifth morning since Wayne’s training begun, Alard happened to step away from the training yard to speak with the stable master about a lame horse, leaving Wayne and Calley to spar alone.“Again,” Calley said, circling him with her blunted practice sword. “You’re still dropping your guard on the riposte.”Wayne lunged. Steel rang on steel as Calley slipped inside his guard with infuriating ease and flicked her blade
Last Updated: 2025-12-18
