Beast Tamer's Damned Regression
In a world where magic is bought with memories, Varek Soren trades the last warm thing he owns, the sound of his dead father's voice but the System hands him a blind, mewling creature everyone calls worthless. The crowd laughs, his fiancée turns away with cold eyes, and Varek believes his life is finally finished and over.
He does not yet know that his death has not even started.
Varek is not the failure the world sees. He is the last living vessel of Azrath-Kai, a Mythic Void Leech so dangerous the old gods sealed it inside his bloodline centuries ago. His father did not die in some random battle as he was told but he was killed by the lightbringer… Aurelius, the most beloved hero in the realm butchered Aldric Soren to keep the beast from ever waking and the woman Varek loves so much has known the truth all along.
On the night after his deepest shame and disgrace, Vespera Ashford comes to him with warm food and gentle words, he still trusts her, he still believes she was forced to break their engagement, so he ate the food without questioning her or her sincerity not knowing that the food was drugged. He wakes strapped to a cold table with Vespera holding the surgical instruments, her new lover holding the lantern, and Aurelius the Lightbringer standing over him with a soft smile as he peels Varek's memories away layer by layer to rip the sealed beast from his living body. Varek dies in absolute agony, betrayed by the woman he gave everything to and butchered by the hero the whole world worships.
Then he wakes up on the morning of the Summoning Day, two weeks before his murder, with the Regression Gift burning in his blood.
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Chapter: Chapter 7: The Blood BondChapter 7: The Blood BondThe eastern gate stood unguarded at this hour. Varek slipped through the stone archway and followed the narrow road as it wound down toward the sunken field where the dead beasts lay. The moon was thin and cold overhead, and the wind had died to a low whisper that moved through the dry grass like a voice he could not quite hear.The Beast Graveyard stretched ahead of him in the pale light. Piles of bones rose up among the weeds like broken monuments. The larger corpses were dark shapes against the grey earth. A Stonehide Boar with its flank split open. A Wind Wolf with its grey fur matted and stiff. The remains of something with too many legs curled in on itself like a dead spider.Varek stopped at the edge of the field and pulled the Gnarl from inside his coat. It had grown heavier during the walk, or maybe it was just that he was tired. He set it on the cold ground and watched it lift its blind head toward the piles of bones."Can you eat all of this?" he a
Last Updated: 2026-05-18
Chapter: Chapter 6: The Weight of SecretsVarek woke to the sound of Marta moving around in the kitchen below and the weight of the Gnarl curled against his chest. For a long moment he did not move. He lay still and stared at the cracked ceiling and let the memory of the throne vision settle into his bones like cold water finding its level.Aurelius had known his name. He had looked directly at him across the impossible distance between the present and the future and called him a little moth tapping at a window. Every time he borrowed a memory, the Lightbringer felt it. Every vision pulled him closer to the man on the throne of bones and there was nothing he could do about it yet.The Gnarl stirred and opened its red eye. [You are thinking too loudly. I can feel it.]"It's good that you can feel it, at least you know what exactly I am thinking about."[You are thinking about telling someone, you are thinking about walking into the Academy and finding a master you can trust and telling them everything you know.]Varek turned
Last Updated: 2026-05-18
Chapter: Chapter 5: The Throne of BonesThe day passed in a raced by so fast, Varek stayed in his room throughout. He told Marta he was still feeling unwell from the nightmares. She brought him soup and bread at noon and he ate because his body needed strength, not because he was hungry. The Gnarl stayed curled on his pillow, its red eyes closed, its breathing slow and even.But inside his skull, the vision of his death kept playing over and over. The burning city, the broken spear. Aurelius touched his forehead with two cold fingers and said to him “You were never going to win.”It was not enough to know how he died but he needed to know why this time, he needed to understand what Aurelius was building and see the end of everything.When the sun went down and Marta's candle went off and everywhere went dark, he sat up on the bed, the Gnarl opened its red eye immediately.[You want to borrow again.]"I need to see it again. I caught a glimpse of the throne and the bones when I first woke up, but I need to see it clearly. I
Last Updated: 2026-05-18
Chapter: Chapter 4: The Vision of DeathVarek woke before the sun.He lay in the dark with the Gnarl pressed against his side and the weight of the borrowed vision still sitting in his chest like a cold stone. He had seen Vespera drop his father's ring before it happened. He had walked into that garden knowing exactly what she would do and exactly what she would say and he had not broken.But that was a small thing. Just a single moment pulled from a single day.If he wanted to survive what was coming, he needed to see more.He sat up and the Gnarl stirred beside him. Its red eye flickered open.[You did not sleep.]"I could not stop thinking about it."[About the woman.]"About what she will do to me in two weeks , about the cold table, about Aurelius." He rubbed his hands over his face. "I need to borrow again. I need to see my death, not the one on the table. I already know about that one. The other death. The one I feel waiting for me at the end of the road."[It will hurt more than last time. You are reaching further n
Last Updated: 2026-05-18
Chapter: Chapter 3: The Ring in the MudThe invitation came on a silver tray the next morning.Marta carried it up the stairs with a face like she was holding a dead rat by the tail. She knocked and Varek opened the door with the Gnarl still curled on his pillow. The creature had not moved all night. It looked small and harmless in the daylight."A servant from the Valerius estate brought this," Marta said. "It's for you."Varek took the card. Thick white paper with gold lettering… he read it aloud."Lord Draven Valerius requests the pleasure of your company this evening. A celebration in honor of new beginnings."Marta crossed her arms and scuffed. "New beginnings. His new beginning with Lady Vespera, no doubt. They want you there so they can laugh at you in person.""I know.""Will you go?"Varek looked at the invitation and thought about the vision again. "Yes," he said. "I will go."Marta stared at him. "Why? Why walk into that house and let them shame you boy?""Because if I hide, they will say I am a coward. If I sta
Last Updated: 2026-05-18
Chapter: Chapter 2: The Voice in the DarkVarek did not stop walking until he reached the back gate of the Soren manor.He pushed through into the dead garden and stood there for a moment with his back against the cold stone wall. His legs were shaking, his chest was tight. The laughter from the colosseum was still ringing in his ears, but it was gradually fading now, replaced by the heavy silence of the empty house.The voice in the alley had been the System. It was cold, distant and mechanical. It had given him the Regression Gift and warned him about the cost but the single word he heard before that, the whisper against his mind as the Gnarl pressed against his chest, that had not been the System, it had been something else entirely. Something old and ancient and he needs to know what it was.Marta was in the kitchen when he came through the door. She turned and saw his face and the bundle tucked inside his coat, the smile she held disappeared from her face instantly "Show me," she said quietly.He pulled back his coat an
Last Updated: 2026-05-18
