The sword pierced Kael Veyron's chest just as the final defensive barrier protecting humanity's last city shattered, sending a deafening shock wave across the battlefield.For several seconds, Kael struggled to understand what had happened. He stared at the golden blade protruding from his chest, feeling its burning magic spread through his veins while the world around him descended into chaos. Beyond the ruined walls, thousands of monsters poured through the breach, their shrieks drowning out the desperate cries of dying soldiers.Yet none of those horrors frightened him as much as the man standing before him.Lucien Draven, humanity's celebrated hero and the man Kael had trusted with his life, still held the sword's hilt."Why?" Kael whispered.His voice sounded painfully weak beneath the thunder rolling across the blood-red sky. He had imagined dying countless times throughout the war, but he had never considered that his life would end at the hands of the friend he had fought so h

“You’re lying!”Kael Veyron stumbled away from the black door as the voice on the other side repeated his name. The wooden floor beneath his feet trembled violently, while thin fractures spread across the walls of his dormitory. Every protective enchantment in the room had redirected its remaining energy toward the sealed passage beneath him, but the barrier was already beginning to fail.The voice laughed again, carrying a familiar note of bitter amusement.“You always say that when you’re frightened.”Kael felt the blood drain from his face. The voice was not merely similar to his own; it carried the same uneven breathing he remembered from the final battlefield and the slight rasp that appeared whenever his throat became dry. Even its mocking tone sounded painfully familiar.He had heard himself speak thousands of times throughout his life, but hearing his own voice emerge from something imprisoned beneath the academy made him feel as though his identity were being stripped away.“

The first scream erupted from beneath the academy, followed by a second cry from Professor Aldric Thorne as the floor split open directly beneath his feet.“Kael, get away from the window!” Thorne shouted.Kael barely registered the warning because his mind remained trapped by the final message that had appeared across the academy’s communication crystals before they shattered. Although the images had vanished, the words continued burning through his thoughts, refusing to let him forget what he had witnessed.ORIGINAL SUBJECT RELEASED.CURRENT HOST NO LONGER REQUIRED.Then the voice delivered those two horrifying words that changed everything he thought he knew about his existence.She created me first.A violent tremor shook Seraphina’s room, throwing Kael against a nearby table as the shelves collapsed. Books scattered across the floor, and glass containers shattered against the walls, releasing clouds of glowing dust that swirled through the air. Meanwhile, dark veins spread across

“Identity confirmed: Lucien Draven.”Kael stared at the message hovering before his eyes, unable to comprehend why the system had identified him as the very man who had murdered him. The name remained fixed in his vision, glowing with an unnatural intensity that made him wonder whether his mind was breaking beneath the pressure of the memories flooding back into it.Across the shattered room, the stranger wearing his face continued dissolving into a storm of black particles. Elias stood motionless beside the broken floor, watching the fragments drift through the air, while Elara Veyron covered her mouth with both hands. Even Professor Aldric Thorne, who had spent years pretending to understand the academy’s darkest secrets, looked as though he had just witnessed the beginning of the world's destruction.Then Kael heard Lucien’s voice inside his head.You were never supposed to remember me.He staggered backward, pressing both hands against his skull as the voice echoed through his tho