Born Without Magic, Destined to Rule All

Chapter 003 – Awakened by Death

 Darkness!!

Cold!!

Silence!!

Zarek fell through a bottomless, lightless expanse, weightless but pulled by something intangible. There was no breeze, no whoosh of air against his ears. No sense of falling — only the creeping, dreamlike awareness that he was no longer part of the world above. He was detached. Untethered. Alone. His body no longer hurt. He felt nothing. It was like numb. His arms, his legs — even his heartbeat — felt distant, like they were memories of someone else's life. For a moment, he wasn't sure if he was alive or already dead.

"Am I dead already?"

The idea floated lazily in his head, not in terror, but as a hopeless echo. Maybe this was death — not pain, not flames, not judgment, but relief. A void where even time had forgotten him.

Then — a spark.

A silent shudder coursed through the emptiness, as if the echo of some ancient stirring. And then, out of the very bone of the world, a voice arose — not in sound, but in feeling. It resonated deep within his soul, skirting the ears and driving itself into his very self.

"You are not done."

A burst of blinding light flashed in the distance — keen, white-gold, and beating like the heartbeat of the universe. From it, a shape emerged. Huge. Unthinkable. Its outline was fluid, shifting, made of stone and flame, cloud and tempest, water and heaven — an animate expression of the elements themselves. It loomed over him without weight, existing in both this world and somewhere far beyond it.

It had no face, no mouth or eyes, but Zarek could feel its eyes cutting through all the walls he'd ever constructed. It could see the shattered child behind the snark, the desperate kid buried in a book, the empty youth pining for even the merest spark of authority.

And it was speaking — this time with an antiquity to its clarity that was older than the stars.

"You are the hollow vessel. The forgotten seed. The silence before the storm. And yet… you choose to live."

Zarek attempted to respond, but nothing came out. His voice, along with his form, was still trapped in the void.

"One element is yours,” the entity intoned. “The earth beneath the stars. Claim it… or die empty."

Then—

CRACK!!!

The noise ripped through the blackness like thunder, and then Zarek crashed into something solid — hard, but not killing. A broken, impenetrable chunk of rock closed around him in a heartbeat. But this time, there was no pain. There was only warmth. Not flame, not heat — but a rich, earthy warmth, like the sun on the ground after rain. It filtered into his bones, his shattered ribs, his shredded muscles. He gasped.

His eyes flew open.

The cliffside rose beside him, no longer a sheer drop, but a towering wall of rock that was… moving. Shifting. Obeying. The stone that pinned his limbs wasn't killing him — it was restraining him. A cradle of earth, carved with unnatural precision, had broken his fall. His own breath came in shallow gulps as he gazed in amazement at the rocks encircling his arms, his legs, his chest. They throbbed with a faint energy, and through that link, he knew something was alive. The ground itself was breathing. Not figuratively — but literally.

Zarek's veins radiated a dull brown color, as if roots absorbing life from the ground. His fingers spasmed, and the stone obeyed, curling and remolding as if it were nothing more than clay in his hand.

He breathed, his voice rasp-throat, but aglow with wonder. "What… is this?" 

The voice repeated again, not from above — but within.

"Earth… is yours."

His heart pounded. A heavy ache tolled in rhythm with the thundering under his skin. Something had been opened within him — some ancient well he didn't know he possessed. His link to the world was no longer abstract. No longer read about from old books. It was real. He felt the press of stone. The strain of fault lines. The vibration of bedrock beneath. And yet deeper something more ancient.

The rock cradle shuddered, then started to drop him with unnatural accuracy into a secret pocket of the cliff face — a cave long concealed from sight. Bioluminescent moss adhered to the walls in patches all around, throwing an otherworldly green light over the cavern. Stalactites dangled from the ceiling like stone fangs, and water dripped in rhythmic echoes along the walls.

Zarek fell to his knees on the cold, damp ground, coughing harshly. Blood spattered across the rock, his wounds were healing already — slowly, agonizingly — but irrefutably. The pain was no longer an obstacle. It was a reminder that he was still alive. And something else stirred within him. The voice came back, now stronger, more imperative.

"One door creaks open. Four others lie ahead."

"You will awaken… one at a time."

"But power comes with purpose."

"Find your fire… or the world will freeze."

Zarek's eyes flashed up, his heart racing, his skin bruised, his body battered — but his soul afire. "I don't know who you are," he muttered out loud, shaking with it. "Or what you just did to me…" 

He balled his hand into a fist. The ground beneath him shifted, responding to his will. A wave of stone rippled across the floor like water stirred by wind. “But I’m not dying down here.”

Zarek rose from the ground slowly, his limbs trembling with exhaustion and revelation. Dirt clung to his robes. Blood stained his collar. But beneath it all, something had changed. Something permanent. Power hummed beneath his skin. It feels real, tangible and alive. The stone that surrounded him vibrated with every step he took, feeling him, reacting, waiting for his bidding. He didn't comprehend it all. But it was his. He approached the cave entrance, where moonlight now filtered faintly through the crevice far above. Wind screamed along the edge of the cliff, but no longer whispered malice. Now, it was like challenge.

"I don't care what they think anymore," Zarek growled, voice low but with steel.

He clamped his fist again. The ground writhed beneath his feet.

For the first time ever, Zarek Vonn didn't just exist. He commanded.

And as he stepped into the light seeping through the stone, back toward a world that had broken and mocked him, one thing burned brighter than all the wounds on his body:

He would never be powerless again.