Heavenbreaker: The Rebirth of the cursed Hero

Chapter 1 - THE BOY WHO SHOULDN'T EXIST

The first thing Kai Ren felt was pain, raw, burning, tearing-through-his-bones pain. It shot through his chest like a blade made of light. He gasped, fingers clawing at the dirt beneath him, but even that simple movement felt unfamiliar, as if his body didn’t belong to him. Cold wind swept across his face, carrying the scent of pine, wet soil, and smoke. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled. His eyes flew open.

Dark forest canopy above. Moonlight bleeding through broken leaves. And his heart pounding like it wanted to escape his ribs.

“Where… am I?” Kai whispered, but the voice wasn’t his. It was younger, softer, weaker.

He froze.

This wasn’t his voice.

This wasn’t his body.

Memories flooded back all at once, flashes of golden castles, divine armies kneeling, the roar of celestial beasts, and the glow of a sun forged from pure mana. He remembered raising his sword against an army of corrupted gods. He remembered the thunderous sound of betrayal. He remembered falling from the sky as light pierced through him.

Azeriel Dawnblade, the Celestial Realm’s strongest hero.

But that man was dead. He felt it. He had felt his soul shatter.

So why was he breathing?

A whisper echoed in his head, distorted like broken glass scraping together.

[System Initialization Failed… Attempting Recovery…]

Kai jerked upright, pain stabbing his ribs. The voice wasn’t human. It echoed from inside him, mechanical yet alive.

“System?” he muttered. “That’s impossible… I destroyed the Heavenbreaker Curse myself.”

[Corrupted Fragment Detected.]

[Rebinding Soul Core… 17%… 42%… 89%… Completed.]

His pulse raced. “No… No, no, no. That system shouldn’t exist anymore. I buried it in the Celestial Abyss.”

The voice answered his fear.

[Host Azeriel Dawnblade, Soul Successfully Recovered.]

Kai’s breath hitched. “Azeriel…?” He touched his chest, feeling the too-small ribs, the unfamiliar weakness. “No. Not Azeriel anymore…”

He looked down at his reflection in a pool of water beside him. A boy of maybe fifteen stared back, thin, bruised, eyes sunken, hair messy and dark. A body starved and beaten.

“Whoever lived in this body… suffered.”

As if in answer, faint echoes surfaced, not his memories, but the boy’s. The flash of fists. Mocking laughter. Cold nights. Hunger. Tears. Fear. A name whispered by a trembling voice.

Kai Ren.

That was the name of the boy whose life had ended the moment Azeriel’s shattered soul crashed into him.

Azeriel closed his eyes, bowed his head, and whispered, “Rest now, Kai Ren. Whatever crushed you… I’ll find it.”

But this moment of silence didn’t last.

Branches cracked behind him.

Kai spun around just as something huge burst through the trees, a wolf-like creature twice the size of a man, its fangs dripping with black saliva, its eyes glowing sickly green. A Razorhound. A low-level monster, but deadly to someone without magic.

Exactly the type of creature that hunted the weak.

Kai’s new body trembled uncontrollably. His legs barely held. “Perfect,” he muttered. “Reborn for five minutes and already somebody wants to eat me.”

The Razorhound snarled and lunged.

He tried to summon celestial light, nothing happened. He reached for mana, his core was empty. He tried to call a weapon,nothing. This body had nothing.

Except…

[Error.]

[System Reboot Initiated.]

[Activating Heavenbreaker Curse.]

Kai’s eyes widened. “Don’t you dare,!”

Too late.

A cold surge slammed into his chest, knocking the breath out of him. Black markings crawled across his arm like living smoke.

[Curse Effect: Predation.]

[Condition Triggered: Host is in mortal danger.]

[Strength Increase: +30%.]

A fraction of power returned, weak, unstable, but enough.

The Razorhound lunged again, jaws wide.

Kai moved.

His body was still sluggish, but the system’s boost allowed him to twist aside. The beast’s teeth grazed his shoulder, tearing skin, blood spraying into the dirt. Pain fired through him, but it also triggered something else.

[Host has taken lethal damage.]

[Curse Effect: Retaliation triggered.]

[All stats temporarily increased.]

A heat burst through his limbs. His vision sharpened. His muscles tightened. He felt alive again, no, he felt like himself.

He grabbed a fallen branch and swung it like a staff. It cracked against the beast’s skull with a sickening crunch. The Razorhound stumbled but recovered instantly, snarling.

Kai grit his teeth. “I’m not strong enough. Not in this body.”

[Correction.]

[Temporary Combat Instinct Unlocked.]

Suddenly he remembered how to move, how to kill, how to survive. His hands tightened around the branch. His stance shifted. His breathing steadied.

“I see,” he whispered. “You malfunctioned… but you’re helping.”

He charged first.

The Razorhound lunged.

They collided in a storm of claws, teeth, and desperate strikes. Kai ducked beneath a swipe, jabbed the branch into the beast’s eye, rolled to the side, and smashed the stick against its jaw. It snapped in half.

The Razorhound roared and pounced.

Kai’s fingers dug into the dirt. He grabbed a rock the size of his palm.

The beast leapt.

Kai rammed the rock into its throat.

A wet crack. A dying whine. Blood poured onto the dirt as the monster collapsed.

Silence filled the forest.

Kai stumbled backward, panting hard. His arms shook violently. His entire body trembled. This weakness… this fragility… it was unbearable.

But he had survived.

He looked down at his shaking hands. “This body isn’t ready. But this world… gave me a second chance for a reason.”

Then the system spoke again, trembling like a dying flame.

[Host has slain a Level 4 Razorhound.]

[Processing Exp…]

[Error. System Corrupted.]

[Reward: +1 Memory Fragment.]

Kai froze.

A memory fragment. Something from his past life.

A blinding flash burned through his mind, Azeriel kneeling in front of the gods, golden chains binding his arms, and a booming voice declaring, “Erase him.”

Then darkness.

Kai gasped and dropped to one knee as the vision faded. Sweat dripped from his forehead. His heart felt too heavy for his chest.

“What… was that?”

But before he could gather himself, a soft voice echoed behind him.

“You’re bleeding.”

Kai twisted. A girl stepped out from behind the trees. She looked around his age, slim, with long ash-blond hair and eyes far too calm for someone who had just watched a boy kill a monster. She wore a simple dress patched in three places, as if she lived in the poorest part of the kingdom.

Kai’s guard shot up. “Who are you?”

She stepped closer, ignoring his tense posture and the blood-soaked ground. “I live in the village nearby. I heard the Razorhound and came to see if someone needed help.”

Her gaze shifted to the corpse, then to him. Something in her eyes glimmered, recognition? Fear? Curiosity? He couldn’t tell.

She kneeled beside him, ripping a strip of cloth from her sleeve. “Hold still. You’re hurt.”

He tensed as she touched him, but her hands were gentle. She wrapped the cloth around his shoulder carefully, tying it tightly. When she finished, she leaned back slightly and gave him a small smile.

“That should stop the bleeding… Kai.”

He froze. “How do you know my name?”

She tilted her head, expression unreadable. “Everyone in the village knows you.”

The real Kai’s memories stirred, the laughter, the mockery, the pity.

A frustrated sigh left his lips. “Right. That makes sense.”

But the girl shook her head slowly. “No. That’s not what I meant.” Her eyes met his fully, and something ancient flickered inside them, something dangerous. “You’re different now. You feel… different.”

Kai’s pulse sharpened.

“Who are you?” he asked again, firm this time.

She stood, dusting off her dress. Her eyes never left his.

“My name is Lira,” she said softly. “And I’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”

Kai’s breath hitched. “Waiting… for me?”

She nodded once. “Because you’re not the same boy who died in this forest.”

A cold wind blew through the trees as the moon emerged from behind the clouds. Kai felt his skin prickle.

Her next words shattered the night.

“You’re not Kai Ren. You’re someone else. Someone the heavens fear.”

Kai’s heart thundered in his chest. “How do you,”

But she wasn’t finished.

She stepped closer, her whisper brushing against his ear like a ghost’s breath.

“Welcome back, Azeriel Dawnblade.”

Everything stopped.

Kai froze in place, unable to breathe, speak, or think. How could she possibly know? Who was this girl? Why did she know his true name, the name the gods erased?

Lira stepped back, her expression unreadable.

“The world has been waiting for your return.”

Kai stared at her, pulse shaking in his throat.

And then, a distant horn blared across the forest.

Torches ignited in the trees.

Voices shouted.

“Search the area! The monster is dead, someone must be alive!”

“Find whoever killed it!”

“Lord Varyn ordered us to bring him back!”

Lira’s eyes widened. “They’re coming for you.”

“Who?” Kai demanded.

She grabbed his wrist. “People who think you should’ve died tonight.”

Kai’s blood ran cold.

Lira whispered one final warning before pulling him into the shadows.

“Run. Because the night you were reborn… the heavens felt it.”

And as Kai stumbled after her, branches snapping behind him, boots thundering through the forest, the system flickered one more time:

[Warning: Tracker Signals Detected.]

[The gods are aware of your awakening.]

Kai’s jaw tightened.

Then let them come.