REINCARNATION OF WAR

CHAPTER 5 — THE SHADOW OF THE WARDEN

The explosion hurled dust and debris into the night sky, rattling windows along the street. A shockwave slapped across Derick’s back as Kael dragged him into the alley.

Derick twisted around. “MAYA!”

Kael yanked him harder. “Don’t look back! She made her choice!”

Derick stumbled. “We can’t leave her”

“You don’t understand what a Warden is!” Kael snapped. “We stay, we die!”

The street behind them burned with black fire, warping the air like heat over asphalt. Shadows writhed unnaturally along the ground, reaching, searching.

Derick’s heart hammered. “She’s fighting that alone !”

“And she wouldn’t last ten seconds if she had to protect you at the same time!” Kael shot back. “MOVE!”

They sprinted down the alley, shoes splashing through puddles as the rain hammered harder. A deafening blast erupted behind them, followed by Maya’s voice, fierce and commanding: “STAY DOWN!”

Another explosion. The sky flashed white, then purple. Derick’s legs faltered. He gripped the wall, gasping. “I can’t just run. I can’t, she came for me, she saved me”

Kael spun, grabbing Derick’s shoulders. “Listen to me. Maya isn’t dead. She’s stalling him. That’s what Wardens do, they test the target’s protections before killing them. Her goal is to buy us seconds, not minutes.”

Derick’s blood ran cold. “Seconds…?”

“Yes,” Kael said. “And we’re wasting them.”

A deep, low hum vibrated through the ground. Derick’s breath froze. “What… what is that?”

Kael’s eyes widened. “He’s marking the battlefield.”

Black sigils of shadow crawled across the walls, like ink bleeding through concrete. Kael cursed. “A Binding Field. If he seals it, we die here.”

Derick’s voice trembled. “Then how do we”

Kael grabbed his arm. “We get out of the radius. Come on!”

They bolted again, panting, slipping through the narrow back streets of the city. But then, A figure appeared in front of them. Not running. Not moving. Just there.

Like he stepped out of the dark itself. Derick froze. Kael swore violently. “No. No, he can’t be here already”

The Warden’s silhouette was tall, draped in a cloak that seemed to drink in the surrounding light. His mask was smooth and expressionless, a single vertical red slit glowing across the front.

Shadow coiled around his feet like living smoke. Derick’s voice cracked. “How… how did he get here so fast?”

Kael whispered, defeated, “Ward-step. A technique only they have.”

Derick swallowed hard. “What does it do…?”

“It makes distance meaningless.”

The Warden raised a hand, slow, deliberate. Kael stepped in front of Derick. “I’ll buy time. When I say run”

“No,” Derick said, grabbing his arm. “I’m not leaving you”

Kael turned his head slightly. “I’m not Maya. I don’t need you to protect me. Just run when I say.”

Derick tightened his grip. “If you die”

Kael’s voice softened, rare and raw. “If I die, it will be doing my actual purpose.”

The Warden’s shadow extended toward them. Kael whispered, “Run.”

Then he leapt, charging the Warden with a roar. Derick stumbled backward as Kael’s fist glowed with radiant gold light, colliding with the Warden’s palm.

A shockwave tore through the alley. Derick shielded his face as trash cans, bricks, and shards of pavement blasted past him. Kael shouted through the dust, “DERICK! GO!”

Derick ran, but only a few steps, because as the dust cleared, Kael was on the ground, blood dripping from his mouth. The Warden hadn’t moved an inch.

Derick’s world cracked open. Kael lifted his head, eyes blurry. “That… thing… he nullified my aura…”

The Warden turned toward Derick. Kael forced himself up, body trembling. “DERICK… RUN!”

But Derick couldn’t move. He stared at the Warden, and the Warden stared back. The red slit in the mask narrowed. And in that moment, Derick felt something inside himself tremble. A pressure. A calling. A recognition.

The Warden whispered, a voice like dead leaves scraping against stone: “Warborn.”

Derick’s blood froze. “You… you know that word.”

The Warden slowly nodded. Kael’s voice cracked. “Derick, don’t talk, DON’T ANSWER”

Derick stepped back. “Why are you after me? What do you want?”

The Warden tilted his head. Then, In a quiet, measured voice, he responded: “To awaken you.”

Kael coughed hard. “He’s lying. He’s trying to trigger your divine core, DON’T LET HIM”

Derick’s hands shook. “My… divine core?”

The Warden raised a finger toward Derick’s chest. Red energy pulsed from the mask. “Your power is incomplete. Unstable. You are a threat to yourself. I am here to restore balance.”

Derick’s heart felt like it was being squeezed. “You want to kill me. That’s what Wardens do.”

The Warden shook his head slowly. “No.”

Kael froze. “What?”

The Warden’s voice was chillingly calm. “I do not kill Warborn. I awaken them.”

Derick stepped back again. “Why me? Why now?”

“Because,” the Warden replied,

“your other guardian interfered.”

Derick’s breath caught. “Maya…”

Kael hissed. “Don’t let him mess with your head”

The Warden took one quiet step forward. “Maya broke ancient law,” he said. “She used soul-binding to restore your spirit. That technique is forbidden.”

Derick whispered, horrified, “She… she broke a law just to bring me back…?”

“Yes,” the Warden said. “Because she could not bear your death.”

Derick’s chest tightened painfully. “What are you talking about?”

The Warden’s voice lowered. “She watched you die. Twice.”

Derick stumbled back. “Twice…?”

Kael shouted desperately, “DERICK, LISTEN TO ME, WARDENS TWIST FACTS, PLEASE, FOCUS”

The Warden ignored him. “She held you as your last breath left your body. She refused to let go. In despair, she bound her life to yours. The moment you awakened tonight, she weakened.”

Derick felt the ground fall out from under him. No. No, that couldn’t be, “Maya… is dying?” he whispered.

The Warden nodded once. Kael went pale. “That’s impossible… that technique was outlawed”

“She used it,” the Warden said. “For him.”

Derick’s vision blurred. “Maya… why would she… why would she do that?”

The Warden’s voice softened unnaturally. “Because she loved you.”

The world stopped. Derick staggered. “That… that can’t be true”

“She waited centuries for your return,” the Warden said. “And now she is paying the price.”

Kael clenched his fists, eyes wide. “No no no… this is wrong… Maya wouldn’t, she’s too cold, too detached, she wouldn’t”

Derick’s voice broke. “Is she, is she going to die?”

The Warden lifted a hand. “That is up to you.”

Derick blinked. “Me?”

“To save her,” the Warden said, “you must awaken fully. Your core must stabilize.”

Kael shouted, “DON’T LISTEN, HE WANTS TO FORCE YOUR AWAKENING, YOU’LL LOSE CONTROL”

Derick stared at the Warden, heart pounding, breath shaking, mind cracking open. “Are you saying… if I unlock my full power… she lives?”

“Yes.”

“And if I don’t?”

The Warden answered without hesitation: “She dies within the hour.”

Silence.

Rain. Thunder. Derick felt the world tilt.

Maya… dying… because of him, Because she saved him. Because she remembered him. Because she—No.

He wouldn’t let her die again. He took a slow step toward the Warden. “Tell me what I have to do.”

Kael screamed, “DERICK—N—!”

The Warden extended his hand, palm glowing red. “Take my hand.”

Derick reached, A shockwave of gold slammed into him, throwing him sideways into the wall. Derick gasped, stunned. Kael stood, golden aura blazing wildly, eyes burning with panic and fury.

“DERICK HAYFORD,” he roared,

“IF YOU TAKE THAT MONSTER’S HAND, YOU WILL NEVER COME BACK AGAIN!”

The Warden turned his head slowly toward Kael. Kael glared at him, chest heaving. “You want the truth, Derick?” Kael spit, voice shaking. “Here it is”

He pointed at the Warden. “That thing isn’t here to awaken you.”

His voice broke. “It’s here to TAKE you.”

Derick’s blood ran cold. Kael lifted a trembling hand toward him. “Derick… if you go with him… you become the very thing you were reincarnated to stop.”

The Warden raised his hand again. The red glow ignited. And Derick, caught between them, took a single, irreversible breath. Everything depended on his next step.