2025-02-01 12:00:58Darkness closed in on Kael as he fell into the depths of unconsciousness. Pain reached out to him, a burning fire within his ribs and limbs. Then cold stone beneath him, damp air clamped around him. His eyelids fluttered open on the dim glow of torchlight flickering against the crumbling stone walls. Chains rattled in the silence.
He was captured. A groan slipped past his lips as he shifted, the weight of iron shackles biting into his wrists. The metallic tang of blood filled his mouth. His body screamed in protest with every movement, and as he tried to sit up, a boot slammed into his chest, forcing him back down. "Stay down, little brother," Darius murmured, his voice dripping with amusement. "You’ll only make this worse for yourself." Kael coughed, spitting crimson onto the floor. His vision cleared enough to see Darius looming above him, his golden eyes gleaming in the dim light. The smirk that wore a wedge of malice across his jaw sent a fresh wave of hatred through Kael's veins. "You should've stayed dead," Darius continued, kneeling beside him. "It would've been easier for everyone. Instead, you chose defiance." Kael clenched his fists, his wrists grinding painfully against the shackles. "Go to hell." Darius laughed, the sound hollow. "Hell, little brother? Look around. You’re already there." He stood, turning to a nearby table where an array of cruel instruments lay gleaming. Blades, hooks, and brands tools of agony, sharpened by years of use. He traced a finger along the edge of a dagger, thoughtful. "Do you remember when Father used to discipline us?" Darius mused, picking up a thin, curved knife. "Pain is a teacher, Kael. It forges the weak into something useful. But you? You've always been broken." Kael steeled himself as Darius moved toward him. The first slice was slow, purposeful. A thin line of fire erupted across his collarbone, warm blood sliding down his skin. He gritted his teeth, trying not to yell. He wasn't going to give Darius the pleasure. "Still so stubborn," Darius sighed. "But that won't last. Everyone breaks eventually." A scream echoed in the chamber not Kael’s, but another’s. Darius paused, his head snapping toward the heavy iron door. The muffled sounds of a struggle seeped through the cracks shouts, the clash of steel, and then silence. Darius’ smirk faltered. He turned, grabbing his sword from the wall. "Stay here, dear brother. I’ll be back to finish our lesson." Kael sat there as Darius ran through the door and left it slightly ajar, his breath in ragged gasps, pounding heart, thinking someone was in here. Torches flickered on the walls, casting strange shadows that darted back and forth. He saw her then, slip through the doorway and slide across the room like a ghost. Selis. Her face was coated with blood hers or someone else's, Kael couldn't tell. Her eyes went to him, and without another thought, she plunged forward, and in her hand, a dagger gleamed under the firelight. For one moment, Kael thought she'd come to end it. But she cut through the chains binding his wrists. "Can you stand?" she breathed. Kael nodded, even as pain flared through his limbs. He pushed himself up, swaying slightly. Selis pressed a dagger into his palm. "We have to move," she said. "They'll be back any second." Kael didn't ask why she was helping him. There would be time for questions later. For now, survival was all that mattered. They slipped into the corridor, blood thick in the air. Bodies littered the floor guards cut down with lethal precision. The path ahead was clear, but Kael knew it wouldn't stay that way for long. Then, from the far end of the corridor, a slow clap rang out. Darius. He stepped forward, sword dripping with fresh blood, his golden eyes burning with something close to delight. Behind him, more figures emerged from the shadows assassins clad in black, their weapons drawn. "Well, isn't this touching?" Darius mused, tilting his head. "A rescue attempt? And here I thought you had more sense, Selis." Selis stiffened to Kael's side, her grip on the dagger tightening as she watched in horror. "Move aside, Darius. This doesn't have to end with more blood." Darius laughed. "Oh, but it does. You of all people should know that." He charged. And everything went away. Everything got blurred into this haze of movement. Kael barely parried the first stroke, his poor body straining to keep him upright. Selis spun forward, engaging another of the assassins, those daggers flickering like liquid silver death. Darius pressed harder, his strikes relentless. "You're slow," he taunted, slamming his sword against Kael's with enough force to send him reeling. "Weak. Broken. You should've never come back." Kael gritted his teeth, forcing himself to keep moving. But he was losing. Every block rattled through his bones; every counter felt sluggish. He was running on the last embers of strength, and Darius knew it. A sharp pain exploded through his side. He gasped, stumbling backward. Darius had cut deep, his blade coated in Kael's blood. "It's over," Darius whispered, raising his sword for the final blow. A sudden scream split the air. One of the assassins crumpled, a dagger buried in his eye. Selis twisted, catching another by the throat with a brutal slash. For a split second, Darius's attention wavered. Kael didn't hesitate. With everything he had left, he drove his dagger into Darius’ thigh. His brother howled in pain, staggering. Kael seized the moment, twisting the blade before ripping it free. Blood poured from the wound, but Darius didn’t fall. Instead, he grinned, his golden eyes wild with fury. "You’ll regret that," he growled. Kael took a shaky step back, his vision blurring. "Kael!" Selis shouted, grabbing his arm. "We have to go!" The corridor behind them was open, their only hope to escape. But Darius wasn't done. He yanked the dagger out of his leg, standing upright, the wound exposed to the air. "Run all you want," he shouted after them. "I will find you. And when I do, you'll wish I had killed you here." Kael gazed at his brother once more before turning away from him. They ran. The city was ahead of them, but so was the hunt.
Previous Chapter
Related Chapters
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 7: The Hunt Begins
The air was heavy with the stench of blood and fire. Kael's gasps for air were ragged as he dragged himself through the city's ruined streets, his body screaming protest. Selis pulled him on, her hand clamped over his wrist like a vice, her dagger stained with fresh blood. Behind them, the shouted cries of pursuit echoed through the broken streets.Darius was far from done.Kael ground his teeth together to silence the whimper as each step pulsed pain through the open wound in his side. "Goddamn. How much longer?""Not far," Selis whispered sharply. "If we make it over the northern wall, we can vanish."A piercing whistle shattered the silence.Instinct took over. Kael pushed Selis out of the way just in time as an arrow whizzed by, burying itself in the wooden frame of a collapsed building. A second arrow followed, grazing his shoulder. Pain flared, but he pushed himself to move."Move your ass, Kael!" Selis yelled, yanking him into a side alley. "They're closing in!"Kael sucked in
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 8: The End of the Line
The world smudged for Kael as the point of Darius's blade crept closer to his throat. His blood flowed unimpeded, and his body felt like it was shutting down, each passing second more excruciating than the last. He had thrown everything he could, every iota of his strength, but all seemed to go for naught. His eyesight began to darken, and for a second, he almost welcomed it.But then Selis's voice burst through the fog, weak but desperate."Kael!"The sound of her gasp cut through the night air, and Kael's eyes snapped open, his heart pounding in his chest. Selis her blood-stained body crumpled against the alley wall was still alive. And for a brief second, that thought ignited something inside him. A glimmer of defiance. A reason to keep going.Darius's blade was a mere inches from Kael's neck, yet the bastard savored it, watching him squirm."I've always wanted to see you break, Kael," Darius whispered, his voice cold and venomous. "This is what you get for trying to run. For tryin
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 9: A Trail of Blood
The shadows closed in on Kael like a suffocating fog, the night air thick with the scent of death. His muscles screamed with pain as the strange elixir worked its twisted magic, healing his wounds with unnatural speed. But it wasn't enough. Not nearly enough. His body was still reeling from the brutal assault, his mind racing with the realization that the fight was far from over. That the real nightmare was just beginning.The footsteps came again, slow and deliberate, the sound echoing off the crumbling walls of the ruined city. Kael's grip tightened on his sword, the steel still slick with blood. He could hear them now, the killers closing in, their whispers like cold winds on his neck."Fucking bastards," he muttered under his breath.Selis lay motionless, her body crumpled against the alley wall. Her blood began spreading out across the ground. Kael's stomach twisted and dropped, but he pushed his emotions aside. Now was no time to let things get weak and fall apart. Not now when
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 10: Last Stand
Kael's pulse pounded in his ears, the blood surging through him like a tidal wave, drowning everything else out. The figure before him moved with terrifying grace, the curved blade glinting in the dim light.He wasn't human, not entirely his movements were too smooth, too deliberate, and his eyes.Those cold, calculating eyes were filled with nothing but death. The last of the Shadowborne, the one Kael had not yet encountered, had finally shown his face.The figure took another step forward, his blade raised, the wicked smile on his lips barely visible under his hood. “You’ve been a thorn in my side for too long, Kael.”Kael's breathing rose in ragged gasps; the blood staining his clothes was heavy as his body fought to stay upright. The wild elixir that the enigmatic man had given him was a short-lived spurt of power, but it wasn't near enough.His wounds were deep, and the sear in his muscles began burning steadily. His grip on the sword was slackening."Not today, you son of a bitc
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 10: Last Stand
Kael's pulse pounded in his ears, the blood booming through his body like a tidal wave, drowning out everything else.The figure before him moved with terrifying ease, the curved blade glinting in the dim light. He wasn't human, not exactly his movements were far too smooth, too deliberate, and his eyes. Those cold, calculating eyes held nothing but death.The last of the Shadowborne, the one Kael had not yet encountered, had finally shown his face.The figure took another step forward, his blade raised, the wicked smile on his lips barely visible under his hood. “You’ve been a thorn in my side for too long, Kael.”Kael gasped for ragged breaths, his blood-soaked clothing heavy as he struggled to maintain his posture. The strange elixir of the enigmatic stranger had afforded him a mere moment of respite in the battle, and it was over. His wounds were deep, and the burning inside his muscles continued unabated; his grip on the sword slipped.The figure's lips curled into a slow, predat
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 11: A World of Ashes
Kael's legs shook beneath him, the pain of his wounds drawing him down to the ground, but he couldn't fall. Blood welled up around his boots and spread through the wet, dark alley to become a crimson nightmare.His breath panted out in rough gasps, his sword a dead weight in his hand, screaming from every inch of his body, his muscles protesting in sheer defiance. But he wasn't done yet. Not when more death was closing in.The footsteps came faster now, a cacophony of boots hitting the wet cobblestones, and Kael's eyes darted around the alley. The figures emerged from the shadows, their silhouettes black and predatory, their movements deliberate, as though they knew their prey was weak, already at the brink.Kael's heart thudded in his chest. His fingers tightened around his sword as he stumbled into a defensive stance, though every muscle in his body screamed at him to lie down and die."Where's your savior now, Kael?" one of the figures sneered, his voice rough with amusement. "Isn'
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 12: Through the Fire
Kael breathed in shallow gasps, his chest heaving as he strained to stay upright. The warrior beside him was a blur of motion, a whirlwind of death, slicing through the last of the assassins with precision akin to that of a seasoned predator. Bodies littered the alley, blood thick in the air, but Kael's mind was solely focused on one thing: survival.More would come. They always did.But this time, Kael wasn't waiting to die.He stumbled forward, forcing himself to stand upright, his sword still clutched in his bloody hand. His vision swam, but he gritted his teeth, blinking away the dizziness that threatened to pull him under. The warrior glanced at him, his expression unreadable as he wiped the blood from his blades, his movements so fluid they almost seemed inhuman.Stay on your feet, Kael," the warrior growled. "If you want to make it out alive, you need to move faster.Kael shot him a glare, but there was no time for a response. From the shadows ahead, more figures emerged, their
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 13: Ashes & Awakening
The first thing that Kael felt was pain.A low, searing pain pulsated from his sternum; his body groaned in dread as if he were melting into blackness.His ears buzzed, a dull, choking hum, the sound of everything else drowning out. Was he dead?No.The hurt was too genuine, too piercing.His heartbeat, though weak and steady, thumped against his skull like a drum of war, pulling him back from the edge of the void.Then came the cold.Something slick and wet was pressed against his skin, the unmistakable chill of stone underneath his back.He struggled to open his eyes, but the world swirled in reds and blacks.Torchlight flickered, casting the dancing shadows in shapes too grotesque for his frazzled mind.He attempted to shift, but a wave of pain washed over him, and a jagged gasp fell from his throat.He was alive but barely.A voice broke from the fog of his thoughts, low and laced with muted humor."You should be dead."Kael’s pulse spiked. He knew that voice.Knew it the way he k
Latest Chapter
Chapter 75: Rewriting Fate
Mina's footsteps rang out in the darkness, the sand grinding beneath her boots as she stepped further into the center of the Ashglass Desert. It seemed as if the desert itself was observing her, the wind carrying whispers she was not yet prepared to hear. The moon, bloated and ghostly, hung like a lantern in the sky, casting long shadows across the desolate landscape.She had no way of knowing how long she'd walked. Time had lost all meaning. The world around her was a twist endless night and horizonless sands that moved forever. But she could not stop.Kaiza was inside somewhere.Somewhere inside the Sanctum Orbis, a secret crypt that had remained hidden for centuries. Myths talked about it as the birth of all tales, the very spot where ink and paper had first crossed paths, where the Author had penned the world into being. It was claimed that within its decaying walls, the Tear in the Story lay a tear in the fabric of reality where one could remake anything. And at present, that was
The Ink of Sacrifice
The Vault had fallen silent.Ashes of lost memories swirled like snowflakes around them. Where there was once the Redacted King — wrathful and enraged — lay now a blackened seal burned into the stone floor. It glowed weakly, like a flickering pulse of life.Kaiza floated inches from the ground, his form no longer fully his.Lines of writing moved under his skin, rewriting and shifting with each breath. Each second he was alive now was a draft, wavering between what he was and what he might be. His eyes no longer contained irises, only ink, dark and old, stacked with unnamed languages.Mina crawled towards him, her voice shaking."Kaiza, it's me. Come back.He gazed at her, and for an instant, she saw him. Really saw him.Not the damned boy who lived through death and mermaids.But the man who'd traded fate for liberty."Mina," his voice was like static. "You must go. The Vault will not hold."The walls shook once more, ink seeping from the crevices. The Redacted King had not been kill
Chapter 73: The Tide That Never Sleeps
The salt stuck to them well after they departed from the sea.Kaiza rested under the decaying arch of a ruined lighthouse, his clothing still wet, hair stuck to his brow in dripping ringlets. His left hand ached — not from the Pen of Recursion any longer, but from something within him, something ancient. Something's stirring.Mina knelt beside the fading fire Soryn had constructed out of driftwood and anger. She didn't say anything. Not since they emerged. Not since the sea whispered something in her ear before releasing her.Soryn finally spoke."The god we bound…" Her voice was rough. "It wasn't the only one, was it?"Kaiza's eyes never left the black sky. "No. That was only the beginning memory. There are others waiting to be recalled.""Or revised," Mina spoke low, her voice barely audible. "Because that's what we do now. Writers of the lost."A gull screamed overhead, cold and isolated.Elsewhere…Away from the sea, across parched deserts where no water had kissed earth in decade
Chapter 72: The Salt in Her Blood
The salt seared her lips.Mina lurched ahead, boots crunching on the salt-crusted rocks of the flooded temple. Water trickled from the ceiling like blood from an open wound. Above her, sunlight filtered through the shattered ribs of the dome, a broken recollection of the sea.She had been following the call.Not Kaiza's, although her heart wept with his loss.No, this one came from something deeper. Older.From them.The mermaids.Not the ones who raised her.The ones who waited.The ones who still breathed her name in the marrow of the world.She approached the altar at the center of the room. It glowed dimly with blue light, vibrating with the beat of a faraway heartbeat. Mina looked down at the reflection in the shallow water gathered on the surface of the stone.Not her face.Not quite.Her eyes were darker, deeper. Her skin glimmered faintly, as if moonlight had passed through water. Gills haunted the shape of her neck.Something within her was waking."Do you recall your purpose
Chapter 71 The Echo Between Pages
The stars were disappearing.Not all at once. Not like a light switch being flipped off but dwindling, softly, one by one, as if something was slowly scrubbing the sky away.Kaiza stood at the ridge's edge, the blood-stained page held hard in his fist. Soryn's breathing next to him was harsh and strained. They had lived through gods, rewrites, and the end of time itself. But this… this was different.This wasn't chaos.It was precision."'This world belongs to the forgotten now,'" Kaiza quoted, her eyes narrowing. "What does it even mean?"Soryn remained silent. She returned her gaze to Velhallow, where sparks of fire danced across the skyline, lanterns being lit by citizens attempting to be normal in a world that no longer knew what normal was.But then she saw it.Perched atop the central tower, the Tower of Testament, an ember of black flame.It did not glow. It consumed.And on all sides, the sky quivered.Soryn clamped Kaiza's wrist. "We need to leave immediately."Velhallow—Tower
Chapter 70: The Unwritten Rebellion
The Pen of Possibility floated in the air, quivering with unseen power. It shone with a soft, ethereal light like it knew Kaiza's determination but was afraid of the decision he was preparing to make.Soryn was at his side, silent but watchful. Lioran breathed shallowly, his gaze darting between the ink-filled room and Kaiza's motionless body. The silence was palpable too heavy like the world itself was holding its breath.Kaiza at last extended his hand to grasp the pen.The chamber throbbed, responding to his touch. The parchment walls blazed not in flame, but in billowing glyphs and runes that twirled in spirals, with glimpses of his history. The coward of the Second Rewrite, the dictator of the Fourth, the martyr of the Fifth… and the dreamer of the First.They were all looking at him now.But he did not quake.Kaiza fell on his knee, took a deep breath, and started writing.Let there be one truth. Let the Sixth Rewrite be not a correction… but a culmination. Let pain have meaning
Chapter 69: The Sixth Rewrite
The winds had shifted.Kaiza sensed it even before the temple bells tolled in Hollow City—the grinding slowness of fate twisting once more. For weeks, there had been peace. The sky above no longer ripped apart with the creaking of shattered timelines. The streets of Hollow City teemed with individuals rediscovering how to live.But deep within, Kaiza knew peace was borrowed time.He stood upon the topmost balcony of the Hall of Echoes, the ruin now refashioned into white stone and twilight sigils. The Pen of Undoing was lost, broken at the close of the Fifth Rewrite. But his mind was still a razor's edge—carved into him as a second self.Below, the city pulsed with life again.Children giggled. The Tethered had assumed new names, new meaning. They cultivated gardens on top of ancient ruins. Lioran's name was a silent prayer among them—whispered at dawn, when the light was gentle and the air was full of memory.Soryn sat down beside him with two mugs of spiced tea, her hair tied back,
Chapter 68: The Echo of the Unwritten
The dreams grew darker now.Not distorted by fear or sorrow but by the shadow of something forgotten. Kaiza stood in a forest that glimmered like paper trapped between worlds. Trees leaned backward. The earth breathed. And above, a blank sky throbbed like the pages of an unread book.In this dream, he wasn't alone.Standing in the clearing was a copy of himself—same voice, same height, but empty. Eyeless. Pale skin like parchment. Its mouth moved open and shut silently, its fingers smeared in ink that refused to dry."Give me the ending," it mouthed, again and again.Kaiza awoke to Soryn yelling his name.He panted, soaked with sweat, and surveyed the apartment they had occupied in the midst of Hollow City's reconstruction quarter. The dawn was not yet come, yet the horizon flushed pale blue toward morning.Soryn positioned herself by the window, the hand emitting the faint afterglow of remaining sigil energy an instinctual guard in the event he sprang at her during sleep.Kaiza drew
Chapter 67: In the Inkstorm
The black tower yawned in front of them, towering, written into a million lines of evil literature, each with words that wheezed nastiness. And this was the core of the Fifth Rewrite, the last citadel of Kairen the impostor writer, the treacherous brother.Kaiza and Soryn stood on the precipice of madness.Wind composed of shredded parchment whipped around them. Ink fell from the air like rain, soaking into the earth and becoming distorted forms of memories, skeletons of decisions they had never taken. A Kaiza who had murdered Soryn. A Soryn who had become the Shadowborne queen. All their nightmares were here. All their terrors had a voice.Nevertheless, they moved on.This world isn't just being rewritten," Soryn grumbled, dropping her hood low. "It's rewriting us."Kaiza's jaw clamped. "Then we don't let it."They stepped into the Inkstorm.It wasn't just weather; it was alive. Words hurled at them like daggers, embedding in their flesh, whispering lies into their bones.Kaiza stumb
