2024-12-27 14:36:14As Selene stormed out, the scrawny worker peeked in, his face pale.
“Uh, sir, the atmosphere got… colder.” Kael sighed. “Back to work. And tell the Reaper and Butcher to stop swinging from the ropes like monkeys.” The scrawny man nodded, then paused. “A pigeon just delivered this. It’s from your father.” Kael opened the letter, his expression hardening as he read. The last line caught his attention: “Your running is over. Come home.” The scrawny worker hesitated at the front of the group, nervously wringing his cap. “Uh, boss… is everything okay? You look… um, tense.” Kael leaned back with a sigh, his expression unreadable. “I have to leave.” The workers exchanged startled glances. “Leave? You? But who’ll keep the peace?” someone blurted out. Kael raised an eyebrow. “If you lot can’t stop fighting without me around, I’ll build a pit before I go and throw all of you in it. Permanently.” The yard went silent. Even the Reaper and Butcher, still recovering from their earlier punishment, looked sufficiently chastised. “But where are you going, boss?” the scrawny worker dared to ask. Kael’s voice was dry. “Cresmont City. My father’s orders.” The workers gasped as if Kael had announced he was heading to a battlefield. “Cresmont City?” The Reaper scratched his head. “Isn’t that where the rich snobs live? What’s your father want you to do there?” Kael stood, brushing dust off his shirt. “He’s arranged a marriage. Wants me to tie the knot with someone named Evangeline.” The Butcher burst out laughing. “You? Married? Boss, I can’t imagine you saying ‘I do’ without rolling your eyes!” Kael shot him a withering look. “Laugh all you want, Butcher. When I come back, your idea of humor might involve scrubbing latrines with your toothbrush.” The Butcher immediately sobered, muttering, “I wasn’t that funny, anyway.” Kael turned to the scrawny worker. “You’re in charge while I’m gone. If anything happens—” “—you’ll turn the quarry into a crater. Understood, boss!” The worker saluted, though his trembling hand betrayed his nerves. Kael narrowed his eyes. “And keep an eye on the Reaper and Butcher. If they so much as sneeze in each other’s direction, I expect a full report.” The scrawny worker nodded vigorously, but as Kael started to leave, he hesitated. “Uh… boss?” Kael paused, glancing over his shoulder. “What now?” The worker shuffled closer, his voice barely above a whisper. “I have a… a favor to ask. It’s a bit personal.” Kael tilted his head, curious. “A favor? From me?” The man swallowed hard. “You see, I… I have a granddaughter in Cresmont City. She doesn’t know about me. To her, I’m just some nameless old man.” Kael’s gaze softened slightly. “Go on.” The worker reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet pouch and a folded letter. “Could you… deliver this to her? Tell her it’s from someone who’s always cared about her.” Kael frowned, taking the items. “What’s in the pouch?” “A token,” the man said, his voice steady. “Proof that I’m telling the truth if she ever questions you.” Kael inspected the pouch briefly before slipping it into his coat pocket. “Why not go yourself? You’re her family.” The man shook his head. “I’ve made too many mistakes, boss. She’s better off thinking of me as a nobody.” For a moment, Kael said nothing, then tucked the letter securely into his bag. “I’ll deliver it. But if you’re lying to me, I’ll be back to hang you upside down next to the Reaper and Butcher.” The man bowed deeply, his voice cracking. “Thank you, boss. You won’t regret it.” Kael turned to the workers one last time. “Behave while I’m gone. If I hear one word about trouble, I’ll make you all wish you were born as boulders instead of men.” The workers saluted in unison, shouting, “Yes, boss!” Kael smirked, adjusting his coat as he strode toward the gate. “Try not to burn the place down. I’ll be back before you know it.”
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The Death Lord Is Back Chapter four
The morning sun cast long shadows across the pristine driveway as Marcus, a towering figure known throughout the criminal underworld, bowed deeply before Kael. His expensive suit caught the light as he lowered his head with unprecedented respect. "My lord Kael, it is my greatest honor to finally meet you. Your reputation precedes you, even in our circles." Kael shifted uncomfortably, his simple attire a stark contrast to Marcus's luxury. "Please, such formality isn't necessary." "I must insist on driving you personally," Marcus gestured to a gleaming black Rolls-Royce, its polished surface reflecting the morning light. "Yorkshire Island awaits, and I wouldn't trust anyone else with your safety." During the drive along the coastal road, Marcus's voice took on a reverent tone. "The villa belongs to Jaxier Cult—the legendary King of Battle. He's offered it for your exclusive use." "Jaxier Cult?" Kael's eyes narrowed, recognition flickering across his face. "Zeus's
The Death Lord Is Back Chapter five
Kael stood at the grand mansion, a stark contrast to his simple attire and calm demeanor. The doors opened, and Evangeline’s father, Mr. Holsten, greeted him warmly, his face lighting up.“Kael, my boy, come in, come in!” he exclaimed, gripping Kael’s hand firmly. “I’m glad you came.”Kael nodded respectfully. “Thank you for having me, sir.”The sound of hurried footsteps interrupted their exchange as Evangeline entered the room. Her sharp gaze locked onto Kael, her expression twisting with irritation.“What is he doing here?” she demanded, her voice laced with contempt. “Father, didn’t I make it clear yesterday? I’m not agreeing to this ridiculous arrangement!”Before her father could respond, her mother appeared, her face mirroring her daughter’s disdain. “Really, Holsten? Inviting him into our home again? How much more humiliation are you planning to bring upon this family?”Kael’s expression remained calm, though his eyes flickered briefly with an unreadable emotion.“Evange
The Death Lord Is Back Chapter six
The tension in the room was palpable as Kael and Evangeline stepped through the doors of her family home. Standing in the middle of the living room was Mike Smith, a man with a confident smirk and an air of entitlement. He turned the moment he heard the footsteps, his expression darkening when he saw Kael.“What the hell is he doing here?” Mike sneered, his voice dripping with disdain. “Don’t tell me the rumors are true.”Evangeline’s mother, Margaret, folded her arms and sighed dramatically. “Unfortunately, they are. Can you believe it? My daughter, married to him of all people.” She gestured toward Kael as if he were a stain on the rug.Kael remained calm, his face betraying no emotion.Mike’s gaze darted between Evangeline and Kael. “This has to be a joke, Evangeline. You married this guy? Did your father hold you at gunpoint?”Evangeline shot her father a venomous glare. “Might as well have. Isn’t that right, Father?”“Evangeline—” her father began, but she cut him off.“
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Chapter 166
The walls of the Archive began to twist.Not crumble—twist.Time peeled away in sheets, collapsing inward as the group ran, each step falling on ground that might not exist in the next breath. Fragments of timelines flickered all around them—ghostly versions of themselves trapped in loops, echoes of choices they never made screaming like haunted shadows.Pamela grunted as another burst of gravity cracked the hallway open. “Move, move, move!”Marcus was limping behind her, his arm torn and shoulder blackened with some kind of residue from the Warborn’s psychic bleed. “I’m trying! I only have one functioning leg right now!”Kael stumbled, hand gripping the corridor’s wall as it rippled under his fingers like water. He could feel the Archive rejecting them—like it knew they didn’t belong anymore. His entire body hummed, sparking faint pulses of energy that didn’t feel like his own.Selene’s form hovered beside him—bright, fading, flickering.She wasn’t running.She wasn’t solid.“Kael!”
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The chamber pulsed with dying light.Kael stood in the center, swaying like a man on the edge of drowning. His body crackled with unstable energy—residual sparks from the Warborn still peeling off him like pieces of an old skin. His breaths were sharp, ragged, like each inhale was trying to convince his lungs they still belonged to him.Across from him, she stood.Selene.But not the same.Her form shimmered—less a solid person, more a flame made of memory and presence. Her hair drifted like smoke, her eyes glowing with the same soft defiance he remembered. But her voice, when she spoke, wasn’t just sound—it was feeling.“You pulled me back,” she whispered. “Through pain. Through everything.”Kael stepped forward, his legs heavy. “You… I saw you die.”“I did,” she said. “But not all of me went with it.”Pamela watched from behind him, frozen in awe and disbelief. “How… is this even possible?”Selene turned her gaze to her, smiling faintly. “Because he never let go. Kael refused to for
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The Archive was burning from the inside out.Not with fire—but with collapsing timelines, pulsing memories, fractured light. Every wall breathed with images too fast to process—Kael’s pasts, his futures, twisted and overlapping in a storm of identity.And at the center of it all stood Kael—or what was left of him.One half darkened by the Warborn’s presence. Cold, hollow-eyed. Fingers curled like blades of glass. The other side—his side—trembled, flickering, as though it was being overwritten pixel by pixel.Pamela didn’t wait for permission.She sprinted toward the central console.“Pamela!” Elias barked. “Don’t you dare—”“I’m not losing him again!”The Archive tried to reject her. The control panel was alive, wired to Kael’s neural stream. It surged with volatile energy. She bit back a scream as pain lanced through her arm—veins lit up with neon fire.Still, she didn’t let go.“I can stabilize him,” she gasped. “I have to anchor his memory. Give him a reason to stay who he is.”“Yo
Chapter 163
Kael’s knees hit the floor first.Then his hands.Then his breath—ragged, slipping, strangled in his throat.The Archive trembled around him, colors bending where they shouldn’t exist, time distorting into knots of light. The energy in the room was crushing. It wasn’t pain—it was something worse.Unmaking.Pamela screamed. “Kael!”He could barely lift his head.The Warborn stood over him, not gloating. Not laughing. Just calm. Focused. His hand hovered inches above Kael’s chest. Tendrils of dark light stretched out from his palm—threading into Kael’s ribs like wires.“You feel that?” the Warborn murmured. “The unraveling? That’s your soul, Kael. Peeling apart. Making room for me.”Kael gritted his teeth, hands clawing at the floor, dragging himself back inch by inch.“I… won’t let you.”The Warborn leaned closer. “You already are.”Across the room, Marcus was on the ground, convulsing. His fingers clawed at his head, eyes wide open but seeing too many things at once.“No… I’m not supp
Chapter 162
Kael stared at himself.Not a mirror. Not a reflection. Not some symbolic ghost of who he might have become. No—this was real.He was staring into the eyes of himself—a version untouched by Selene’s compassion, unbroken by Elias’s betrayals, unbent by loss. A version born not from survival, but domination. A creature sharpened by war and polished in darkness.The Warborn Kael smiled. It wasn’t a smirk or a grin—it was something hollow, something stretched across a face that had forgotten how to feel.“I used to think you were the worst of us,” he said quietly, walking in slow, measured steps. “The soft one. The one who got too close to the fire and came back afraid of the heat.”Kael clenched his fists. “I’m not afraid.”“No,” the Warborn said. “But you’ve become… inconvenient.”Pamela stepped in front of Kael before he could respond, her weapon raised.“Back away from him,” she warned. “I don’t care what version of Kael you are. You’re not touching him.”The Warborn tilted his head.
Chapter 161
The walls began to breathe.Not metaphorically—literally. The inner structure of the alien station pulsed like the inside of a lung, as if it were inhaling their presence. Bioluminescent veins of silver and violet light flowed through the walls like liquid circuitry. Every time Kael took a step, the floor rippled gently beneath him, as if the station recognized his weight, his identity… his blood.“Do you feel that?” Pamela whispered.“I feel like we’re inside a heart that’s still beating,” Marcus said, raising his weapon, unsure what to aim at.Kael didn’t speak. He couldn’t. His mind was no longer anchored to the present. Flashes. Echoes. Fragments. Not of this room—but of countless others. Countless lifetimes.The station wasn’t dead. It was dreaming. And those dreams were made of him.Suddenly, columns of light erupted from the walls, forming shapes—human at first, then mutating, then solidifying. Pamela gasped and reached for her gun, but Kael held out his hand.“No,” he said. “T
Chapter 160
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The Mirror of the Forgotten
The station was no longer still. It pulsed like a living thing, walls breathing, lights flickering like a dying heartbeat. Pamela pressed her palm to the console. It didn’t respond. “Marcus,” she whispered. “Something’s wrong. The layout’s changed.” He looked around. “This corridor wasn’t here before.” The walls had shifted again, swallowing the exit behind them. They were trapped. No alarms. No sirens. Just silence. A silence so heavy it made the air hard to breathe. Then the lights cut out completely. For a moment, they were blind. Then came the voices. Familiar. Terrifying. Echoes. “Pamela…” a voice murmured. Her blood froze. It was Kael. But not the Kael she knew. This voice was broken. Empty. She turned. And there it was. A door. Just standing in the hallway. A frame of rusted metal and shimmering glass. No hinges. No logic. Just… waiting. Marcus stepped forward. “Don’t.” Pamela didn’t listen. She opened the door. And walked into her past. The world aro
