The Supreme Mage in a Loser's Body

The armies surrounding Black Sky Peak had stopped pretending that they came for justice.

Kael Ardyn stood at the center of the broken summit while the banners of the great clans filled the slopes below him. Some of those clans had once begged him to protect their cities. Others had sent their most gifted children to kneel outside his gates and ask for his teachings. Now their leaders stood together behind a wall of soldiers, each one waiting for another person to risk the first attack.

Blood ran down Kael's left hand and gathered at the tip of his smallest finger. His dark robe had been torn across the chest, and three iron blades remained buried in the ground behind him. The blades had failed to pierce his body, but each one carried a poison designed to weaken the flow of magic through his veins.

They had planned the ambush well. They had poisoned the mountain springs, broken the transport circles, and placed a barrier over the sky before challenging him. Even the students who served inside his home had been bribed or threatened into leaving the gates open.

Lord Varyn stepped out from the gathered leaders and raised a crystal staff. His white beard moved in the cold wind, but the hand holding the staff was not steady.

"Hand over the source of your power, and we will leave your soul untouched," Varyn said.

Kael looked past him at the thousands of soldiers spread across the mountain. He recognized old allies among them. None could meet his eyes.

"You brought half the Nine Realms to kill one man," Kael said. "Why are you still afraid to come closer?"

Varyn's face tightened before he struck the base of his staff against the stone. The barrier above the mountain flashed, and hundreds of burning chains dropped from the sky. Each chain had been built to drain a mage's inner core, the source that stored and controlled magic inside the body.

Kael raised his wounded hand. The air above him folded inward, crushed the first group of chains, and threw their broken pieces into the soldiers below. The impact tore through the front ranks and threw men from the edge of the peak.

More chains descended before he could lower his arm.

Kael destroyed them as well, but pain spread across his chest. The poison had already reached his inner core. His enemies had lost thousands of fighters during the past three days, yet they did not need to defeat him in a fair battle. They only needed to keep him trapped until his body failed.

"He is weakening!" one clan leader shouted.

The waiting armies advanced together. Fire covered the eastern slope while blades of ice climbed from the west. A storm of arrows blocked the open ground between them, and the barrier above Kael prevented him from escaping through the air.

He closed his eyes for one breath.

Kael had spent his life reaching the highest stage of magic. He had defeated every rival, broken every limit, and learned truths that the great clans could not understand. He had believed that enough power would free him from fear. Instead, it had convinced the entire world that he possessed something worth stealing.

When he opened his eyes again, a pale circle had appeared beneath his feet.

Varyn saw it and stopped advancing.

"Destroy that spell!" Varyn shouted. "Do not let his soul leave the mountain!"

The forbidden spell was called Soul Crossing. It could send a soul into a dying body in another world, but it demanded more power than even Kael could safely control. He had prepared it as a final escape and tied it to a strong vessel beyond the Nine Realms. The poison inside him had damaged the connection, yet there was no time to repair it.

Kael pressed his bleeding hand against the center of the circle.

"If any of you survive long enough, remember this," Kael said. "I will return for everything you took from me."

Varyn's staff released a column of white fire. The other clan leaders attacked at the same moment, and enough power to break a city rushed toward the center of the peak.

Kael forced the last of his magic into the circle.

The spell opened beneath him one breath before the attacks arrived. His body disappeared, but the damaged circle did not follow the path he had prepared. It pulled his soul through a cold darkness filled with broken lights, then dropped him toward a world he had never seen.

Kael expected to awaken inside the strong vessel chosen by his spell.

Instead, he woke with his face pressed against a dirty floor.

A sour smell filled the small room. Rain struck a cracked window, and loud engines passed somewhere beyond the wall. Kael tried to push himself up, but his right arm collapsed under his weight. Pain spread through his ribs, his jaw, and the back of his head.

He remained still while unfamiliar memories entered his mind.

The body belonged to Ethan Cole, a twenty-three-year-old man who lived in Graybridge with his parents and younger sister. Ethan had left college after his father was injured at work. He borrowed money from the Iron Viper gang to pay for an operation, believing he could repay it after finding a better job. The gang tripled the debt within six months, and every missed payment brought another beating.

Ethan's neighbors called him useless because he could not protect his family. His former friends called him a coward because he stopped answering their messages. Even Ethan had started to believe them.

Several hours earlier, three men had dragged him into the empty repair room behind his family's small appliance shop. They demanded money he did not have, beat him until he stopped moving, and left him on the floor as a warning.

Kael touched the back of his head and found dried blood.

"This body died before I entered it," Kael said.

His voice sounded weak, and the truth was worse. Ethan's muscles had been damaged by old injuries, two ribs were cracked, and his heartbeat struggled to keep a steady rhythm. Kael searched for an inner core, but the body had none. There was also almost no free magic in the air.

The Soul Crossing spell had failed. It had not taken him to the vessel he prepared, and he did not know whether that vessel still existed.

Kael sat against the wall and studied the room. Strange tools hung above a long worktable. Boxes marked with names from Ethan's memories stood beside broken fans, lamps, and cooking machines. A small device on the table glowed when he touched its glass surface, but he had no reason to examine it yet.

His first duty was to leave this damaged body.

The forbidden spell could be used again if he repaired enough of his soul and found a stronger vessel. Even in a world with little magic, Kael could gather energy from living things, rare stones, or places where power collected beneath the ground. It might take several months. If this body failed sooner, he would be trapped inside it when it died.

Footsteps hurried through the shop outside.

"Ethan!" a woman called. "Ethan, where are you?"

The door opened before Kael could stand. A thin woman in a grocery store uniform entered, followed by a girl wearing a wet school jacket. Ethan's memories identified them as his mother, Elena, and his seventeen-year-old sister, Maya.

Elena dropped the bag in her hand when she saw him. She crossed the room, lowered herself beside him, and touched his swollen face with trembling fingers.

"Who did this to you?" Elena asked.

Kael considered several answers, but Maya had already seen the black snake marked on the torn front of Ethan's shirt.

"It was the Iron Vipers," Maya said. "They came back for the debt."

"Call an ambulance," Elena said as she pulled a cheap phone from her pocket.

Kael caught her wrist before she could use it. "No hospital," he said. "We need to leave this place first."

Elena stared at him. Ethan usually avoided her eyes whenever the debt was mentioned, yet Kael held her gaze without effort.

"You can barely stand," Elena said. "Where do you think we can go?"

The front window shattered before Kael could reply.

Maya cried out and moved closer to her mother. Heavy steps entered the shop, followed by the scrape of furniture pushed across the floor. A man laughed while another kicked over a metal shelf.

"Ethan Cole!" a rough voice called. "We know you're awake. Bring the money out, or we start taking payment from the shop."

Elena's face lost its color. She helped Kael to his feet, but instead of taking him toward the front, she pushed him behind the worktable.

"Stay here," Elena said. "Do not make a sound."

Maya grabbed a broken mop handle from the corner. Her hands shook so badly that the wood struck the side of the table.

An older man entered through the rear doorway before either woman could move. Thomas Cole walked with a metal brace around his injured left leg, and he had to hold the wall to keep his balance. He looked at Kael's battered face, then turned toward the noise in the shop.

"I told them they would get their money," Thomas said. "I will speak to them."

"They nearly killed Ethan," Elena replied. "They are not here to talk."

The rear door slammed open. A broad man with a shaved head entered with two younger men behind him. Ethan's memories named him Rafe Calder, the Iron Viper collector who controlled their district.

Rafe looked at Kael and smiled.

"There he is," Rafe said. "I was worried the little rat had died before paying us."

Thomas stepped into the narrow space between Rafe and the worktable. His injured leg trembled under him, but he did not move aside.

"The debt is mine now," Thomas said. "Leave my son alone."

Elena joined her husband while Maya stood beside them with the broken handle raised in both hands. Three ordinary people placed themselves in front of a man they could not defeat, and each of them knew exactly what would happen if he attacked.

Kael had ruled cities, trained warriors, and watched followers die while trying to earn his approval. No one had ever protected him without asking for power, status, or a reward.

Rafe lifted his fist and aimed it at Thomas's face.

The small amount of magic remaining in Kael's soul moved before the blow could fall. He forced his injured body forward, placed one hand on Thomas's shoulder, and moved him aside.

Rafe's fist stopped when Kael caught it.

The bones in Ethan's arm screamed under the force, but Kael did not release him. He looked from the trapped fist to the man who had thrown it, then tightened his grip.

"Step away from my family," Kael said. "This is the only warning you will receive."