"Choose those to be reborn, and the time and place of rebirth.
Number of uses remaining: 16."
The voice echoed like a divine decree.
Arinay stood amidst ruin, blood trailing from his lips, his body failing. Deep within his chest, his mana heart throbbed violently—fractured and unstable. At any moment, it could explode, taking what remained of him with it.
But he didn't care.
"Sixteen..." he whispered, staring at the silent sky.
His trembling fingers brushed the glowing ring.
"My wives… I'll bring them back. All of them."
Even as the fire inside threatened to consume him, Arinay smiled through the blood.
"If my soul must burn... then let it blaze bright enough to shake the stars."
It felt like a dream.
A hallucination.
A miracle.
No… it was hope.
A second chance.
His fingers, bloodied and crushed, barely twitched. He could not speak, could not move. And yet, the ring responded to the silent cry of his soul.
With aching certainty, he chose.
Himself.
His eight wives whose lifeless bodies lying around him.
The ones who had stood by him in love, in war, in dreams. The only stars that remained in his darkening sky.
He tried to select his most loyal subordinates too—the brothers and sisters-in-arms who had bled and died for him. But the ring's glow faltered.
"Error: Selected souls have been obliterated by skill: Soul Reaper. Only recoverable souls may be chosen."
The message struck like a blade to his heart.
"Raelis… Zephyrion… "
Gone.
Their souls were erased—not just dead, but wiped from existence. Not even the Ring of Rebirth, forged from forgotten divinity, could bring them back.
Regret swelled inside him, deep and bitter, choking what little strength he had left.
He had failed them.
"I was the ruler of Mytheria…" Arinay thought bitterly, "...a sovereign of realms, a protector of dreams—and yet, I failed to shield those who trusted me most."
His fists trembled in agony.
"They believed in me. Fought for me. Died for me. And I… I let betrayal slip through the very hand I swore to defend them with."
Valtheria's smile flashed in his mind—not the gentle, teasing one she wore at his side… but the twisted, broken smile she gave him in the moment she slaughter them.
Still, the ring waited for his command. He made his final choice: only his wives. The only ones fate hadn't yet stolen from him. Perhaps it was their spiritual bond—perhaps love itself—that preserved their souls.
The ring pulsed again.
"Selected bodies show no traces of internal power. Will you share your own power to complete revival?"
"Yes," without any second thought, Arinay's voice rasped, cracked and broken, but firm.
His remaining divine and magic energy—everything that hadn't been torn apart by betrayal and death—was divided equally among his queens. A flicker of warmth passed through the ring.
"Select time, and place for reincarnation."
But fate would not make it easy.
"Error: Wearer lacks sufficient magical energy to dictate revival parameters. Time and place cannot be selected. Selecting optimal random values… Process initiating."
He closed his eyes as the light grew blinding.
"All set. Terminating the task."
And then, soft and faint… as though whispered from a dream—
"Let's meet again."
His mana heart flared in a final burst, engulfing the Eternal Castle in an explosion of divine energy. A shockwave of white light surged outward, annihilating stone, steel, and sky. The very heavens trembled as Mytheria's sacred heart cracked.
At the very last second, with the light devouring everything, Arinay smiled softly through bloodied lips, tears streaking through soot and ash.
"Let's meet soon… Valtheria."
A blinding wave of divine energy surged across the land, rupturing the skies and leaving a crater where the Eternal Castle once stood. Mytheria's proud crown—its heart—was now a scorched ruin, consumed by silence. A silence so deep, it choked the very air.
Moments later, a lone figure appeared from the horizon.
Valtheria.
She had forced her seven elite subordinates—war-forged and unyielding—to teleport her to the impact site. She hadn't asked. She had commanded.
Now, she stood at the edge of the crater, eyes wide, breath stolen.
Nothing remained but scorched stone and drifting embers. The place where he stood—where his voice had laughed, where his eyes had shone—was gone.
She stepped forward, boots crunching over rubble. Her lips quivered. Her voice cracked like glass.
"Y-You said we'd always be together… since we were children…" she whispered, shaking. "You said no matter what—we'd never be apart."
Her breath caught.
Then she screamed.
"AND NOW YOU'RE GONE!! YOU LEFT ME BEHIND!!"
She dropped to her knees, clawing desperately at the cracked ground, as if she could dig through the world and pull him back.
"WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THEM OVER ME!? They were nothing more than fuel to make our love eternal! WHY YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!!"
Her aura erupted. Wild and unstable, it twisted the air, darkened the sky. The heavens spiraled into chaos as the storm of her grief tore through the world.
"Commander Valtheria—" Kael, one of the seven elite, spoke gently, his tone laced with concern. "Please… you need to fall back. The energy here is—unstable."
"DON'T TOUCH ME!!" she shrieked, slapping his hand away. Her eyes glowed with rage and obsession. "He's not dead! HE CAN'T BE DEAD!"
Another soldier tried. "This area's collapsing. The dimensional fabric— we need to call all the best mages to stable it"
"LET IT ALL COLLAPSE! I DON'T CARE!! None of this matters if he's not here!"
Then—
A voice, calm and malevolent, whispered through her mind:
"He is not dead."
She froze.
The storm stopped.
It was him—the mysterious man who had given her the black orb… the one who whispered promises of a future where Arinay would be hers alone. The orb which unleashes the barrier which sealed Arinay and his wives.
"What did you say…?" she whispered.
"Look at the crystal vial… the one that holds his blood."
Her trembling hand reached inside her cloak.
The vial shimmered… then began to glow. Crimson light swirled violently within, pulsing like a caged storm desperate to break free.
Valtheria's fingers trembled as she uncorked it.
In an instant, the air shifted.
The blood within surged outward—not wildly, but with purpose—spiraling into the cracks in reality left behind by the explosion of Arinay's Mana Heart. The swirling energy leaking from the dimensional fracture was devoured, consumed completely by the crimson essence.
The unstable space around them trembled once more… then calmed.The soldiers standing beside her were shocked at the power of the King's blood.
The ground steadied. The wind fell silent. The howling void between realms closed… sealed by a single man's lingering will.
A same mysterious quiet voice echoed in her mind again—
"Even after being blown apart… he's still saving his people."
Then came another whisper, one that struck deeper—colder."A reincarnation spell has been cast here. I don't know how it's possible… but he has returned to the cycle of rebirth."
"You must find him before he regains his strength. Use the blood of the King… and the ethereal essence of the two spirits Elystraea: The Spirit Queen and Chronastra: The Astral Blade you have captured. Their connection to him is absolute. Through them… you will glimpse the path to his rebirth."
Valtheria's eyes widened.
Her gaze darted to her side—but what she expected to find was no longer there.
The orb. The vessel that held the sealed forms of his two spirit queens, and the only device which knows and open the path of their location.
Gone. Turned into dust.
Her breath caught as the realization struck her.
Then she realized. It must have been done from the magic energy by the mana push… that instant Arinay stabbed his heart.
She hadn't even noticed—blinded by panic, by grief, by desperation.
Now, only ashes remained where the artifact once was.
Their location… of those two queens… spirits… unknown. Their fate… uncertain.
Her eyes widened. A fragile, twisted joy crept into her face. Her voice cracked as she whispered:
"At least.... He's… alive…"
She rose, trembling.
A broken smile curved her lips. With obsession.
"You came back to me… even if fate had to be shattered for it."
Her subordinates stared, unnerved, as her eyes shimmered with mad hope.
"And this time…" she whispered, voice laced with obsession, "I'll bring you home. Darling."
Somewhere in the distant void between time and fate…
Arinay's soul drifted in limbo.
He didn't know where—only that the Ring had worked. He could feel it, like a thread linking him to his wives. They still existed. Reborn, scattered, alive.
But the weight of loss hadn't faded.
His mind returned to a memory—
A morning in the royal bedchamber.
Warm sunlight filtering through the velvet curtains. Soft laughter. The teasing voice of one queen tugging his hair while another snuggled closer. They had kissed, laughed, loved… time itself seemed to freeze in their warmth.
Then—
A soft crack.
Like glass breaking.
Laughter turned to echo. Sunlight faded. The warmth vanished.
He opened his eyes to ruin—to pale, lifeless bodies draped beside him like shattered dreams. Dust coated their skin like a cruel veil of finality.
The bed was gone. The joy was gone.
Only grief remained.
Floating alone in the eternal dusk between worlds, Arinay clenched his fists.
"I will find them," he vowed. "No matter where fate cast them. I will gather them again… and I will reclaim what was taken from me."
His soul, scarred but unbroken, pulsed with a new fire.
The will to begin again…
The will to rise.
This was not the end.
It was the beginning.
To be continued....