When Kael opened his eyes, the sky was red. Not as if the sun was rising, but as if a giant wound had been torn open in the west. He was at the foot of the Riftmount now. The rocks were fractured. The ground rose and fell as if it were breathing.
Serav had laid him on a stone bed. He sat nearby, watching. Arenya stood a little further away, her eyes locked on the sky.
She was silent. Strangely… too silent.
Kael tried to sit up, but Serav placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Your body survived the battle. But your soul… is still searching for its verdict."
Kael replied:
"I've made mine. I won't walk with the shadows."
Serav stared at him, saying nothing. For a moment, it felt as though the mountain spoke in his place:
"This world is not used to choices like yours, child. But changing them… that's within your power."
Then Arenya turned. Her eyes had changed—now they shimmered, radiant.
But that light... it wasn't just hers.
Arenya had spoken to another soul.
"The Riftmount is not waiting for us. It's calling."
Kael stood. His eyes turned toward the mountain's peak. There, veiled in mist, loomed a dark passage.
The Rift of Fate.
This gateway opened for only one soul every thousand years. And when it did, whoever stepped inside… faced the truth of their own existence.
Who had birthed them.
Who had forgotten them.
And why they were still alive.
As Kael drew near the rift, a warmth surged through him. A fire, rising from his heart to his throat. At that moment, Arenya whispered through tears:
"Kael… I am not a dream. But I'm not of this world either. I'm a memory sealed in your mind—a guide, left by your mother's final spell."
Kael froze. Swallowed hard.
"So… will you disappear?"
Arenya shook her head with a bittersweet smile.
"No. I'll always be with you. But what lies ahead… is about finding your true name."
Then a voice echoed from the rift. Not male, not female. Not living, not dead.
Just one word:
"Kael…"
Kael stepped inside.
There were stars within the rift. Thousands. Millions. Each one burning—but none in the sky.
They shimmered across a lake that reflected the past like a celestial mirror.
As Kael walked, he gazed into the water. And there, he saw her.
His mother.
A woman with long black hair and a face veiled in shadow. In her arms, an infant—Kael himself.
And she whispered:
"I stole you not from the stars, but from the ashes. Your birth was forbidden. But the world… will change with you."
Kael leaned closer. Stared into her eyes. And in that moment…
His true name rang through his heart.
"Altheron."
Time froze.
The lake stilled.
The stars went out.
Kael was born again.
So now… with Altheron's awakening, the world is no longer what it was. Let us lower our gaze from the stars—and walk toward the heart of fate.
As the name Altheron echoed in Kael's mind, the Riftmount trembled.
The sky shifted from crimson to black.
Stars began to die, one by one.
And somewhere far away, an ancient seal broke.
Solun Akir…
The first king abandoned by the sun, raised by shadows.
Once, he had shone brighter than the stars.
Then he rejected all light.
And now… he was the first to hear Altheron's name.
When the rift closed behind him, Altheron stepped out. His body was unchanged—but his posture was transformed.
There was not only resolve in his eyes now, but wisdom.
Serav dropped to one knee. Arenya fell silent. Even the wind paused.
"Altheron," Serav said. "That name… we vowed never to speak it again."
"But forgetting me did not erase me," Altheron said. "Beneath the ashes, a star bearing my name waited."
Arenya tried to approach, but a force pushed her back.
An unseen aura now surrounded Altheron.
Bending time. Warping reality.
"What will you become now?" Arenya asked.
"A hero? A king? Or… a god?"
Altheron raised his head.
The sky was black.
And at that moment, beyond the eastern edge—a dark light was born.
Far away, an ancient city stirred: Nythralor.
Buried beneath the earth. Forgotten by time.
Far from the living.
But now…
Solun Akir opened his eyes.
Seated on his throne, his skin had cracked like stone.
Each fracture marked the death of a star.
And now… a new crack formed.
Altheron had awoken.
"His name has returned," Akir said. "So… the time has come."
A creature stepped beside him, shaped from shadow.
Its voice—a piercing wail:
"What do you command, Shadow King?"
Akir replied:
"Find the remaining Starwardens.
I can't destroy Altheron in the present.
But if I burn his past… his future will collapse on its own."
Back at the Riftmount, Altheron walked against the wind.
Arenya followed, her face pale.
For with each step Altheron changed… Arenya faded.
Serav gave a final warning:
"You may have awakened, child… but this world still waits for Kael.
Altheron is powerful.
But Kael… was human.
And sometimes, it's not the gods who save the world—
but the people."
Perfect. The masks are falling, and fate's two hands are clashing.
In this chapter, the fragment of the past you thought was just a dream… will stand before you.
Night had fallen. But this night wasn't darkness—it was weight.
As Altheron and Arenya left the Riftmount, the sky still trembled.
Something had begun to stir in the veins of the world.
Even the earth seemed to no longer recognize them.
Arenya faded with each passing day.
Her colors dulled, her presence flickered like a dying light.
"I've been weakening since I came with you," she said.
"When you awakened… I completed my purpose. This isn't my end, Altheron.
This is my conclusion."
Altheron remained silent. But something tore inside him.
Kael's heart still lived within.
And Arenya was its purest reflection.
Meanwhile, in Nythralor, Solun Akir dropped a single drop of blood into a pool of dark water.
And whispered:
"What hurts Altheron most? Not the sword.
Memory."
The water shifted.
The drop took form—into a woman.
Her hair carried Kael's childhood dreams.
Her eyes, his innocence.
And her voice…
"Kael…
Have you forgotten me?"
Isira.
Kael's childhood friend.
The one he dreamed with, ran with, hid with, laughed with.
She hadn't died.
Or maybe she had—but she wasn't the same.
Akir had taken her body, bent her soul, shattered her mind.
Now, Isira was a weapon sent to destroy Altheron.
Altheron saw her in a dream.
The sky was starless.
There was no ground.
Only a river.
And on the shore—Isira, as a child, waving at him.
"Hide-and-seek is over, Kael.
But I never hid.
You left."
Altheron woke in a cold sweat.
Arenya was by his side.
"What is it?"
"My past is returning," Altheron said. "But as an enemy."
That same night, the sky split open.
A star fell from the north.
And with it… Isira came.
But she no longer carried the warmth of a remembered smile.
Her eyes bore Akir's mark.
Her lips, the chill of forgetting.
"Kael is gone.
Altheron… I've come to end you.
Because you forgot me."
She struck.
The true battle had begun. Altheron's sword remained sheathed—because now, memory was his weapon. And it would either bring him back to Kael… or plunge him fully into shadow.