The Bastion of Ash had fallen.

  Smoke curled into the morning sky, black and thick, a signal to the world that the Keepers were no longer untouchable.

  Kieran stood at the edge of the ruins, the ground beneath him still warm from the fires.

  The war had been won.

  But wars never truly ended.

  And deep beneath these ruins, he knew the Keepers had left something behind.

  Something worth protecting.

  Something worth dying for.

  And that meant—it was worth finding.

  The battlefield was eerily silent.

  The Undercity’s fighters moved through the wreckage, gathering weapons, tending to the wounded.

  Selene wiped blood from her cheek, scanning the ruins with sharp eyes.

  "We need to leave before the nobles get here."

  Kieran smirked.

  "Let them come. All they’ll find is dust."

  But Veyren shook his head.

  "She’s right. The moment the kingdoms hear what we did, they’ll start circling like vultures."

  Kieran exhaled.

  They had destroyed the Keepers.

  But now, the real game was about to begin.

  The power vacuum left behind would be filled by someone.

  And if Kieran wasn’t careful, he’d just made space for something worse.

  Amid the shattered stone and broken sigils, Kieran found it.

  A section of the floor that hadn’t collapsed.

  Smooth. Perfectly intact.

  He ran a hand over the stone.

  It was warm.

  Veyren frowned.

  "That’s not natural."

  Kieran nodded.

  "Because it’s not part of the Bastion."

  Selene crouched beside him, tracing her fingers along the seams.

  "This was reinforced. Whatever is down there, the Keepers didn’t want anyone finding it."

  Kieran smirked.

  "Then it must be important."

  He drew his dagger—

  And jammed it into the crack between the stones.

  With a sharp twist, the mechanism gave way.

  The ground shuddered.

  A faint rumbling echoed beneath them.

  And then—

  The floor split open.

  Revealing a hidden staircase descending into darkness.

  Kieran’s heart pounded.

  This was it.

  The Keepers' last secret.

  Selene exhaled sharply.

  "Whatever’s down there, it’s been buried for centuries."

  Veyren cracked his knuckles.

  "Then let’s dig it up."

  Without hesitation, Kieran stepped into the dark.

  The stairs spiraled downward, deeper than they should.

  The air grew thicker. Older.

  And the further they went, the more it felt like stepping into another time.

  A time before the Keepers.

  Before the Kingdom.

  Before history itself.

  The tunnel opened into a massive underground chamber.

  And what Kieran saw—made his blood run cold.

  This wasn’t a treasure hoard.

  This wasn’t a vault of knowledge.

  This was a prison.

  Chains hung from the walls, old but still humming with faint energy.

  At the center of the chamber, an enormous obsidian seal was embedded in the ground.

  And carved into the stone, in a language Kieran should not have been able to read—

  Were words that sent a chill down his spine.

  "The First Reincarnator Must Not Wake."

  Selene’s breath hitched.

  "Reincarnator."

  Veyren scowled.

  "That word shouldn’t exist in a place this old."

  Kieran stepped closer, running his fingers over the ancient symbols.

  They were perfectly preserved, untouched by time.

  This was older than the Keepers.

  Older than the Abyssal Cataclysm.

  Older than him.

  And suddenly, he understood.

  The Keepers hadn’t been hoarding power.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  They had been guarding against something.

  Something they feared.

  Something that should not wake.

  A faint pulse throbbed beneath his feet.

  Not sound.

  Not magic.

  Something deeper.

  Something alive.

  Selene reached out.

  "Kieran, step back."

  But it was too late.

  The moment his fingers touched the seal—

  A shockwave exploded outward.

  The room shuddered, the chains rattling violently.

  And in his mind—

  Kieran saw flashes of something impossible.

  He saw a battlefield, unlike anything in history.

  Not armies.

  Not soldiers.

  But monsters.

  Creatures not meant for this world.

  A sky shattered like glass.

  The Abyss spilling through.

  And standing in the center of it all—

  A man wearing a silver crown.

  A man whose face Kieran should not recognize.

  And yet, he did.

  Because it was his own.

  Kieran staggered back, gasping for air.

  Selene caught his arm, her expression tight with worry.

  "What did you see?"

  Kieran swallowed hard.

  "Not the past."

  "Not the future."

  "Something… in between."

  Veyren scowled.

  "What does that mean?"

  Kieran looked down at the obsidian seal beneath him.

  The words carved into it burned into his mind.

  "It means the Keepers weren’t trying to erase history."

  "They were trying to stop it from repeating."

  And now—he might have just undone their work.

  The seal pulsed again.

  The air grew colder.

  The chains shuddered.

  Selene stepped back, alarm flashing in her eyes.

  "Kieran, whatever you just did—"

  A deep rumbling echoed through the chamber.

  The ground beneath them began to crack.

  And in the distance, something shifted.

  Something woke up.

  Kieran exhaled, gripping his dagger.

  "We need to leave."

  But even as he spoke, he knew—it was too late.

  The war with the Keepers had ended.

  But something far worse had just begun.

  The chamber trembled.

  Cracks splintered across the obsidian seal, deep fractures spreading like veins of lightning.

  The ground beneath Kieran shifted, an unnatural pulse thrumming through the stone.

  Something ancient had awakened.

  And it wasn’t happy.

  "Move!" Kieran barked, shoving Selene toward the staircase.

  But the exit wasn’t safe anymore.

  The walls groaned, and chunks of stone collapsed from the ceiling.

  A massive chain snapped, whipping across the chamber like a serpent, nearly crushing Veyren where he stood.

  The air was thick, humming with a dark energy that sent shivers down Kieran’s spine.

  Selene cursed.

  "What the hell did you just wake up?"

  Kieran’s pulse pounded in his skull.

  "I don’t know."

  And that was the truth.

  But he was about to find out.

  The cracks in the obsidian seal widened—revealing a glow beneath it.

  Not golden. Not magical.

  Something deeper.

  A void of endless black, pulsing with veins of crimson.

  And then—

  A voice spoke.

  Low. Echoing.

  Like it had traveled through centuries of silence just to reach him.

  "Who… dares… wake me?"

  The sound wasn’t heard.

  It was felt.

  Kieran staggered, his vision flickering—memories slamming into him.

  Fragments. Pieces of a past that shouldn’t exist.

  He saw a battlefield, but not one from this era.

  Not swords.

  Not magic.

  Something worse.

  Something that should have never existed in this world.

  And at the center of it—

  A man stood alone.

  A man wearing the same sigil Kieran once carried.

  A man with his face.

  Except… it wasn’t him.

  It was someone else.

  Someone from the first war.

  The war before history.

  And suddenly, Kieran understood.

  "Kieran!"

  Selene’s voice yanked him back to reality.

  The seal shattered.

  A wave of force exploded outward, knocking them back.

  Dust and smoke choked the air, making it impossible to see.

  And then—something moved in the dark.

  Not human.

  Not quite alive.

  But awake.

  And watching.

  A figure rose from the center of the chamber.

  Tall. Wrapped in blackened chains, his body shifting between flesh and shadow.

  His eyes—twin voids of swirling abyss.

  He stepped forward, the ground cracking beneath his weight.

  Kieran’s body screamed at him to run.

  But he couldn’t.

  Because he recognized this thing.

  Not from his memories.

  Not from books.

  But from something deeper.

  From the fragments of his past life.

  And for the first time, he spoke the name that had been lost to history.

  "Varic."

  The creature stilled.

  His head tilted.

  And then—he laughed.

  "So you remember me."

  His voice was calm. Cold.

  But beneath it—something wrong.

  Something twisting, writhing, shifting.

  Selene tightened her grip on her blade.

  "Who the hell is this?"

  Kieran swallowed.

  "The first Reincarnator."

  Veyren stiffened.

  "You’re joking."

  But Kieran wasn’t.

  Because the vision hadn’t been a lie.

  This thing standing before them wasn’t just another survivor.

  He was the first.

  And now, he was free.

  Varic stepped forward, his chains dragging across the stone.

  "It seems the Keepers were afraid of you, little shadow."

  "They tried to erase you, just like they erased me."

  His eyes locked onto Kieran.

  "But you survived."

  "And now, you have a choice."

  The air grew heavier.

  Kieran felt something slither into his thoughts.

  Not words.

  Not commands.

  An offer.

  Varic smiled.

  "Join me, and I will show you the truth of this world."

  "Reject me, and you will be erased—just as I was."

  Kieran’s fingers twitched toward his dagger.

  He had been manipulated before.

  Tricked. Controlled.

  But this was different.

  This wasn’t about power.

  This wasn’t about winning.

  This was about who he was.

  What he would become.

  The first Reincarnator had stood on a battlefield before history began.

  And now, he stood here again.

  The cycle was repeating.

  And Kieran was standing at the crossroads.

  Selene’s voice was tight.

  "Tell me you’re not considering this."

  Kieran exhaled.

  Varic’s abyssal energy pulsed, waiting for an answer.

  Kieran raised his dagger.

  And smiled.

  "I don’t trust anyone who wakes up in chains."

  Then—

  He struck.

  Varic caught the blade.

  His eyes darkened.

  And the air collapsed inward.

  Kieran was yanked into a void, his mind fracturing as he was pulled into something deeper than reality.

  He saw the past.

  The future.

  Every version of himself that had ever existed—and every one that had failed.

  And at the center of it all—Varic, waiting.

  "You made the wrong choice."

  Then, with a crack of pure abyssal power—

  The world shattered.