"Some awaken to destiny. Others awaken to ruin. But what of those who awaken... and do not yet know what they are?"
The Academy's medical wing was deathly quiet.
Faintly glowing runes lined the curved ceiling like constellations, their light casting shifting patterns over Kael Ryuu's unmoving body. He lay wrapped in layered bandages, magic-infused and blood-marked, his chest rising and falling in shallow rhythm. Around him, the scent of fire-ash and soul balm clung like memory.
Kurozan, his Soul Blade, rested near him—silent. No whispers. No flickering edge. It felt as though the blade itself had been wounded.
But inside Kael's mind, a storm howled.
Burning ash drifted through a shattered dreamscape. Massive bodies—giants, beasts, gods?—lay broken beneath a web of unraveling Strings that stretched across the heavens. At the center stood a cloaked swordsman, his golden eyes like suns veiled in shadow.
> "Tenebris must rise again."
The voice rippled through Kael's soul.
His eyes shot open.
Pain surged. His body protested every movement. His lips cracked as he drew a breath that tasted of smoke and metal.
A soft grunt from nearby. Riven, ever loyal, sat slumped on a stool, snoring faintly. His uniform was wrinkled. A half-eaten fruit sat in his lap. Just beyond the healing veil, Arien paced like a sentinel forged from anxiety.
Kael tried to sit up.
Bad idea.
Agony lanced through his core like a hot blade. He collapsed back with a groan. His hands trembled—and that's when he saw it.
The gloves were gone.
In their place: lines of luminous runes danced under his skin, flickering like living tattoos. They pulsed with faint hues—gold, blue, red. The Strings had marked him.
Beside him, Kurozan gave off a slow, vibrating hum. Not loud. But aware.
And then…
> "It begins, Soulborne."
A voice. Not from the room. Not from memory.
From something else.
Kael turned to the moonlit window. His chest felt like it had been carved open and filled with stars.
> "What… am I becoming?"
---
Elsewhere…
The Academy's Observation Hall buzzed with restrained panic. The upper ranks—Instructors, Strategists, War Mages—had all gathered to rewatch the crystal recording from the Northern Wastes.
Kael, suspended in the sky. The elemental dragon. The collapse of time and space. The surge of power not even ancient texts could explain.
Instructor Hallen folded his arms tightly. "That was no standard Soulborne technique."
Veyna, still bearing the burn marks from her rescue mission, shook her head. "No one's ever fused that many elemental strings. Not alone."
Selai remained silent, eyes locked on the image of Kael hovering above the battlefield.
"Unless…" she whispered. Her voice died in the air.
The Headmaster spoke last. "This changes everything."
---
Far beyond the Empire's walls…
A man cloaked in silver stood atop a ruined observatory, wind tearing at his robes. Before him hovered a flickering orb, repeating the same image:
Kael. Ascending.
The man's voice was grave.
> "He's awakened."
A raven landed on a crumbling ledge, cawing once.
He turned toward it.
> "Tell the Obsidian Circle. The last Soulborne has returned."