Note: AI is used for grammar correction and translation
Somewhere beyond time.
There was a throne on nothing in a place where stars and seconds no longer counted.
Not stone. Not air. Just the raw hum of silence.
On it, a man rested with eyes closed—not sleeping, not dreaming. Waiting.
Ashen had not moved in what mortals would call centuries. He didn't count time that way anymore. He didn't count at all.
He had once walked among gods. Not bowed. Not worshipped.
Fought.
He'd killed five of them. And for that, they tried to erase him.
They failed. Mostly.
But they sealed him here, in a space between realms. Between memory and myth. A prison without walls, where no soul could reach him.
Until her.
A flicker.
A touch.
He felt her before she even arrived. A spark of pain. Raw. Desperate.
Not power—something better. A will so sharp it cut the veil.
And then, for the first time in lifetimes, his throne room was no longer empty.
A girl fell to her knees.
Eyes hollow but burning.
Broken, but unbowed.
Ashen smiled without meaning to.
He'd seen warriors. He'd seen gods. He'd seen tyrants, kings, and monsters.
But this girl?
She didn't beg.
She asked.
"I want power. I want to take back what's mine. I want revenge."
He could've laughed. But it wasn't funny.
She reminded him of someone. No… of many. All the forgotten ones.
The ones who fought not to rule but to survive.
"No," he told her.
Because power wasn't something he gave.
But company? A front-row seat to chaos?
That, he missed.
"Let's make a deal."
Far above, in a realm untouched by mortals, a god stirred.
The seal on Ashen's throne had cracked.
And something old opened its eyes.