Chapter 1
Kael Ardyn – POV
People always say you see your life flash before your eyes before you die.
They're wrong.
You don't see your life.
You see the people who betrayed it.
I remember the moment it happened.I was standing on the edge of the ruined sky fortress, blood soaking through the front of my robes, my knees trembling beneath me. My staff—once the symbol of everything I fought for—was shattered beside me.
And in front of me… stood them.
The High Mages.The Knights I trained.The woman I once dreamed of marrying.
All of them… silent. Watching. As if my death was some divine necessity.
"Kael Ardyn," the Crown Prince had said coldly, "you are no longer a servant of the Empire. You are a danger to it."
I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because if I didn't laugh, I would've begged.
Begged her not to look away.
Begged him not to drive that spellblade through my ribs.
But I didn't. I just stood there—burning, bleeding, betrayed.
"I gave you everything," I whispered.
And the skies, for a moment, wept with me.
The Seven Moons aligned in the sky—an omen, they would later call it. The Eclipsed Fate.
But I already knew what it meant.
It meant my time had ended.
I died… cursing their names.
And then, I opened my eyes.
Not in a glorious afterlife.Not on some divine throne.Not even in the void between life and death.
I opened my eyes in a moldy stone cell that smelled like burned cabbage and regret.
I blinked up at a cracked ceiling.
And for a moment… I genuinely thought this might be hell.
"Wha… where am I?" I rasped.
My voice was wrong.
You don't forget the sound of your own voice—not when you've chanted war-spells for decades. This one was younger. Softer. Pathetic.
I looked at my hands.
Thin. Smooth. Unscarred.
Not my body.
A thousand thoughts collided at once.
Rebirth. Reincarnation. Time magic.A second chance?
"No… No, this can't be…" I sat up, nearly falling over as dizziness hit me. "I died."
I remember the blade. The fall. The void.
Yet here I was—alive, breathing, young.
The memories surged like a dam breaking.I had died.But something—someone—had brought me back.
Not in the same world I remembered…Not in the same era.
I could feel it in the air. The magic here was weaker. The mana flows? Twisted. Impure. The sky… even the sky looked dimmer than before.
"What year is it…?" I muttered.
No answer.
But I knew—centuries must have passed.
I stood, slowly, my mind racing.
If this is reincarnation… then this body… who did it belong to?
I reached for the fragmented memories of this life, and they came reluctantly.
His name was… also Kael. Kael Vireon. An orphan. Poor. Weak. Enrolled in the Arcane Academy of Lurenth, a prestigious magical institution that mocked him daily for his lack of talent. His nickname was "Cursed Kael."
They thought he was a joke.
Perfect.
"You've handed me the identity of a loser," I murmured with a smirk. "How poetic."
No one would see me coming this time.
Not the nobles.Not the mages.Not the gods.
I wasn't born into power again. I didn't have wealth. I didn't even have allies.
But I had something more dangerous:
Memories.
Centuries of them.
I remembered spells they had forgotten. Runes they buried. Monsters they sealed and lied about. The true reason behind the War of the Seven Moons.
And most of all…
I remembered the people who betrayed me.
"You should've killed me better the first time," I whispered to the shadows.
I stepped toward the barred window of the cell and looked out at the horizon.
Seven moons hung in the sky, though faint now—distant, dying.The magic of this world was fading.But me?
I was just getting started.
And this time?
I wouldn't be the hero they stabbed in the back.
I'd be the storm they never saw coming.
❖ END OF CHAPTER 1 ❖