Darkness. That was all Kael Ardyn knew.
The biting cold seeped into his bones, and the scent of blood mixed with the dampness of the stone floor. Chains clinked with every shallow breath he took. Somewhere in the endless dark, rats scurried, indifferent to the broken boy abandoned by the world.
He didn't remember how long he had been there—days, weeks, maybe months. The only markers of time were the distant, rhythmic sounds of water dripping from the ceiling and the occasional creak of the dungeon door far above.
Kael's body was weak, but his will wasn't gone. Not yet. Deep within his soul, something stirred—a pulse, faint but ancient. A hunger not for food, but for power… and vengeance.
> "You should have died with the rest of your clan."
Those were the last words he heard from the High Inquisitor before they threw him into the abyss. His clan, the Ardyns, once revered as guardians of balance in the empire, had been annihilated in a single night—betrayed, labeled heretics, and slaughtered.
All except him.
> "I survived… but why?"
Kael's thoughts were broken by a sound—faint at first, like whispers echoing in the void.
> "Awaken…"
"Child of Eclipse…"
"Your blood remembers…"
His eyes snapped open. Not the gray-blue irises of the boy he once was, but a deep obsidian glow. Symbols like cracks of midnight light slithered across his skin, pulsing with energy. The pain vanished, replaced by warmth—then fire.
The chains shattered.
The darkness recoiled.
Kael rose.
His body, though lean and bloodied, felt infused with a power far beyond his understanding. His fingers crackled with shadowy energy, wisps of black flame coiling around his arms like serpents.
He stumbled forward, each step awakening more of the force within. The very stones beneath his feet trembled. A black sigil glowed on his chest—the crest of the Shadowblood. A mark long thought to be extinct.
> "The world tried to bury me..." Kael whispered, his voice hollow yet resolute. "But they buried a seed."
He reached the rusted iron door at the top of the stairs. With a flick of his hand, it exploded into splinters. The guards outside turned, startled—but never had a chance to scream.
Dark tendrils lashed out, piercing through armor and flesh with ease. It was not just power—it was wrath made manifest.
Kael didn't feel guilt. He didn't feel hesitation.
Only purpose.
He walked out of the dungeon for the first time in months, maybe years. The night sky greeted him, clouded, but lit by a blood-red moon. Storms rumbled in the distance. His journey had just begun.
And the world would soon remember the name it tried to erase:
Kael Ardyn—the Eclipse Sovereign.