Darkness.
For a long time, that was all there was.
Prince Lian floated in a void without stars, without earth, without breath. Time slipped past like water through open hands—years, decades, centuries, he couldn't tell. There was no heartbeat, no wind, no warmth.
Only the echo of his final vow.
I will return.
The void whispered to him. It showed him burning cities, falling thrones, kings kneeling in rivers of blood. It showed him the stars themselves shattering into fragments of crimson crystal.
One fragment burned brighter than the rest—black at its core, veins of molten red crawling like living fire.
The voice came from it. Deep. Ancient. Hungry.
Child of vengeance… do you still desire power?
Lian reached for it in the dark.
And the moment his fingers touched it, the world roared back to life.
He awoke to chaos.
The sky was gray, the air thick with ash. He lay on cracked earth where the palace once stood, his body trembling as if dragged through centuries in a single breath. The Starfall Empire was gone—only ruins remained, swallowed by time and forest and decay.
But there was no time to understand.
Because something screamed.
The sound was inhuman, a twisted roar that shook the trees. Lian staggered to his feet just as it emerged from the treeline—a creature twice the size of a warhorse, its body covered in jagged crystal shards that glowed faintly red. Its eyes burned with feral light.
A Starbeast.
Lian grabbed a broken spear lying nearby. His muscles felt weak, stiff from death and rebirth, but instinct guided him.
The beast lunged.
He barely dodged, the creature's claws tearing furrows into the ground where he stood moments before. He slashed with the spear, but the weapon snapped against the Starbeast's crystal hide.
The monster roared and slammed its tail, sending Lian flying against a crumbling wall. Pain exploded through his ribs.
He tasted blood again—just like the night he died.
Pathetic, the deep voice rumbled inside his head. Do you want power or not, mortal?
The Core. It was inside him now, he realized. Waiting. Watching.
"Yes," Lian gasped, pushing himself up. "Give me power. Enough to kill this thing. Enough to kill him."
Then bleed for it.
The world froze.
Red light erupted from Lian's chest as if his heart had turned to molten iron. Veins of fire spread across his body. Symbols of some long-forgotten language burned into the ground beneath his feet.
The broken Tyrant's Heart Core had awakened.
Power flooded his veins—raw, violent, alive.
When the Starbeast charged again, Lian didn't retreat. He stepped forward. His hand closed into a fist, and crimson energy erupted around it like burning armor.
He punched.
The air boomed. The beast screamed as its crystal chest cracked beneath the blow, fragments flying like shattered glass. Lian didn't stop. He struck again, and again, until the creature collapsed in a heap of smoking shards.
The power pulsing in his veins slowly faded, leaving behind only the sound of his own ragged breathing.
In the distance, faint horns echoed—human voices this time, shouts in a language he didn't recognize. Riders appeared through the trees, armed with steel crossbows and strange weapons glowing with mechanical light.
A young woman led them.
She wore leather armor, a crimson scarf fluttering behind her, a spear of silver metal in hand. Her dark hair was tied back, her expression sharp as her eyes swept the scene.
"Another Starbeast… and a survivor?" she murmured in surprise.
This was Kiera, captain of a frontier hunters' guild. (New character introduced)
Her gaze locked on Lian, standing among the beast's remains with glowing red veins slowly fading across his arms.
She didn't know this man had died centuries ago. Didn't know the power awakening in his chest belonged to the Tyrant's Heart itself.
But she knew one thing as her hunters surrounded him with wary eyes:
The era had changed.
And so had the man before her.