Prologue: The Bang That Shattered the World

It began with a sound that shattered the silence of eternity — a deafening, resonant bang that rolled across the cosmos, leaving nothing untouched. Stars trembled, planets cracked, and the threads of reality themselves quivered under the force.

Where the bang struck, the Titans fell. Behemoths of unimaginable size and power — ancient entities that had slept since the birth of time — were hurled across the void, crashing into worlds not their own. Their bodies shattered, scattering fragments that pulsed with living energy, fragments that would later seed legends, wars, and the rise of mortals who dared to touch them.

Time fractured. One world after another felt the aftershocks, the cosmic tremors bending the laws of life, death, and possibility. On one small, unremarkable planet — a world that would one day see the rise of sects, warriors, and legends — the first whispers of power began to stir in mortal veins.

Fragments of Titans seeped into the earth, into rivers, into mountains, and into the hearts of those who walked its lands. Some humans gained strength, some wisdom, some cursed knowledge. And some, though rare, carried the spark of something far greater — a connection to the beings that had fallen before time itself.

No one knew why the Titans came here. No one understood the bang, or the laws it had broken, or the bloodline it would one day awaken. Entire civilizations rose and fell, driven by fragments and ambition. Wars scarred the lands. Sects competed for knowledge and power, uncovering only pieces of the truth.

And then, five thousand years ago, a sect unlike any other — the Aetheris Covenant — stood at the pinnacle of this world. They understood the fragments. They mapped the origins. They reached toward the secrets that mortals were never meant to grasp.

But even they could not escape the consequences of power.

A collapse came — slow, mysterious, almost imperceptible at first. Rival factions, hidden betrayals, and the subtle influence of Titans beyond comprehension fractured the sect. Knowledge that had taken millennia to gather teetered on the edge of oblivion.

Yet, in defiance of fate, the Covenant did not vanish entirely. Among their leaders, a plan was made — a technique so secret, so profound, that it could store knowledge in blood itself, to awaken only when the world and its inheritors were ready.

And so it waited…

Silent, unseen, and untouchable.

Until the bloodline stirred.

Every time he closed his eyes, the messenger's words echoed in his head.They'll come for you. The ones who made your sect disappear.


The moon had risen high when Kael finally gave up on trying to rest. He slipped out of the house quietly, careful not to wake Liora, and made his way toward the elder's hall.


The hall was empty, lit only by the faint glow of an oil lamp near the shrine. Kael hesitated at the door, heart hammering.


"This is a bad idea," he whispered to himself.


Inside, the air was heavy with the smell of old wood and incense. Scrolls lined the shelves along the walls, each one neatly labeled. Kael's eyes darted from one to another, not even sure what he was looking for — until he found a section marked "Aetheris".


He reached for the first scroll — but stopped when he heard footsteps behind him.


Kael spun around to see the elder standing in the doorway, cane in hand.


"I…" Kael swallowed hard. "I wanted to know about the Covenant."


The elder's eyes narrowed. "And why would you care about that, boy?"


Kael hesitated. He could lie. He could say it was for school, or curiosity, or any number of harmless reasons.


Instead, he lifted his tunic and revealed the faint glow of the mark.


The elder froze. His cane tapped once against the floor.


"Two nights ago," Kael said. "Near the river. I touched something — a shard — and then…" He trailed off.


The elder walked slowly to the shrine and lit another lamp. "You should not have come here," he said quietly.


The elder stared at him for a long moment, then sighed. "Sit, boy. If you wish to know, then you will know — but what you learn cannot be unlearned."


"The Covenant," the elder said, "was not merely a sect. It was the keeper of the First Knowledge — the record of the Titans and the laws they broke when they came here. Five thousand years ago, it was the brightest star in the martial world. And then… it fell."


"Perhaps. Or perhaps because it learned something the Titans wished hidden. One by one, its halls went silent. Its masters vanished. Its libraries burned. What little survived was sealed into the bloodlines of its last families."


Kael's hands clenched. "Then this mark—"


"—means that you are one of them," the elder finished. "The last echo of a dead Covenant."


Kael's throat felt tight. He had always known he was different — but hearing it said aloud was something else entirely.


Before he could reply, the elder's expression hardened. "Listen well. There are those who still hunt the bloodline. If they find you before you are ready…"


The elder blew out the lamp. "Go home. Tell no one. Not even Liora."


Kael opened his mouth — then shut it.


When he stepped out into the night, the stars seemed sharper, colder. The world had not changed. But Kael knew he had.


Chapter 13 - Chapter XIII: The Question That Wouldn’t Leave