Shadow of the Slums, Flame of the Future
Liam Noir was never meant to survive.
Stolen from his family at the age of three, he grew up nameless in the deepest slums of Rayfall—starving, hunted, forgotten by the world. When death finally came for him, fate took pity. Five months later, Liam awakens in a quiet home with a soft bed, warm light, and a family that has spent a decade mourning him.
But the world he returns to is not the world he left.
Aeren Thalla is ruled by mana, beasts, and powerful hunters. Kingdoms rise and fall at the will of monster-infested dungeons. Mana rivers carve borders through nations. Kings and queens wield the power of entire armies. Here, strength defines everything.
And Liam—broken, underfed, untrained—has none.
Yet as he learns to read, to laugh, to belong, something deep inside him stirs. A faint spark of fire. A whisper of shadow. A rare dual affinity, subtle but dangerous, begins to awaken. It is not enough to make him a prodigy… but enough to make him different. Enough to mark him for a destiny he never asked for.
Hunters whisper of strange dreams. Mana pressure in Rayfall shifts. A beast gate trembles at the border. And in Liam’s nightmares, a colossal shape watches him with ancient eyes—waiting, calling, choosing.
As he explores the city, trains lightly with his A-rank parents, learns the world’s secrets, and rebuilds his shattered identity, a new threat emerges… and Liam stands at the knife-edge between his past and his future.
From the shadows of the slums he crawled out of,
to the flames that promise to reshape Aeren Thalla—
Liam’s story is only beginning.
