The air vibrated with unseen energy. The ruins around Kael, once lifeless stone, now hummed with an ancient resonance. The Titanborn remained kneeling, its molten veins pulsing in rhythm with the shifting forces.
Something far beyond this place had awakened.
Kael's breath was steady, but his mind burned with questions. He had regained fragments of his past, glimpses of his lost power. Yet, the answers only led to more mysteries.
What had he been before his erasure? A ruler? A tyrant? A god?
And if he had once commanded time itself, then who or what had possessed the power to seal him away?
A gust of wind swept through the ruins, carrying with it a whisper.
"He knows."
Kael's eyes snapped toward the source a distortion in the air.
Like the edge of reality itself was fraying.
The Titanborn's molten gaze flickered toward it. "The seal is breaking faster than expected."
"Seal?" Kael's voice was low.
"Not yours. Another." The Titanborn's massive hand gestured toward the disturbance. "You were not the only one imprisoned, Sovereign."
The words sent a chill through Kael.
Before he could speak, the distortion ripped open.
A jagged tear in space itself, as if reality had been slashed apart by an unseen force. A swirling abyss, lined with fragmented time, glowing silver and black.
And from within it a figure stepped forward.
The moment the figure emerged, the very air shifted.
The temperature dropped. The weight of centuries pressed down upon the land.
Kael's pulse slowed. His vision flickered not just seeing the present, but echoes of the past overlapping reality.
This being was old.
Older than the ruins. Older than the Shadeborn.
The figure was clad in obsidian armor, runes of forgotten gods carved into its surface. Its face was hidden behind a mask, half-cracked, revealing a glimpse of hollow silver eyes.
Kael took a step forward.
"Who are you?"
The figure stood silent for a long moment. Then, when it spoke, its voice was like a blade scraping across eternity.
"You do not remember me."
Kael felt something a pull in his chest. The feeling of something long lost.
"You were not the only Sovereign."
The words hit Kael harder than any battle.
His fists clenched. "Explain."
The masked figure tilted its head. Watching. Weighing.
Then it raised its hand.
And the world collapsed around them.