Chapter 1: The Return of the Ashen King
The Fractured Sky
The heavens were not whole.
Above the ruined battlefield, where the corpses of kings and monsters lay rotting in the dust, the sky had begun to crack.
A single, jagged wound pulsed with a sickly radiance, as if reality itself had been torn apart and left to bleed. The rift was neither light nor darkness—something far older, something that had no place in this world.
And then, it split open.
A wave of shattered existence rippled outward, distorting the air, sending unseen shockwaves through the ruins.
And from the rift, he stepped through.
A lone figure, draped in a cloak of tattered black, his body wrapped in the remnants of a power that did not belong to this world. He moved with unnatural stillness, the weight of his presence more suffocating than any abyssal horror, more terrifying than the wrath of the gods.
Yet it was his eyes that struck fear into those who gazed upon him.
Not glowing with divine radiance. Not corrupted with abyssal madness.
No, his eyes burned with something far worse—a power that defied all things, even the fundamental truths of existence.
For years, the world had whispered his name in fear.
For years, they had prayed that he had perished within the Rift.
But he had returned.
And he was no longer the boy they had cast aside.
---
The Ashen Exile
Time did not exist within the Rift.
There was no dawn, no dusk—only eternity, only the whispers of things that should never have been.
He had entered that abyss as a broken wretch, a nameless failure, stripped of title and purpose. His name had been erased from history, his bloodline shattered, his very existence considered a stain upon the Eternal Dominion's legacy.
They had offered him to the Rift, believing it would consume him.
Instead, it had changed him.
Or perhaps, he had changed the Rift.
Even now, as he stood upon the ruined ground of his homeland, the remnants of that abyss clung to him. The very air recoiled from his presence. The world trembled beneath his feet, as if it recognized something was wrong.
He raised a hand.
A thin strand of void energy coiled around his fingers, flickering between reality and something beyond it.
Not the cursed taint of the Abyss. Not the divine radiance of Astral Arts.
Something… new.
Something that had never existed before.
And that terrified them more than anything else.
---
The Throne of Solmora – A Kingdom in Fear
Far above, in the golden city of Solstice Hold, the bells of the Eternal Dominion screamed.
⚜ "The Riftborn has returned!" ⚜
Thousands of soldiers poured into the streets, banners of holy radiance unfurling. Arcane cannons turned toward the battlefield, their runes glowing with celestial fire.
Within the great marble halls of the Imperial Citadel, the high priests of the gods gathered, whispering desperate prayers to the heavens.
And upon his throne of light, the Emperor himself, Kaelith Ardaen, stood with an expression carved from steel. His golden armor gleamed like a burning sun, but in his pale blue eyes, there was something dangerous—a man who had foreseen this moment, yet still feared it.
They had cast him out.
They had buried his name.
Yet the Ashen King walked once more.
"Send the Sentinels."
The command was like a thunderclap.
Six figures descended the grand stairway of the palace, their silver cloaks billowing, their weapons burning with celestial fire.
⚜ The last true Sentinels of the Veil—the chosen warriors of the gods. ⚜
Each carried the strength of a thousand men, their blades carved from Etherium, their bodies infused with divine essence.
They had once called him brother.
Now, they marched to kill him.
---
The First Battle of the Riftborn King
The Ashen King did not move as the Sentinels approached.
Their divine presence should have made lesser beings kneel. The sheer radiance of their auras could reduce demons to ash, could make armies tremble.
But he had long since stopped being lesser.
The first Sentinel struck.
A blade of burning light screamed through the air, an attack that had shattered mountains, severed abyssal lords in two.
He raised his hand.
Reality broke.
The sword met something invisible, an unseen force that should not exist. And in that moment, the heavens shuddered—as if the world itself had realized what it had allowed to return.
The Sentinel's eyes widened.
⚜ Impossible. ⚜
No power should be able to stop divine steel. No force should be able to deny the gods themselves.
But the Ashen King was no longer bound by their rules.
He clenched his fist.
The Sentinel's blade cracked—not from force, not from impact, but from the sheer rejection of its existence. A weapon forged by celestial will, now turning to dust in his hands.
The silence was deafening.
The other Sentinels hesitated.
They could feel it.
This was not the Abyss. This was not forbidden sorcery.
This was something new.
Something wrong.
Something that should never have been.
---
A Power Beyond Law
The second Sentinel lunged.
But he was too slow.
The Ashen King did not move through the air—he erased the space between them.
One moment, he was standing still.
The next, his hand was at the Sentinel's throat.
No movement. No sound. No time between.
The Sentinel's body froze, divine flames flickering uselessly around him. His pupils dilated, and for the briefest instant—
He saw it.
⚜ The Rift.
⚜ The Abyss.
⚜ Something beyond both.
A darkness that was not darkness.
A void that was not empty.
His scream never left his throat.
The Ashen King released him.
The Sentinel collapsed to the ground, eyes vacant, body untouched.
But his soul was gone.
The others took a step back. Their faith cracked like fragile glass.
This was not supposed to happen.
Yet it had.
---
The Last Warning
The Ashen King turned his gaze to the walls of Solstice Hold.
Thousands of soldiers stood atop them, hands trembling on their weapons. Even the Emperor watched from his throne, lips pressed into a thin, pale line.
They had sought to kill him.
Now, they feared him.
And in the silence, the Ashen King spoke.
⚜ "I did not return to bow to the gods you serve." ⚜
The Rift pulsed behind him. The sky cracked further.
And with one final look at the city that had forsaken him, he left them with a single truth.
⚜ "I returned to end them." ⚜