Chapter 1 – The Abyss Opens

Abyss Eternal

Darkness.

It was endless. Suffocating. A prison without walls, where time unraveled and sanity eroded like sand in the tide. Here, the light of gods did not reach, and the laws of mortals held no meaning.

Kieran Valcrest had been trapped in this abyss for a thousand years.

His body had crumbled to dust. His soul had been stripped bare. And yet, even as the Abyss devoured everything he once was, he refused to break.

"You will surrender."

The voice came from all directions, a formless entity woven into the very fabric of the Abyss. It had whispered to him for centuries, relentless, insidious. It was the will of this prison—an ancient hunger that wanted him to kneel.

But Kieran did not kneel.

A slow smile curved his lips, sharp as a blade. "You'll have to do better than that."

A pulse of violet fire erupted from his body. The darkness recoiled, shrieking in agony as shadows cracked and shattered like brittle glass. The pressure suffocating him vanished, replaced by an eerie stillness.

He stood.

His form had changed. He was no longer just a man, no longer bound by mortal flesh. His body, reforged by suffering, pulsed with Abyssal Sovereignty—a power that defied the gods themselves.

He raised his hand. Shadows twisted at his command, bending like frightened beasts. Once, this abyss had been his tomb. Now, it was nothing more than a stepping stone.

"It is time."

The air trembled. The very fabric of reality cracked.

And for the first time in a thousand years—Kieran walked free.

---

The Betrayal

As he ascended from the Abyss, his thoughts turned to the past.

He had been the Celestial Knight, the Dominion's greatest champion. A hero who fought in the name of justice, wielding a blade of divine radiance.

But justice had been a lie.

His allies had framed him. His emperor had cast him aside. And the gods, in their silence, had allowed it all.

"The Forsaken One." That was what they called him as they dragged him to the execution altar. A punishment for a crime he did not commit.

"Cast him into the Abyss. Let him be forgotten."

Forgotten?

He would make sure they never forgot him again.

---

The Mortal Realm – Tenebris Ruins

Night had fallen over the ruined city of Tenebris.

What had once been a mighty kingdom was now nothing more than a graveyard of shattered spires and crumbling walls. The air was thick with the scent of blood and decay.

A group of mercenaries camped within the ruins, their laughter harsh, their weapons stained from recent slaughter. They had picked the bones of this fallen kingdom clean, looting what little remained.

One of them, a broad-shouldered man clad in tarnished gold armor, stirred uneasily. His instincts, honed from years of battle, whispered a warning.

The fire flickered.

The wind stilled.

And then—a tear split open in the night.

A black rift formed in the air, jagged and unnatural. Shadows bled from its core, spiraling outward like ink in water.

From within, a figure stepped forth.

His boots touched the ground soundlessly. His long coat billowed, embroidered with silver runes that pulsed like dying stars. He did not belong in this world—his presence alone was a violation of reality itself.

And then, he opened his eyes.

Twin violet flames burned in the darkness.

The mercenaries scrambled to their feet, hands flying to their weapons.

"Who the hell are you?" their leader demanded. His voice was firm, but there was a tremor beneath it.

The figure did not answer.

He took a single step forward.

The air shattered.

A wave of pressure crashed over them, unseen yet suffocating. The weakest mercenaries collapsed, clutching their throats, their bodies refusing to obey them. The leader gritted his teeth, veins bulging as he resisted—but it was useless.

He fell to his knees.

The figure tilted his head, studying them with an expression unreadable.

"Kneel."

The word carried no force, no command.

Yet the world itself obeyed.

The mercenaries dropped, their bodies crushed beneath an invisible weight. Their leader gasped, his forehead pressed against the dirt, fingers trembling.

"W-What… are you?" he choked out.

The figure regarded him for a long moment. Then, finally, he spoke.

"I have been away for a long time." His voice was soft, yet it echoed across the ruins like a storm.

"Tell me… who rules this world now?"

The leader trembled. But he knew that silence was not an option.

He gasped out a name.

And Kieran Valcrest smiled.

A name he had not heard in centuries.

A name that should not exist.

The emperor who betrayed him.

The gods who forsook him.

The kingdom that erased him.

"Good," he murmured, more to himself than to them.

His return was no longer a question.

It was an inevitability.

The Forsaken Sovereign had awakened.

And the world… would tremble.