Andrew_Nickene

This is the journey of another young swordsman that was raised in a commoner family until a young age Andrew discovered that the had excellent skills to wield a sword.
The story starts when Andrew joins the biggest competition on his continet of swordsmanship 
were he is given the opportunity to get an artifact rarity of a sword called Ashren that has the power to show the past lifes of whoever wields it. 
The sword gave Andrew the power of his past life to forge his own new journey.

Ashren: The Shadow Within

Chapter 39: The Hound of Forgotten Kings

The night sky over Velmora had darkened unnaturally.

Clouds churned without wind. The stars flickered in and out like candles on the verge of dying.

A tremor—small, but ancient. Like the heartbeat of something that had been buried too long and had finally remembered how to breathe.

Mihai burst into the room, blades drawn.

"Something's crossed the barrier."

Andrew stood, Ashren already in his hand, pulsing with black-silver light.He didn't need to ask who.He knew.

It came not from the skies, but from below.

Stone shattered in the courtyard as a portal cracked open like a wound in reality. From its center crawled a creature—tall, gaunt, and wolf-like, its body made of sinew and smoke, its eyes glowing with molten hate.

It wore a collar of bone etched in runes.

"By command of the Crimson Mirror," it howled, "you are summoned, Shadow King. Or you will be devoured."

The Academy alarm bells rang wildly. Students scattered.

But Andrew stepped forward, alone.

The hound tilted its head. Then it charged.

The courtyard became a storm of fury as Andrew dodged, weaved, and struck, each blow forcing him to dig deeper into Ashren's growing power. But the hound adapted—shifting between worlds, blinking in and out of visibility.

It tore through walls, brought fire with its breath, and snarled curses in dead tongues.

"You are still incomplete!" it roared."You are not HIM!"

"No," he growled, eyes glowing faintly. "I'm becoming me. Not him."

With a surge of focus, he summoned a wave of silver-shadow energy from Ashren—his own magic, not inherited but earned.

It struck the beast with enough force to slam it into the base of the tower.

"Go back to your master," he said."Tell him this world already has a king. And it doesn't need two."

With one final cry, the hound vanished into ash and echo, leaving only a smoking crater and silence behind.

Later, as Mihai tended to Andrew's wounds, the older warrior shook his head.

"You shouldn't have been able to do that yet."

"I think the sword knows what's coming. And it's… choosing me. Piece by piece."

Mihai frowned. "Which means… someone else might be coming to take it. Or to break you before you fully awaken."

The Crimson Mirror cracked slightly as the hound's spirit dissolved.

The robed man stood still, silent.

Behind him, a figure emerged—cloaked in ivory armor, with a golden helm shaped like a weeping mask.

"Send me," it said."The Shadow King won't survive my judgment."

"Soon. Let him grow a little more… it'll make the fall sweeter."