The Man Who Wasn’t Born

The world was quiet when they entered the Ruins of Kal Seran.

Not the silence of nature, nor the hush of reverence. This was the silence that came when time itself refused to echo—when even memory dared not linger.

Lin Feng stepped across the threshold, his boots sinking into dust that wasn't made of sand or soil, but of stories. Crumbled tales. Half-written histories. The sediment of forgotten legacies, crushed beneath the weight of something too vast to name.

Ruoxi stood at his side, sword drawn. Her voice, when it came, was barely a whisper. "There's no wind. No birds. No qi."

Yue Lian pressed her fingers against a pillar etched with no symbols. "It's like this place… rejected meaning."

Lin Feng didn't answer. He already felt it.

The pull.

Somewhere ahead, down a corridor that no longer aligned with physics, a presence waited. A presence without origin. A presence that did not exist—and yet remembered.

Aeskar.

---

The ruins twisted as they walked. Stairs led downward but they rose. Doors opened before they were touched. Time skipped like a scratched scroll.

They passed murals that blurred when stared at, and statues that shifted position between blinks. Each represented someone that none of them could name, yet who all seemed familiar.

Finally, they arrived at the heart of the complex.

A single stone dais, lit by no source, floating in a void of gray mist.

And sitting on the dais, legs crossed, eyes closed, was a man in white robes.

No aura. No qi. No breath.

But the moment Lin Feng stepped forward, his eyes opened.

They were perfectly black.

Like void before the void had names.

"You came," the man said.

"I don't know you," Lin Feng replied.

"You forgot me," said the man. "As you were meant to."

---

The man stood. His voice carried weight without sound. It vibrated beneath their skins, humming inside bone and memory.

"I am Aeskar," he said. "Or I was. Or I will be."

Ruoxi narrowed her eyes. "Enough riddles. Who are you?"

He looked at her.

And for a moment, Ruoxi gasped—because she remembered him. A flash of her as a child, being rescued by him. A soft laugh. A warm hand.

Then it was gone.

"Your memories are bleeding," Yue Lian said, voice shaken.

Aeskar turned to her.

"Names are stories. I am what happens when a name is refused by reality."

Lin Feng clenched his fists. "Why do you know me?"

Aeskar stepped forward.

"Because I was born of the same force you now carry," he said. "The void didn't just bless you, Lin Feng. It bred others. Failed stories. Forgotten kings. Children of potential who were never chosen."

"I am the first."

---

Aeskar gestured and the air around them shimmered. Images appeared:

A battlefield with no dead, only weapons stuck in mid-air

A palace where the emperor had no face

A timeline where Lin Feng died as a child, and Aeskar rose in his place

"I existed in those echoes. Lived a thousand deaths. Ruled in shadows. Led in silence. All to be replaced when reality picked you instead."

He looked at Lin Feng.

"You are the one the world remembered. I am the one it forgot. The Unborn."

Ruoxi growled. "Then what do you want? Revenge?"

"No," Aeskar said. "I want to finish the story. I want to matter. And for that… you must remember me."

---

Aeskar drew no weapon.

Instead, he projected memories.

Lin Feng's own memories twisted—suddenly Aeskar stood in all of them. Saving Shan Lion. Meeting the Monarch System. Holding the Black Sword.

Yue Lian screamed. "He's overwriting you!"

Lin Feng gasped, falling to one knee.

His vision split—one part still himself. Another… Aeskar.

A version where he wasn't the Sovereign.

A version where Aeskar was loved. Chosen.

And worse: It felt right.

Ruoxi rushed to him. "Fight it! You are Lin Feng!"

Lin Feng's voice cracked. "What if… I was just the better draft?"

Aeskar smiled. "Exactly. I'm not your enemy, Lin Feng. I am your editor."

---

Inside his mind, Lin Feng retreated.

There, in the black, stood his former self—Xuanyin. And a third form—nameless, faceless.

The Void itself took form.

"You are not one story," it said. "You are the intersection. But intersections must choose their path."

Lin Feng raised his hand.

And named himself.

"Not Xuanyin. Not Aeskar. I am Lin Feng."

Power surged.

The memories around him shattered.

And Aeskar screamed.

---

Aeskar unleashed the Chrono-Void Pulse, a technique that erased seconds from the fight—making his strikes impossible to predict.

Ruoxi and Yue Lian could barely stand.

Lin Feng pushed through, relying on instinct alone.

He activated his most dangerous ability yet:

Void Law: Narrative Collapse.

It unmade all "what-ifs."

Aeskar's stolen memories burned.

His false timelines unraveled.

And finally, Lin Feng struck.

"You were real."

"But you are not me."

He pierced Aeskar's chest.

Not to kill.

But to bind.

Aeskar collapsed, his form fragmenting.

His voice was calm. "Then let me be… the footnote."

And he vanished.

---

The ruins calmed.

Time realigned.

Ruoxi helped Lin Feng up. "You alright?"

Lin Feng nodded slowly. "He wasn't evil."

Yue Lian exhaled. "No. Just lonely."

Far above them, the constellation of Aeskar shifted.

And a new star appeared beside it.

One that spelled: Lin Feng.

To be continue...