Death of the Spiritless

Ash choked the air.

The city of Ebonreach burned with a hunger that did not come from mortal flame. Black fire gnawed at its bones, creeping over stone towers, swallowing the screams of the dying. And above it all, impaled on the shattered spire of the old temple, hung Kael.

A corpse in everything but breath.

Blood dripped from his fingers, splashing against the altar below where the last of his spirit was bleeding out. The warriors he once called brothers now stared up at him — not with guilt, but with satisfaction.

"You should've died years ago, Kael," said High Captain Varos, blade slick with the blood of those who tried to help. "You were born wrong. Spiritless. Unfit."

Kael couldn't move, couldn't speak. His limbs refused him. His body was ruined. And yet, something still burned inside him — not life, not hope.

Resentment.

Not for death. For silence.

He had screamed for help, for truth, for mercy. The gods answered with nothing. Not once in twenty years. No warmth. No blessing. No voice.

The divine had forgotten him.

And now, dying as his blood sanctified a false altar, Kael whispered the only prayer that mattered:

"Let me be forgotten. Let me rot beneath their shrines. And if something hears this… let me take them all with me."

Darkness answered.

A cold wind tore through the flaming temple. Varos turned, startled. Shadows peeled away from the broken statues, circling Kael's impaled body like vultures. And then —

The world cracked.

A scream erupted from beyond the veil, not human, not divine. Varos staggered back as black tendrils burst from the altar, dragging Kael's body into the stone itself.

He was swallowed whole.

And the flames were snuffed out.

Kael awoke gasping.

No fire. No pain. Only cold.

He lay on a slab of stone inside a narrow crypt. Dust blanketed everything — broken bones, rusted offerings, old tomes that hadn't been touched in centuries. The only light came from a flickering green flame hovering in midair.

He sat up.

His body… it wasn't the same. The wounds were gone, but more than that — his heart beat with no rhythm. His breath came without warmth. And deep in his chest, something pulsed.

A void.

[Reincarnation Complete.][You are now bound to the System of Eternal Night.][Initializing Divine Core… Error.][Core corrupted. Reconstructing from fragments.][Designation: Forgotten One.][Level: 0 God.][Shrine Integrity: 3%. Territory: 5x5 meters. Faith: 0.]

Kael blinked.

System? God?

A laugh caught in his throat — hoarse, dry, bitter. This wasn't mercy. It was mockery. The divine who had abandoned him had given him a broken system in death. Or maybe not even them. This didn't feel holy.

This felt like something beneath holiness.

[Quest Assigned: Rekindle Forgotten Flame.][Establish Divine Presence. Gain 1 Faith. Repair Shrine.][Time Remaining: 12 hours. Failure = System Termination.]

He stood, wobbling. His fingers brushed across the stone, and whispers met his touch — not voices, but memory. Someone had died here… praying to something beneath the gods. Something that had never answered.

Until now.

His reflection flickered in the broken metal mirror.

Eyes dark as the void. Skin pale, veined with black. And on his chest — a brand, glowing faintly:

☽

A crescent scar, etched where his heart should be.

Kael touched it. It pulsed back.

He wasn't alive. Not truly. And he wasn't divine, either. He was forgotten. A god carved out of nothing.

And maybe, just maybe… that was freedom.

Outside the shrine, the storm raged.

But Kael's footsteps echoed loud as thunder.

The crypt rose into a crumbled ruin built into the mountainside. Overgrown, buried in snow, far from any known path. The sky above was choked with dark clouds. There were no birds. No sun. Only silence.

Until a voice called out:

"H-Hello?!"

Kael froze.

A child's voice. Thin. Afraid.

He moved toward it and found a girl — no older than ten — dragging a smaller boy through the snow. Her feet were bare. Her hands bloodied. The boy's arm was broken.

They stumbled near the shrine entrance.

Kael's mind screamed leave them, but the system blinked.

[Opportunity Detected: Potential Faith Seed.][Decision: Aid – Absorb – Ignore.]

His hand hovered.

He remembered burning cities. The silence of the gods. The blood of the forgotten.

And he reached out.

The children flinched, but Kael knelt before them and whispered:

"You don't need to pray. Just remember."

[Faith Seed Accepted.][+1 Faith Gained.][Shrine Integrity +5%. Divine Core Stabilizing.][New Title Unlocked: Shelter of the Lost.]

Above the crypt, the broken idol pulsed with light.

And deep below, in the hollows of heaven, something ancient stirred.

A whisper echoed through the divine pantheon.

"A new god rises. But not one of ours."

"Impossible."

"Unseen."

"Unblessed."

"...Forgotten."

And far away, atop a mountain of bones, a crowned figure opened its eyes.

"So... he breathes again."