"To build a house of your own, you must dig deeper than blood.
You must dig until your hands touch bone —
and there, you will find either your ancestors… or your enemies."
— The Lost Testaments of the Undying Flame
---
I
The wind screamed across the peaks of Gravemount.
Where most slept, Reginal J. Lopez stood awake beneath the stars, eyes fixed on the northern cliffs — where only ghosts dared wander. In the academy, it was called the Boneward Rise.
A place not even the instructors entered.
It was said the first kings of war had been buried there. Their rage never faded. Their bodies turned to stone. And those foolish enough to climb the cliffs would return… wrong.
Reginal didn't fear the cliffs.
He feared dying without knowing who he was.
Not the boy cast aside.
Not the bastard with no crest.
Not the warrior who rose.
> But the king who descended…
Into the fire of what was forgotten.
And tonight — he would descend.
---
II
He moved through the silent halls of the academy like a shadow draped in storm. His symbiotic armor, black as void, pulsed at his chest — not forged, but grown. It responded to his breath, whispered back his thoughts.
> "We are not made," it spoke within.
"We are become."
At the base of Boneward Rise, Kammy waited — cloak drawn, eyes sharper than any steel.
"You're not supposed to be here," she said, stepping beside him.
"I'm not supposed to be anything," Reginal replied.
She glanced up the path of twisted stone and broken statues. "If you go up there, you're no longer just a boy who challenged the Houses. You become something else. Something… they'll have to destroy."
Reginal turned to her, voice low.
"I don't want to join history, Kammy.
I want to rewrite it."
Kammy looked into his eyes. For the first time, she didn't question him. She simply reached into her belt, pulled out a blade — short, silver, elegant — and handed it over.
"Then bleed your truth," she said.
"And come back different."
---
III
Boneward Rise wasn't a climb — it was a trial.
The steps shifted underfoot. Shadows whispered. Statues wept black tears. The air grew colder the higher he went, but not from wind — from memory.
Halfway up, the armor on his back hardened, sensing something unnatural. A pulse beneath the earth. A sound like bones grinding. A presence that wasn't seen, only felt.
> "Reginal J. Lopez…" a voice echoed — deep, ancient.
"Do you seek power… or the right to wield it?"
He paused.
"I seek truth."
> "Truth is ugly."
"Then let it scar me."
Lightning cracked.
The sky bled open.
And the ground gave way beneath him.
---
IV
He didn't fall far.
Just far enough to land in a crypt of flame and ash — a hidden chamber carved deep into the mountain's heart. On its walls, giant murals glowed: kings with no eyes, generals with no tongues, empires rising and dying in one sweep of time.
In the center stood a throne of bone and obsidian, untouched by dust.
Atop it, no body.
Only a mirror.
Reginal stepped forward and saw himself — but not the version standing there.
What he saw in the mirror was taller. Stronger. A face touched by war and crowned with darkness. Behind this version of himself… stood armies.
The true heir of RÆGN.
A voice thundered again, no longer from outside — but from within his own soul.
> "You are not the first.
But you may be the last.
Will you inherit the war that broke your bloodline?"
Reginal stepped forward and placed his hand upon the mirror.
And it shattered — not into shards…
…but into weapons.
---
V
From the remains rose a blade unlike any forged in Gravemount. It curved like a serpent, glowed with red glyphs, and pulsed in rhythm with his heart.
> The Fang of RÆGN.
As he lifted it, the armor on his body responded — reshaping, tightening, flaring like living flame. On his back, the sigil of his House burned into existence:
⚫ A black sun devouring a crown.
The ancestors did not rise to greet him.
They knelt.
---
Back at the cliff's edge, Kammy saw it — a pillar of red light soaring into the sky. Lightning spiraled downward like a crown.
She didn't flinch.
She whispered, "He's not just coming back different…"
> "He's coming back inevitable."
---
VI
When Reginal descended, his eyes were no longer the same.
They glowed faint red, not of magic — but memory reclaimed.
He walked past Kammy. She followed without question.
Milo waited at the bottom of the slope, spinning his chain lazily.
"About time," Milo said. "Was starting to think the ghosts ate you."
"They did," Reginal said.
"And?"
"I bit back."
---
[END OF CHAPTER III]