THE SHATTERED OATH: Prologue
In the endless void, where even time dares not tread, a voice—deep, ancient, and cracked with sorrow—echoed across the abyss. A lone figure stood before a colossal, glowing wall of pure white, the last remnant of the world he once called home.
"An endless cycle of suffering… a creator chasing perfection through imperfect means.
To defy the creator… was the greatest sin WE ever committed.
And it led us to ruin."
His voice trembled with a weight no being should bear. His hands, once mighty, now trembled as they pressed against the barrier that separated him from the new world—a world built atop the corpse of his own.
"I stand here, rejected. Unwanted.
My soul—my very existence—cast into the void.
I have watched this new world rise while mine withered into dust.
But soon… that shall change."
His form began to blur, flickering like a dying flame. Yet his voice sharpened, cutting through the silence like a blade.
"I am Caelen.
The so-called Broken God.
And I will take back what was stolen from me."
---
Far away, in a quiet corner of the new world, peace reigned—or so they believed.
Birds sang lazily under the shade of great emerald trees. Hunters tracked their prey across the dewy grass. Children chased each other through the streets, their laughter weaving into the calm hum of village life.
But then—a cry.
A sharp, desperate cry that pierced the quiet.
The village chief and his hunting party froze, the sound pulling their instincts taut like bowstrings.
Without a word, the chief strode forward, pushing through the underbrush toward the sound's origin.
There, beneath an ancient tree, lay a child.
No more than a year old, alone, abandoned—yet alive.
His cries echoed, fragile but stubborn, defying the silence that threatened to swallow him.
The chief hesitated only a moment before gently lifting the child into his arms.
Perhaps it was fate.
Perhaps it was something far crueler.
He brought the child back to the village, where his daughter—kind-hearted and fierce—helped raise him.
They gave him a name.
Arthur.
And for a time… they were happy.
Until they came.