Voice from the Ashes
The sound of collapsing steel groaned like the final breath of a forgotten civilization. Amid the ruins of an abandoned metalworks district, the wind stirred soot and rust, carrying with it the scent of blood, iron, and something older—something that should have died long ago.
There, half-buried beneath a fractured steel beam, lay a boy no older than ten. His skin was stained with dust and ash, his body thin and frail. On his temple—an old scar that pulsed faintly, like a memory refusing to fade.
No one knew his name. No one cared.
But when he opened his eyes, the world would feel it.Not the eyes of a child, but the gaze of a soul that had died and returned a thousand times.
Iron Wastes was no place for children. Once the industrial heart of a fallen empire, now it was a graveyard of machines, crawling with metal scavengers and lawless gangs. Mercy was a myth here. Power was the only truth.
But this boy… he was not ordinary.
Above, the sky roiled with stormclouds, low and angry. Thunder growled somewhere far off. And then—his chest pulsed once, sharply.
"Initializing... Origin System... Version 0.00..."
A mechanical voice echoed—not aloud, but inside him. In his mind? His soul? Even he didn't know.
Suddenly, his eyes snapped open.
Golden-red light shimmered in his irises, flickering like ancient flames stirred awake. He coughed, wheezed, then slowly sat up, confused, trembling.
"Where... am I?"
The whisper barely left his cracked lips. He clutched his head, squeezing his eyes shut—and then it came. A dream. A fragment.
A throne ablaze.Thousands of beings in cloaks and wings kneeling before a burning crown.One name called out again and again:
"Vaelith."
The boy turned pale.
That name… why did it feel like his?Or rather—why did it feel like it used to be?
Footsteps echoed across rusted steel. Heavy. Deliberate.
Three men emerged from the shadows, scarred and grinning, eyes hungry beneath torn vests and mechanical implants. Gang scavengers. Flesh-traders.
"Well, well… a street rat caught mid-system activation.""Still warm, too. Lucky find.""You know what a live awakened kid's worth on the black market?"
They laughed, circling like wolves who thought their prey was bleeding.
But they didn't know.This boy wasn't prey.
He was the leftover spark of something vast.Something ancient.Something dangerous.
"This world is unfamiliar… but if I've truly returned, then this shall be my final life. And no one—man, god, or demon—will dictate my fate again."
___
Echoes of a Past Life
The gang leader stepped forward, his boots clanking against the rusted floor panels. A jagged metal hook replaced his left hand, and his right eye glowed faint blue—a cheap cybernetic implant used for tracking aura pulses.
"System activation at this age?" he muttered, crouching near the boy. "Looks like someone up there rolled the dice in your favor, brat."
The boy didn't flinch. He stared blankly ahead, his golden-red irises slowly dimming, yet behind those eyes... calculations ran faster than any child should be capable of.
Scanning environment... Threat level: Moderate.Power reserves: 2%.Combat function: Locked.Emergency Protocol [EMBER SEED] available.
His breath trembled. His body ached. But in his soul, the system pulsed like a second heart—cold, logical, and ancient.
He remembered dying. Again and again.Sometimes in fire, sometimes in betrayal, sometimes at the hands of those who once called him "King."
But this time... it was different. He wasn't born as a sovereign.He was nothing.
Just a lost child in a dead city.Perfect. No one would suspect him.
"Boss," one of the men whispered, "he's got that look... I don't like it. Like he's seen death and didn't blink."
"Shut up," the leader growled. "He's just a scrap kid with a lucky glitch. Grab him."
The moment their hands reached out, the boy's body shivered—and the system spoke once more:
EMBER SEED protocol initiated.Warning: Activation may damage host's current vessel.Proceed?
He didn't know what it meant.But somewhere deep inside, an instinct answered:
Yes.
The air shimmered.
A faint red glow ignited beneath his skin—lines of ancient runes burning faintly on his arms and chest. The gangsters recoiled, hissing in surprise.
"What the hell is that?"
Too late.
A burst of crimson flame erupted from his chest—not like fire, but like living energy, raw and primal. It didn't burn metal or cloth, but it struck their minds, their spirits.
One man collapsed instantly, screaming.Another dropped his weapon, eyes rolled back.The leader staggered back, blood dripping from his nose.
"You little... monster..."
The boy stood slowly, shoulders shaking. Not from fear. From restraint.
The flame died down just as quickly as it came. He couldn't control it. Not yet. But it was enough.
They ran. Or limped, dragged each other, anything to escape the thing that should not exist.
When silence returned, the boy fell to his knees, panting.
EMBER SEED unstable. Rebooting core systems... Please rest.
And then—just as his consciousness began to fade—he saw her.
A girl stood at the far end of the corridor, cloaked in ragged white, eyes shining like starlight. She said nothing. But her presence... it was familiar. Too familiar.
"Who… are you?" he whispered, before collapsing into the darkness.
Her lips curved into a faint smile.
"We've met before, Sovereign.In a time even gods have forgotten."
___
The System That Should Not Exist
Darkness cradled him once more. But it wasn't empty.
Behind closed eyes, he stood in a vast void, surrounded by flickers of shattered memories—glimpses of wars, crowns, dragons, betrayals... and a voice.
"Welcome, Sovereign."
A sphere of light hovered before him. Lines of data streamed around it, like a living sun made of code and will.
"Origin System core initializing.""Error: Host integrity compromised.""Memory fragments recovered: 3.1%"
He frowned—though his body felt weightless.
"Do you recognize me, Vaelith?"
His name again. The one from the vision. The one he didn't remember... and yet did.
"I know that name," he murmured. "But I'm not him."
"You were. And you will be.""You are the final vessel. The last sovereign of the first realm."
The voice was not mechanical. It was ancient, like stone dragged across stars. A whisper of something divine. Something broken.
"You died in defiance of fate. Now fate itself seeks to erase you.""They erased your legacy. Fragmented your soul. But this world… this shell… is your last chance to rewrite everything."
The boy's fists clenched. "I don't care about fate. I just want to survive."
"Survival is the first rebellion."
He awoke with a jolt.
The girl was gone.
He was alone again, curled in a pile of scrap metal and ash, the bitter cold gnawing at his bones. His stomach growled, and pain stabbed through every joint.
But something had changed.
A faint golden icon hovered before his vision—only visible to him. A system menu. Cracked. Glitched. But alive.
[ORIGIN SYSTEM INTERFACE v0.00]Host: IncompleteCore Flame: Active [EMBER SEED]Memory: 3.1% RestoredSkill Tree: LockedRealm Access: DeniedRebirths: 1000+Host Status: Critical. Malnourished. Untamed.
He exhaled slowly. "So this is real... not just a dream."
He had no gold. No allies. No land.Not even a real name.
But he had one thing:
A beginning.
And a war that started long before this world ever existed… was calling him back.
In the distance, a siren echoed through the Iron Wastes.Someone had detected the activation pulse.Someone was coming.
Not all were enemies.Not all were allies.
But all wanted a piece of the Sovereign... before he remembered who he truly was.
___
The Price of Awakening
The siren's wail faded into the distance, but the tremor it left behind continued to hum through the bones of the Iron Wastes.
Somewhere deep within the district, scanners had picked up a Mana Pulse of unknown origin. Old-world tech. Forbidden class.
And every power in this godless zone—mercenaries, bounty hunters, rogue guilds, corrupted city officials—wanted to be the first to find it.
Meanwhile, the boy wandered.
His legs shook with each step. Hunger clawed at his ribs. His breath misted with each exhale in the cold, metallic air.
But he didn't stop.
Every step forward felt like it echoed across centuries. Like it pulled something deeper from inside him. Memories. Instincts. Emotions that didn't belong to a child.
"This world is… different from the last."
He passed rusted statues of gods no one prayed to anymore. Graffiti that cursed the heavens. Corpses fused into machinery, long since forgotten.
He felt none of it strange.
What was strange… was the stillness in his heart. As if the part of him that once knew rage, grief, and love had been sealed.
"Origin System," he said aloud, "Why am I alive again?"
There was silence. Then, only one word:
"Judgment."
Suddenly, a noise.
He ducked behind a collapsed pipeline just in time as a group of armored hunters passed through the alley above him—hoverbikes rumbling, rifles humming with mana cores.
"Tracker says the signal came from here!""Could be a relic fragment. Maybe a dormant system core!""Boss says if it's a Sovereign-level artifact, we're to eliminate witnesses."
The boy held his breath.
He wasn't ready to fight again. Not yet.
He looked down at his shaking hands. Flame marks pulsed faintly beneath his skin, glowing only when he blinked. Power wanted to rise—but the vessel was too weak.
"I need time..."
But the world would give him none.
Just as he prepared to move, he felt it—a gaze. Not human. Not divine.
Something... else.
From a broken security mirror nearby, a reflection stared back at him.It wasn't his face.It was Vaelith's—the crowned sovereign of flame, eyes like burning stars.
And in that moment, the boy understood.
He hadn't simply reincarnated.He had been summoned.
This body, this world, this final life—it was a trap and a test at once.Someone—or something—wanted to finish what they couldn't 1000 deaths ago.
And this time, if he failed... there would be no rebirth. No cycle. No memory.
Only erasure.
He stood up.
His breath was shallow. His fists clenched.The hunters were close, but his fear had burned away.
"Let them come," he muttered."If the world insists on remembering me as a monster—"
His eyes flickered gold once more.
"—then I'll show them what a monster truly is."
____