Kael didn't sleep that night.
The blade—the Soulbrand—hovered in the air beside him, humming faintly, like a predator breathing in the dark. It wasn't steel. It didn't reflect firelight. It drank it.
Every instinct told him to run. But he didn't. He sharpened his dagger, reinforced the broken door of the abandoned forge, and waited.
He knew how the Binding Wards worked.
Every time a Soulbrand awakened within city limits, the divine network burned the event into its bones, alerting the Church's Seers. Kael's Brand wasn't divine. It was worse—it was silent, but not unseen. The disturbance would've drawn notice by now. Maybe not immediately.
But someone would come.
Just before dawn, someone did.
Three firm knocks echoed through the wood.
Kael didn't move. The blade hovered beside him, still and waiting.
"Kael of Greylot," came a familiar voice. "By order of the Branded Guard, open this door."
Captain Deren.
The man who'd spat at his feet during the Binding Ceremony years ago. Who'd called him hollow. Defective. Cursed.
Kael's voice was calm. "Come to test me again?"
"No." The tone was colder. "You triggered a heretic pulse. You bear a Brand that's unregistered—unauthorized. That's an abomination."
"And yet here I am," Kael murmured.
Deren's voice sharpened. "You've been under watch since Vellin's boy died. Now you're wielding something that's setting off ancient wards. You'll come with us. Or not at all."
Kael gripped the blade. It warmed under his touch.
Then he moved.
The blade plunged through the door. A gurgling cry followed. One down.
Kael kicked the door open.
The courtyard burst into motion. Twelve Branded soldiers surrounded the forge. Each bore a weapon of glowing light or divine steel.
And at their head, Captain Deren, draped in silver and arrogance, glaive already crackling with radiant glyphs.
Kael stepped outside, slow and calm, as blood from the door seeped into the ash-coated stones.
"You don't even know what you've awakened," Deren said. "That Brand isn't registered because it wasn't meant to exist."
Kael tilted his head. "And yet... it does."
He raised the shadowblade.
The first soldier lunged. Kael moved like water through fire. His blade carved the man open—clean, final.
A pulse rippled through Kael's mind. Cold. Electric.
Essence Absorbed: Branded Swordsman (Iron Class)+1 Strength | +4 SoulweightFragment Recovered: Guard Tower Training DrillsNew Trait Available: Sword Precision (Minor)Integrate?[Y/N]
Kael blinked.
Words. In his mind. Clear as thought, but not his own.
Another soldier charged. Kael sidestepped, sliced the woman's legs from beneath her, then ran the blade through her spine.
Essence Absorbed: Branded Spearwoman (Wind Class)+1 Agility | +6 SoulweightNew Trait Available: Wind Step (Unstable)Integrate? *[Y/N]Warning: Instability may result in recoil injury.
He exhaled sharply.
Was this the Brand's doing? A system? A ledger?
It was tracking them. Counting. Offering him power like a whisper in the blood.
Kael gritted his teeth, felt the power coiling behind his ribs. The wind around him moved differently now—lighter, responsive.
The soldiers hesitated. He took three more before they could regroup.
Then Deren stepped in.
His glaive moved like judgment, sweeping in arcs of light. Holy script spiraled around each strike. Kael deflected once, twice—then the glaive cracked across his ribs. Pain. Blinding.
"You think that thing makes you powerful?" Deren spat. "It'll eat you alive."
Kael coughed blood. "So will you."
They clashed again. The Brand screamed in his head now—alive with hunger.
Kael ducked a swing, countered low, and drove the blade into Deren's side. Black veins bloomed from the wound. The captain dropped to one knee, eyes wide with pain—and fear.
Target Soul Integrity: 42%Kill Threshold ReachedWarning: High-Grade Essence DetectedEidolon Fragment Signature: [Suppressed]Proceed with Extraction?[Y/N]
Kael didn't hesitate.
He slashed the man's throat.
Deren gurgled once, then fell still.
Silence. Only the soft wind and the crackle of fading Brands.
Then—
Essence Absorbed: Captain Deren (Radiant Glaive – Light Class)+3 Strength | +2 Intelligence | +10 SoulweightNew Ability Unlocked: Radiant Counterstrike (Locked)Memory Fragments Unstable. Processing…Eidolon Affinity Detected. Corruption Risk: 18%
Kael stumbled back, the glow fading from his vision.
"...Corruption?" he whispered.
No answer.
Just red script pulsing faintly in the corner of his mind, like blood dripping into water.
He turned as the forge door creaked.
A boy stood there.
No more than ten. Wide eyes. Blood spattered across his face.
Kael met his gaze. The boy didn't run.
Kael gave him a nod.
The boy nodded back—and vanished into the shadows.
Kael walked into the forge and closed the door.
He could feel it now: his body slightly stronger, movement sharper, his mind flooded with fragments—names, images, training, instincts not his own.
And deep inside the blade… something stirred.
He was growing stronger.
But so was it.