The moonlight bled through the shattered stained-glass window, casting kaleidoscopic fragments of celestial color across the ruined floor of the once-sacred Temple of Light.
What had once been a cathedral was now a graveyard of memories.
Broken pews. Cracked stone. The scent of burnt incense still lingered in the air, faint and cloying like the ghost of devotion past.
And amid the shadows stood Kael.
Unmoving.
Unbreathing.
Waiting.
He stood where the altar had collapsed days ago where his blood had soaked the floor, where her blade had found his heart.
And then… he saw her.
Lyra Dawnlight.
The Saintess.
The girl who had once knelt beside him in prayer.
The woman who had driven a divine sword into his chest and whispered, "Forgive me."
She stumbled into the ruins like a wraith, robes torn from battle, golden sash trailing like a dying flame. Her holy aura flickered around her like a guttering candle in a storm dim, unstable, cracked.
Her hands were red with blood.
Some of it hers. Most of it… not.
Her silver eyes scanned the rubble until they found his silhouette standing between the shattered columns.
"Kael…?" Her voice broke on his name.
She took a step forward, disbelief trembling through her bones. "You're alive?"
Kael didn't move.
His voice cut through the silence like obsidian steel. "No."
He stepped into the pale moonlight, and his eyes gleamed with something inhuman.
"I'm something worse."
Lyra gasped. She took a stumbling step back, as if slapped by the truth.
"But I… I saw you die! I I felt your soul unravel"
Kael tilted his head. "You should've driven the sword deeper."
[Target Detected: Lyra Dawnlight – Bond Link Possible]
[Emotional Status: Guilt 74% / Fear 22% / Denial 4%]
[Suggested Action: Exploit Guilt Force Submission Initiate Soul Seed Implantation]
The System pulsed in Kael's mind like a heartbeat not his own. Cold. Logical. Calculated.
He began to walk toward her. Each footstep echoed through the ruins, a grim metronome of inevitability.
"You stabbed me through the heart, Lyra," he said softly. "In the name of gods who never bleed for you."
"I I had no choice!" she stammered, backing away, her hands trembling. "The High Cardinal said you were tainted! That your power was unnatural!"
Kael stopped mere inches from her. Their faces were only breaths apart.
"And now?" he whispered. "Do I look natural to you?"
His gaze pierced her like a blade of shadow. Her lips parted but no words came.
"You feel it, don't you?" Kael said. "The truth crawling under your skin."
He raised a hand slowly, deliberately and touched her cheek.
She didn't flinch.
But she shivered.
[Skill Activated: Soul Seed – Corrupt Bond (LV.1)]
Target: Lyra Dawnlight
Effect: Spiritual Anchor Established
Bond Progress: 14%
Secondary Effect Triggered: Emotional Submission – Phase 1
Lyra gasped, her knees buckling as if her strength had been sapped by the contact alone. She fell not in prayer, not in humility but in confusion. Weakness. Surrender.
Tears welled in her eyes and fell in silence.
"I don't understand," she whispered. "If the gods truly abandoned you… then maybe…"
She looked up at him, hollow. Haunted.
"Maybe they abandoned me too."
Kael knelt beside her.
"They did," he said. "They abandoned both of us the moment we became inconvenient."
She closed her eyes. Her shoulders trembled. The strength in her was unraveling like a robe left in the wind.
He didn't embrace her.
He didn't need to.
The System was already doing its work rooting into her spirit, corrupting her faith with doubt, anchoring her loyalty to him instead of the divine.
Hours Later – Temple Ruins
A cold wind howled through the broken rafters above.
The moon had dipped lower, now a silver eye behind black clouds. Somewhere in the distance, wolves howled. Or maybe it was something worse.
Lyra sat beside Kael against the broken wall. Her robes were scorched and torn. Her legs pulled close to her chest. She didn't speak.
Her once-glorious holy aura was gone replaced by a subtle, pulsing darkness that shimmered beneath her pale skin.
Like corruption learning how to breathe.
[New Bond Established: Lyra – The Fallen Saintess]
Role: Healer / Faithbreaker
Bond Perks Unlocked:
• +15% Mana Regen
• +10% Resistance to Holy Damage
• Passive Aura – False Divinity (confuses detection & divine sensing spells)
Bond Level: 1 – Emotional Link Established
Status: Submission Phase In Progress
Kael sat still beside her, arms crossed, eyes closed. He could feel the Soul Seed in her spirit coiling tighter, drinking from her doubt, feeding on her silence.
She finally spoke, her voice so soft it nearly vanished in the wind.
"What will you do now?"
Kael opened his eyes.
The sky above them was cracked with stars. Cold. Distant. Indifferent.
"I'll build an army," he said.
Lyra blinked. Her head turned slightly, just enough to glimpse his expression.
"Of who?" she asked, though her voice barely carried the courage to hear the answer.
Kael smiled.
It wasn't warm. It was the smile of someone who had already seen the path ahead and set it ablaze behind him.
"Of women like you."
Lyra didn't respond.
She didn't need to.
The tremor in her breath said enough.
Flashback Insert (System Memory Playback – Lyra POV)
She had knelt at Kael's side that day, hand pressed to his chest, feeling his heartbeat slow beneath her blade.
She had wanted him to hate her. Wanted him to spit in her face.
But instead, he'd looked at her as if he pitied her.
And that… had shattered her more than anything.
Present
Kael stood now, watching the stars through the shattered ceiling of the cathedral.
In the distance, he felt something shift.
A presence.
An approach.
[System Alert: New Target Approaching]
Next Target Identified: Velka – Obsidian Order Assassin
Mission: Eliminate Kael Virek
ETA: 3 Hours
Suggested Action: Subdue and Convert via Psychological Combat
Warning: High Mental Resistance Detected – Dominance Level Must Be Raised
A slow grin spread across Kael's face.
"So it begins."
He looked down at Lyra.
"Rest. You'll need your strength."
"For what?" she asked.
"To help me break the next one."
Her breath hitched.
And the Soul Seed pulsed in response.