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Chapter 7
The sun rose over a broken city.
Streets still stained with blood, walls torn apart by magic, and the heavy silence that always follows the storm.
Kael walked alone through the ruined avenues. The screams from the previous night still echoed in his mind, but they were now nothing more than distant memories.
This city was no longer the heroes' stronghold.
It now belonged to the shadows.
He renamed it "Noxterra" — the land of the reborn shadow.
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The Meeting
He still remembered the day he met Varys, months earlier.
At the time, Kael was still a discreet ally among the Heralds, hiding his true power behind a mask of frailty.
During a late-night patrol, he stumbled upon a group of city guards accused of treason, kneeling on the cold stone of the inner courtyard.
The captain overseeing their execution stood tall, a black cloak draped over his shoulders.
A hard face, carved by years of war. Gray eyes that looked at the world as if it were a chessboard.
> "These men are not guilty," Kael had said as he approached.
The captain turned his head toward him, sizing up the stranger.
> "Perhaps they are. But sometimes you sacrifice a few pawns to save the game."
That answer froze Kael. Few men spoke with such detachment… and such clarity.
He watched as Varys carried out the sentence with clinical calm, not out of cruelty, but necessity.
Afterward, Kael approached him.
> "You play the same games I do, Captain."
A faint smile touched Varys's lips.
> "Then perhaps we'll end up on the same side… if you live long enough."
That day, Kael knew he had found a man capable of understanding his vision.
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The Choice
Now, that same man stood before him in the throne room of Noxterra, the old banners replaced with black cloth embroidered in silver.
> "I'm leaving you the keys to the city," Kael said, placing a magical artifact — the symbol of local authority — on the table.
"Rule it as you know best: reward loyalty, destroy betrayal. Show no mercy to the weak who offer nothing."
Varys gave a slight bow.
> "Under my hand, Noxterra will prosper… in our way."
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Kael left the city at dawn, beneath a gray sky, heading toward new lands to conquer.
Behind him, the walls of Noxterra already bore posters with his likeness:
WANTED — REWARD: 100,000 Golden Orions
For capture, dead or alive.
The hunters would come. The mercenaries would march.
And Kael would be waiting — always one step ahead.
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