"My name is Kaelion Vireth... Crown Prince of the Vaelorian Empire."
We ruled almost the entire world.
Our people lived in peace. We had strength, and ancient magic passed down through our royal bloodline. I was born into a golden age. I had power. I had fame. I was loved.
"So when did it all fall apart?"
The world was ending.
What was once a glowing capital of white towers and floating crystal spires was now reduced to rubble. The air burned with ash. The sky had cracked open—torn by powers beyond mortal understanding. Fires raged across the ruins. Screams had gone silent. My home was dead.
And so was I.
I couldn't move. My body was broken, lying beneath a fallen marble column. Blood soaked my royal robes, once the color of light itself.
A voice pierced the roaring wind.
"Your Majesty! Please, stop speaking! You need to save your strength!"
That voice… I knew it. Firm. Fierce. Familiar.
Thane Rydor, my personal guardian and swordmaster. He was like an uncle to me. Maybe even more. He had been at my side since I was a child.
He fell to his knees beside me, brushing away the debris that pinned my chest. His hands trembled.
"You've lost too much blood. I need to get you to Master Alion. Just hold on."
But I could barely hear him. My vision blurred. The light of the world was growing dim.
"Alion!" Thane shouted. "We need you—now!"
From the smoke appeared another figure. His robes were torn, glowing with dying embers. His staff flickered with cracked runes, and his silver hair was caked with soot and blood.
Master Alion Dreth. The greatest mage in this whole world. The man who could command stars with his voice.
He reached us, dropped to one knee, and pressed two fingers against my neck. A long silence followed.
Finally, he shook his head.
"...He's gone."
Thane's breath caught. His eyes hardened.
"There must be something. Anything."
Alion said nothing.
But then, from above—a roar.
Not of a beast. Not of a man.
But of something ancient.
A brilliant golden light erupted from my chest. The air shifted. The very dust of the battlefield trembled.
A dragon appeared.
Its body was made of pure spirit—glowing with a light that bent space around it. Long, elegant wings arched over us like a protective cage. It looked both divine and terrible.
Seirath.
My soul-bonded dragon. My partner. We were joined when I was ten years old. I had saved its egg, and in return, it gave me its eternal bond.
Even now, in death, it protected me.
Seirath let out another deep roar, and a golden barrier of light surrounded Kaelion's body. Inside, a small flicker of light—my soul—hovered, trapped, but not fading.
"Impossible…" Alion whispered. "The bond has activated its final defense... a soul shell."
"Then we still have a chance," Thane said.
Alion nodded slowly. "Maybe. But only one."
Seirath's voice echoed—not through sound, but directly into their minds.
"There is one way to save him."
Alion's eyes flickered. He turned to Thane with a grim expression.
"If I destroy my ten mana circles, I can absorb the planet's remaining energy. That might be enough to push his soul into another realm—a complete reincarnation."
Thane looked at him sharply. "You'd send him to another world?"
"Yes," Alion said. "His soul would be reborn in a newborn body. He would live again. But…"
"But what?"
Alion looked at the sky.
"If the soul burns during the transfer… he'll be lost forever. No second chance. No afterlife."
Thane didn't hesitate.
"Do it. our majesty isn't weak."
"Are you sure?" Alion asked. "This is a one-way path. There's no going back. We'll die here."
"We always knew this day might come," Thane said. "And this is Kaelion. The same prince who killed the Young Leader of the Outer Gods with nothing but his sword and his dragon. He is not weak. We were never meant to survive… only to protect him."
Alion looked once more at the glowing soul in the dragon's barrier, then to the ruins of the world they had failed to save.
"Then let's begin."
He raised his staff and began to chant. The ground shook beneath them. The planet itself responded to his magic. Ancient runes lit up in the soil. The skies turned darker. The stars began to fade.
And in the heavens—something moved.
[ The Outer King ]
Above the world, floating in the upper layers of reality, stood the Outer King.
He was a god—or something close. A being made of shadows and shifting light. His form never stayed the same for long. A crown of void hovered over where a head should be. He had no face, no mouth, but all things could feel his will.
He had destroyed the Vaelorian Empire with a single gesture—calling armies of outer species from deep beyond the stars. Beasts, gods, and monsters that bent the laws of nature.
Now, he looked down at the planet.
He saw it glowing. The core pulsing. A soul being shielded.
Something was wrong.
He had not come to let anyone escape.
He raised his hand.
A black spear of nothingness formed in his palm—made of anti-magic, forged in the silence between worlds. It hummed with the power to erase even gods.
He threw it.
Back on the surface, Alion was nearing the final words of his spell. His staff cracked. His skin began to glow, burning from the inside.
"Just a few more seconds—"
Thane turned toward the sky. His eyes narrowed.
"It's coming! The spear!"
"Hold the barrier!" Alion screamed. "Seirath, now!"
The dragon roared and flared its wings. The soul pulsed brightly—my soul, protected in light.
"May you live well, in another life," Thane said, drawing his sword one last time. "And never remember this pain."
Alion whispered the last word of the spell.
A blinding flash. A loud roar. The world trembled.
The spear of the Outer King struck—
And the planet exploded.
Everything vanished in a sea of golden light and crashing darkness.
At the Same Moment… In Another Realm
Not in the future. Not the past.
At that same moment, far across the infinite layers of existence, in a distant realm ruled by steel and alchemy—the Varnak Empire—a child was born.
In a small estate belonging to a lesser noble family, a woman screamed in labor. Servants rushed around the room. Outside, thunder rolled, though no storm could be seen.
Then—silence.
The child took its first breath.
The midwife stepped back in shock.
"His eyes... they're glowing."
The baby's eyes shimmered faintly with golden light, as if holding a spark from another world.
None of them knew it yet.
But that child carried the soul of a prince.
Kaelion Vireth had been reborn.