The Ecliptic Citadel vibrated faintly, resonant with the newfound power of its evolved generals. Lucien watched them with calm satisfaction. Their strength was no longer questionable—they were each capable of tearing through universes on his command.
But then it came.
A ripple—sharp, insistent, unlike anything else. Lucien's eyes narrowed, violet gleam cutting through the void. He turned, gaze piercing through layers of dimensions until he saw it:
Portals. Dozens. Hundreds. Tearing open across Aetherion—his home world. The planet he had abandoned to protect it from his own overwhelming presence. And within it… his wife. His son.
Lucien rose slowly from the throne. His aura stirred, dangerous, but he did not move. He knew the truth: Aetherion could not contain him. A single step there, and the fabric of the planet would fracture under the weight of inevitability incarnate.
Instead, he turned to the shadows at his right. "Seraphyx."
She emerged instantly, tendrils flowing like blades of living void, head bowed but voice steady. "My lord."
"You will go in my stead. Aetherion is under siege. My son… Arios. It is time." His eyes glimmered faintly, softer than his generals had ever seen. "Release his seal. Guide him. Protect him, until he remembers who he is."
Seraphyx bowed, her tendrils unfurling like wings. Her aura pulsed faintly as the system tethered to her displayed her combat data:
Seraphyx – Shadow of Precision (Evolved Form)
FTL Movement: Capable of traversing from the Citadel to Aetherion in moments, surpassing the speed of light.
Silent Dominion: Suppresses enemy influence across dimensions, preventing reinforcement through portals.
Phantom Edge: Instantly eradicate swathes of enemies with shadow strikes, leaving no trace.
Assimilation Step: Become the shadow of her allies to shield them or augment their movements.
Void Matron (New Ability): Can seal or unseal latent powers within chosen individuals, granting Arios access to his true heritage.
Without hesitation, she vanished, a shadow darting through infinite voids, reaching Aetherion in the span of a heartbeat.
Years Earlier – Arios Dreamveil
Arios Dreamveil was sixteen now, a student at Aetherion Academy. To anyone who looked at him, he was just another boy: brown hair, pale gray eyes like faded storms, tall for his age but not imposing. Yet every now and then, he felt… different.
He remembered his father vaguely—Lucien, pale and distant, who had left when Arios was very young. He remembered strong hands lifting him once, a quiet voice telling him, "You'll understand, one day." Then silence. His mother never spoke of him, only offering cryptic warnings: "Your father isn't gone. He's just… elsewhere."
For years, Arios felt a presence inside him—like a locked door. Sometimes, in dreams, he saw a vast throne of fractal light. A pale figure sat upon it, smiling faintly. The dreams always ended the same way: with Arios waking in a cold sweat, hand glowing faintly with violet light before fading away.
His classmates never knew. To them, Arios was quiet, sometimes aloof, but kind enough. He excelled in studies without effort, his instincts sharper than they should have been. Yet he always felt incomplete. As if something important had been sealed away.
At home, his mother waited: Selene Dreamveil—once of the Mirrored Six, Lucien's counterpart, now the matron of their fractured household. Selene's presence was calm, her silver hair cascading down her back, her aura subdued but unmistakably powerful. Arios never saw her fight, but he knew instinctively: his mother was someone dangerous.
Still, she smiled when she cooked, asked about his studies, teased him about his lack of friends. And every so often, she gazed at him with a distant sorrow, as though she knew what was coming.
And then, one evening after school, the sky above Aetherion split. Dozens of black rifts tore open, pouring forth monstrous entities with dripping jaws and shrieking forms. Cities screamed. Military forces scrambled uselessly.
Arios stood on his balcony, staring upward, his chest tightening. He didn't understand—but something inside him did. His body trembled, hand glowing faintly with violet and silver light.
Far above, unseen by all, Seraphyx arrived. A shadow that crossed galaxies in an instant, stepping silently into the atmosphere of Aetherion. Her tendrils curled, sharp and eager, as her voice whispered faintly in Arios's ears for the first time:
"Arios Dreamveil. Your father sends me."
The locked door inside him trembled.
And for the first time in sixteen years, Arios felt it: the weight of a destiny written long before he was born.