Kaito's awakening didn't come with light, but with a dense, enveloping darkness, so heavy it was almost chewable. There wasn't the mine's damp stench, but a dry aroma of ash, sulfur, and concentrated arcane power.
He opened his eyes. He was lying on a polished obsidian slab, in a cavernous room. The walls weren't rock, but dark crystal, capturing ghostly light from some distant source, projecting endless shadows.
It was the Ash Citadel, the floating, secret fortress of the Queen. A place that in Aethelgard's legends was the pinnacle of evil.
The Ash Queen watched him from her throne, elevated on a black basalt platform. Her obsidian armor gleamed; her silver hair seemed absorbent and distortive of the little light there was.
"You woke up quickly, Chaos," the Queen said, her voice resonating with deep authority. She didn't sound seductive, but possessive.
Kaito sat up, feeling his body was exhausted but magically *sated*. The Queen had fed his soul with the dark essence of the portal that transported them.
"Where am I?" Kaito asked, his throat dry.
"In my house. And most importantly, in your new school. I am your new Watcher."
The Queen descended a step, approaching with predatory grace. Kaito could feel the immensity of her power. Lysandra Vane was a candle; the Queen was a dark sun.
"Your brother, Commander Ren, is looking for you," she said, a fleeting, cruel smile crossing her face. "He failed in his rescue attempt. Now, you are my most valuable chess piece."
Kaito felt the familiar sting of betrayal, mixed with hatred for the manipulation.
"I'm not a chess piece. I'm the owner of my own power."
The Queen stopped before him and laughed, a low, dry sound.
"How adorable! Lysandra taught you to have courage, but not to respect *power*! Look at this."
She extended her hand, and the air around Kaito compressed. It wasn't painful, but it was absolute. He tried to invoke the Shadow Cloak, the ability he'd worked so hard to forge with Lysandra, but his magic simply refused to respond.
It was as if the Queen had total control over every drop of dark energy in the room, including his.
"You're not the owner of your power, Kaito. You're an explosive container. If you let it escape, you destroy. If you contain it, you die. I am the only one who can take your Chaos and shape it without exploding. I am your survival."
The Queen withdrew, allowing Kaito to breathe.
"Here, I'll teach you to do more than steal. I'll teach you to *devour*. Devour Light armies. Devour the essences of this world's gods. That is the true potential of your *reincarnation*."
The Assigned Shadow
At that moment, a figure appeared in the obsidian threshold. She was as striking as the Queen, but with a different kind of beauty: dangerous, military, and cold.
She wore light dragon-scale armor, and her hair, an intense crimson red, was pulled into a high tail. She was a pureblood Dark Elf, something extremely rare.
"My Queen," the newcomer said, her voice a low contralto full of discipline. "Paladin Darius is reporting the escape to Aethelgard as an extraction attack. Commander Ren is playing the hero who's going to recover it."
"Let him keep playing," the Queen dismissed the threat with a hand gesture. "Zylpha. I introduce you to Kaito. He will be your immediate assignment."
Zylpha approached, her eyes gleaming with a golden hue scanning Kaito with cold, professional evaluation, without the slightest trace of personal interest.
"My Queen, my specialty is combat training. Not containment of volatile relics."
"He's not a relic. He's the *future*," the Queen corrected. "Kaito needs discipline. He needs to channel that Chaos brutally and efficiently. Lysandra taught him to hide. You will teach him to *kill*."
"And, Zylpha... you will be his only company."
The Queen looked at Kaito, a tacit warning in her eyes.
"If you fail, Chaos, Zylpha will *purge* you. If you manage to channel it, you'll be invincible. Zylpha is one of the few in my guard who's resisted Chaos's corruption."
Zylpha stood before Kaito, much closer than Lysandra ever dared. Her proximity was a silent threat.
"Follow me, Specter," Zylpha said, contempt for the reincarnated evident in her tone. "We'll begin in the Underground Forge. Forget self-pity and the 'tragedy' of your previous life. Here, only *power* exists."
Kaito had no choice. He'd just been handed to a new, dangerous mentor.
Training with Lysandra had been kindergarten. Training with Zylpha, the Dark Elf Commander, would be the school of *war*.
His new life had begun, under the Ash Queen's absolute dominion.