Blood.
The metallic tang clung to my tongue as I stumbled through the burning hall. Flames devoured the obsidian pillars of House Varion's Citadel, their shadows writhing like dying spirits against the walls.
The air reeked of smoke—and betrayal.
Around me lay the bodies of knights I had trained beside. Brothers-in-arms. Now nothing but ash.
"Kael Varion."
The voice drifted through the smoke—soft, scholarly, and venomous.
From the haze stepped Archmagister Lurean Vale, robed in indigo silk etched with glowing sigils.
His eyes were pale, like a corpse's, and his smile that of a man dissecting something still alive.
"So this is the end of the Raven," he murmured. "The Empire's most faithful hound. Do you finally regret your loyalty?"
I turned toward him, sword trembling in my grasp.
"Regret?" My throat burned as I spoke. "I gave everything to this family. To my brother."
Lurean tilted his head, curious. "And yet he ordered this. Strange, isn't it?"
My pulse froze. "You're lying."
"Am I?" He snapped his fingers.
The air shrieked as Runic Veins bled into existence—circles upon circles of violet light layering across the marble floor.
A Ninth-Rank Binding Array.
No escape.
"Do you really think Lord Seren will save you?" Lurean asked, almost tenderly. "He's the one who signed your execution writ."
My breath faltered. "…Seren? No. He—he wouldn't—"
"Why else would I be here?" Lurean's grin deepened. "The Emperor never wanted your death. Your own brother did."
My sword wavered.
My heart fractured.
"Impossible…" I whispered. "He promised—"
"He promised you'd always be his shadow. And so you are. Shadows exist only while their light does."
The array flared, flooding the hall with violent radiance.
My skin blistered. My mana veins burned. I could feel my heart collapsing under its own betrayal.
The world narrowed to one truth:
All I had fought for—every war, every scar, every oath—had been nothing but a reflection of another man's dream.
"Why?" I rasped.
Lurean's eyes glimmered with cold pity.
"Because the light forgets the shadow the moment dawn breaks."
Then his hand thrust forward.
A spear of white flame pierced my chest.
Sound vanished. Heat vanished. The world itself fell silent.
I looked down at the hole where my heart used to be, and for the first time in my life, I felt nothing.
"…Brother," I whispered. "Did you truly… give the order?"
No answer.
Only the hiss of dying fire and the whisper of my collapsing world.
As darkness claimed me, fragments of memory flickered—our childhood sparring matches, our laughter beneath the moon, the night he swore, "We'll rebuild the Empire together."
And then—nothing.
Cold. Endless.
Until—
"Waaah! Waaah!"
…What?
A baby crying?
'Am I hallucinating again?' I thought weakly.
But the sound didn't fade—it grew louder.
Closer.
Until I realized with dread…
The cries were coming from my own mouth.
"Waaaah!"
'What the—?!'
The world swam into focus. A ceiling of carved ivory stone. Two figures leaning over me, eyes wet with joy.
"It's a boy," someone said. "The third heir has a son at last."
The man holding me trembled, voice breaking.
No… that couldn't be right...
They carried me through vast halls lined with silver banners and the emblem of a raven spreading its wings—a crest I knew far too well.
House Varion.
The very house that condemned me.
"Ah, what fierce eyes," an aged voice chuckled. "Just like Lord Seren when he was young."
They placed me into the arms of an elderly man upon a marble throne. His hair was white, his presence suffocatingly regal.
He smiled. "Our newest grandson. The blood of Varion runs strong."
My mind froze.
That face… that voice.
Seren Varion.
My brother. My executioner.
Only older. Wiser. Gentler.
No—this was impossible.
'Wait… that would make him—'
My father.
I'd been reborn.
Reborn into the same family that destroyed me—only this time as the son of the man who killed me.
Fate was a cruel comedian.
Seren's voice rang through the chamber. "From this day forth, his name shall be Lyran Varion."
Lyran.
My new name.
Applause thundered. Nobles cheered. None of them knew that the infant in their Duke's arms once bled to death for their glory.
Inside, I wanted to laugh. To curse. To scream. But all I could manage was another helpless wail.
"Waaaah!"
'…Fantastic. Just perfect.'
Then—
[System Synchronization Complete.]
The voice echoed inside my skull like crystal chimes.
[Host recognized: Kael Varion (Deceased Entity)]
[New Vessel: Lyran Varion, Bloodline of Seren Varion]
[Residual Karma Detected — "The Shadow's Betrayal"]
[Initializing Soul Protocol: Requiem Nexus ]
My infant heart skipped a beat.
'A system?'
Lines of crimson text shimmered in my vision.
[Welcome, Kael Varion.]
[You have been chosen by the Requiem Nexus.]
[Purpose: Rewrite your fate.]
[Primary Directive: Sever the False Light.]
And beneath it, a single glowing inscription appeared:
[Main Quest: Kill Seren Varion.]
[Reward: Liberation of the Shadow's Soul.]
For a long, cold moment, my mind was silent.
Then, somewhere deep inside, I laughed.
Once, I had died as a loyal shadow. Now, I had returned to become the darkness that devoured the light.
So be it.
Let this be my requiem.
[Quest Accepted...]