Faster than breath, fire ripped into Kael when the Mana Core met skin. Heat flooded every limb, sharp and sudden.
Fire melted inside his blood, setting each nerve alight one by one. Blurred shapes twisted in front of him, everything breaking apart into wild bursts of movement, restless without shape.
After that, it came rushing back. He remembered.
It wasn't only Kael Draven's - beneath it lived an older presence, buried in time.
Flashes came - warriors from an old world bending time like clay. Gods remaking everything in a heartbeat. One empire rose higher than any before it. This power, vast and proud, still shivered at the name of a single person.
The Celestial Sovereign.
Out of silence came a sound. It rolled through the air - low, strong, alive with force.
"You are unworthy but you will learn."
Everything came clear again.
Shaken, Kael sucked in air - power surged under his skin like live wire. Fists tightened on their own. Gone now: the frailness that used to drag him down. Strength hummed in his bones instead. Smells came clearer. Sounds too. Then - something else whispered at the edge of thought.
A vision popped up inside his head, similar to a game's stats panel.
[Name: Kael Draven]
The Forsaken Prince
[Power: ???]
Temporal Grasp Enabled
Surprise flashed across Kael's face. That name - Temporal Grasp - rang a bell. His mind locked onto it, then slowly, like mist lifting, understanding seeped into place.
Ability: Temporal Grasp
Time shifts for a short while around whoever holds it. Objects or people near can stop moving, speed up, or drag slowly. The longer one learns its rhythm, that control grows stronger.
Kael smirked. "Now that's more like it."
Testing the powers
A sharp rock stood close by. Up went his arm, eyes fixed. Not fast.
A haze hung in the space above. Instead of falling, the rock - worn by years of gusts - froze while breaking apart, every speck drifting like it had forgotten how to land.
A sudden breath escaped Kael. It had activated - this force - but his limbs resisted, untrained. Energy seeped out of him, as if hours of sprinting had passed in seconds.
"You will learn."
A second echo rang out, yet Kael stood still. Something - maybe someone - that gave him strength was listening now.
Fleeing the Forsaken Lands was his only task - just then. What came next could wait.
Few would care if a ghost stirred in this forgotten place. Yet shadows shift when threats fade into silence.
Frost curled at the edge of Kael's mouth, slow and quiet.
Victory seemed certain to them.
Yet there he stood again.
Faster than anyone expected, people began saying his name again.