The forest of blackwood was alive with whispers.
Kael moved slowly through the gloom, each step deliberate, each breath measured. His body had stopped trembling, but weakness still clung to his limbs like chains. His muscles had no memory of strength, but the system inside him pulsed—quiet, aware, alive.
[Body Status: Stabilizing][Divine Core: Dormant — 2% Synchronization][Skill Progression Unlocked]➤ Shadow Bind (Lv. 1) – Bind a single enemy for 3 seconds➤ Essence Drain (Lv. 1) – Absorb corrupted energy from a restrained enemy
[Level: 1][Divine Embryo: Forming]
EXP: 23 / 100
He clenched his fist and watched as a faint trail of smoke coiled from his palm, the remains of essence still echoing in his veins. It wasn't much. But it was enough.
"Shadow God..." he muttered, testing the title granted to him by the system. It felt absurd, arrogant even—but it also felt right. Not in the way nobility feels inherited, but in the way vengeance feels earned.
His gaze rose to the eternal sky.
There was no dawn here. No warmth. No song of birds or flickering torches.
Only twilight.
Only night.
And far in the distance, beyond the forest line, a single spire rose—a jagged silhouette against the swirling clouds.
A city? A ruin? Or another graveyard?
He took a step forward.
His bare feet touched the cursed soil of Veyruhn—the new world. A world that had long since buried his memory.
He walked for hours.
The sky never changed. Neither did the air. The temperature remained a deathly chill, and the trees seemed to whisper names in a tongue he didn't recognize.
Occasionally, he saw signs of other creatures—shadows moving between trees, glowing eyes peeking through moss, broken armor rusted into roots. He didn't stop. Not yet. Not until he had a weapon. A tool. Anything.
He found it in the form of a grave.
At the base of a rotted stone altar, half-collapsed beneath ivy and thorns, a corpse lay partially unearthed. The bones were old, but not ancient—clothed in remnants of black silk and holding what once might have been a staff. No… not a staff.
A scepter.
Kael knelt, brushing away dirt and moss. The item pulsed faintly in his hand as he lifted it. Blackened metal, engraved with unfamiliar sigils. The top was crowned with a cracked obsidian gemstone.
[Relic Acquired: Scepter of Forgotten Faith]➤ +1 Skill Amplification➤ Channeling Device (Temporary)
[System Note: This relic belonged to a fallen dusk priest of the lost era. Binding permitted.]
The moment his hand closed around the scepter, he felt it.
Not power. Not clarity.
But memories.
A brief flash — men kneeling before a dark altar, chanting Kael's name, but not as a general.
As something more.
"All who walk in light shall burn beneath your shadow, Lord Kael…"
"God of the Twilight Hour…"
"Master of the Lost Night…"
The vision snapped away as quickly as it came, leaving only the weight of the scepter and a hundred questions clawing at his mind.
He had followers?
Worshippers?
A cult?
The system was silent.
Typical.
Kael rose and continued walking.
By the time he reached the outskirts of a ruined outpost, his body had begun to feel like his again.
His senses sharpened.
He could feel the vibration of footsteps on cursed soil. The whisper of corrupted mana beneath the ground. The breath of something not-quite-dead in the shadows beyond.
The outpost was crumbling, consumed by the forest. Rusted lanterns hung from rotted beams. The walls were broken and moss-covered, but he could make out what it once was—a frontline fortress.
Kael stopped in the archway, staring at a broken sign:
Fort Veilshade — Last Bastion Before the Dusk Frontier
He'd never heard the name before. Not in his life, nor in any old maps of the empire. This wasn't his world. It was something new—rebuilt on top of what was lost.
Or what was erased.
[Hidden Location Discovered: Fort Veilshade Ruins][Exploration Bonus: +5 EXP]
EXP: 28 / 100
A faint moan echoed through the stone halls.
Kael froze.
It wasn't beastly.
It was human.
Carefully, he followed the sound.
Inside the ruins, behind a broken gate and collapsed stairway, he found her.
A girl—barely alive, slumped against the wall, her chest rising and falling with labored breaths. Her hair was white, though she looked no older than sixteen. Her robes were bloodied and marked with crude symbols of a crescent moon. Beside her lay a shattered dagger and the charred remains of a spell scroll.
[Target Identified: Unknown Human — Soul Pulse Detected][Status: Wounded. Curse Infection: 43%][System Note: Rare human lifeform. Divine choice available.]
Kael stood silently over her.
He could leave her. He should leave her.
This wasn't his war.
But the system pulsed.
[You may grant Shadow Blessing.]➤ Cost: 10 Essence➤ Reward: Follower Bond➤ Effect: Temporary cleansing and alignment mark
[Do you accept this offering?]
Kael closed his eyes.
Not long ago, he was the one dying, bleeding alone while no one reached out a hand.
"Not again," he muttered.
He knelt beside the girl and placed his hand over her heart. Darkness curled around his fingers, not violent this time—but soft. Controlled.
A gift, not a weapon.
[Shadow Blessing Granted.][Follower Bond Formed: Tier 1 — Initiate of Dusk]➤ Alignment: Loyal (Conditioned)➤ Name Registered: Elira
The girl's eyes fluttered open.
She gasped, clutching her chest, and then looked up at him in stunned silence. Her irises were now faintly silver—marked by the system's seal.
"You're…" she whispered, voice hoarse. "You're real."
Kael blinked. "What?"
"They said you were only a myth," she said. "The god of the lost night… the one who would return when the stars began to fade…"
He stared at her.
She had no idea who he was.
But somehow, the world remembered the shadow, even if it forgot his name.
Kael rose slowly, scepter in hand, eyes narrowing at the swirling storm clouds above.
[Divine Core Synchronization: 4%][Follower Capacity: 1/3][New Quest Branch Unlocked: Cult of the Eclipse]
The gods had abandoned this world.
But he hadn't.
Kael Varian had returned not as a servant…
But as its Shadow God.