2025-02-01 11:39:11Kael's body crashed onto the cold, rain-slicked cobblestones. Ragged gasps came with every breath as he lay there weak and his limbs trembling in fatigue and agony, but the fire within his mind burned hotter than ever. Blood smells thick in the air: the sickly perfume of death clinging to his skin. Around him, the city had become a mass grave, bodies twisted in grotesque final poses, the streets painted in a viscous red sheen that shimmered beneath the pale glow of lantern light.
Darius stood over him, the black steel of his sword glistening with the lifeblood of the innocent. His expression was one of disappointment, his golden eyes filled with something worse than hatred: amusement. The elder brother, the perfect assassin, the embodiment of everything the Shadowborne were meant to be. Kael had long feared Darius, but now, as he lay on the brink of death, that fear mutated into something else: a murderous resolve. "You always were the weakest," Darius murmured, wiping a splatter of blood from his cheek. "Soft-hearted. Foolish. Look at you now, drowning in your own failure." Kael coughed and filled his mouth with the bitter taste of iron. His fingers flailed blindly about, desperate for the lost dagger. Vision faded; his view still was distinguishable from his blurred senses, the silent men of Darius; his vision blurred out at the scene that unfolded, waiting in darkness and silence for this night that killed the entire city. End. Something had distracted Kael's attention: a survivor, a man half dragging his way through the carnage, his breaths short and very hard. He couldn't have been older than twenty, his apprentice's garb soaked with blood, his arm twisted unnaturally at the elbow. He wasn't a threat. He wasn't even a fighter. And yet Darius saw him. With a graceful flick of his wrist, Darius threw a throwing knife. It lodged in the man's throat, instantly silencing him. Kael's stomach tightened. "No witnesses," Darius said simply, as if discussing the weather. "Loose ends are liabilities." Kael’s breathing grew unsteady. He had spent his entire life suffocating under the weight of the Shadowborne legacy, drowning in a sea of blood he never wanted to spill. But now, as he watched the light fade from that man’s eyes, something inside him snapped. A predator’s instinct took hold. With a swiftness that could summon none but the most unimaginable surprise, Kael lunged forward, fingers curling around a discarded blade. Darius barely had time to react before steel met flesh, the edge of the dagger carving a jagged line across his forearm. The elder assassin hissed in pain, his mask of amusement shattering into something far darker. "You dare?" Kael didn’t let him finish. He pivoted, slicing another of Darius’s men across the throat before he had even drawn his weapon. Blood sprayed hot against Kael’s face, but he didn’t flinch. He moved like a ghost, like death incarnate, striking fast and without mercy. He didn’t think he only acted. The others leapt at him, but Kael was already gone, wending through them as a shadow takes shape. He ripped through the first with a gutting to the belly, twisting it viciously before ripping it free. Another tried to grab him; he caught the man's wrist and snapped it with a sickening crunch before jabbing the dagger under his chin, feeling the warm gush of blood as it coated his hand. Darius was on him in seconds, his sword a blur of silver. Kael barely managed to duck in time, feeling the blade slice through the air inches from his scalp. He rolled, snatched a fallen guard's weapon, and met his brother's next strike head-on. The impact rattled through his bones, but he held firm. "You've lost your mind," Darius snarled, pushing him back. "Do you really think you can fight your way out of this?" Kael smiled, his lips split and bleeding. "I don't need to fight my way out. I just need to make sure you never walk away from this." Darius laughed, a hollow sound. "You always were pathetic." They clashed again, swords ringing out in the night, their movements a blur of steel and blood. Kael fought with everything he had, but he knew the truth: Darius was stronger. Faster. More precise. Every blow Kael landed, his brother returned tenfold, pushing him further and further back. The pain in his body screamed for relief, but his rage burned hotter, driving him forward. Then, a moment of hesitation. A single misstep. Darius's sword plunged deep into Kael's side. White-hot agony exploded through his body, and his vision swam with black spots. He staggered, barely able to hold onto his blade. Darius sneered, twisting the sword cruelly before yanking it free. Kael collapsed to his knees, blood pooling beneath him. Darius bent before him, grasping his chin roughly. "You never had a chance, little brother," he whispered, voice almost gentle. "You were born a Shadowborne. And you will die as one." Kael's vision darkened, his body growing cold. He could hear the distant shouts of approaching guards, but they felt a world away. His heartbeat slowed. And then, in the depths of his fading consciousness, he heard another voice. A whisper. Do you want to live?" The voice was old, moving through his veins like liquid shadow. It was neither male nor female, neither kind nor cruel. It simply was. And it was offering him something beyond death. His fingers twitched. His breath hitched. The darkness coiled around him, seeping into his wounds, flooding his body with a terrible, unnatural strength. Darius must have sensed it; his grip tightened, and his eyes narrowed in suspicion. Kael lifted his head. And he smiled. His body writhed as the shadows grasped hold, coiling around his limbs like living tendrils. His wounds sealed, his pain disappeared, and his heart throbbed with something unholy. He could feel them—the voices, the power, the hunger. Darius took a step back, his confidence wavering for the first time. Kael stood up, his shadow stretching unnaturally across the blood-soaked ground. His eyes glowed with an eerie light, something ancient and monstrous stirring behind them. Darius raised his sword. "What?" Kael moved faster than thought, faster than should have been possible. One moment, he stood before his brother. Next, his hand was wrapped around Darius's throat, lifting him effortlessly into the air. The eldest Shadowborne gasped, his fingers clawing at Kael's grip. "What have you done?" Kael tilted his head, his smile growing wider. "I have become something far worse than you." With a sickening crunch, he crushed Darius's throat in his grip and let his brother's lifeless body fall to the ground. As the guards stormed the city gates, Kael turned to face them, the whispers of the abyss calling him forward. The slaughter was only just beginning.
Previous Chapter
Related Chapters
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 4: The Crimson Rebirth
The city burned.Flames licked at the heavens, casting long, writhing shadows against the bloodstained walls. The scent of charred flesh mingled with the iron tang of spilled blood, thick in the air like a funeral shroud.The cobbled streets, once alive with merchants and beggars, were now rivers of gore, bodies piled in grotesque towers, their limbs bent at unnatural angles. The massacre had only just begun.Kael was at the center of the mayhem, breathing slow and calculated. His fingers throbbed from the insistent grip of his twin daggers, edges dulled from the endless bloodshed.The clothes were sopping wet in crimson, telling him of lives lost. There was no option but to counterattack. Shadowborne wanted him dead, and he would not die quietly.The guards who had invaded the city gates hesitated, and their once hardened resolve wavered in the face of what was before them. There was no possible way a man could have achieved such carnage.But Kael was not an ordinary man; he had been
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 5: The Butcher’s Wake
The city's bell tolled like a death knell, its echoes swallowed by the thick smoke curling through the ruined streets. The scent of burning flesh clung to the air, mixing with the putrid stench of spilled intestines and drying blood.Kael staggered against a half-collapsed wall, his breath ragged, his side burning from the wound that carved through his flesh. The stranger’s words still echoed in his mind, but there was no time to dwell on their meaning.Reinforcements were coming.He heard them before he saw them the rhythmic march of boots against stone, the clanking of armor, the murmur of voices exchanging orders. The Shadowborne's elite hunters had arrived.These were not city guards or common foot soldiers. These were killers trained in the same art as Kael, assassins raised from childhood to perfect the craft of death.A hiss of steel echoed through the air as Kael pulled a discarded sword from the corpse at his feet. His daggers were still strapped to his belt, but he would nee
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 6: A Dance of Blades
Darkness closed in on Kael as he fell into the depths of unconsciousness. Pain reached out to him, a burning fire within his ribs and limbs. Then cold stone beneath him, damp air clamped around him. His eyelids fluttered open on the dim glow of torchlight flickering against the crumbling stone walls. Chains rattled in the silence.He was captured.A groan slipped past his lips as he shifted, the weight of iron shackles biting into his wrists. The metallic tang of blood filled his mouth. His body screamed in protest with every movement, and as he tried to sit up, a boot slammed into his chest, forcing him back down."Stay down, little brother," Darius murmured, his voice dripping with amusement. "You’ll only make this worse for yourself."Kael coughed, spitting crimson onto the floor. His vision cleared enough to see Darius looming above him, his golden eyes gleaming in the dim light. The smirk that wore a wedge of malice across his jaw sent a fresh wave of hatred through Kael's veins.
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 7: The Hunt Begins
The air was heavy with the stench of blood and fire. Kael's gasps for air were ragged as he dragged himself through the city's ruined streets, his body screaming protest. Selis pulled him on, her hand clamped over his wrist like a vice, her dagger stained with fresh blood. Behind them, the shouted cries of pursuit echoed through the broken streets.Darius was far from done.Kael ground his teeth together to silence the whimper as each step pulsed pain through the open wound in his side. "Goddamn. How much longer?""Not far," Selis whispered sharply. "If we make it over the northern wall, we can vanish."A piercing whistle shattered the silence.Instinct took over. Kael pushed Selis out of the way just in time as an arrow whizzed by, burying itself in the wooden frame of a collapsed building. A second arrow followed, grazing his shoulder. Pain flared, but he pushed himself to move."Move your ass, Kael!" Selis yelled, yanking him into a side alley. "They're closing in!"Kael sucked in
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 8: The End of the Line
The world smudged for Kael as the point of Darius's blade crept closer to his throat. His blood flowed unimpeded, and his body felt like it was shutting down, each passing second more excruciating than the last. He had thrown everything he could, every iota of his strength, but all seemed to go for naught. His eyesight began to darken, and for a second, he almost welcomed it.But then Selis's voice burst through the fog, weak but desperate."Kael!"The sound of her gasp cut through the night air, and Kael's eyes snapped open, his heart pounding in his chest. Selis her blood-stained body crumpled against the alley wall was still alive. And for a brief second, that thought ignited something inside him. A glimmer of defiance. A reason to keep going.Darius's blade was a mere inches from Kael's neck, yet the bastard savored it, watching him squirm."I've always wanted to see you break, Kael," Darius whispered, his voice cold and venomous. "This is what you get for trying to run. For tryin
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 9: A Trail of Blood
The shadows closed in on Kael like a suffocating fog, the night air thick with the scent of death. His muscles screamed with pain as the strange elixir worked its twisted magic, healing his wounds with unnatural speed. But it wasn't enough. Not nearly enough. His body was still reeling from the brutal assault, his mind racing with the realization that the fight was far from over. That the real nightmare was just beginning.The footsteps came again, slow and deliberate, the sound echoing off the crumbling walls of the ruined city. Kael's grip tightened on his sword, the steel still slick with blood. He could hear them now, the killers closing in, their whispers like cold winds on his neck."Fucking bastards," he muttered under his breath.Selis lay motionless, her body crumpled against the alley wall. Her blood began spreading out across the ground. Kael's stomach twisted and dropped, but he pushed his emotions aside. Now was no time to let things get weak and fall apart. Not now when
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 10: Last Stand
Kael's pulse pounded in his ears, the blood surging through him like a tidal wave, drowning everything else out. The figure before him moved with terrifying grace, the curved blade glinting in the dim light.He wasn't human, not entirely his movements were too smooth, too deliberate, and his eyes.Those cold, calculating eyes were filled with nothing but death. The last of the Shadowborne, the one Kael had not yet encountered, had finally shown his face.The figure took another step forward, his blade raised, the wicked smile on his lips barely visible under his hood. “You’ve been a thorn in my side for too long, Kael.”Kael's breathing rose in ragged gasps; the blood staining his clothes was heavy as his body fought to stay upright. The wild elixir that the enigmatic man had given him was a short-lived spurt of power, but it wasn't near enough.His wounds were deep, and the sear in his muscles began burning steadily. His grip on the sword was slackening."Not today, you son of a bitc
Shadow Born Legacy Chapter 10: Last Stand
Kael's pulse pounded in his ears, the blood booming through his body like a tidal wave, drowning out everything else.The figure before him moved with terrifying ease, the curved blade glinting in the dim light. He wasn't human, not exactly his movements were far too smooth, too deliberate, and his eyes. Those cold, calculating eyes held nothing but death.The last of the Shadowborne, the one Kael had not yet encountered, had finally shown his face.The figure took another step forward, his blade raised, the wicked smile on his lips barely visible under his hood. “You’ve been a thorn in my side for too long, Kael.”Kael gasped for ragged breaths, his blood-soaked clothing heavy as he struggled to maintain his posture. The strange elixir of the enigmatic stranger had afforded him a mere moment of respite in the battle, and it was over. His wounds were deep, and the burning inside his muscles continued unabated; his grip on the sword slipped.The figure's lips curled into a slow, predat
Latest Chapter
Chapter 69: The Sixth Rewrite
The winds had shifted.Kaiza sensed it even before the temple bells tolled in Hollow City—the grinding slowness of fate twisting once more. For weeks, there had been peace. The sky above no longer ripped apart with the creaking of shattered timelines. The streets of Hollow City teemed with individuals rediscovering how to live.But deep within, Kaiza knew peace was borrowed time.He stood upon the topmost balcony of the Hall of Echoes, the ruin now refashioned into white stone and twilight sigils. The Pen of Undoing was lost, broken at the close of the Fifth Rewrite. But his mind was still a razor's edge—carved into him as a second self.Below, the city pulsed with life again.Children giggled. The Tethered had assumed new names, new meaning. They cultivated gardens on top of ancient ruins. Lioran's name was a silent prayer among them—whispered at dawn, when the light was gentle and the air was full of memory.Soryn sat down beside him with two mugs of spiced tea, her hair tied back,
Chapter 68: The Echo of the Unwritten
The dreams grew darker now.Not distorted by fear or sorrow but by the shadow of something forgotten. Kaiza stood in a forest that glimmered like paper trapped between worlds. Trees leaned backward. The earth breathed. And above, a blank sky throbbed like the pages of an unread book.In this dream, he wasn't alone.Standing in the clearing was a copy of himself—same voice, same height, but empty. Eyeless. Pale skin like parchment. Its mouth moved open and shut silently, its fingers smeared in ink that refused to dry."Give me the ending," it mouthed, again and again.Kaiza awoke to Soryn yelling his name.He panted, soaked with sweat, and surveyed the apartment they had occupied in the midst of Hollow City's reconstruction quarter. The dawn was not yet come, yet the horizon flushed pale blue toward morning.Soryn positioned herself by the window, the hand emitting the faint afterglow of remaining sigil energy an instinctual guard in the event he sprang at her during sleep.Kaiza drew
Chapter 67: In the Inkstorm
The black tower yawned in front of them, towering, written into a million lines of evil literature, each with words that wheezed nastiness. And this was the core of the Fifth Rewrite, the last citadel of Kairen the impostor writer, the treacherous brother.Kaiza and Soryn stood on the precipice of madness.Wind composed of shredded parchment whipped around them. Ink fell from the air like rain, soaking into the earth and becoming distorted forms of memories, skeletons of decisions they had never taken. A Kaiza who had murdered Soryn. A Soryn who had become the Shadowborne queen. All their nightmares were here. All their terrors had a voice.Nevertheless, they moved on.This world isn't just being rewritten," Soryn grumbled, dropping her hood low. "It's rewriting us."Kaiza's jaw clamped. "Then we don't let it."They stepped into the Inkstorm.It wasn't just weather; it was alive. Words hurled at them like daggers, embedding in their flesh, whispering lies into their bones.Kaiza stumb
Chapter 66: The Fifth Rewrite
The stars had only just started to die when the first quake hit.It was subtle—no mighty quake, no shrieking skies—but something down below stirred, as if a serpent was turning in its sleep. Soryn was woken up, her hand reaching for Kaiza automatically.He was already on his feet, standing naked by the open window of the tower room, golden morning light creeping over the scars on his back like memory."Something's wrong," he stated without looking.Soryn crept beside him, gazing out over the horizon.Hollow City rested in tranquility. No smoke blackened the air. Children played barefoot in the streets, laughter ringing off shattered stone. Vendors reopened their stands, and survivors rebuilt their dwellings.But beyond the ridgeline east, where no road went and no spirit dared venture, something stirred."What is that?" she asked.Kaiza didn't respond immediately.Because he already knew.A black plume erupted. Not ash. Not fire. Ink.They rode at dawn, skirting the silent boundary st
Chapter 65: Echoes in the Flame
The air within Hollow City felt thick with the promise of unwritten futures.Where the sky had once thundered with lightning smeared in ink, now it burned a warm ember and ash hue. The Pen of Undoing was gone, broken into dust and blown about by the winds that spoke the names of the newly born. But Kaiza felt their fight was hardly done.He stood atop the rubble of the tower, looking out into the distance where the horizon quivered like a heat mirage. Buildings rose risen from shattered stone, but a movement stirred down in the fractures beneath them.Soryn came up beside him, stepping softly on the charred stone."You feel it too, don't you?" she inquired.Kaiza nodded. "Something didn't bleed out with the rewrite."The tome they’d sealed still pulsed faintly in his satchel, as if struggling to breathe beneath layers of reality. It was supposed to be finished; they were supposed to be free. But the world was holding its breath, and Kaiza knew better than to trust silence.“We gave th
Chapter 64: Fractured Reflections
The mirror pulsed again.Down in the forgotten crypts beneath Hollow City, beyond where the light dared tread, a fissure carved through the reflective glass like a wound splitting open across a corpse’s face. A whisper seeped through.Not words.Not quite.But presence.Watching.Waiting.The author's shards had not been erased by the Pen of Erasing. They had concealed withdrawal within the dark between tales, patiently waiting for the ink to stabilize. Kaiza had brought to a conclusion one iteration of the story. But stories, the author long ago penned, "are like roots; they delve, twist, split… and ooze when cut."And something now oozed.Far up, Hollow City stirred under a mellowed sun. The sort of sunrise that tastes like hope: warm, golden, pure. But Kaiza understood better. Hope was a deceitful thing draped in silk.He stood from the steps of the ancient chapel, cloak sweeping the ground, and watched as the Tethered rebuilt. Alie leaped over the stones, a basket full of recovere
Chapter 63: Ashes and Ink
The stillness after the storm was chilling.Where Hollow City had thundered with magic, chaos, and forgotten voices, now there was only the quiet of breath, the measured draw of a world catching itself before it breathed anew.Kaiza stood at the edge of the crumbled tower's remains, his boots caked in dust and strewn ash. The Pen of Undoing was in pieces at his feet, every piece quietly humming before it dissolved into vapor. All that remained now was the book sealed, bound by their will, a new law of destiny born of rebellion.Behind him, Soryn folded her arms across her chest, not from chill but from the weight of what they'd done. Her hair was stuck to her face in wet stripes, her sigil still warm beneath her skin like a memory unwilling to let go."You alright?" Kaiza asked, voice gruff.She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she walked past him, barefoot over stone, until she stood where the sky once tore open. Her eyes trailed upward, to where the clouds were now pink with sunri
Chapter 62: The Sigil of Thorns
The desert was not hospitable to travelers.Its winds breathed like snakes across burned dunes, bearing murmurs from ancient graves lost beneath centuries of sand. Soryn covered her eyes against the burning sun as her mare pushed through the treacherous ground. The long-abandoned road to the crypts of the south had disintegrated years ago, devoured by the wilderness and silence. Each step away from the Hollow City seemed to lead her deeper into a memory that wasn't hers but someone who had once possessed her face, used her name, and breathed in another version of this world.The pendant Kaiza had left her thrummed softly against her breast, warm to the touch. A connection. A thread to tug her back if the memories proved too weighty.Soryn's hand brushed the hilt of her sword more from habit than warning. That far south, nothing survived long enough to cause harm, barring the possible exception of what had already been dead once.She arrived at the cliffs of Marazath at sunset, where th
Chapter 61: The Shadow That Knows Our Names
The moon hung low in the air, bathing the Hollow City in a silver light as Soryn stood at the top of the eastern tower's spire. Her eyes were fixed on the horizon, where the remains of the Old Order lay hidden beneath layers of old stone and years. Below her, life bustled. Children laughed. Merchants haggled. Bells clanged from temple courtyards.But peace, she knew, was only the quiet between storms.She caught her breath as the wind whirled by her cloak, bringing with it the fragrance that halted her heart for a moment: roses and ash.Her mother's perfume.It didn't make sense. Her mother had been killed during the purge of the Shadowborne when Soryn was a child, sheltered in the tunnels under the mountain citadel as the world above went up in flames. She recalled the screams. The flames. The quiet that came after. Kaiza had discovered her there, shaking and covered in ash, the last of the forgotten children.And yet, that smell persisted. Authentic.A flicker in the darkness at str