---
Rain fell.
Hard and cold against the academy rooftop where they had dragged him.
Kael Ardyn curled inward as kicks slammed into his stomach, ribs, and back—again and again. Laughter echoed through the storm, cruel and wild. Thunder masked his gasps.
"Look at him squirm," one of them sneered. "Chubby little worm thinks he can stay in our academy without a single affinity?"
Crack.
A pipe hit his jaw. Blood spilled.
Kael didn't scream.
Not because he was brave—because he was used to it.
Beaten. Mocked. Ignored.
A nobody in a world where power meant everything.
---
"Trash like you doesn't belong here," growled Draven Kross, top student and son of a noble. "You were just lucky in that dungeon test. Everyone saw it—you just ran and hid. Bet an instructor helped you."
"I…" Kael tried to speak, but a foot pressed against his throat.
"No one will miss you."
Lightning split the sky.
And they kicked him off the roof.
---
The world slowed.
As Kael fell, memories drifted behind his eyes: his quiet mother, always smiling. His little sister, tugging his sleeve for attention. The books he read alone under the sheets. The warmth he never got at school.
This… is how I die?
The impact never came.
Time shattered.
---
He floated in a void, weightless, surrounded by stars.
Two shadows stood before him—one clad in radiant armor, the other wrapped in black fire.
> "So, the vessel has broken."
> "Perfect. Now we can begin."
Kael looked up, hollow.
> "Who are you…?"
> "We are what remains of your past."
> "The Hero who saved the world…"
> "And the Demon God who nearly destroyed it."
> "You died, Kael Ardyn. But now you are reborn… as both."
---
[Soul Authority System Awakening Complete]
Host Vital Signs: Fatal.
Initiating Resurrection Protocol…
Soul Fusion: 2.7%
WARNING: Core Instability Detected.
---
Kael's body glowed.
Light and shadow clashed in his soul, flooding his veins with divine fury and demonic hunger. Every bone cracked, every cell burned.
And then—
His heart beat again.
---
A bolt of energy surged from the rooftop.
Students screamed as a crater formed where Kael's body should've been.
He rose slowly, eyes glowing gold and crimson, his body wreathed in twin auras—holy light and cursed fire.
Draven stumbled back.
"You were right," Kael said, voice layered with two ancient echoes. "I didn't belong in this world."
He stepped forward.
"But now, this world belongs to me."
---