CHAPTER ONE
"Forgotten Nightmare"
"Blood..."
The word echoed inside Kaeron Ashthorne's mind, faint and broken, like a dying whisper on fire-ridden wind.
"Why is there so much blood?"
Sixteen-year-old Kaeron stirred awake, his vision blurry, his breath shallow. He blinked once. Twice. The world around him swam into focus—
—and it was a nightmare carved into reality.
He stood alone in a place that no longer looked like the world he knew.
Ash choked the sky.
Fire danced across shattered earth.
The land burned—mercilessly, endlessly—like the remnants of a dying star.
The sky above was an angry, molten red. Buildings around him were blackened silhouettes, hollowed out by flame. Screams had once echoed here, but now only silence remained—heavy and absolute.
Kaeron looked down at his own feet.
Sttttt—crunch.
He flinched.
A human skull stared back at him.
Eyes wide, heart hammering, he took an involuntary step backward.
"What the...?"
His voice cracked in confusion, in fear.
"Is this real? Is this hell?"
Something about this place pulled at him—not just the horror of it, but something deeper. Older. Personal.
He turned, scanning the charred field.
Bodies. Burned. Broken. Motionless.
Some still smoldered.
Kaeron's pulse roared in his ears. His breathing quickened. A sense of dread crawled beneath his skin, wrapping around his spine like ice.
And then it hit—
A sharp, searing pain that shot through his head like a blade.
"AHHHHH!"
He dropped to his knees, grabbing at his skull. His hands trembled violently.
The pain bloomed from behind his eyes—white-hot, suffocating. It wasn't normal. It wasn't human.
"Why... why now?!"
He grit his teeth, sweat dripping from his chin as the agony overwhelmed him.
"What is this place?!"
And then—
A voice.
Soft at first. Faint. Familiar.
"KAERON!"
His eyes flew open. He turned his head toward the sound, breath caught in his throat.
"Who's there?!"
The voice echoed again, this time weaker, strained—calling to him from somewhere beyond the flames, somewhere deep within the bones of the ruined city.
A voice he hadn't heard in years.
"Mom…?"
He stood slowly, unsteady. Confused. Shaken.
"Why am I hearing her? She's gone..."
He didn't wait to reason. His body moved on instinct.
He ran—faster than his thoughts, faster than his fear—toward the ruins where the voice had come from. The broken landscape rushed past him: fallen towers, scorched trees, the twisted remains of something once called home.
And with every step, something began to shift.
Not just around him—within him.
Memories surfaced like sparks in the smoke.
A fence. A brick road. The cracked arch of an old gate.
"No… it can't be…"
Kaeron slowed, breathing hard.
"Oblivar."
The name landed like a blade.
The city he had grown up in. Buried under fire. Lost in time.
But here it was—twisted and burned beyond recognition, and yet every stone screamed with familiarity.
And then—he saw her.
In the center of the ruin, just beyond a wall of flame, stood a woman. Her form flickered like a ghost in the heat.
Kaeron froze.
His mother.
She was alive.
But she wasn't alone.
A dark figure towered behind her—face shadowed, body rigid with strength. In one hand, he held her by the neck, lifting her off the ground like she weighed nothing.
Beside them, a small child sat curled on the ground, sobbing.
The child was screaming. Trembling. Helpless.
Kaeron's stomach turned.
The sound of that crying—it clawed at him.
And then came the horror. The recognition.
"She's calling him by my name…"
He stepped forward, gaze locked on the child.
The truth hit him like a hammer.
That was him.
That child… was him.
His mother wasn't calling to him now—she had been calling to him then. Desperately trying to save him.
Warning him to run.
But no words had escaped her mouth.
Only choked agony.
"Why... am I seeing this?"
"How am I seeing this?"
The scene unfolded like a curse. Slow. Inescapable.
The man's grip tightened. His mother's body twitched, then stilled.
Kaeron's breath caught.
No.
Not again.
Kaeron shot forward, his eyes blazing with fury.
"YOU BASTARD!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!"
He charged, rage surging through every limb. He didn't care how strong the man was. He didn't care who he was. All Kaeron knew was that he had killed her—
—and for that, he would die.
He was just a breath away. One hand outstretched, teeth clenched—
And then, everything began to disintegrate.
The man.
His mother's lifeless body.
The sobbing child.
The fire. The ruin. The city.
It all crumbled into gray ash, swirling in the air like dust caught in the wind, vanishing into nothingness.
Kaeron gasped—
—and opened his eyes.
He sat upright in bed, drenched in sweat, his heart pounding like war drums in his chest. The silence of the room felt deafening.
He was back. Awake.
But the nightmare still clung to him—too vivid, too exact. This wasn't just a dream. It was a memory.
His memory.
He now remembered everything again that happened to him as a child. The burning city. The man. The moment he lost her. His mother—
Murdered before his eyes.
And him, powerless to stop it.
Kaeron sat motionless for a long moment, staring into the dark.
Then slowly, he stood up.
Crossing the room in silence, he stepped toward the tall, cracked mirror near the wall. His eyes met his reflection.
What stared back was not a child.
Not anymore.
His face was older, sharper. But the look in his eyes… it wasn't rage. It wasn't grief. It was something deeper.
Conviction.
He clenched his jaw as emotion flickered across his face—disgust, sorrow, shame… and finally, fire.
"Still not enough…" he muttered to himself.
He knew now. Knew what needed to be done.
He would find the man who took everything from him. He would uncover the truth buried in ash. And he would never—never—be powerless again.
This was no longer about vengeance.
It was about becoming something more.
Kaeron stared at himself in the mirror, his breathing steadying, shoulders rising with silent determination.
This was just the beginning.
The reflection held him there for a final beat.
Then—
a slow camera-like pull to the side of his neck.
Faint. Barely visible in the moonlight.
A tattoo-like mark curled softly along his skin.
Glowing. Silent.