Archmage Reborn: the path of shadows

The fever came again that night.

But this time, it wasn't illness.

Not truly.

Kael collapsed inside his hut, his chest tight with a fire that wasn't heat—but power. Something ancient and alive stirred beneath his skin. The air warped, bending around him. Shadows twisted across the floor, splitting—two, then three. The walls of the hut groaned under the pressure.

"It's starting again..."

His soulcore—no longer dormant, but unstable—was tuning itself to something hidden beneath the village. Something older than any written spell or remembered kingdom. A glyph buried in the leyline, carved by hands long turned to dust. The same glyph once wielded by a man said to have torn open the sky.

And now, it wanted him.

Kael tried to rise, but the pull was too much. The weight of it dragged him to his knees.

The floor cracked.

Fire burst outward, curling into runes—hot spirals, each one pulsing with memory and meaning. His old grimoire, shattered and incomplete, flung itself open as if guided by a will of its own.

Page 43.

Flame-Soul Binding.

Kael stared at it, heart pounding. This wasn't a spell. Not in the usual sense.

It was a ritual.

A binding of soul and flame. And like all things of true power, it came with a cost.

"A fragment of myself," Kael whispered.

His fingers trembled as they traced the inked symbols. The diagram showed a figure—split down the middle. One side wreathed in fire. The other, fading like mist.

At the bottom of the page, scrawled in glyphscript known only to him, a warning:

"You will not survive this unchanged."

He sat motionless for a moment.

He could shut it down. Close the book, bury the glyph, retreat back into the shadows and wait.

Or—

He could burn.

And rise again, forged anew.

Kael closed his eyes, teeth clenched against the pain already threading through his veins.

"No more running."

He bit into his thumb, let the blood drip into the glowing spiral on the ground, and whispered the words in a language the world had nearly forgotten:

"Vernos Ul'Aresh. Flame, soul—bind as one."

The fire answered.

Not red. Not orange. But white—blinding, pure, and absolute. It roared around him, not as flame but as purpose. Every nerve screamed. His bones lit from the inside. His soul shattered and reformed in the same heartbeat.

Flashes tore through his mind.

A tower crumbling in fire.

Serana, screaming his name.

A blade in his back.

The Warden's voice, coiled and waiting in the dark.

And then—

"You are the fire, Kael."

"You are what remains."

When he opened his eyes, the hut was gone.

Nothing left but a scorched crater. The earth around him was black and steaming, but he stood untouched—reborn in the center of it all.

Runes glowed along his arms, etched into the skin like molten tattoos. His right eye shimmered, a brand of something more than human. When he spoke, his voice resonated—not loud, but layered. Echoing.

"It worked."

A soft wind blew. His grimoire, still intact, turned on its own—revealing a new page that hadn't been there before.

This one wasn't written in ink.

It burned.

Spell Unlocked: Soulbrand Phoenix.

A soul-bound rebirth seal. Upon death, Kael's essence reignites, restoring him once—with devastating power. In exchange, a core memory is lost. Only usable once per root-cycle.

His head snapped up.

He wasn't alone anymore.

From the treeline, something moved—slow and heavy. Its presence pressed against the edges of his senses.

Then it stepped into the firelight.

An armored figure, limping slightly, draped in battle-scars and rusted steel. A twisted knight, its sword etched with runes from a lost empire. Its eyes burned faint violet.

Kael's expression tightened.

"You're not from this age..."

The figure spoke in a dead language, but Kael understood every word:

"Flame-Binder. The Warden claims your soul."

Kael's fist clenched.

Flame danced to life along his knuckles, climbing higher with each breath.

"Come and take it."

There was no signal. No warning.

They clashed in an instant—fire against steel, old glyphs against ones just born. The battle tore the air apart, sending shockwaves into the trees.

And above them, far beyond the clouds, the old powers stirred once more...