THE NAME THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST...
Elias wasn't sure if he was awake or dreaming.
The world around him shifted—fragments of past and present colliding like shattered glass.
He stood in the ruins of Auris, yet at the same time, he was somewhere else.
Somewhere older.
Somewhere he had been before.
The echoes of battle had faded, replaced by a deep, haunting silence. The air was thick with the scent of dust and something ancient—something forgotten. The remnants of a once-great city lay in ruin, its pillars cracked, its symbols eroded by time. Yet beneath the decay, there was something alive. A presence lingering in the air.
Then—a voice.
Soft, but powerful. Familiar, yet distant.
"You do not know who you are."
Elias's breath hitched. He turned, searching for the source
But there was no one.
Just the wind, whispering through the empty ruins.
And then—
He saw it.
A name.
Etched into the stone before him.
"Valen."
His vision blurred.
And suddenly—
He remembered.
THE TRUTH OF HIS IDENTITY..
The memories came like a storm.
Not as whispers, but as shattered glass piercing his mind.
Flashes of a past he had long forgotten—or had been forced to forget.
Not as Elias Nightshade.
But as Elias Valen.
The last heir of a forgotten dynasty.
A prince of a bloodline the world had been made to forget.
His head pounded as pieces fell into place, shattering the carefully woven lie he had lived in. His hands trembled, fingers digging into the cold stone. The gods had buried this truth deep—so deep that even he had never questioned it.
"This is who I was…" he whispered.
Or rather—
Who he was supposed to be.
The weight of it crushed him.
Valen had been more than a name. It was a legacy. A throne. A duty that had been stolen from him before he was old enough to claim it.
Had he ever truly been Elias Nightshade?
Or had Nightshade been a prison, forged to contain him?
His breath came fast, unsteady. And then—
A voice. Not from the ruins.
Not from the gods.
But from deep within him.
"You were never meant to be their weapon."
And with those words, the illusion cracked.
NIGHTSHADE WAS A LIE...
His entire life, he had believed Nightshade was his true identity.
A name tied to a destiny of power, war, and destruction.
But now, he saw the cracks in the illusion.
Nightshade had been a mask.
A deception.
The gods had let him believe it, shaping him into the weapon they needed.
A soldier. A pawn. A puppet in a grander scheme he had never understood.
But Valen…
Valen was something they feared.
Something they had tried to erase.
He clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms. What else had they taken from him?
The answer came like a blade to his soul.
Seraphina.
SERAPHINA'S CONNECTION TO HIS PAST...
Pain ripped through his mind.
It wasn't just memory—it was loss.
A grief so old, so deeply buried, that it felt like an open wound being torn apart.
Seraphina.
Not as he knew her now.
But as she had been before.
Before the war.
Before the gods interfered.
Before everything fell apart.
She had always been there.
She had always been part of his past.
But he hadn't remembered her.
Until now.
His chest ached as visions surged forward, pulling him back to a time when they had stood side by side—not as strangers, but as something more.
She had been more than a warrior.
More than a friend.
She had been his anchor.
His only connection to the life the gods had stolen.
And now, they had taken her—again.
THE TRUTH ABOUT SERAPHINA...
The realization hit him like a blade, sinking deep into the marrow of his bones.
Seraphina wasn't just someone he met by chance.
She wasn't just a warrior.
She wasn't just a friend.
She wasn't just a distraction.
She was the only link to his true self.
She had known Valen.
Not Nightshade.
And that meant—
She had known the truth.
A memory surfaced—clearer than all the others.
Seraphina, standing in the moonlight, her silver hair illuminated like fire against the dark. Her eyes—piercing, determined, desperate.
"If you remember, they will come for you."
"They already have," he had whispered.
She had grabbed his hands, her touch grounding him in a world that wanted him lost.
"No, Elias. They haven't come for you yet. They've come to erase you."
The memory shattered.
Elias gasped, his knees buckling.
Seraphina had known all along.
She had tried to save him.
She had tried to protect his identity from the gods.
And for that…
They had taken her.
A surge of fury and desperation coursed through his veins.
He had wasted too much time.
He had been playing the gods' game without even realizing it.
No more.
He would bring her back.
And he would tear apart anyone who stood in his way.
THE JOURNEY TO FIND HER...
The ruins trembled beneath his feet.
Power swirled around him, ancient and untamed.
Varian found Elias standing at the edge of the ruins, his body glowing with energy that had been sealed away for far too long.
"You remember," Varian said.
Elias didn't deny it.
"I know who I am now."
Varian's eyes darkened. "And?"
Elias turned toward him, his voice calm but deadly.
"I know where she is."
Varian's breath caught. "Seraphina?"
Elias's jaw tightened. "I remember everything. She's part of my past… and she's the key to my future."
Varian hesitated. "You're sure?"
Elias's eyes burned brighter than ever before.
"I can feel her."
His heart pounded, syncing with a power he had not touched in years.
He closed his eyes—
And let the truth awaken.
A force that had been buried. Sealed.
The gods had tried to erase Valen.
But they had failed.
And now?
He would rewrite fate itself.
The ground trembled. A pulse of energy rippled through the ruins.
Elias took a step forward.
And the world shifted around him.
He wasn't just following fate anymore.
He was defying it.