A throbbing pain echoed through Kael's skull as he drifted between dreams and reality. His body felt cold, the taste of iron lingering in his mouth. Slowly, awareness returned.
He was lying on rough stone. Alive.
His fingers twitched. He forced his eyelids open, only to be met with absolute darkness.
Where am I?
The last thing he remembered was Dante's voice. The ambush. The poison. But if the Nightfall Syndicate had truly wanted him dead, why was he still breathing?
A faint sound—dripping water—broke the silence. A cavern? A prison? The air was damp, carrying the scent of earth and decay.
Kael pushed himself upright, his muscles aching. His weapons were gone. His assassin garb, tattered. Yet his body… felt different.
The poison should have killed him. Instead, something within him burned—an unfamiliar energy coursing through his veins. His senses were sharper, his thoughts clearer. Something had changed.
A flicker of movement. He wasn't alone.
Footsteps echoed from the darkness. Slow. Deliberate. Watching him.
"You should be dead," a deep voice murmured.
Kael turned sharply, his instincts kicking in. The figure emerged from the shadows—a man draped in dark robes, his face hidden beneath a hood.
"And yet… here you are."
Kael steadied himself, his mind racing. Who was this man? What did he know?
"Who are you?" Kael asked, his voice hoarse.
The hooded figure chuckled. "Not the right question." He stepped closer, his presence unnerving yet strangely familiar. "The real question is… what have you become?"
A sudden pain surged through Kael's body—like fire searing through his bones. His vision blurred, his breath hitched.
And then, for a brief moment—he saw it.
His reflection in a pool of water. His own eyes staring back at him… but glowing with an eerie, unnatural light.
Something inside him had awakened.
And Kael Veyne was no longer just an assassin.
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