Unknown Pause
He does not dream of glory. He dreams of not dying.
In the remote mountain village of Mjull, life is quiet. Detached. Forgotten by war, untouched by kings, and far from the rot of power. But for sixteen-year-old Icariel, peace is a lie with a heartbeat. Every breath is a calculation. Every step, a gamble. Because unlike the others, he does not crave adventure. He craves survival. And death—it haunts him like a second soul.
But Iliriania is not a world that spares the careful.
Beyond the mountains, mages mold reality with raw mana, swordmasters ignite legends in blood and steel, and superhumans awaken to abilities that defy sanity. Monsters crawl through shattered gates. Empires rot from within. And beneath it all, ancient forces stir.
Icariel has none of it. No power. No title. No fate.
Only a voice—low as thunder in a grave, ancient as hunger—that whispers in his skull. A guide, a parasite, a presence. The only thing that has ever spoken to him in truth.
When death finally finds Mjull, tearing apart the illusion of safety, Icariel must choose: vanish with the ashes, or walk into a world where only the cruel and the strong survive. A world where kindness dies first. A world that devours the weak like carrion.
To live, he will have to become more than afraid.
Because in a world where gods fall and graves forget, survival is the cruelest form of courage.
