“They said I was too weak to survive. So they left me to die.”

In a world scarred by dimensional rifts, humanity’s only hope lies in Veilwalkers—elite hunters gifted with power by ancient relics. But not everyone is chosen.
Kael Verin wasn’t.

Labeled a failure. Mocked. Dragged through every dungeon as nothing more than bait.

Until one day, his own team—people he trusted—left him bleeding on the floor of a cursed ruin.

That should have been the end.

But something buried deep in the darkness heard him. And it offered a choice.

Not salvation.

Rebirth.

Now bound to an ancient and forbidden relic, Kael rises—not as a hero, not as a savior—but as the first Shadow Ranker, walking a path carved by pain, vengeance, and a power no human was ever meant to wield.

They took everything from him.

Now, he’ll take everything back.

Even if he becomes the monster they always feared he would.

The air rippled like a boiling lake as Kael stepped forward, the file still clenched in his hand, fire coiling around his fingertips. Behind him, Roan spun her twin daggers in a wind-enhancing spiral, eyes locked on the soldiers pouring into the archive chamber.


> "They're not guild," she whispered. "These… things aren't human anymore."


The soldiers' armor hissed as if alive—spines of obsidian jutting from their backs, masks fused into their faces like they'd forgotten how to be men. Their Codexes crackled with dark runes never meant to be carved into a soul.


> "Codex Override—Monarch Protocol, Layer One: Abyssborn Manifestation."


Then a wave of pure black exploded from him, slamming into the chamber like a tidal surge. Pillars cracked. Runes shattered.


Kael didn't move. The shadow around him moved for him.


A long black blade erupted from the ground, skewering the soldier mid-air. His body disintegrated in smoke and screams.


Kael's eyes burned gold. "I haven't even started."


Together, they carved a path through the Archive's narrow halls, magic and blood flashing in the dark. Roan's speed magic blurred her form like wind was wearing her, while Kael's abyss-fire burned without mercy.


From the fire stepped a woman in red armor, her skin glowing like molten metal, her eyes blazing with inner infernos.


> "You shouldn't be alive, Kael Ardyn."


She had been one of the heroes who led the last war.


Vaessa's voice was hollow, echoing from someplace far beyond life.


> "You carry the Abyss and the Dawn within you… You are the failure Lior tried to correct. I am the flame he lit to erase you."


> "You were a warrior. A legend. You protected the eastern wall from demons alone."


> "I died protecting that wall," she whispered. "And then I woke up… on Lior's table."


Kael met her head-on, not just fighting for his life—but for her soul.


Every strike from Vaessa left trails of flame that nearly consumed them both, but Kael's shadow rose to counter it. The two forces—Abyss and Flame—clashed in perfect rhythm.


Roan tried to break through the fire wall, but it was Kael who found the opening.


He reached out and pushed his Codex against her chest.


> "You were a hero once. You don't have to keep burning."


> Roan knelt beside him. "What the hell was that?"


> "A warning," Kael whispered. "If Lior brought her back… who else is he playing god with?"


They looked back at the burning hallway, where Vaessa's spear still floated—untouched, clean.


Then forward—where only the unknown remained.


Chapter 12 - Ghosts in the Flame