In a world where monsters pour through dimensional rifts and hunters are humanity’s last hope, Kael was just another weak scavenger—until the dungeon that should’ve killed him... gave him power.

Left for dead. Betrayed by his own guild. Revived by a System born from the shadows.

Now, Kael doesn’t hunt monsters. He controls them.

With undead guardians at his command and a growing army of souls, Kael will climb through the ranks, infiltrate the corrupt guilds, and face the secret overlords ruling the portals—those known only as the System Lords.

They thought he was dead.
They were right… but something else came back.

"Between light and shadow, something else awakens."


📍 Inner Reflection Zone – Ember Citadel, Sub-Level 7


Kael stood before a mirror that wasn't real.


It reflected not his face — but his choices.


Every life he had saved… or failed to.


The room was bathed in a new energy — Reflective Dusk — a dim violet-gold hue that shimmered with memory and pain.


A little boy. Starving. Crying in the ruins of a collapsed district.


> "Only the strong deserve to live," she says coldly.


📍 Memory Fragment – The First Portal


It opened for Kael when he was twelve. And something looked back from the other side — not a monster. Not a shadow.


📍 Back to Present – Reflective Dusk Core


Kael's body levitates — surrounded by swirls of hybrid light and black tendrils.


Ezrien watches from behind a protective barrier.


"He's merging timelines," he mutters. "This shouldn't be possible."


Myrla: "It's not. Unless… he's not just using the system. He's part of it."


📍 Skill Acquired: Reflective Dusk – Level 1


Effect: Allows temporary immunity to both deletion and corruption effects. Reveals hidden system layers in a 10-meter radius.


Passive: Kael's presence now distorts local system logic.


> Trait Gained: Anchor of the In-Between


Kael's identity resists full classification. Cannot be tracked by system-tier entities without risk of backflow damage.


Vel'Zhara slammed his gauntlet into the table.


"He remembers things we erased. He walks where only origin-born were meant to tread."


The pale-flame Arconte observed him with silent calculation.


"We marked him once. Long ago. Before the systems stabilized."


Another Arconte, cloaked in red code: "Then he is not just a deviation… He is a return."


Kael walks through a corridor made of memory and light.


On it: a symbol he has never seen, yet instantly knows.


> "Kael… do you really want to know why the portals chose you?"


Chapter 44 - Reflective Dusk