Ashes danced on the wind like falling snow, each flake a remnant of what had once been life, hope, and defiance. The battlefield, once lush with green hills and sunlit streams, was now a scorched graveyard. The air reeked of blood and iron. Bodies lay strewn like broken dolls, their armor cracked, their eyes wide with the silence of death.
At the center of the desolation stood a lone figure—Seo Wa, the Crimson General.
Her knees trembled beneath her as she planted her cracked blade into the ground to stay upright. Her blood-soaked cape fluttered in the wind, revealing the torn remnants of armor once gleaming with royal gold. The left side of her face was streaked with dried blood from a gash above her brow, and her raven-black hair clung to her sweat-slicked skin.
The roar of war had faded. What remained was the eerie silence of aftermath—the kind that settles only when the world forgets to breathe.
Seo Wa coughed and tasted copper. Her chest rose with effort. Every breath was a battle now.
"I'm... still alive," she rasped, though she knew it wouldn't last.
The final strike had come from Lord Kael, the Dark King's executioner. Even as she had cleaved through his armor with a final desperate blow, he had driven his obsidian spear through her stomach. It still burned, that wound—cold, venomous, final.
A flicker of movement caught her eye.
She turned her head slowly—too slowly—and saw a small form lying still beneath a collapsed banner. A boy, no older than seventeen. His name came to her like a blade to the heart.
"Jin…" she whispered.
Jin was the youngest of her squad—reckless but pure-hearted. He had idolized her from the moment he enlisted. She had promised his sister, Miran, that she would bring him home. But now...
Seo Wa crawled to him, dragging her injured body across stone and blood. She reached his side and placed a trembling hand on his cheek. It was cold.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, voice cracking. "I should've—"
A sharp pain rippled through her abdomen. She doubled over, coughing again, but this time it came with blood. Her hands, once strong enough to hold a greatsword, now trembled like withered leaves.
Around her, the bodies of her fallen soldiers lay in twisted repose—Commander Bae, who had trained her when she was just a girl; Toma and Lira, the twin scouts who could run faster than wind; Old Master Han, who had once called her "pup" but cried with pride the day she led her first charge. All gone.
Was this all for nothing? she thought. All this blood… all these promises…
She fell backward and lay there, gazing up at the ashen sky. She couldn't see the sun. Only dark clouds rolling slowly, as if mourning the end.
Then something stirred in the stillness.
A strange warmth—gentle, otherworldly—pressed against her skin. Her limbs, which moments ago had screamed in agony, felt light. The pain dulled, then faded. She blinked slowly, and the sky above her began to shimmer with color—violet, gold, and silver—as if a veil was being lifted.
"Seo Wa…" a voice whispered.
She bolted upright—or thought she did. Her body still lay on the battlefield, eyes glazed over, unmoving. Yet… she was rising. Hovering.
"What…?" Her voice echoed, distant.
Light bloomed beneath her, casting the ruins in pale radiance. The bodies below grew smaller, less distinct, until she floated in a vast realm of swirling mist and stars. It was neither day nor night here. Time seemed irrelevant. The stars whispered, pulsing softly like hearts.
"You were not meant to die like this," the voice said again. It was neither male nor female, but ancient, filled with sorrow and strength.
A figure emerged from the mist—a tall woman with hair like silver thread and eyes that shone like molten crystal. She wore robes that billowed with unseen wind and bore a staff topped with a radiant lotus.
"I am Euna," the woman said. "A Watcher of Realms."
Seo Wa tried to speak but found herself voiceless.
"You died with honor, Seo Wa. But your destiny does not end in that world."
The stars behind Euna shifted, revealing a different sky—a world with twin moons, vast floating cities, towering crystal mountains, and rivers of starlight.
"There is another world," Euna said. "One on the brink of ruin. Its princess lies in slumber, cursed. Her people cry for salvation."
"And… me?" Seo Wa asked, though no sound passed her lips.
"You will become her," Euna replied, placing a glowing hand to Seo Wa's chest. "You will awaken in her place, not as a soldier… but as a royal. Your past will linger in your soul, but your path ahead is new."
"But I… I failed my people," Seo Wa whispered.
"You gave your life to protect them. That sacrifice echoes through the universe. And now, you are given a second chance—to protect a new world… perhaps, to heal what was broken in yours."
The light grew brighter. Seo Wa could feel her soul being pulled, unraveled, rewritten.
"I don't know if I can…" she murmured.
"You don't have to know," Euna said, voice fading. "You simply have to begin again."
And then—everything shattered.
Light consumed her.
And Seo Wa was gone.
PLS everyone I just updated my story plot so I had to start a fresh so I hope you love the new chapters and added characters