Kaelen had never been one for dreams. Not the kind that felt real, anyway. His nights were usually filled with the hollow remnants of stress, with his mind racing as he lay awake, thinking about his upcoming tests, assignments, and how badly he was failing at the Arcane Academy. But tonight... tonight was different.
The moment he closed his eyes, the world around him vanished.
The darkness swallowed him whole, a deep, oppressive void where he couldn't even hear his own thoughts. There was no ground beneath him, no air around him. It felt like he was floating in some kind of endless, infinite space. Panic started to claw at him, but then, a voice broke through the silence.
"Kaelen."
It was a voice unlike any other. Deep, commanding, but with an undeniable softness that made his skin prickle. It was familiar and strange at the same time, like he'd heard it before in the back of his mind but never in the waking world.
"Kaelen." The voice repeated.
He blinked, and suddenly, the darkness gave way to an eerie light. In the center of a barren, desolate landscape, a figure emerged tall, imposing, and yet strangely beautiful. His hair was black as night, flowing like the very essence of darkness, and his eyes… Kaelen could feel them, even if he couldn't see them just yet. There was power in those eyes, power that felt like it could both destroy and protect.
The figure stepped forward, his movements calculated, deliberate. Each step sent a shiver down Kaelen's spine, though he didn't know why.
"Who are you?" Kaelen tried to ask, but his voice came out as a whisper, barely a breath.
The figure's lips curved into a smile slow, dangerous, and predatory. He was toying with Kaelen, like a cat with its prey.
"You know me, Kaelen." The voice rumbled again, sending a pulse of warmth through Kaelen's chest, a feeling he couldn't explain. "I've been waiting for you."
Kaelen's heart skipped a beat. He shook his head, desperately trying to make sense of what was happening. "What do you want with me?"
The figure's lips parted again, his voice taking on an almost mocking tone. "Not what I want, Kaelen. What you want. What you need."
Before Kaelen could respond, the ground beneath his feet cracked open. Tendrils of dark magic surged from the rift, wrapping around his body. He gasped, trying to pull away, but they tightened, pulling him down into the earth, dragging him closer to the figure. His breath hitched, fear and confusion swirling in his chest.
"You are the key." The figure's voice now had a cold edge. "You are the only one who can unlock the prophecy. You will either destroy the Demon Realm… or you will save it."
The tendrils lifted him higher into the air, and his body burned with an unearthly energy, something raw and primal that he had never felt before. The light around him turned blood-red, the figure's shadow stretching as if it were alive. His body vibrated with power, with destiny fate pressing down on him, suffocating him.
The figure leaned forward, his gaze locking with Kaelen's. "You will come to me."
Kaelen's heart raced, his chest tightening as a strange heat surged through him. He wanted to scream, but no sound came. Instead, his voice faltered, his words caught in his throat.
"Who are you?" He asked again, this time with a sense of desperation in his voice.
The figure's smile deepened. "I am the one who's waited for you, Kaelen. The one who will never let you go. I am your future, your fate… your obsession."
Kaelen's breath hitched, and just as the tendrils seemed to crush him, the world exploded in light, blinding him completely.
Kaelen shot up from his bed, gasping for air. His heart pounded in his chest, his hands shaking as he wiped the sweat from his brow. The remnants of the dream lingered in his mind like a heavy fog, the figure's eyes, his voice, and the words "I am your obsession." still echoing in his head.
He glanced around his small dorm room, the familiar sight of books, his desk, and the quiet stillness of the early morning slowly grounding him back in reality. But the feeling from the dream the dread, the pull lingered. It was like a weight on his chest, suffocating him, making it impossible to breathe properly.
"What the hell was that?" he whispered to himself.
He rose from his bed and walked to the window, looking out over the academy grounds. The sun hadn't even begun to rise yet, and the peaceful silence of the early morning was comforting. But deep down, Kaelen knew something had shifted. The dream wasn't just a dream. It was a warning. A call.
The voice the demon prince had spoken to him, and now, he couldn't escape it.
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.
Kaelen froze.
His heart hammered in his chest. The knock sounded too deliberate, too certain, as if whoever was on the other side knew exactly when he would be awake.
He slowly approached the door, his hand hovering over the handle, and as he opened it, the cold air hit him like a wave.
And standing there, with a knowing smile on his lips and eyes that glowed with an unnatural light, was the figure from his dream. The same one. The same Demon Prince.
"Kaelen." The voice from his dream echoed in the flesh, sending a wave of shock crashing through him.
"I've been waiting for you."