---
The streets of Juren whispered with mana. Streetlights pulsed blue as the energy veins beneath the city flickered like arteries. The city, once familiar to Kael, now felt like foreign territory.
He moved like a ghost—hood up, footsteps silent. His name was dead. His past buried in rubble.
And yet, his enemies still lived comfortably in towers of marble and mana.
> [Current Objective: Remain Undetected]
[Shadow Concealment: 94% Effective]
[Servants: 2/3 Active]
The two souls he had absorbed—one rank D, one C—now slept within him. Their remnants stirred when danger approached, lending him bursts of strength, vision, speed.
Kael paused near a rooftop ledge. Down below, the Dragoon Guild HQ stood tall.
Clean. Powerful. Corrupt.
He remembered the face of Varon, the officer who sealed the gate and left him to die.
"You'll be next," Kael murmured.
---
At a safehouse on the edge of the ruins, a young girl stirred in her sleep.
Nara, Kael's younger sister, shifted under her blanket. She didn't know he was alive.
The last message she received was from a friend in the guild—saying Kael never came back.
She dreamed of shadows.
Of chains.
And her brother's voice calling her name from the dark.
---
📍 Elsewhere – Dragoon Guild Private Chamber
"Someone erased the death record," said a robed figure, tapping a crystal orb.
Opposite him stood Varon, tense. "That's impossible. The dungeon collapsed. No one escaped."
"The system log disagrees." The figure turned. His eyes glowed faint red. "And there are whispers… that something came back with a shadow."
Varon swallowed hard. "If he's alive—"
"Then he's dangerous," the figure interrupted.
"Find him. Silence him."
---
Back in the alley, Kael watched two junior guild agents walk past. They laughed. Carefree. Clueless.
> [Mission Option: Observe or Eliminate – Low Priority]
Kael chose neither.
He turned away and vanished into the shadows.
---
📍 Meanwhile – Myrla's Quarters
Myrla sat by candlelight, her silver hair tied back, reading Kael's last known entry on the registry. She had fought to bring his name off the list of "deceased," but was overruled.
"He didn't deserve this," she whispered.
She held a pendant in her hands—Kael's gift to Nara.
"I hope you're still out there, Kael. I hope you prove them all wrong."
---
That night, across the rooftops of Juren, a phantom moved.
Kael's eyes glowed faintly violet under his hood.
He had returned to the world that forgot him.
And this time, it would remember.
---
📌 Next: Chapter 5 – Whisper of the Guilds
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