Prologue — The Last Time
Kael couldn't move.
He was lying on cold stone, his blood running in slow streams across the floor. The roof of the ancient temple had collapsed sometime during the fight. Pieces of it were still falling, crumbling down like broken teeth from a dying god's mouth.
The god lay in front of him.
Dead.
Its body wasn't even solid anymore—just a glowing, broken shell cracked down the middle, leaking light like smoke. It twitched once, then didn't move again.
Kael had done it.
He'd actually killed one.
Not a general. Not a high priest.
A god.
His lungs burned. He was dying—no, already mostly dead. His body was torn apart from the inside. That thing's power had gone through him like a wildfire. But he didn't feel fear. Not anymore.
Just a strange kind of peace.
"I told you," Kael muttered, though he wasn't sure who he was speaking to. "You bleed just like anything else."
A quiet, sick laugh escaped his throat. It hurt, but he couldn't help it. He'd spent a hundred lifetimes fighting these things. Losing. Watching people he cared about get wiped out by beings who thought themselves untouchable.
Now, finally, one of them was gone.
He let his head rest against the cracked stone beneath him. The temple around him was falling apart—reality itself might've been coming down with it. The sky outside had torn open like someone had punched through it. There were... things moving beyond it. Timelines. Stars. Other versions of him?
Or maybe he was just hallucinating.
Everything was fading fast.
Then he felt it.
A tug—deep in his chest. Not pain. Not death. Something stranger. Like something—or someone—was reaching into him, pulling him somewhere else.
He couldn't fight it.
Didn't even try.
---
Somewhere else…
He woke to warmth.
A heartbeat.
Faint sounds. A voice. Gentle. Loving.
Kael opened his eyes—and light stabbed into them like knives. Everything was blurry. Huge. Close. There was a face hovering over him.
A woman.
Her eyes were red with tears. But she was smiling. Smiling at him.
"There you are," she whispered, her voice shaky. "My beautiful boy."
He blinked slowly. His body wouldn't move right. Everything felt small. Weak. But inside his head, everything was still there. Memories. Names. Spells. Battles. Regrets.
He knew what had happened.
He had died.
He had fallen.
And now, for reasons he didn't understand, he had been born again.
---
Kael Veyar, godslayer and war criminal, had returned.
This time… as a baby.
And somewhere, in the back of his mind, something whispered:
Get it right this time.