Kael woke with a sharp breath that echoed endlessly into nothing.
For a moment, he thought he was still dying.
Cold surrounded him—not the cold of wind or winter, but the kind that existed in places where life had never been.
His lungs burned as if he had just been dragged from deep water, and his chest rose and fell unevenly.
He slowly opened his eyes.
There was no sky.
There were no stars.
Only darkness.
A vast, endless black void stretched in every direction. It was not night. Night at least had the comfort of the moon, the promise of dawn.
This place had neither.
It was a darkness so complete it felt alive, pressing against his skin like a silent ocean.
Kael pushed himself upright.
Water rippled around him
.
He stared at the ground.
The ground beneath him wasn't solid stone or soil—it was a shallow layer of still water stretching endlessly across the void.
Every small movement sent gentle waves across the surface, the sound echoing softly as if the world itself were hollow.
The water was strangely warm.
He looked down at his reflection.
A pale face stared back at him, his dark hair damp and clinging to his forehead. His eyes looked distant… confused.
Then it hit him.
The memory.
The battlefield.
The knights.
The chains.
The blade.
Kael's hand slowly moved to his neck where the sword had sliced through him. He expected to feel torn flesh, blood, pain.
There was nothing.
No wound.
No scar.
Just the steady beat of a heart that should have stopped.
"…I died."
His voice echoed softly across the endless water.
The words felt heavy.
Real.
He remembered everything.
The rage when he saw the bodies of his people.
The moment he found his mother lying motionless among the dead.
The hundred armored knights he slaughtered in fury.
The overwhelming power of the C rank Elite soldiers who had surrounded him.
The chains of holy light.
And finally—
The execution.
Kael clenched his fists, the water trembling around him.
"So this is death…"
A quiet voice answered from behind him.
"No."
The voice was deep.
Calm.
Ancient.
The moment it spoke, the water around Kael began to ripple violently as if the void itself had reacted.
Kael slowly turned.
At first he saw nothing.
Then the darkness began to move.
The void behind him folded inward like a curtain being pulled aside, revealing a figure standing several meters away upon the water.
Tall.
Impossibly tall.
Black wings stretched outward behind the figure—vast and silent, each feather darker than the void itself. They seemed to absorb the surrounding darkness rather than reflect it.
The figure wore armor that looked like it had been forged from night itself. Long black robes flowed from beneath the armor, drifting slowly despite the absence of wind.
A crown of jagged obsidian rested upon his head.
But it was the eyes that froze Kael in place.
Two faint glowing irises burned within the darkness of the figure's hood.
Cold.
Endless.
Like ancient stars that had watched the universe long before humanity existed.
Kael felt his body instinctively tense.
A pressure filled the void.
Not hostility.
Not anger.
Something far heavier.
Authority.
"…Who are you?" Kael asked quietly.
The water trembled again as the figure took a step forward.
Despite the shallow water, no ripples formed beneath his feet.
The figure then sat on a massive dark divine throne that appeared from the void. Behind the massive throne was a huge Grey circle with a sharp addition looking structure that emitted divinity from it.
"My name has been forgotten by the world above."
His wings slowly folded behind him.
"But once…"
"…they called me Umbrael ,the Archangel of Darkness."
The words echoed across the void like distant thunder.
Kael's breath caught.
An archangel?
But the stories always spoke of angels as beings of light.
Holy beings who served the heavens.
Yet the presence before him felt nothing like light.
It was deeper.
Older.
Something that existed long before light ever claimed dominion over the skies.
The Archangel studied Kael silently.
"You were killed by the servants of light."
It was not a question.
Kael's jaw tightened.
"Yes."
The water around his feet darkened slightly as his anger surfaced.
"They slaughtered my village."
The Archangel's glowing eyes remained fixed on him.
"And yet… you fought."
Kael didn't respond.
He remembered the screams.
The blood.
The way his sword had grown heavier with every knight he cut down.
"I watched," the Archangel said calmly.
Kael's head snapped up.
"…You what?"
The figure tilted his head slightly.
"Your rage."
"Your defiance."
"Your refusal to kneel even while facing death."
The water beneath Kael began to swirl slowly.
"Those qualities are rare."
Kael felt something shift in the air around them.
The void grew deeper.
Darker.
The Archangel slowly raised one hand.
"Is that why I'm here?" Kael asked.
Umbrael smirked.
"No...You're here for a greater purpose."
The moment those words were spoken, the endless water began to tremble.
Shadows began rising from its surface like smoke.
They curled around Kael's feet.
Climbing.
Reaching.
Responding to something inside him.
Kael looked down in shock.
"…What is this?"
The Archangel's glowing eyes narrowed slightly.
"The darkness."
His voice carried a quiet certainty.
"It has already chosen you."
Kael felt his heart pound harder.
The shadows wrapped around his arms, his chest, his shoulders—but they did not harm him.
They moved like they belonged to him.
Like they had been waiting.
"For thousands of years," the Archangel continued, "I have waited for a successor."
He stepped closer.
The pressure of his presence became suffocating.
"And now…"
He extended his hand toward Kael.
"…I have finally found one."
The void fell silent.
Even the rippling water stilled.
Kael stared at the offered hand.
A choice stood before him.
Behind him lay death.
Loss.
A world ruled by the so-called light that had slaughtered everything he loved.
Before him stood the embodiment of darkness itself.
Waiting.
Watching.
Offering power.
Kael clutched his fists .
"Will I be able to get revenge?"He asked with a deepcalm voice yet within a hint of range.
The darkness smiled in amusment.