The wind howled through the twisted branches like voices caught between worlds.
Kael tightened his cloak around his shoulders as he stepped beneath the withered canopy of the Dark Forest — once known as the Elyndra Grove, a sanctuary of light and song. Now it stood in ruin, its trees blackened and gnarled, their roots drinking from poisoned soil.
Legends said that the forest had been the final battlefield of the Great War — where magic and blood clashed so violently that the land itself refused to heal.
Even now, centuries later, the air still trembled with remnants of that power.
Kael paused by a fallen statue — half-buried in moss, its features eroded beyond recognition. Once, it might have been an Elf guardian or a Battle Tribe warrior. Now, only the faint carving of an eclipse on its chest remained.
He touched the mark gently.
It pulsed faintly beneath his fingers — warm, almost alive.
"Ashes remember fire…"
The whisper drifted through the air — faint, almost like a sigh.
Kael froze. His eyes scanned the forest, hand instinctively falling to the hilt of his training blade.
"Who's there?" he called out.
Only the wind answered — rustling leaves that seemed to murmur in forgotten tongues.
"Blood of shadow… flame of the fallen…"
Kael's heart pounded. The voice was neither man nor woman — soft, distant, like an echo from a dream. He gritted his teeth, shaking his head.
"Just the wind," he muttered to himself. "Old forests love tricks."
But as he walked deeper, the air thickened. The mist coiled around his legs, whispering secrets he couldn't quite hear. He forced himself to keep moving, eyes fixed on the faint blue glow ahead — the portal stone.
The teleportation gate stood in a clearing of shattered marble — an ancient construct left from the old world.
It was a ring of obsidian carved with runes, floating slightly above the ground. Pale energy pulsed through its core like a heartbeat.
Two guards stood by its base, clad in Ebonfang Academy armor — polished black with silver trim. Their insignia bore the crest of the Academy: a fang biting into a crescent moon.
As Kael approached, one of the guards — a tall vampire with slicked-back hair and eyes like cold glass — arched an eyebrow.
"Well, what do we have here?" he said, voice smooth with arrogance. "Another charity case from the wastelands?"
The second guard, a broad-shouldered Beastman with a scar across his jaw, chuckled. "No… look at his arms. Black as the Rift itself." His tone darkened. "Battle Tribe."
Kael stopped a few steps away, silent. He was used to the stares, the whispers — but here, surrounded by the glow of civilization, their scorn felt sharper.
The vampire smirked. "Didn't think your kind still existed. Should've stayed buried in the ash."
Kael met his gaze evenly. "I didn't walk through the Dark Forest to argue with gatekeepers."
The Beastman growled softly. "You've got a tongue for someone whose people lost a war."
Kael's shadowed hands flexed — not in fear, but restraint. He could feel the warmth of something deep inside him stir, like embers shifting beneath ash.
He exhaled slowly. "Then maybe I'll remind them how to fight."
The vampire's smile faltered — just slightly. He turned to the portal controls, muttering, "You Battle Tribe types never learn humility."
Kael ignored him and stepped into the glow. The portal's energy wrapped around him like liquid light, humming with power. For a moment, he thought he heard the whispers again — closer this time, echoing in his mind:
"The ember awakens… the forest remembers…"
Then the light swallowed him whole.
When Kael opened his eyes, he stood on stone ground under a violet sky.
Before him rose the towers of Ebonfang Academy — vast and foreboding, built from black crystal and starlit obsidian. Lightning flickered along its highest spires, and somewhere deep within, he could feel a pulse… ancient, waiting.
The journey had ended.
But his story was only beginning.
"Let them mock," Kael whispered. "They'll remember the Battle Tribe soon enough."
And as the academy bells tolled across the twilight sky, the first ember of destiny began to burn.