BLOOD OF THE FALLEN

The night my village died, the sky turned red.

I was seventeen years old.

Old enough to understand fear.

Too young to understand why everyone was screaming.

I remember the smell first.

Smoke.

Not the familiar smell of cooking fires or burning wood. This was different. Bitter. Thick. It crawled into my lungs and made every breath feel like I was swallowing ashes.

Then came the screaming.

“RUN!”

“GET THE CHILDREN!”

“THEY’RE HERE!”

I woke up to my mother shaking me violently.

“Kael, get up!”

I opened my eyes.

For a moment, I didn't understand what was happening.

Then I saw the fear in her face.

My mother was never afraid.

Not when my father disappeared.

Not when our crops failed.

Not even when soldiers passed through our village three years ago and took half of our food.

But that night, she was terrified.

“Mother?”

She grabbed my arm.

“We have to leave.”

“What happened?”

“Don't ask questions. Just move.”

Another explosion shook the house.

The wooden walls trembled.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

I jumped out of bed.

“What was that?”

My mother didn't answer.

She pulled open the door.

And I saw hell.

Our village was burning.

Houses that had stood for generations were collapsing into flames. People ran through the streets carrying children, bags, anything they could grab.

Above us, the clouds had turned crimson.

Lightning flashed across the sky.

But there was something wrong with the lightning.

It wasn't white.

It was black.

I stared upward.

A bolt struck the mountain beyond the village.

BOOM!

The ground shook.

My mother pulled me backward.

“Don't look at it!”

“Why?”

“KAEL!”

Her voice broke.

I looked at her.

She was crying.

That frightened me more than the fire.

“Mother…”

She grabbed my face with both hands.

“Listen to me.”

“What?”

“If anything happens to me tonight, you run.”

I shook my head.

“No.”

“You run to the eastern forest.”

“No!”

“Don't argue with me!”

Her hands were trembling.

“Find the old shrine beyond the river.”

“The shrine?”

She nodded.

“There's someone there who can protect you.”

“Who?”

Before she could answer—

A blade came through the wall.

My mother shoved me aside.

The sword missed my chest by inches.

She pulled me behind her.

A man stepped through the broken wall.

He wore a black cloak.

A silver symbol was carved across his chest.

I had never seen the symbol before.

But when my mother saw it, the color disappeared from her face.

“You…”

The stranger raised his sword.

“You should have left when we warned you.”

My mother stepped in front of me.

“You promised my family would be left alone.”

The man laughed quietly.

“We did.”

His eyes moved toward me.

“Until the boy awakened.”

My heart stopped.

“What are you talking about?”

The man's gaze remained on me.

“You really don't know.”

My mother grabbed my wrist.

“Run.”

The stranger attacked.

My mother moved faster than I had ever seen her move.

She caught his sword with a short blade hidden beneath her clothes.

CLANG!

The force sent sparks across the room.

I stumbled backward.

“Mother!”

“RUN, KAEL!”

I couldn't move.

My mother fought the stranger.

She wasn't the woman I knew.

She moved like a warrior.

Every strike was calculated.

Every step precise.

The stranger was stronger, but my mother refused to fall.

Then another figure appeared behind him.

A woman.

Her face was hidden beneath a hood.

She whispered something I couldn't understand.

A strange symbol appeared beneath her feet.

The room suddenly became freezing cold.

My mother looked at me.

“NOW!”

Something inside me snapped.

I ran.

I ran through the burning village.

I ran past people I had known my entire life.

Past the blacksmith.

Past the market.

Past the old tree where my father used to take me when I was a child.

Everyone was running.

Everyone was screaming.

And then—

I heard my mother's voice.

“KAEL!”

I turned around.

She was standing in the doorway of our burning house.

The cloaked man stood behind her.

Blood covered her clothes.

“KEEP RUNNING!”

“Mother!”

She smiled.

It was the last smile I ever saw.

Then the house exploded.

“NO!”

I fell to my knees.

For several seconds, I couldn't breathe.

The world became silent.

Then something happened.

My chest burned.

I looked down.

A strange mark was appearing beneath my skin.

A black symbol.

It spread from the center of my chest toward my shoulders like cracks in glass.

“What…”

Pain exploded through my body.

I screamed.

The ground beneath me cracked.

People nearby stopped running.

They stared at me.

The black clouds above the village suddenly began to spin.

Lightning struck the ground around me.

One.

Two.

Three times.

The fire surrounding me went out.

Every flame in the village died at once.

Silence.

Then a voice whispered from behind me.

“It's him.”

I turned.

The cloaked man stood in the middle of the street.

His sword was covered in blood.

My mother's blood.

He stared at the mark on my chest.

And for the first time that night, I saw fear in his eyes.

“Kill him,” he said.

The soldiers surrounding him raised their weapons.

I couldn't move.

My body was burning.

My heart was pounding so hard I thought it would tear itself apart.

Someone shouted.

“NOW!”

They charged.

And then—

Something inside me awakened.

A shockwave exploded from my body.

BOOM!

Every soldier within twenty feet was thrown backward.

The street cracked beneath my feet.

The remaining flames disappeared.

The entire village fell silent.

I stared at my hands.

Black energy moved beneath my skin.

I didn't understand it.

I didn't know what I was.

But the men surrounding me did.

One of them whispered:

“The bloodline has returned.”

The cloaked man looked at me.

“No…”

He took a step backward.

“This was supposed to end with your father.”

My blood went cold.

“My father?”

The man froze.

I stepped toward him.

“You knew my father?”

He said nothing.

“WHERE IS MY FATHER?”

For the first time, anger overcame my fear.

The black energy around my hands grew stronger.

The stranger smiled.

Not because he was happy.

Because he knew something I didn't.

“Your father isn't dead, Kael.”

My heart stopped.

“He's been waiting for you.”

Before I could ask another question, the woman in the hood appeared beside him.

She placed her hand against the air.

A portal opened behind them.

The stranger stepped toward it.

“Wait!”

I tried to chase him.

But my body suddenly collapsed.

The last thing I heard was his voice.

“When you learn what your blood truly carries…”

He looked back at me.

“…you'll understand why we had to destroy everything you loved.”

Then they disappeared.

I woke up three days later.

Alone.

The village was gone.

My mother was gone.

Everyone was gone.

I walked through the ruins until I reached the place where our house had stood.

There was nothing left.

Except one thing.

A small metal box.

I recognized it immediately.

It belonged to my father.

My hands trembled as I opened it.

Inside was an old photograph.

My father.

My mother.

And a third person.

A man I had never seen before.

On the back of the photograph, there were seven words.

“When he awakens, trust no one.”

I stared at the photograph.

Then I noticed something that made my blood run cold.

The mysterious man standing beside my parents in the photograph…

was the same man who had killed my mother.

And underneath the photograph was a name.

THE FIRST GUARDIAN.

I looked toward the mountains.

For the first time since the night my village burned, I wasn't afraid.

I was angry.

And somewhere beyond those mountains…

my father was still alive.

TO BE CONTINUED…