Chapter 60 — Silence Reborn

Darkness.

No chains. No blood. No girl’s cries. No Sovereign’s laughter.

Nothing.

Kael drifted in the silence. For the first time since his return, there was no weight, no pain, no rage. Only absence. The Abyss whispered the truth he had always feared:

You were never meant to be. You are nothing. Return to silence.

His body dissolved into fragments of memory. A face of a comrade—gone. A village—gone. Even his own name burned away, leaving only a hollow echo.

And for a moment, Kael let go.

Far above, in the Abyss, the Sovereign stood victorious. The chains that had bound her had vanished. She looked upon the girl with detached pity.

“It is over. He was never real. Only an error given shape. Now, he is as he always should have been.”

The girl collapsed, pounding the cracked ground with trembling fists.
“Liar! He was real! He—he saved me! He fought you! He defied you!”

The Sovereign tilted her head.
“And yet, he is gone.”

But in the silence below, something stirred.

A whisper—not from the Abyss, not from the Sovereign, not from memory. From Kael himself.

If I was never meant to exist… then why do I still feel this rage?

The void shuddered.

If belief shapes this world… then I’ll make them believe in me. Even if it takes blood. Even if it takes eternity.

The fragments of Kael’s body bled red light, reforming. Not chains this time—but something darker, deeper. A mark carved into the silence itself.

The Abyss howled. The Forgotten wailed. Even the Sovereign froze, her smile faltering.

The girl gasped, tears halting. She felt it too—an impossible pulse.

And then, from the nothingness, a voice rose. Cold. Sharp. Unyielding.

“I am the Hero who shouldn’t exist.”

The Abyss tore open, and Kael returned—reborn in silence, wielding it as his weapon.