The screams echoed just as he remembered them.
Kael moved through the trees like a ghost—faster, quieter, more precise than he had been in his first life. Ten years ago, he had stumbled into this village by accident. This time, he arrived early.
The sky burned crimson. Demons—feral, horned beasts cloaked in smoke—swarmed the outer huts. Villagers ran in terror, clutching children, dragging the wounded. It was chaos.
Kael stood at the forest's edge, watching.
He clenched his fist.
The old him would have rushed in, righteous and pure, calling upon the light. This version of him—reborn in fire and betrayal—waited, calculating.
He let three demons feast on a cart of supplies before he struck.
The first felt the blade before it heard him.
CRACK—SSHHHH.
Solas, the crystal sword of the Saint, once gleaming gold, now pulsed white-hot and fractured, burning with a holy flame twisted by rage. Kael moved like a specter. One cut, one kill.
The second demon lunged, claws outstretched. Kael pivoted, driving the blade through its chest. Fire exploded outward, consuming it in white-black flames.
The third screamed something in a language lost to mortals—but Kael understood.
"Flameborn," it hissed. "You were meant to be ours."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "I was meant to be free."
He burned it alive.
[Later – Village Square]
Smoke clung to the air. Corpses of demons smoldered in a ring around the village. People stared in awe at the stranger who had saved them.
Kael kept his head down.
A woman approached—bloodied, limping, holding a trembling child. "Y-you're one of the Saints, aren't you? A servant of the Light?"
Kael didn't answer.
She dropped to her knees. Others followed. Prayers rose in whispers.
They don't know what I've done, Kael thought. Or what I will do.
He looked up slowly. "I was… once."
His golden eyes scanned the crowd, harsh and cold.
"But I am something else now."
[Holy Temple – Days Later]
Knights in white and gold arrived too late, as Kael intended. They found the village safe, the demons dead, and a single name whispered by the survivors: "The Black Saint."
News traveled fast.
[Inner Monologue – Kael, riding away]
Let them wonder. Let them search.
The boy they once hailed as Savior has returned. But not to save them.
To burn their lies to ash.