"Dead kings don't dream."
That's what they told me.
What they prayed for.
They prayed I'd forget the fire.
The betrayal.
The way they knelt before me one morning and stabbed me the next.
But death didn't take my memory.
It sharpened it.
And tonight, the throne remembered me back.
"System Warning: Unauthorized soul signature detected."
"Memory sync: FAILED."
"Bloodline tag: [CORRUPTED HEIR] — incompatible with current ruler."
"Rebooting…"
⸻
I stood barefoot at the edge of the broken palace—what remained of the High Hall that once held my crown.
Where my father's sword was stolen.
Where my body was burned.
Where my name was erased from history.
But the stone beneath me remembered.
Cracked tiles pulsed faintly.
The throne above—iron twisted with ancestral roots—vibrated as if it could still hear my blood.
"It's him," one of the guards whispered.
"No. He's dead. He died screaming."
"Then why is the throne waking up?"
⸻
My boots crunched over ashes of royal banners.
The kingdom had replaced me with a puppet king.
My cousin. Veyric. The coward they crowned hours after watching me die.
He sat now, pale-faced, watching the throne shake behind him.
"Who… who are you?" he demanded.
I didn't answer.
I simply walked toward the throne that shouldn't remember me.
And watched it rise—groaning like a beast unchained.
"System Alert: Memory Lock bypassed."
"Recognized Signature: Kael Ardyn, Last Flameborn."
"Welcome back."
⸻
They told the world I died a traitor.
But I never left.
I existed in the cracks of their rewritten timeline, burned into the glitch between god and prophecy.
And now?
"The gods rejected me."
"So I'll break their system."
"And take what they denied me."
⸻
The guards raised their swords.
The king screamed for them to kill me.
I raised my hand.
Flame.
Ancient, silver-blue flame.
The kind that once crowned emperors and now answered only to me.
"System Override: Bloodflame Unlocked."
"Cursed Class: King-Eater. Progression: BEGIN."
⸻
I looked at Veyric.
He had everything handed to him—my crown, my castle, my people.
But not my kingdom.
That still belonged to me.
"You don't get to kill me twice," I said.
"Now kneel—or burn."