Chapter Six: Fire in the Fields
Light.
Pain.
A heartbeat pounding in silence.
Then—
Kael gasped back to life. His body surged upright from a crater of blackened grass, skin steaming, clothes scorched. The world spun—two moons hanging in a purple sky, stars spiraling in constellations he didn’t recognize. His hands twitched. The Aether flared around him, wild and unstable.
“SYSTEM ONLINE: SYNCING TO FOREIGN DIMENSION...”
“REALITY ALIGNMENT: 14%... 38%... 59%...”
“DECK CORE INTACT. HOST: FUNCTIONAL.”
“ANOMALY STATUS: ACTIVE.”
He stood in a forest carved from fantasy—trees thick with bioluminescent veins, flowers that shimmered with ambient mana. In the far distance, a dragon roared. Something ancient and massive stirred in the clouds.
Kael didn’t know where he was.
But war was calling.
Smoke rose over the treetops.
Kael followed the trail through burnt underbrush, stepping into a clearing overlooking a valley.
Below—chaos.
A village of stone and timber was being swarmed by hundreds of goblins—green-skinned, armor-scrapped nightmares armed with fire-bombs, poison darts, and jagged cleavers. They crawled over the walls like ants, burning homes, dragging villagers into the streets.
The villagers fought back with desperation. Blades shimmered with weak enchantments—a sword blazing with fire here, a shield glowing faintly with light magic. One man wielded a wind-bowed spear that knocked back a pack of goblins—but another was swarmed before he could even scream.
Only one spellcaster stood among them: a teenage girl, silver hair streaked with soot, hands glowing with healing light. Her voice cracked with every spell. Her mana was almost gone.
Kael’s fists clenched.
“Threat Level: Moderate. Hostile Count: 120+”
“Aetherbind Protocol Authorized.”
He whispered, “Time to make an entrance.”
[CARD ACTIVATED: REAVER SLASH – Slot 1]
Aether Cost: 10
The blade surged into existence—obsidian and jagged, wrapped in glitching fire. Kael stepped from the treeline.
He didn’t run.
He walked—slow, focused, deliberate.
A goblin scout hissed, raised a horn.
Kael’s blade took its head off in one stroke.
Then the sky lit up.
He blinked into the heart of the battlefield.
[CARD ACTIVATED: VOIDSTEP – Slot 2]
Aether Cost: 11
Kael appeared inside the village walls—twenty goblins encircling a barricade. Children screamed behind it.
Kael moved.
Reaver Slash carved through three. He pivoted, kicked another into a fire, spun, sliced two more across the spine. Blood sprayed like mist. Bodies dropped.
A goblin screamed and threw a bomb—
[CARD ACTIVATED: GLASS WARD – Slot 4]
Aether Cost: 12
The explosion struck a crystalline barrier—shattering into light as Kael advanced through the smoke like a phantom.
The goblins broke ranks.
Too late.
Kael summoned the disc.
[CARD ACTIVATED: CHAINFIRE DISC – Slot 3]
Aether Cost: 15
The spinning wheel of Aether-heat ripped through their ranks—bouncing between bodies, slicing through limbs, ricocheting off the barricade and carving a path back to Kael.
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Killchain Bonus: +12 Aether
He caught the disc. Hurled it again.
More screams. More blood.
The villagers froze, eyes wide in disbelief.
“Is that a spell?” one whispered.
“No,” said the spellcaster girl, voice trembling. “That’s not magic. That’s something else.”
A war horn blew from the woods.
Trees cracked and splintered as ogres stomped into the field—two of them, towering, plated in crude metal.
And behind them came the Goblin Shaman General.
He was massive—twice the size of the others. Robes made of stitched skin. A crown of bone. His staff glowed with pulsing red crystals. Magic bled from his mouth in curses older than this realm.
He raised the staff.
Kael felt it.
Dark mana surged toward him like a spear.
[CARD ACTIVATED: VOIDSTEP]
He blinked above it, in midair—
[CARD ACTIVATED: GRAVEPULSE – Slot 5]
Aether Cost: 20
He slammed a fist toward the ground as he landed—Aether ruptured the earth. Black energy erupted like obsidian spikes, impaling a dozen goblins and staggering the ogres.
The shaman snarled. His staff pulsed. He launched a sphere of compressed mana—
Kael blocked it.
[CARD ACTIVATED: GLASS WARD]
Aether Cost: 12
The barrier exploded on impact, but Kael stood firm.
He countered.
[CARD ACTIVATED: CHAINFIRE DISC]
The disc blazed across the battlefield—but the shaman caught it.
Absorbed it.
Laughed.
Then hurled it back—twisted and charged.
Kael’s eyes widened—
[CARD ACTIVATED: BLOODHOUND – Epic Summon]
The ground cracked. A surge of shadow. Then came the beast—Kael’s familiar, made of smoke, ember, and nightmare.
The hound intercepted the disc midair and detonated it.
Then charged.
It tore into the ogres, ripping through flesh like parchment. One ogre screamed as it was disemboweled. The other tried to grab it—lost its hand in a spray of gore.
Kael blinked to the shaman.
Steel met bone.
Reaver Slash collided with the shaman’s staff in a burst of Aether sparks.
The shaman’s magic writhed—tentacles of red energy clawing at Kael.
Kael grinned.
[CARD COMBO INITIATED: Reaver Slash + Voidstep + Gravepulse]
Aether exploded.
Kael vanished. Reappeared behind the shaman. Blade buried in its spine. Gravepulse detonated beneath their feet. The explosion engulfed the warlord in black fire.
When the smoke cleared—
The Goblin General’s body was gone, reduced to ash.
Silence.
Then—
“Level Up Achieved.”
“Host Tier: Increased.”
“Aether Regeneration: Boosted (+15%)”
“Deck Capacity: +1 Card Slot Unlocked.”
Kael gasped—his chest flared with new energy. The HUD shimmered.
A glowing Common Card hovered in the air above the fallen shaman’s ashes.
“CARD ACQUIRED: ARCANE SPIKE – Common | Cipher Type”
Effect: Launch a fast, armor-penetrating magic projectile. Low Aether cost.
He reached out.
The card pulsed once—and sank into his palm.
“New Slot Available. Equip?”
Kael smiled.
“Equip it.”
The villagers stared.
He turned to them—still glowing, still armed with smoke and storm.
“You can cast magic,” said the girl, Lysa. “But... not like us.”
“No,” Kael said. “I don’t use magic. I use cards.”
As he walked from the battlefield, the system flickered in his mind.
“New Realm Synced. Enemy Types: Compatible.”
“Card Loot from monsters confirmed.”
“Fusion mechanics enabled. Evolution possible.”
“This realm is now your battlefield.”
Kael looked at the new card in his hand, and the five others pulsing in his chest.
Six cards. Power growing. The rules still applied.
But only to him.
He turned his gaze toward the dark forest.
Smoke rose in the far horizon.
“Warning: Godspawn Entity Approaching…”
Kael smirked.
“Let’s see what kind of monsters this world really has.”
***
And he walked into the fire.
The fire crackled softly now.
No screams. No clash of blades. No roaring monsters.
Only silence.
Kael sat on a broken cart outside the ruined village gate, the Reaver Slash resting across his knees, still pulsing faintly with dying heat. Blood—some his, some goblin—streaked his armor in dried, rust-colored lines. His breath came slow and steady now. The battlefield behind him was still littered with corpses and the stench of burnt flesh.
Nearby, villagers worked quietly, dragging bodies away, repairing what they could. No one spoke to him. Not yet. They watched from a distance like peasants staring at a cursed knight.
The girl—the healer—approached.
She looked… worn, but determined. Ash smudged her cheek. Her silver hair was pulled back into a rough braid, fingers wrapped in cloth bandages.
“You shouldn’t be alive,” she said, softly.
Kael didn’t look at her. “You’re not the first to say that.”
She sat beside him, leaving a respectful distance. For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then, “I’m Lysa. Apprentice to the village mage. He died two weeks ago during a troll attack. I’ve… been trying to keep us going.”
Kael nodded once. “You held the line. Most wouldn’t.”
“I was running on fumes.” Her voice cracked a little. “If you hadn’t come—”
“I did.”
A beat passed.
Lysa’s eyes narrowed, watching his weapon pulse with that strange, glitching light. “You called them cards. Are they like spells? Enchanted scrolls?”
Kael finally turned to her. “No. They’re not made here. They're bound to me. Think of them like weapons I don’t hold—but become.”
Lysa studied him. “You're the only one who can use them?”
Kael nodded. “As far as I know.”
“That’s not just power,” she said. “That’s fear. People don’t understand what they can’t use.”
He didn’t respond at first. Then: “I’ve been feared before.”
She tilted her head. “Does it bother you?”
He looked out toward the smoking forest. “What bothers me is how fast power makes people forget who they were.”
Lysa fell quiet again. Her fingers idly traced a faint healing rune in the dirt.
“You didn’t kill that shaman because you were angry,” she said. “You killed him like it was a duty. Like you'd done it before.”
“I have.”
Lysa’s voice dropped lower. “And if killing brings you power… what stops you from turning on the people who don’t?”
Kael’s gaze turned sharp.
But instead of anger, there was only… weariness.
“Because if I ever cross that line,” he said, “I won’t stop.”
Silence again.
Then, almost a whisper, Lysa said, “You're not from this world, are you?”
Kael’s answer came slowly. “I’m from a world where power was currency. Where people murdered for tier upgrades. Where monsters weren’t the worst thing out there.”
She stared. “That sounds like hell.”
Kael glanced at her. “It was.”
Lysa hesitated. “And what now? What will you do here?”
His eyes turned toward the treeline again.
“WARNING: ENTITY DETECTED – Godspawn Class. Trajectory: This region.”
The air shifted—just slightly. Like the trees were holding their breath.
Kael stood.
“I'll fight,” he said simply. “Because this world’s not ready for what’s coming.”
He looked down at her.
“And neither am I.”
Then he walked back toward the gate—toward the center of the broken village.
Lysa stayed seated, watching the warrior made of blades and silence disappear into the fog of smoke and moonlight.
And for the first time since her master died…
She didn’t feel alone.
