The sky above the Kingdom of Noctis remained dark, like an eternal night. Black clouds hung motionless, forming an everlasting dome over the colossal stone fortress that housed the castle of Kaiden, a ruler long forgotten by the world. Its peak touched the clouds, challenging the heavens, standing alone in a silence petrified by time.
Inside, upon a silent, grand throne, Kaiden Sage Wilder slept in stillness. His face did not reflect the peace of someone having a pleasant dream. Instead, in his dream, memories of a dark resurrection replayed—when flowers bloomed from death, when his body was reborn from petals that absorbed blood, souls, and thunder of the underworld. When the voices of four entities echoed as one, blessing him with power that could no longer be called human.
But that peace shattered. That silence cracked.
Kaiden slowly opened his eyes, his irises faintly glowing—a mix of lightning, petals, darkness, and immortality. A disturbance... a faint but clear pressure could be felt beneath the castle.
He rose from his throne. His footsteps echoed gently in the empty stone hall. He approached the grand balcony along the castle wall and looked down, far below, at the land he once protected—or more accurately, left to wither. What he saw was a sea of people. Not his subjects, but an army.
Hundreds of thousands... no, millions, bearing gold-and-white banners. They were from the Kingdom of Eldoria—the kingdom of light that believed they had a right to claim whatever appeared in ruin. Kaiden watched them expressionlessly, but his eyes caught something unforgivable. The flowers surrounding his castle were being trampled. Those that grew from dead soil—the only color beneath Noctis's dim skies—were destroyed without reverence.
A shout echoed from below.
"O creature perched upon your hollow throne! If you are the demon guarding these ruins, surrender now! This place shall be claimed for the glory of mankind!"
Kaiden remained silent. Only the cold wind from the valley answered them.
"You have no hope! Look at our numbers! Even a demon king would tremble!" cried the front-line knight, raising his sword high.
Kaiden exhaled slowly. He raised his hand.
The sky rumbled.
A fine crack formed in the air beneath his feet, and as he leapt from the castle's peak—from a height impossible for any human—a thunderous boom erupted when his body struck the ground. The earth shook. Nearby knights were thrown back instantly, and from every crack beneath Kaiden's feet, black roses, blood-white lilies, and glowing purple wild orchids grew—blossoming all at once from the void.
And in the center of that new field stood Kaiden. His cloak swayed in the force of his aura. Lightning-dragon horns lit his head, blood-red petals formed armor over his shoulders and chest, dead roots spread from his feet, and a black-silver cape fluttered as calmly as the night itself. That figure… was not human. But not a demon either. He was the symbol of something forgotten.
He raised his right hand.
"Drakonis Strombringer."
From the vortex of flowers and lightning, a grand spear emerged—long and elegant, its tip pulsing with electricity, its shaft wrapped in dead flower roots, and a swirling shadow encircling it.
The Eldorian forces froze.
"That's… that's no ordinary demon…"
"Not a guardian… he… who is he?"
Kaiden didn't answer. He spun his spear, each motion leaving trails of blossoms in the air, as if nature itself allowed his movement.
Then, without warning, he vanished.
Kaiden disappeared from their sight.
A second later, the sound of shattering metal and flung bodies filled the air. A straight line had been carved through the Eldorian ranks—clean and direct, like a pen tearing paper. Behind him, dozens of bodies collapsed without blood—only flowers blooming from their wounds.
Lightning split the sky. But it wasn't the weather—it was Kaiden, now standing in the center of the battlefield, spear raised, surrounded by red petals dancing in the air like spirits.
"Defensive formation! Don't be reckless! He's only one!"
The Eldorian army tried to reform their lines. Their shields clashed as they closed ranks, creating a human wall—a formation that had repelled many demonic hordes before.
Kaiden stepped forward slowly.
With each step, dead plants grew. Black roses crawled up the knights' legs, coiling and sprouting sharp thorns beneath their armor. Some tried to slash them, but each severed thorn spread into five more.
"Attack! Don't let him get closer!"
Arrows flew. Hundreds. But before touching his skin, wind spiraled into a vortex of roses. Petals and storm devoured every projectile. Not one hit.
Then Kaiden drove his spear into the ground.
Instantly, the world went silent.
One pulse—and from the earth, a bell emerged. Not metal, but of roots, flowers, and dim light. It tolled once, and each chime struck like the weight of millennia upon the soldiers' shoulders. Many fell, clutching their chests, their faces pale.
The bell meant only one thing.
Judgment had begun.
Kaiden raised his hand, and from the sky descended not rain, but red petals and purple lightning. Each petal targeted one enemy, and upon touching them, the soldiers' bodies exploded into bursts of light and flowers. No blood. Only an ever-deepening silence.
"He… he kills without touching us…!"
"Run… RUN…!"
But there was nowhere to run.
From the flowers on the ground rose shadows of black butterflies, root serpents, and flower spirits that dragged them back to the battlefield. Cries, prayers, and curses echoed.
Kaiden walked past them without looking back. Some knights tried to strike him from behind, but as their blades neared his back, their bodies turned to stone, bloomed, then crumbled into dust and petals.
He whispered softly, more to himself than to anyone else.
"You defiled my land… and plucked flowers you did not plant."
One by one, the knights fell. None could match him.
But a new voice suddenly rang through the battlefield's haze.
"Executor Unit, forward!"
Heavy steps shook the ground.
From the left flank emerged thirty knights clad in obsidian armor, wearing ritual cloaks bearing the sigil of a split sun. Each wielded a unique weapon—glowing glaives, golden axes, and burning swords. They were the Executor Knights, Eldoria's highest force for eliminating high-tier entities.
One of them raised his weapon at Kaiden.
"Cursed being… today, you will be stopped!"
Kaiden halted.
The wind calmed.
He stared at them.
"Come then, and I shall show you flowers from a world you never knew existed."
The thirty knights advanced in unison, their formation flawless. Their auras pierced the battlefield like light breaking night.
They surrounded Kaiden.
"Inverted Sun Formation!" their leader shouted.
The ground beneath them changed. Golden symbols glowed, forming a massive seal that restricted Kaiden's movement. They charged in unison, coordinated and swift, leaving no opening.
But Kaiden did not retreat. He watched them for a moment… then vanished.
One Executor screamed. A hole opened in his chest, his body dropped, and from the wound, a white flower bloomed, slowly wrapping him like a funeral shroud.
Another tried to stab Kaiden from behind, but the spear awaited him. One slash, and not just his body—but his soul—was torn apart. Black petals fell from the void, swallowing the fragments.
"Stay focused! He's… he's not an illusion!!"
Explosion. Five Executors were shredded instantly by a storm of petals and lightning. The clouds struck downward with their screams. But what emerged from the storm wasn't Kaiden—but three flower-shaped beings wielding weapons mimicking his movements.
Kaiden floated slowly in the air, his spear spinning in his hand like a pen writing across the sky.
The air stopped. Everything stopped.
Then the earth cracked—and hundreds of thousands of thorned roots surged from the ground, swallowing the Executors. The roots slashed and wrapped around them—not killing instantly, but slowly, letting them feel the pain of a flower burning as it blooms.
One by one, they screamed, but their voices were drowned out by the toll of the second bell.
And when that chime ended, none were left standing.
Kaiden landed softly on the earth. Around him, only flowers bloomed. No blood. Only petals. Remnants of humans returned to the soil. Echoes of lives forced back to their origin.
He walked through the field of blossoms.
Not a single knight of Eldoria remained. Even their horses had become sculptures of roots and roses.
In the silence that cloaked the field of death, Kaiden stood still. The wind played with his cloak, tossing its edges like the wings of a midnight bird. The bodies of the knights lay scattered, frozen in their final forms—eyes open, weapons fallen, some petrified, others rotted in an instant. No last prayers. Only silence and petals.
Kaiden closed his eyes slowly, raising his right hand to the sky.
"I did not seek your lives. But this land must be fed..."
Suddenly, the air changed. The scent of flowers merged with iron and ozone. From the corpses, a thin mist began to rise—not smoke, but souls. Gentle lights, like shattered pieces of stars, drifted toward Kaiden. None screamed. They were drawn in without protest, as if the earth itself agreed they should return.
Kaiden absorbed them all—hundreds, thousands of knights who once stood proud, now merged into eternal energy.
His body glowed softly in hues of crimson, ivory, violet, and blue. His spear trembled, roots curling along its shaft, as if it too had come alive.
Then—
BOOM.
A burst of delicate light bloomed from Kaiden's form like a newborn star. But it was not heat that spread... it was life. The scorched battlefield was reborn in an instant—blanketed in wildflowers. Black roses, blue lilies, blood orchids, and nameless blooms with petals like glistening eyes. They blossomed all at once, proclaiming this as both an end... and a beginning.
The corpses were slowly swallowed by living roots without sound or trace. Armor unraveled into soil. Swords became fertilizer. Empty eyes closed beneath petals. All erased—not through cruelty, but with a haunting grace.
Until finally—
No trace of slaughter remained.
Only a field of flowers.
Calm. Grim. Eternal.
Kaiden lowered his hand, and all fell still. No sound remained, except the gentle whisper of petals swaying in the wind.
He turned, eyes to the still-gray sky.
No cheers of victory. None needed.
He walked slowly back to his castle. Each step like the closing notes of a tragic symphony. His cape trailed behind, wiping away his footsteps as he moved.
The castle gates opened by themselves as he approached. The ancient stone recognized its master. Shadows swallowed him once more.
And as the doors closed behind him...
The world outside fell silent again. As if nothing had ever happened.