The masked figure, now lying defeated at Kael's feet, revealed a face Kael had never expected. It was a face he knew too well, one that had haunted him for years—a face he had trusted, a face that once held the same loyalty as Kael himself.
His heart dropped into his stomach as he recognized the man, his body stiffening with shock. “No," he whispered, the word caught in his throat. “It can't be."
But the figure's lifeless eyes stared up at him, a cold, haunting reflection of everything Kael had once believed in. The truth was now inescapable.
It was **Cyrus Viper Thornwell**—a trusted advisor, a long-time ally, and one of the empire's most powerful men. Kael's mind reeled with the weight of the revelation. How had Cyrus, a man he once considered a father figure, become the architect of
