SWNOVELXO Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Kingdom of Shadowborn
Two hundred thousand years had passed since Karen Dragon opened the ancient vault and uncovered the truth of his bloodline.
What had once been a hidden valley, shrouded in mist and forgotten by time, was now a vast and mighty kingdom—reborn from shadows.
They named it Vael'Thar still, as a vow. A name preserved to honor the fallen kingdom that once stood in silence and sorrow. A name carried by the wind like a sacred echo.
But the world no longer feared that name.
They respected it.
They remembered.
---
The Rise of a People
Karen stood upon the high blackstone balcony of the royal citadel, his silver-black cloak blowing in the cold mountain wind. From this height, he could see all of New Vael'Thar—gleaming towers sculpted from obsidian and light, buildings that moved with shifting shadows, and winding roads that bent reality around them.
Below him, a million citizens, each one born with Shadow Magic, lived in peace and purpose.
They were no longer fractured fragments of a forgotten bloodline.
They were Black Shadow Dragonborn, reborn as a people.
Karen's eyes, one golden and one black, burned with pride.
From one… came all.
---
The Legacy That Lived
When Karen had first begun rebuilding the old ways, the world saw him as a strange guardian, the son of a god-like king, chosen but alone.
Now, the Shadowborn Kingdom was a bastion of balance in a world filled with chaos and corruption.
And every single soul in the kingdom carried a piece of that ancient flame—Shadow Magic, once lost, now a birthright.
The old prejudices were long buried.
Even the Divine Dragonborn, who once feared the return of shadow, had sent ambassadors, scholars, and even allies to learn from Vael'Thar.
Karen had fulfilled his people's destiny.
But not even he could have predicted what would come next.
---
The Eternal King
Though centuries blurred into each other, Karen never aged. His form remained eternal, skin lined with silver-black scales, wings tucked beneath ceremonial armor carved with the crest of Vael'Thar: a dragon wreathed in shadow and starlight.
He was known throughout the realms as the Eternal King—not because of his power, but because of his purpose.
He walked among his people.
Taught in the citadel's halls.
Listened to orphans on the palace steps.
And when a shadow stirred in the world, Karen was the first to step through it—arriving where he was needed, silent as mist.
He never ruled with fear.
He ruled with legacy.
---
A Living Flame
Every five years, the citizens of Vael'Thar gathered at the Pillars of Remembrance, an ancient monument built from the stones of the first sanctuary Karen had once restored. There, beneath a moonless sky, they lit the Shadow Flame, a fire that glowed silver and black, eternal and calm.
During the latest ceremony, Karen stepped before the gathered millions, eyes sweeping across the generations he had birthed, nurtured, and guided.
"We were once forgotten," Karen began, his voice echoing like thunder across the stone valley.
"We were once erased."
"But now we rise. Not to conquer. Not to control. But to balance. For the shadow exists not to destroy the light… but to remind it that it shines brighter when surrounded by truth."
The flame burst higher with each word.
The people roared in unity.
They were more than a kingdom.
They were a legacy incarnate.
---
Whispers in the Sky
Later that night, as Karen stood alone atop the Sanctum of the First Flame, he sensed something shift in the very fabric of reality.
The stars flickered unnaturally.
A ripple passed across the sky—just once, barely perceptible, but to Karen's immortal senses, it felt like thunder behind a closed door.
He narrowed his eyes.
A whisper came to him on the wind.
> "Balance… has shifted."
He looked to the west, where the realms of gods and ancient beings once slept.
The world had been in peace for so long… but something, somewhere, had begun to stir.
And that meant his people would be called again—not for war.
But for purpose.
---
A New Flame Awakens
Down below, in the Academy of Shadows, a young girl named Seren walked through the vaulted halls, her black and silver eyes glowing faintly in the dark.
She was the first child in the last ten thousand years to manifest both Shadow Magic and Spirit Magic—a combination once believed impossible.
But in this world Karen had built, the impossible no longer stayed buried.
Karen appeared beside her in the training courtyard, stepping from a thin line of shadow.
Seren gasped. "K–King Karen?!"
He smiled warmly. "Just call me mentor."
She blinked up at him, overwhelmed.
"I… I can hear voices. Spirits. In the shadows."
He knelt and placed a hand over her heart.
"That means you're listening," he said.
"And that means… you're ready."