Prologue: The Key and the Blade

The battlefield stretched endlessly under a crimson sky. Fires burned in the distance, their smoke twisting into monstrous shapes that clawed at the heavens. Aster Solis knelt amidst the chaos, his hands trembling as he pressed them against the wound of a dying soldier. The man's labored breaths slowed, his pain easing as Aster's energy flowed into him.

But no matter how many lives he saved, the war raged on.

"Aster!" a voice called. Michael, his childhood friend, sprinted toward him, his face streaked with blood and soot. "We have to go! The frontline's collapsing!"