The Boy with the Last Soul

On Eden, death has been redefined. Consciousness can be transferred into biologic or fabricated human bodies known as the tainted, a miracle of science that grants a form of immortality. The price is never spoken aloud, because it is unknown. Each transfer strips away the soul, leaving behind empty vessels who still believe they are human. For centuries, the process has quietly repeated, creating generations who live, love, and reproduce without ever knowing they pass this curse to their children.

Sixteen-year-old Ruin Gadiel is different. In a world of over ten billion people, he carries the last soul in existence. He just does not know it yet.

From thirteen on, Ruin has lived with the ghost of his father. The pureblood army’s celebrated general died in front of him, yet the man’s voice follows Ruin through every quiet moment. His physician mother calls it grief. Ruin fears it is madness.

His life shatters when fallen winged Eidrel and fire-wielding Siraath Nalvek breach the veil between realms, igniting a new war to find the prophesied last remnant, the human who carries the final soul. A merciless fallen Eidrel murders Ruin’s mother and sister with the very blade Ruin forged alongside his father, a sword set with an opal hilt. Ruin escapes only by chance, hunted and alone.

He is rescued by the First Order, an Eidrel faction led by the formidable Mikael. Together, they uncover a truth buried beneath Eden’s history. Humanity’s dependence on consciousness transfer has drained the world of souls entirely, leaving a population unaware of what it has lost. Eldras, god of Elyndria Sanctum, reveals the prophecy of the Well of Souls. When it runs dry, the Night of Ash and Flame will rise, and with it the Black Seraph, a being whose choice will decide Eden’s fate.

Abaddon, a fallen Eidrel, seeks to control that fate. When he learns Ruin carries the last soul, Abaddon hunts him relentlessly and uncovers a prophecy stating that the one whose blade kills Mikael will become the Black Seraph. If Abaddon can orchestrate Mikael’s death, he can shape the coming Last Remnant War and bend the future to his will.

As the conflict deepens, Ruin is pulled into a war older than Eden itself and clings to a family he never expected to find. Thalismar, a battle-worn water Eidrel burdened by unfinished sins. A soldier desperate for redemption. And a Dark Mender whose healing blurs dangerously close to harm. Together, they uncover the truth Ruin has been running from. In a childhood accident, Ruin killed his father. The voice that has guided and tormented him is not grief alone, but a manifestation of a power he does not yet understand. The revelation fractures him, and only his found family keeps him from breaking beyond repair.

During a battle with the Siraath, Ruin meets Kedesh, a genetically altered girl whose touch is lethal. Though her kind once fought on the opposite side of his father’s war, a forbidden bond forms between them. As Abaddon’s forces close in and Eden teeters on collapse, Ruin’s power awakens. When he kills a Siraath Nalvek, he gains the ability to wield fire, fulfilling the prophecy that the one with the last soul inherits the power of those he kills.

In a devastating final stand in Manhadris City, Ruin fights atop Gaebriël, a scout Eidrel, turning the tide against Abaddon’s army. Abaddon’s student, Velione, kills Mikael using the opal-hilted blade Ruin forged. The prophecy twists. It is not the wielder of the blade, but its maker, who becomes the Black Seraph.

Ruin ascends as the Black Seraph, harbinger of the Last Remnant War.

He is drawn into a void between realms, where a prophetic tree reveals the branching paths of fate before him. A mysterious voice tells Ruin his choice will determine which side triumphs. Remembering Mikael’s words, that prophecy is a tree and sometimes branches must be broken, Ruin chooses defiance. He will not break the branches. He will burn the tree itself. He will not be used as a weapon.

Returning to Eden, Ruin unleashes the Black Seraph’s power, banishing the fallen Eidrel and Siraath beyond the veil and restoring his world’s former reality at a terrible cost. The power consumes him, and Ruin dies.

His sacrifice unites humanity and ends the war. As Kedesh mourns Ruin’s death and the loss of her Eidrel allies, she learns that Ruin’s father’s soldiers reincarnated his mother and sister. They live again, but without their souls.

Kedesh returns with them to Ruin’s family cabin in the mountains, where grief and healing slowly take root. One morning, she sees a lone figure approaching from the hills. Ruin has returned. Eldras has sent him back, not as a weapon, but as something Eden now needs more. A leader.

In a final revelation, the voice from the void is revealed as the Storyteller, a celestial being who records the histories of all worlds. She reveals that Kedesh’s destiny is greater than anyone imagined. Kedesh is the Last Soulurgist, capable of transporting souls between realms and creating new ones. Her power may be the key to restoring Eden’s lost souls.

The book itself, The Boy with the Last Soul, is revealed to be written by the Storyteller. In the final scene, she begins a new chronicle.

Ruin and the Last Soulurgist.