Vex stood a few feet away, blade in hand, eyes scanning the cracked steel beams overhead. “We don’t have long,” he said. “The Gate’s pulse is unstable. If it collapses now, it could take the entire sector with it.”Lukas’s gaze drifted to the floor. Obsidian shards glinted like cold eyes. “William…” he muttered. “He’s… not done with me yet.”“He never is,” Vex said, voice low. “But you’ve got to decide what’s more important: him, Andrew, or the Dagger itself.”Lukas clenched his teeth. The Obsidian Dagger was heavy in his palm, buzzing faintly, demanding allegiance. His eyes swept over the chamber. Jerome was gone — escaped — but his warning still hung in Lukas’s mind. Andrew is different now… Andrew has been to the Gate.William’s voice slithered through the shadows, low and amused. “Ah, hesitation. The first taste of weakness. Tell me, Lukas — what will you sacrifice? Another dozen lives? Or your own sanity?”Lukas didn’t answer. His mind replayed the misty glimpses of Andrew: seren

The silence in the war chamber stretched so long it became unbearable. Only the flickering of the torches broke through the suffocating stillness. Maps were scattered across the oak table, marked with blood-red ink. Arrows pointed to enemy strongholds, but none of the commanders dared to move their pieces.“You’re all staring as if the maps will move themselves,” General Kael said, his voice sharp. He slammed his fist against the table, making the goblets of wine tremble. “We cannot sit idle any longer. The enemy knows where we are.”Elara, the youngest strategist in the room, raised her eyes. “And if we attack blindly, General, we march straight into their trap. You saw what happened at Drelith Pass. Thousands slaughtered because no one questioned the obvious path.”“Drelith Pass was betrayal,” Kael spat, glaring at her. “And I will find the one who whispered our plans to the enemy.” His eyes swept across the chamber deliberately, pausing just long enough on each face to stir unease.

The clash between Elias and the Shadowlord split the night apart. Their blades and magic tore the air like thunder, sparks spraying across the courtyard as if the heavens themselves were bleeding fire. Every strike Elias made pushed the Shadowlord back a step, but every counterstrike nearly shattered Elias’s bones.Marcus and Helena struggled to regain their footing, each dragging themselves upright amid the chaos. Soldiers clashed around them, steel against steel, but even the fiercest of warriors paused at intervals to glance toward the duel that seemed to decide the fate of the fortress.Helena’s lips were bloodied, but her voice was steady. “We cannot just watch. If Elias falls, all is lost.”Marcus shook his head, sword trembling in his grip. “We’re no match for that monster. Look at him—he wields fire as if it were breath itself.”“Then we cut off his air,” Helena snapped. She raised her hand, summoning a shimmer of frost across her palm. With a flick, shards of ice spiraled int

The council chamber smelled of smoke and grief. The great oak table, once polished to a shine, was scarred with ash and bloodstains from the battle two nights past. Fewer chairs were filled now—so many had fallen during the siege, their voices gone forever. The surviving councilors sat hunched, their faces drawn, their whispers carrying like the hiss of dying embers.At the head of the table, Elias stood with his hands pressed flat against the wood. He had called this gathering at dawn, though he himself had not slept. The truth of his bloodline weighed heavier than the sword at his hip. He could feel every pair of eyes on him—accusing, questioning, or silently judging.Helena broke the silence first. Her voice was sharp, cutting through the murmur like a blade. “We cannot continue like this. Our walls are cracked, our numbers thin. And now we learn that the man we trusted has hidden the truth of who he is.”Gasps and murmurs rose again. One elder struck the table with his cane. “She

The road to Veylor was a scar through the land. Blackened trees leaned like broken spears, their branches clawing at the pale morning sky. The earth itself seemed sick, cracked with veins of ash where once rivers had flowed. As Elias, Helena, and Marcus rode deeper into the desolation, silence pressed around them—no birds, no wind, only the steady crunch of hooves on brittle soil.Helena broke the silence first. “This place feels cursed.” Her hand never strayed far from her sword. “How long has it lain abandoned?”Elias scanned the horizon. “Since the first age. The chronicles say Veylor was once a citadel of kings. But when the crown was forged, it swallowed its own makers. The city burned from within, and none dared rebuild.”Marcus spat into the dust. “And now we’re riding straight into its corpse. Wonderful.”Yet despite his grumbling, his eyes remained sharp, scanning every shadow.The ruins came into view by midday—a jagged sprawl of stone rising from the earth like a shattered