Valric’s breath came in ragged bursts. The storm of power he’d unleashed still swirled around him, laced with dark lightning and remnants of the Rift. The earth itself groaned under his feet, veins of molten magic pulsing beneath the stone.Brown stood just beyond the circle of destruction—burned, bruised, but unshaken.“I don’t want your pity,” Valric said, his voice low now, almost childlike under the fury. “Or your forgiveness. I want to stop hurting.”Brown’s eyes glistened. “Then let me stand beside you.”“You don’t understand—!” Valric’s voice cracked as another surge of unstable energy flared from his body. “Every breath I take feels like it doesn't belong to me! My skin, my blood—this power—it screams!”He clutched his chest, falling to one knee as the shadows around him spasmed and flared.“I didn’t ask to become this monster,” he hissed. “But they made me one. You left me, and they turned me into this!”Brown dropped his sword.The clatter echoed like a death knell.Then, wi

“Dad…” Valric whispered.Behind them, Kael cried out—thrown backward by a jagged chain.The crowned one was closing in.Brown’s grip tightened on his sword, but before he could move, Valric sat up slowly—blood dripping from his nose, but his aura beginning to burn once more.“No one takes me,” he growled. “Not anymore.”Then—he stood.And the Riftlight returned. But this time… it obeyed him.His voice rang out, stronger now. “I am Valric, son of Brown. Not a weapon. Not a curse. And you will not take me.”The crowned one halted mid-step, sensing the shift.Valric raised a hand—and for the first time, the Bastion obeyed without rage. Pure, controlled energy spiraled around him, golden mixed with violet, forming sigils in the air.Clara whispered, astonished, “He’s choosing his own power…”Brown smiled, eyes wet with pride. “That’s my boy.”Valric stepped forward, flames rising behind him. “This ends now.”Valric took another step forward, eyes locked on the crowned one. The once chaoti

One Week Later – The Concord CitadelThe skies above the Citadel were no longer bruised and red. For the first time in years, sunlight bathed the high towers and scorched plains below. Refugees from the outer provinces had begun to return, and the Concord’s banners—once blackened in mourning—fluttered gold again.But the peace was uneasy. What they had destroyed was not merely a weapon. It was a god-shaped wound in the world. And what emerged from its heart… was still a question without an answer.In the council chamber, murmurs fell silent as Brown entered, followed closely by Valric and Clara.“Is this wise?” Clara whispered.Brown gave a dry smile. “Nothing about this has ever been wise.”Valric stood taller now. The scars on his skin still pulsed faintly with silver light—echoes of the Hollow Star’s core now embedded in his soul. He could feel time stretching differently around him, like he existed half a breath out of sync with the world.Councilor Derren rose, frowning. “General

“Then maybe…” he said, walking slowly toward them, “…maybe not everything was lost.”He placed a frost-touched hand over Valric’s heart.“Then I will follow you again, Brother. Until the end.”In the Mirror Tower, the violet-eyed woman watched the scene unfold in ripples of glass.She was not smiling now.“So… the first has returned,” she whispered. “And his frost bends toward the flame.”She turned to a cloaked figure in the shadows behind her.“Send the Hollowborn. I want the next fragment dead before they reach her.”The sky above the ruins of Myrneth was a bruised shade of violet. Thunder rolled behind the clouds, as if the heavens themselves were holding their breath, awaiting the inevitable clash between father and son.Valric hovered once more, his eyes glowing with a silvery-white light. Around him, Rift energy swirled into a ring of runes, turning slowly like the clockwork of death."You said you came as a father," he said coldly, "ye

The Rift pulsed like a heartbeat behind Valric, violet tendrils spiraling into the skies above. The power he held—raw, ancient, and hungry—began to crackle with instability around his skin. His breathing was shallow now, chest rising and falling like a man drowning in two oceans at once.The Whisper King stood calmly, as if he already knew how this would end.“You’ve already chosen,” the dark figure whispered in Valric’s ear, his words like poison wrapped in silk. “They didn’t come for you. I did. They feared what you were becoming. But I… I crowned you in it."Valric’s gaze faltered. His fingers twitched again. “I didn’t want a crown,” he muttered. “I wanted a father.” “And he gave you silence,” the Whisper King sneered.But Brown’s voice cut through like thunder. “He gave you lies.”Valric snapped his eyes back to his father.“What?”“You think I didn’t try to reach you?” Brown’s voice was trembling with fury and grief. “The Kingdom brand