"Boom, boom, crash, thud, crash..."Sarah winced, her eyes fixed on the television screen as she flipped through channels with the remote. "They're at it again, aren't they?""Seems that way," Damien replied, lounging on a plush leather couch, seemingly unfazed by the commotion.Crash, thud, thud, boom! The sounds grew louder, closer."Hey, cut it out, you two! I'm trying to repair the mess you made, and you're only making it worse!" Kael's voice boomed from outside.A brief silence hung in the air, broken by the sudden, forceful swing of the door. Valen, dusting off his hands, tossed Fenris unceremoniously onto the floor."You might as well give up trying to escape, Fenris. You've learned by now escaping Valen is futile," Sarah said, her attention still glued to the TV remote."Arghh! This is blatant cheating! You're practically a cheat code! How do you do that?" Fenris groaned, scrambling to his feet."I can smell your pathetic attempts to flee even from ten miles away. Try again wh

"I wished you'd just cease to exist." The woman's voice, ragged and raw, sliced through the air like a rusty blade. Her dark hair, matted and unkempt, clung to her face as she grabbed the little boy's hair, her fingers digging into his scalp, and flung him against the wall of their squalid home.He landed with a thud, his small body crumpling, but his face remained terrifyingly blank. He made no sound, only scraped his nails on the wooden floor as if searching for purchase in the world.She looked as tattered and unkept as her words, barely hanging on to life herself. Stepping forward, she kicked him hard on the head. "Could you just get out of our lives already?""Hey, hey..." A hulking man, clearly drunk, swayed into the room, a cigarette dangling from his lips and a pistol clutched in his hand. "If you really don't wanna see him forever, why don't you just kill him?""We've done that several times, remember," she retorted, covering her mouth as if to stifle a retch. "But he just ke

Palmer hoisted Valen onto his back and carried him out of the ruined vault. The sight that greeted them in the yard was chaos— everyone was on the ground, writhing in pain.."Neither of them was the real Valen," Kael gasped, clutching his abdomen."He had us checkmated before we could move a piece," Palmer replied, carefully setting Valen down. "He was thinking three steps ahead... aimed for the orb while avoiding unnecessary fights.""How did he know where to look immediately? That box has the entity's energy sealed; he couldn't have located it that easily," Max said."He must've gotten the orb's location from Damien's memory," Valen replied, already pushing himself up, his face set.Sarah, already pale with dread, gasped. "Doesn't that mean he knows where the Black Orb is as well?""No. If he really tampered with Damien's memory to get the location of the first one, then he won't know where the Black Orb is," Valen asserted, his voice firm and confident. "I hid that box myself. He s

Father Orion stood in the cathedral, facing the immaculate statue of the Hero. The sunlight, fractured by the stained-glass windows, cast vibrant, broken patterns across the cold concrete floor. He seemed lost in deep thought, an unsettling premonition hanging heavy in the air. The cathedral's bell began to toll, its deep, mournful clang vibrating through the very stone, a somber prelude to the disquiet Father Orion felt. It was as if the ancient building itself wept.Vasquez and Garghat were already seated at the table. Suddenly, the cathedral's massive door swung open with a loud creak, and measured footsteps approached. "Why have you summoned us on such short notice, your Grace?" Gorion's voice echoed through the cavernous space."I'm sorry for calling out to you all on such short notice. As you might already know, it is a dread emergency," Father Orion replied, his voice grave."Are you retiring your position as Grand Elder already? It's not that time of the year yet, is it?" Va

Elijah and Lilith sped through the dense forest at breakneck speed, their bodies blurring against the trees. But without warning, Elijah skidded to a halt. His eyes glowed bright with intensity the moment he felt a shockwave pass through him.He glanced sharply at Lilith."Did you feel that?"She slowed beside him, eyes narrowing. ""I'm pretty sure everyone on the planet did," she replied, her eyes wide. She then stared at Elijah intently. "Hey, your eyes... They're glowing..."He paused. "Yours too."Before they could make sense of it, a voice drifted in from thin air."That’s His energy—disrupting its concealment. Two of the orbs have made contact." A pale man stepped into view, skin like marble and neatly styled long dark hair swaying subtly with the wind. His aura was ancient — too ancient to ignore. "Seeing that you aren't aware of it means that was not what you were sent to do."Elijah’s expression darkened. "Marlon.""It’s Ancient Elder, to you," Marlon retorted, a superior sm