The hatch slammed shut behind Elias, the echo swallowed by the roar of rushing water below. Lucas exhaled once, slow and steady, then turned toward the tunnel. His wounded arm throbbed, blood running down to his fingertips, but he didn’t waver.The Riverborn were coming. Helena crouched near the hatch, weapon ready. “You’ll bleed out before they kill you.”Lucas smirked faintly, his eyes never leaving the darkness ahead. “Then I’ll make sure they drown in it.”The First WaveThe Riverborn burst into the chamber three figures in black armor, visors glowing with that cold, predatory light, They didn’t hesitate.Lucas moved first. His injured arm hung useless, but his other lashed out with terrifying precision. He wrenched the first soldier’s blade away and drove it into the man’s neck joint before he could even register the strike.The second fired point-blank. Lucas twisted, the bullet grazing his side instead of his chest and slammed the man into the wall so hard the visor shattered.

The lake rose like a living wall. Water obeyed no law here it climbed, twisted, curled in on itself, suspended in midair as though gravity were nothing but a rumor.Elias stumbled backward as tendrils of liquid silver reached toward him, wrapping around his arms, his legs, his chest. “No....no, I can’t”The river didn’t care It dragged him forward, back toward the heart of the lake.The Hooded Figure’s CommandThe robed figure raised its hand, and the entire cavern seemed to tremble. “Breathe,” the figure commanded.“I’ll drown!” Elias gasped, thrashing.“Breathe.”The water surged over his head, sealing him in a globe of shimmering current. Elias screamed, the sound lost in the flood. His lungs seized, panic clawing at him. He pounded at the water prison with his fists yet it didn’t break.Then something strange happened, The water moved into him Not filling his lungs, but becoming them. Elias gasped and instead of choking, he inhaled. The water flowed through him like air. Cold, sha

Elias awoke to the sound of dripping water. His body felt heavy, every limb weighed down as though the river itself still clung to him.He lay on the cavern floor stone cold against his cheek, and for a long moment he didn’t move afraid that if he did, the power would flare again and tear him apart.But the cavern was quiet The serpent was gone. The water was still Only the hooded figure remained, watching him from the shadows The River Inside“You live,” the figure said. The words were not relief, but fact. Elias pushed himself up on shaky arms, grimacing as his muscles screamed. Blue light still pulsed faintly in the veins of his wrists, fading slowly with each heartbeat.“What did you do to me?” Elias whispered, His voice cracked.“I did nothing The river chose, You are bound to it now its heir. It answers you, as it once answered your father.”At the mention, Elias’s chest tightened. “My father? You know him?”The figure tilted its head. “I know what he was And what he defied. The

The chamber was silent save for the echo of dripping water. Elias knelt at the center, his body trembling, his mind caught between lucidity and collapse. The sigils carved into the stone floor pulsed with a dull glow, their light weaving around him like veins of fire.Across from him, the old Keeper stood with his hands folded behind his back. His eyes were sharp, unblinking.“You’re holding on longer than most.” the Keeper said flatly. “But that means nothing, The Current does not care how long you endure. It cares only if you yield.”Elias’s lips cracked as he whispered, “I… won’t.”The Trial DeepensThe Keeper lifted a finger. The glow beneath Elias’s knees flared. Agony speared through him, His veins felt as though molten iron had been poured into them. His back arched, his teeth clenched so hard blood seeped from his gums.The Current tore at him,Images flooded his mind not memories, not dreams, but fragments of something vast. Storms collapsing cities. Men burning from within, A

The storm had passed, but the city of Grayridge had not forgotten. Streets were drowned in mud, windows shattered, towers scarred by lightning. Citizens moved like ghosts through the wreckage, repairing roofs, dragging carts, salvaging what they could.Yet beneath the clang of hammer and nail, there was a deeper noise rumor, carried faster than the wind that had nearly broken the city. A storm like that wasn’t natural. Everyone knew it. And everyone whispered the same question: who caused it?The Return to the House of GlassLucas stood at the shattered balcony of the House of Glass, his coat snapping in the wind. The once-glittering spires of the building were fractured, like mirrors smashed by a giant’s hand. The council’s symbol of power, reduced to cracked crystal and ash.Behind him, Edwin shuffled nervously, his spectacles fogged with soot. “The council is furious,” Edwin said. “They say this was no mere weather anomaly. They claim someone summoned it.”Lucas’s jaw tightened. “T