The world was gone. No stone. No sky. No void. Only fire and storm.The explosion ripped everything into blinding light, searing across Adrian’s skin as if his body itself had been turned to ash. He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t see. Couldn’t hear.Only the endless roar of lightning and flame screaming as one. Emily’s voice barely reached him, thin and trembling through the inferno. “Adrian hold on”He clutched her hand blindly, refusing to let go, even as the storm consumed them both.The black sun cracked. Veins of golden fire spiderwebbed across its surface, lightning tearing through each fracture like veins of molten rivers.The chains that bound it shrieked and snapped, their links unraveling into streams of black ash.From within the fractures, something writhed. A massive shape pressed against the cracks, its body a silhouette of bone and shadow, trying to claw its way free.The voice of the Old Darkness reverberated, fractured and furious. “You dare tear the eternal”The halo buc

The clash ripped eternity apart. Spear against spear, lightning against abyss, will against will.Adrian’s roar was swallowed by the crack of thunder that split the Mirror Realm, the storm in his veins exploding outward.The Heir’s spear drank the storm, devouring every bolt in black fire, feeding it back in a spiral of annihilation.The realm buckled. Mirrors shattered in unison, shards raining down like meteors, each one reflecting the two of them locked together two storms tearing reality down the middle.Emily’s ember pulsed in the distance, a faint gold flame against endless shadow. Her warmth brushed Adrian’s skin even as blood poured down his arms, every muscle tearing under the strain.The Heir leaned closer, their faces inches apart, same eyes, same jawline, same fire except one burned with hunger, the other with defiance.“You’ve fought chains,” the Heir hissed, voice echoing across a thousand shards. “You’ve fought weakness. But you cannot fight me. I am your truth. Every f

Darkness swallowed him whole. Adrian plummeted through an abyss with no ground, no ceiling, no horizon.His storm flickered against it, weak arcs of lightning ripping across endless night. The sound of his own heartbeat thundered in his ears, too loud, too frantic.Every breath tasted of ash. “Emily!” His voice cracked, tearing out of his throat like glass. “Emily!”No answer. Instead whispers. They bled from the shadows like veins, creeping along the air, curling against his skin. His own voice, warped, multiplied.“You failed her.” “You chained her.” “You dragged her into the storm.”He gritted his teeth. “Shut up.”The whispers hissed louder. “She will burn away because of you.”The void shifted. Out of the darkness, tendrils emerged veins of black fire, thick as serpents. They pulsed, glowing faintly with crimson light.One lashed around his ankle. Adrian snarled, storm flaring, lightning ripping it apart. The vein recoiled, screeching like a living thing.But more came. Dozens. H

There was no falling. One moment, Adrian’s ribs were shredded by chain, Emily’s body pierced alongside his. The next, the world inverted.Darkness wasn’t around them. It was inside them.The chains dragged them not through space, but through themselves pulling their souls inside-out, blood and essence unraveling like threads through an unseen loom.Their screams echoed in silence, devoured as soon as they left their throats. Adrian’s lightning stuttered, arcs collapsing into sparks. Emily’s flame guttered, trembling like a candle about to die.But the chains blazed stronger with each drop of their light. The Heir’s laughter bled into every nerve. “Yes. Yes. Burn for me. The brighter your fire, the deeper you sink into my crown.”Adrian’s vision fractured, shards of memory flashing past his eyes, his mother’s voice, the storm cresting on his first awakening, the moment Emily’s hand closed over his. All of them cracked like glass.No.He forced his hand to tighten around the chain impal

Adrian couldn’t breathe. The world was gone no stone, no sky, no air. Only chains.They coiled around his arms, legs, chest, throat, sinking into his skin like living brands. He tried to summon lightning, but sparks fizzled and died the moment they touched the iron. The chains drank it, swallowed it, left him empty.Emily’s golden flame flickered faintly beside him. She fought wildly, slashing at the chains with fire that sputtered like a candle in a storm. Every strike burned a link to ash, but ten more took its place.Her cry tore through the suffocating dark. “Adrian!”He strained against the weight, muscles tearing, blood streaming down his arms. The chains wrapped tighter, cracking his ribs, forcing the air from his lungs.“Emily!” His voice was raw, choked. “Stay with me, don’t let them”The words cut off as another coil wound around his throat. From every chain, the Heir’s voice seeped like venom.“Do you feel it? The cage you shattered now binds you. Every link is forged from