The tunnels stank of dust, blood, and dying magic as Terry pushed forward, rebels trailing behind him in a shivering line. No one spoke. No one even dared breathe too loudly. They had all seen what he’d done, what the sword had turned him into, even for those few seconds.His boots scraped over cracked stone. E.very step echoed like a threat.Behind his ribs, something gnawed.A slow, rhythmic hunger.Not Corvin’s voice. Not a whisper.Something deeper. Something awake.“Slow down,” whispered Jalen, one of the younger rebels. “You’re hurt”“I’m fine,” Terry answered.But even his voice sounded wrong, too low, too steady, too controlled.Mira would have noticed instantly.The thought tightened in his chest, painful and sharp. Mira wasn’t here. He still didn’t know if she was alive. And he couldn’t afford the luxury of stopping to find out.If he did, whatever roared inside him might break through.He kept walking.The corridor widened into a broken vault, the ceiling collapsed into jag

The deeper the group traveled through the winding tunnels, the more Terry felt the world narrowing around him. Every footstep echoed like a heartbeat, his heartbeat, too loud, too slow, too wrong. The rebels whispered behind him, but even those hushed breaths scraped against his senses like sandpaper.His pulse stuttered again. The violet light flickered beneath his eyelids. He clenched his jaw and kept walking.The tunnel eventually opened into a wider cavern lit by faint bioluminescent moss. Shadows clung to the stone like living things. Jalen moved up behind Terry, careful, cautious.“Terry… you’re shaking.”“I’m fine,” Terry muttered.It wasn’t true. The hunger inside him wasn’t dormant, not anymore. It pressed against his ribs like a heartbeat that didn’t belong to him, urging him to act, to release, to feed in a way he didn’t understand.You keep lying to them, Corvin whispered. But not to me.Terry ignored him and kept going.The rebels exchanged looks but followed without argu

The corridor beyond the chamber narrowed into a jagged spiral descending deeper beneath the Ember ruins. Dust and ash clung to their boots, kicked up by the rebels’ careful steps. Terry led the way, sword in hand, every sense tingling with the residual pulse of the Vessel core they had left behind.“Do you feel that?” Jalen whispered, voice low. “The floor… it’s vibrating.”Terry didn’t answer immediately. He pressed a palm against the wall, feeling the faint hum of energy flowing through the stone. Not just the ruins, he could feel it in himself. Every thread of power he had suppressed, every whisper of the hunger, was alive. Resonating with the Ember ruins.It recognizes you.“I know,” he said finally, voice calm but firm. “This place… it’s reacting to me.”A faint laugh echoed from deeper within the spiral, chilling in its casual menace. The rebels froze.“What was that?” one whispered.Terry’s gaze sharpened. “Not a who… a what.”The spiral ended abruptly, opening into a vast cham

The molten glow of the Ember ruins painted the chamber in fiery hues, shadows twisting like living things along jagged walls.Terry’s sword pulsed with violet light, threads of energy rippling through the air as the hum of the awakened core resonated in his bones. Every step he took seemed to command the ruins themselves.Jalen’s voice was tight. “Terry… this place… it’s reacting to you… like it knows you.”Terry didn’t reply immediately. He could feel it, the hum of energy, the living pulse of the Ember, the hunger lying coiled inside him like a spring. It’s not just a weapon. It’s alive. And it recognizes me.He stepped closer to the pedestal at the center of the chamber, molten veins flowing around it like a river of fire. Threads of Ember energy lifted from the ground, crawling up the walls, forming patterns that shimmered and shifted with his heartbeat.The shadowed armored figure from before emerged again, mask reflecting the molten light. “You’ve claimed the core. Very impressi

The corridors of the Ember ruins twisted like serpents, molten veins casting flickering shadows along jagged walls.Terry led the group forward, sword in hand, violet threads of energy trailing behind him like living fire. Every step was measured, every breath synchronized with the pulse of the ruins.“Are you sure about this?” Jalen asked, voice low. “The Circle… they’re not just one threat. They’ve had centuries to prepare for people like us.”Terry’s eyes glowed faintly. “I don’t need certainty. I need resolve. The Ember recognizes the truth of this path. And so do I.”Jalen swallowed hard, glancing at the molten veins winding beneath their feet. “It’s… alive, isn’t it?”Terry didn’t answer immediately. He felt it, Ember energy coiling, watching, anticipating. It was more than a weapon now. It was an extension of him. Part of him. A living, sentient force that had chosen to obey, not dominate.“Yes,” Terry said finally. “Alive. And it fights with me, not against me.”A sudden rumbl