All Chapters of THE HIDDEN FLAME OF LUTHERCHRIS: Chapter 21
- Chapter 30
45 chapters
Chapter 21 — The Shadowborn Rising
The wind faded behind them, and silence took over.Collins landed hard on uneven ground — damp soil that pulsed faintly like a heartbeat. Around him stretched an endless forest, the trees blackened and twisted, their roots crawling across the surface like veins. The air was thick with dust and whispers that had no source.Lyra steadied herself beside him, gripping her staff. “This… isn’t how the Earth Realm is supposed to look.”Collins crouched, brushing his fingers against the soil. The moment his skin touched it, a faint tremor ran through the ground — as though something alive beneath had sensed him.“It’s corrupted,” he murmured. “The Leviathan was right. The shadow’s already spread this far.”A faint laugh rippled through the forest.Soft at first. Then louder. Then hundreds of voices laughing together.Lyra raised her hand, and her staff glowed faintly. “We’re not alone.”Figures began to emerge between the trees — shadowy silhouettes with glowing red eyes. Some moved like beas
Chapter 22 — The Garden Beneath the Stone
Silence.When Collins opened his eyes, everything was still. No storm. No shaking earth. Only a soft green glow above him, like sunlight seen through deep water.He lay on a bed of moss so vibrant it seemed to breathe. Vines stretched across the ceiling, dripping faint drops of light that fell onto pools of crystal water. Flowers grew from the air itself, their petals transparent as glass.It was beautiful.Too beautiful.Lyra was gone.“Lyra?” he called softly. His voice echoed, hollow and distant.He stood up, clutching his chest. The mark of the Fifth Flame burned faintly through his shirt, but not painfully — it pulsed like a heartbeat.Then he saw it.At the center of the glowing garden floated the Crystal Heart of Terra, spinning slowly in the air. Golden roots wrapped around it, pulsing with energy. Beneath it, carved into the earth, was a single stone tablet — and engraved upon it… Lyra’s name.Collins froze. His throat tightened. “No…”He ran toward it, dropping to his knees
Chapter 23 — Echoes of the Shadowborn
The world had changed.When Collins emerged from the heart of the Earth Realm, the air above was no longer bright or peaceful. The sky hung low and gray, veined with streaks of black light that pulsed like living veins across the clouds. The wind smelled of ash.He stumbled forward, dirt and moss clinging to his cloak. The mark of the Fifth Flame on his chest glowed faintly beneath the fabric, pulsing with a slow, heavy rhythm — like the heartbeat of something ancient buried beneath his skin.He looked around. The once-green valley outside the Zephyr Range was now dead — the grass brittle, the trees colorless. He had been gone only a few days in the Earth Realm, but it looked like years had passed in the mortal world.“Lyra…” he whispered. His voice cracked. “Please tell me it wasn’t for nothing.”The wind carried no answer. Only silence — the kind that settles after loss.Then — footsteps.Collins spun around, flame flickering across his palm. A figure approached through the drifting
Chapter 24 — The March of Shadows
The wind was no longer gentle.It screamed through the wastelands like something alive, carrying the faint echo of drums. Not the drums of war — slower, deeper… the rhythm of summoning.Collins walked forward, the flame in his palm his only light. His boots sank into the scorched ground, each step stirring the ashes of what once was. Behind him, the ruins of the village burned low, glowing faintly like dying stars.Ahead, the mist thickened. The silhouettes within it grew clearer — tall, cloaked figures marching in perfect silence. Their eyes were empty hollows, glowing faint blue, and the sound of their steps was not on earth but somewhere beneath it.Collins stopped. “Shadowborn…” he whispered.One of them broke formation and stepped forward. Its hood fell slightly, revealing a face that wasn’t flesh — it was carved from glass, and inside it, faint light swirled like trapped souls.Then it spoke, voice echoing like two tones blended:> “Flameborn. You carry what should never have aw
Chapter 25 — The Blood of Two Flames
The silence that followed the Keeper’s words was suffocating.Collins stood motionless, the wind dying around him, his body trembling as though the air itself refused to touch him. The night’s fire had dimmed; the ground still hissed from where molten veins once flowed.The Keeper’s cloak rippled without breeze, darkness clinging to him like a living thing.> “You carry two bloodlines, Collins Lutherchris,” he said, voice deep as thunder. “One born of mortal flame… and the other, born of the void that hungers for light.”Collins’s voice cracked. “That’s not true. My father—he was human. I saw him bleed, I saw him cry!”“Did you?” the Keeper asked quietly. “Or did you only see what he wanted you to believe?”The words dug deep, cutting through the anger and touching something colder—doubt.Collins clenched his fists, trying to summon his power again, but the flame refused to appear. Only a faint glow pulsed at the mark on his chest, fading weaker with each beat of his heart.> “What di
Chapter 26 — Echoes of the Forgotten Flame
The mountains loomed like a wall of ghosts.Each peak was veiled in silver mist, glimmering faintly beneath the twin moons that hung broken in the sky. The second moon — cracked in half and bleeding faint light — pulsed ominously, as if echoing the Keeper’s warning.Collins trudged through the rocky path alone, the cold biting into his skin. His cloak, torn and dusted with ash, fluttered in the cutting wind. The mark on his chest had dimmed, but every few minutes, it would flare weakly — a pulse of warmth in the emptiness.> “Every flame needs fuel,” he muttered bitterly, repeating the Keeper’s words. “He’s wrong. I’ll find another way.”The wind howled in response, carrying faint whispers that didn’t belong to it. Voices — distant, shifting, fading — like the ghosts of a forgotten choir.He froze.The sound wasn’t coming from around him… it was coming through him.The Fifth Flame stirred, faintly humming in his core. The whispers grew clearer:> “The path of fire leads to ruin…”“The
Chapter 27 — The Temple of Balance
The blizzard raged behind him as Collins descended from the shattered peaks.Each breath he took burned with frost, every heartbeat echoing with the memory of the Guardian’s final roar. The Fifth Flame inside his chest pulsed weakly, flickering like a candle on the verge of dying.Snow and ash fell together — white and gray — mingling like fire and shadow.He reached the edge of a frozen valley where the storm suddenly broke, revealing a stretch of still air. In the distance, faint golden light shimmered through the mist, forming what looked like ancient pillars buried beneath the ice.The Guardian’s voice echoed faintly in his mind:> “Follow the song of your mother’s flame…”He closed his eyes and listened. For a moment, he heard nothing but the whisper of the wind. Then — faintly — the hum of that same gentle melody he’d heard before. The one that sounded like her voice.He began walking toward the light.The ice cracked beneath his boots, but he didn’t stop. With every step, the s
Chapter 28 — Trial of the Flame
The moment Collins stepped through the golden door, the air changed.The heat hit him first — not the harsh burn of destruction, but something deeper, heavier, alive.He stood inside a circular chamber built entirely from glowing obsidian, streaked with veins of molten light that pulsed like veins of a living creature.Above him, no ceiling — only a sky of swirling fire.Below, a floor of cracked glass that reflected every flicker of his fear.A voice echoed, deep and ancient:> “Flameborn… the Trial of Fire begins.”Collins turned, his eyes darting across the chamber. “Who’s there?”No one answered. Only the flames moved — shifting, whispering. Then, slowly, they began to take shape.From the walls, figures emerged — fiery silhouettes, each carrying the same face.His own.Dozens of versions of Collins surrounded him, each one burning brighter, each one wearing a different expression — rage, sorrow, pride, doubt.> “What is this?” he whispered.The air crackled with the voice again.
Chapter 29 — Echoes of the Reflection
The staircase spiraled downward into darkness.Each step Collins took felt heavier, as though the shadows themselves were clinging to him. The air grew colder. The scent of smoke and metal faded, replaced by something faint — salt water and old stone.He tightened his grip on the edge of the wall. “The path of reflection,” he murmured. “Let’s see what kind of truth you’re hiding.”At the base of the stairs, the air shimmered — and the world opened into a vast, moonlit cavern.The ground was smooth as glass, perfectly reflecting the ceiling above, where thousands of silver lights flickered like distant stars.In the center of the cavern stood a lake — so still, it looked like a mirror.Collins stepped closer, his reflection rippling across the surface. His heart thudded as a faint whisper echoed across the water:> “Welcome, bearer of the Fifth Flame…”The voice was not unfamiliar. It carried warmth and sorrow — a tone he hadn’t heard since childhood.He froze. “No,” he breathed. “It c
Chapter 30 — The Abyss of Ashes
Collins fell for what felt like hours.Wind roared in his ears, fragments of light rushing past like shards of broken stars. When he finally hit the ground, he landed hard on blackened soil — warm, cracked, and dry as bone.The world around him was silent.He stood slowly, his knees trembling, eyes scanning the wasteland that stretched endlessly beneath a sky of swirling gray clouds.Mountains of ash rose in the distance, and rivers of faint red light ran through the cracks of the earth like bleeding veins.> “Where… am I?”His voice came out hoarse.A soft whisper rolled through the barren air — not words, just a sound.A low hum, deep and mournful, like the breath of something ancient sleeping beneath the ground.Collins’s flame flickered to life in his hand, casting a dim orange glow around him. The shadows seemed to recoil from the light — then creep closer again when it faded.Each step he took echoed too loudly. The air felt heavy, pressing down on his lungs like smoke.> “This