All Chapters of Bones of the Betrayed: Rise of the Last Bonekeeper: Chapter 41
- Chapter 50
112 chapters
CHAPTER 40 — “THE DOOR THAT REMEMBERS BLOOD”
The deeper they moved through the ascent tunnels, the more the air shifted growing warmer, humming with faint vibrations that prickled along the skin.The stone changed, too. Bone gave way to marble-like channels, veins of gold threading the walls. Seren whispered, “We’re getting close to the palace underside… I can feel it. It’s different here.”Caedia nodded. “You feel correctly. This is the forgotten foundation of the capital the place where the first Bonekeepers built the ritual banks.”Elias touched the wall. “What’s a ritual bank?”Caedia paused, turning her blind eyes toward him. “A place where resonance is stored. Where energy from living and dead was once channeled. Before the Alchemists twisted everything.”Sylare, leaning weakly on the wall, swallowed. “They used that place to take Lyra. I… I heard them talking about it.”Elias’s jaw tightened. “They moved her deeper into these structures?”“Yes,” Sylare whispered. “Toward something they called the Remembering Door.”Seren’
CHAPTER 41 — “THE CHAMBER OF FORGOTTEN KINGS”
The spiral passage narrowed the deeper they went, until Elias felt the walls pressing inward like a throat swallowing them. Drifting dust shimmered in pale lines, glowing faintly with residual resonance from long-dead Bonekeepers.Seren whispered behind him, “This place feels… wrong.”Caedia’s blind eyes lifted slightly. “Because it is. No living Bonekeeper ever returned from this descent.”Sylare squeaked. “Then why are we going this way?”“Because,” Caedia answered calmly, “it is the only path that takes us beneath the palace. The Alchemists sealed every other route.”Elias kept moving. He couldn’t stop thinking about Lyra dragged through the palace, screaming his name, taken because she refused to betray him.The thought alone sent a pulse of echo-light flickering through his veins. Seren noticed immediately. “Elias… your bones are glowing again.”“I know,” he muttered.“Then breathe,” she whispered, touching his arm lightly. “You promised not to burn yourself alive.”Caedia added,
CHAPTER 42 — “THE THRESHOLD OF ASHEN GATES”
The tunnel ahead blazed with faint gold sigils, each one pulsing in time with the deep, rhythmic hum of the palace heart beating somewhere above them. Elias felt it in his bones heavy, oppressive, familiar.Seren clutched his arm as the air thickened with pressure. “Elias… this place feels wrong.”“It’s meant to,” Caedia replied, stepping past a jagged pillar of fused bone. “These are the Ashen Gates. The Alchemists forged them centuries ago as a barrier between the undercorridors and the palace.”Her blind eyes narrowed. “Once we cross this threshold, they will sense us.” Sylare trembled as she leaned on the wall. “They already do.”Elias’s bones vibrated sharp, relentless. “She’s right. Something is watching.”Seren’s heartbeat quickened, her hand tightening around Elias’s. “Is it the Bonehunters?”“No,” Caedia whispered. “Worse.”A crackle of blue light danced across the sigils. The temperature dropped instantly. Seren gasped as her breath misted. “Elias… what’s happening?”He step
CHAPTER 43 — “THE THRUM OF BROKEN TRUTHS”
The chamber at the base of the Resonance Tower pulsed with a faint, wounded glow, as if the runes themselves were trying to breathe through cracks in their own design.Elias stared at the torn sigils along the walls, heart hammering. Seren whispered, “This place looks… wrong. Like something hollowed it out.”Caedia stepped past them, fingers brushing a shattered rune line. Her expression tightened. “This wasn’t broken naturally.”Elias frowned. “The Alchemists?”“No.” Caedia’s voice dropped. “Something older. Something angry.”A thin tremor rolled through the floor, vibrating up Elias’s legs like a heartbeat out of rhythm. Seren grabbed his sleeve. “Elias… that wasn’t the tower, was it?”Before he could answer, another pulse struck stronger this time, almost a shove. Elias exhaled sharply. “No. That felt like an Echo. A big one.”Sylare, still weak but standing with the help of a bone-carved staff Seren found for her, whispered, “What could make the tower shake like that?”Caedia glan
CHAPTER 44 — “THE DOOR THAT BREATHES”
The undercorridor trembled long after the echo pulse faded. Dust drifted from the arched ceiling in soft clouds, settling on Elias’s shoulders as he forced himself upright again.Seren steadied him instantly. “Careful. You pushed too hard.” Elias wiped sweat from his brow. “I had to. That Hunter would’ve sliced you in half.”Seren huffed. “A simple thank you would work fine, you know.” Elias managed a weak smile. “Thank you.”She blinked. “…Don’t say it like you’re dying.”Caedia approached, cane tapping lightly against the floor. “Your Echo overload is stabilizing. Keep breathing. Slowly.”Elias obeyed, pulling in long breaths until the light under his skin dimmed from white-hot to a faint pulse. Behind them, Sylare hugged her cloak tightly, fear still etched across her pale face.Seren looked back at her. “You holding up?”Sylare nodded shakily. “I heard something before the Hunter attacked. A voice. Deep. Like… chanting.”Caedia’s eyes widened faintly. “Chanting means we are close.
CHAPTER 45 — “THE BONE CIRCLE”
The torchlight flickered against the rib-carved chamber walls, making long, skeletal shadows dance across the floor. Elias stood in the center of the chamber breathing hard, body trembling staring at the sigil carved on the ground.It wasn’t just a symbol. It pulsed. As if alive. Seren touched his shoulder gently. “Elias… are you sure we should be here?”“No,” he whispered, “but we don’t have a choice.”Caedia’s staff tapped the floor three times, echoing sharply. “This is the oldest Bonekeeper sanctum in the lower tunnels. If Lyra left any trace, any message, any plea… it would be here.”Seren glanced at the sigil’s glowing marrow-lines. “It feels like it’s watching us.”“It is,” Caedia replied calmly. Seren flinched. “Why would you say it like that?!”Elias stepped forward, heart pounding as the sigil brightened at his presence. The glow responded to him. Only him. Seren whispered, “It’s reacting to your Echo.”Elias didn’t move. “Or calling to it.” Caedia turned her head toward the
CHAPTER 46 — “THE KING’S SHADOWS”
The palace undercorridor opened into a soaring hall carved entirely from white bone smooth, polished, unnervingly pristine. Runes glowed faintly across the ceiling like constellations frozen in time.Everything was silent. Too silent. Seren stepped closer to Elias, her voice barely a whisper. “I… don’t like it here.”Caedia lifted her head, listening. “You shouldn’t. This is the King’s private ingress. No one uses it except his personal guard.”Sylare shivered, pulling the cloak tighter around herself. “But why is it empty? Why leave this place unguarded?”Elias walked forward cautiously, the bone-song humming low in his chest. “Because it’s not unguarded.”Seren blinked. “What do you mean?”Elias stopped walking. He pointed upward. High above them, perched in the rib-like arches of the ceiling, dozens of bone masks stared down some human-shaped, some elongated like beasts.Hollow eye sockets glowed faintly. Caedia’s face hardened. “The King’s Shadows.” Seren paled instantly. “Those a
CHAPTER 47— “THE MARROW THAT REMEMBERS”
The underground shrine trembled with the force of the last blast Elias released. Dust drifted from the carved bone ceiling in pale clouds as the echo of the resonance finally faded.Seren coughed and waved her hand. “Elias you almost brought the entire chamber down on our heads!”Elias leaned against a pillar, chest heaving, sweat sliding down his temples. His bones still flickered with faint white light beneath his skin like dying stars.“I had to break the seal,” he said between breaths. “It wouldn’t open any other way.”Caedia’s blind eyes glowed faintly as she traced her hand over the newly exposed runes. “You didn’t break the seal, Elias. You woke it.”Seren frowned. “Is that good or bad?”Caedia answered quietly. “That depends… on what wakes up with it.”Elias straightened. “You said this shrine belongs to the First Bonekeeper. If there’s something here that can help us get through the northern tunnels faster, we need it.”“We do,” Caedia agreed. “But awakening relics of the Fir
CHAPTER 48 — “THE ECHO THAT ANSWERS”
The moment Elias opened his eyes, the world felt heavier. Not darker. Not colder. Just… heavier. As if every breath pressed against him like stone.Seren was the first to notice. She rushed to his side, hands hovering just above his shoulders. “Elias hey look at me. Are you awake?”Elias blinked, vision sharpening. “Yeah. I’m… here.”Caedia exhaled in relief, leaning against her bone staff. “Good. Because whatever stirred the tunnels last night is still out there.”Seren frowned. “You heard it again?”Caedia nodded grimly. “Louder. Closer.” Elias pushed himself upright, ignoring the dizziness. “What was it?”Caedia hesitated never a good sign. “A resonance I have not felt in years. One that should not exist anymore.”Seren gasped. “Please tell me it’s not another Wraith.”“No,” Caedia answered. “Worse.”Elias stiffened. “Worse than a Bone-Wraith?”“Yes,” Caedia whispered. “A Revenant-Lord.”Seren stared. “A what?”“A creature born when a Bonekeeper master dies while performing a forbi
CHAPTER 49 — “THE SOUND OF BETRAYAL”
The underground passage shuddered as if trying to breathe. Dust drifted from the carved ribbed ceiling; the bone-lined walls trembled with deep, pulsing resonance.Seren pressed close to Elias, eyes wide. “Elias… something’s wrong with the tunnel.”Caedia steadied herself on her staff. “It’s not the tunnel. It’s the palace above us. The resonance field protecting the royal foundation… it’s collapsing.”Sylare still weak, but walking stumbled. “The Alchemists… they must be forcing another surge.”Elias felt the vibration deep in his spine. “They’re preparing the ritual.” Seren grabbed his arm. “Then Lyra.”“I know.” His voice cracked with urgency. “We’re running out of time.”Before anyone could respond, a thunderous boom echoed above them. Stones cracked. The ceiling flaked, raining shards of bone-dust.Seren yelped. Elias instinctively pulled her into his arms and shielded her body. The collapse stopped as suddenly as it started.Caedia tilted her head, listening. “The palace guard j