The forest thinned as Tharos and Lyra pushed north, the trees gradually giving way to jagged cliffs that clawed at the sky. Wind howled between stone pillars like an ancient beast in pain, carrying with it the metallic scent of ash.The world felt wrong.Too still.Too heavy.Tharos could sense it, something was watching them, far beyond human eyes.The Ember Peaks loomed ahead, massive, violent. Their summits glowed faintly red even at night, as if magma pulsed beneath the rock like blood in a vein.Lyra slowed, her breath forming small clouds in the freezing air.“This place feels… hostile.”Tharos scanned the cliffs. “It should. We’re getting close.”“To what?”He didn’t answer, not yet.Because the truth gnawed at him, with every step toward the mountains, that dormant power inside him twisted tighter, like a beast pacing its cage.Lyra noticed his silence but didn’t push.They climbed a narrow pathway carved into the cliffside. Stones shifted beneath their boots. Far below, darkn

The Ember Peaks rose from the earth like broken teeth.Jagged mountains split the horizon, their tips glowing faint red even under the gray sky. Smoke leaked from cracks in the stone, slow and steady, like the land itself was breathing heat. The air burned the lungs with every breath.Lyra stopped at the edge of the ridge, boots scraping against black rock.“Yeah,” she muttered. “This place hates visitors.”Tharos stood beside her, eyes fixed on the peaks. The moment he set foot on the scorched ground, something inside him stirred. Not rage. Not pain.Recognition.His pulse matched the deep rumble under the stone. The heat didn’t bother him. If anything, it felt familiar.Too familiar.“This is where it happened,” he said quietly.Lyra glanced at him. “What happened?”He didn’t answer right away. His jaw tightened.“I don’t know yet,” he said. “But my blood remembers.”They moved forward.Each step into the Ember Peaks felt heavier, like the land itself was testing them. Ash drifted i

The road north was dead.No birds.No insects.Not even the wind dared to stay long.Tharos felt it in his bones before he saw it, the land ahead was scorched, old burn marks cracking the soil like scars that never healed. This wasn’t fresh destruction. This was the kind of damage left by gods who didn’t care what they stepped on.Lyra slowed her pace beside him, boots crunching against blackened gravel. “We’re close,” she said quietly.Tharos nodded. His head still throbbed, a dull pressure behind his eyes that never fully went away anymore. Every time he closed them, flashes tried to claw their way in, firestorms, screaming armies, a blade sinking into divine flesh.He kept walking.The Ember Peaks rose ahead like broken teeth against the sky. Jagged mountains split by rivers of glowing magma, heat waves warping the air above them. Smoke curled from deep within the stone, drifting upward like the land itself was breathing.Something inside Tharos stirred.Not memory.Instinct.His b

Tharos did not sleep.His body lay still by the fire, eyes closed, breath steady enough to fool anyone watching, but inside his mind, the world was burning.He stood alone in a vast, empty plain of black glass. The sky above was split with fractures of gold light, like a shattered mirror barely holding together. Every step he took sent cracks racing outward beneath his feet.This place felt familiar.Too familiar.“You’re here earlier than expected,” a voice said.Tharos turned.A figure stood several paces away, tall, cloaked in flickering flame and shadow. Its face was blurred, shifting constantly, as if reality couldn’t decide what it should look like.“I didn’t come here willingly,” Tharos said.The figure chuckled. “None of us ever do.”Tharos flexed his right hand.The gauntlet was gone.In its place was his bare arm, scarred, glowing faintly from within, veins traced with dull gold.“What did you take from me?” Tharos demanded.The figure tilted its head. “You already know.”Th

The gods moved that same night.Tharos felt it before he saw it.The Ember Peaks were quiet behind them now, fading into jagged silhouettes against a bruised sky. Ash drifted on the wind like dying embers. Lyra walked a step ahead, scanning the terrain, alert but limping slightly from the strain Varik’s magic had left behind.Then Tharos’s spine went rigid.He stopped walking.Lyra turned instantly. “What is it?”“They’ve found me.”The air changed.Not wind. Not pressure.Judgment.The sky darkened unnaturally, clouds rolling in fast, thick, swirling in a perfect circular formation. Lightning flashed, not white or blue, but pale gold, branching like cracks in glass.Lyra swore under her breath. “That’s not a storm.”“No,” Tharos said quietly. “That’s a summons.”The first spear hit the ground less than ten paces from them.It slammed into the earth with enough force to crater stone, divine sigils igniting across its shaft. A second followed. Then a third.They weren’t aimed to kill.