The cobblestones of the Capital weren't just shaking; they were drifting. Huge slabs of the lower city groaned as they were pulled toward the sky, caught in Malakor’s upward gravity well. I ignored the screaming citizens and the crumbling tenements, sprinting through the chaos with Elara’s limp weight pressing against my spine."The cavern, Jack! Down the service hatch! If we stay on the surface, we’re going to be part of the clouds!" Silas shrieked, his straw arms pointing toward a rusted iron grate in a narrow alleyway.I kicked the grate open, the metal snapping like dry wood under my Void-enhanced strength. I plummeted twenty feet into the darkness of our makeshift hideout, landing in a roll that protected the dying woman on my back."Korg! Get the lights!" I roared.A torch flickered to life. Korg and a handful of Unseen rebels stood over a stone slab in the center of the damp cavern. "Jack? You’re back? We thought the explosion—""Quiet!" I slammed the vial of Aether-Sap onto th

The air in the Deep Mines didn't just smell of sulfur; it tasted of despair and old iron. I descended the rusted lift, the cable groaning under the weight of my aura. Beside me, Elara stood rigid, her obsidian eyes scanning the gloom. The soul-bond thrummed between us, a low-frequency vibration that turned the surrounding rock into a sounding board for our shared anxiety."You’re sure they’re down here?" Elara’s voice echoed in my head, sharp as a glass shard."Malakor doesn't waste resources," I muttered aloud. "If you’re a Hollow, you’re either a battery or a mole. These people have been digging in the dark for a century."The lift hit the bottom with a bone-jarring thud. We stepped out into a cavern lit by sickly green glow-moss. Hundreds of men and women—gaunt, grey-skinned, and branded with the Siphon-Mark—labored in a rhythmic, soul-crushing silence. Overseers in gold-trimmed leather moved among them, carrying "Agony-Wands" that hummed with stored mana."Hey! You two! Back to th

The sky wasn't just grey anymore; it was a bruised, pulsating white. The "Pure Mana" surge from the imploded harvester had turned the valley into a slaughterhouse. Trees with obsidian claws lashed out at anything that breathed, and the wolves—now crystalline titans—were tearing through the village perimeter."Jack! To the left! The granary wall is buckling!" Bran’s roar was nearly drowned out by the screech of a mutated hawk circling above.I pivoted, the Calamity Blade carving a trench of silence through the shimmering air. "Bran, get the children into the cellar! Hollows, shields up! Don't let that white light touch your skin!""We can't hold them, Jack!" a woman screamed, her black-iron shovel snapping against the hide of a mana-beast. "They aren't dying! They’re just knitting back together!"She was right. I watched a crystalline wolf take a black-iron spike to the chest. It didn't howl. The wound simply glowed, the "Pure Mana" flowing like liquid solder to seal the gap."They’re

The white spear of light had turned the granary into a pillar of salt and fire. I stood in the village square, my lungs burning from the ash, watching the smoke coil into the black sky. Through the soul-bond, Elara’s scream was a physical weight against my ribs."Jack! He’s gone! Silas is gone!" she shouted, stumbling from the ruins, her obsidian eyes scanning the treeline."I know," I growled, the Calamity Blade bleeding shadow onto the snow. "He took the scroll. He’s heading for the Heart of the Woods.""We have to stop him before he opens it!" Elara lunged for my hand, the tether between us snapping taut. "That parchment isn't a map, Jack. It’s a parasite! I can feel its hunger from here!""Then we move. Now!"We didn't run; we blurred. With Elara’s speed fueled by my Void-Grasp, we tore through the mutated forest. The obsidian branches tried to catch us, but I sliced through them like dry parchment. We followed the trail of dropped straw and the sickening scent of old, sun-dried d

The white light from the snapped tether didn't just blind; it screamed. It felt like my soul was being pulled through a needle's eye. I stood at the crossroads, the celestial brand on my hand burning through my glove, while the shadow of the falling Capital loomed like a guillotine."Jack! What did you do?" Elara’s voice was a jagged rasp in the physical world. The bond wasn't gone, but it was frayed, a thin wire of silver-black energy sparking between us."I’m ending the game, Elara!" I roared, my eyes fixed on Leo and the Blight-Knights on the ridge. "Leo thinks he has me in a corner. He thinks I’m the same boy who used to hide in the forge when the Inquisitors rode by!""The village is burning, Jack!" she screamed, pointing toward the columns of black smoke rising from Oakhaven. "And Bran... I can feel the army’s panic! They’re being butchered in the Plaza!""I know!" I turned to her, my face a mask of light-drinking shadow. "That’s why you’re going there. Take Silas. Take every sc