The District Office was not a normal building. In the heart of the Slum District, it stood like a gray tooth made of iron and cold stone. It was the place where Governor Haze had lived. It was the place where the laws were made to keep the poor people poor. It had high walls, sharp spikes on the roof, and doors made of solid oak and steel.Now, Governor Haze was a man with a broken mind. He sat in the mud near the square, staring at nothing. But the District Office was still full of his men. These were the "Elite Mud-Guards." They were mages who could move the earth, and archers who carried bows made of silver and bone.They saw what happened to their Governor. They saw the boy with the black wings. They saw the giant "Sun-Ship" floating in the clouds above. They were trapped. They were scared. And a scared animal always bites.Drogo Payne stood at the start of the long, wide road that led to the fortress doors. Behind him, the square was quiet. Thousands of Nulls watched him. Tian

The air in the basement was heavy. It did not feel like the air in the streets. It felt like standing near a giant machine that was about to explode.Drogo Payne walked down the last stone step. He was back in his human-sized form, but his skin was still obsidian-black. The violet veins on his neck were pulsing slowly. He was holding Tiana’s hand. Her small palm was warm, and it was the only thing keeping him from falling back into the hunger of the Juggernaut.The basement was a massive room made of white marble and black iron. In the center of the room was the Siphon. It was a pillar of glowing Sun-Stone, thirty feet high. It was beautiful, but it was a terrible beauty. It was humming, a deep sound that made Drogo’s teeth ache."There it is," Drogo whispered. His voice was still a little bit scratchy from the fight. "The heart of the District Office. The thing that feeds the ship.""It’s so bright," Tiana said. She shielded her eyes. The Dawn Magic in her blood was reacting to the

The dust of the District Office felt like gray snow. It settled on everything—the broken marble, the melted iron, and the obsidian skin of Drogo Payne.Drogo pushed a massive stone slab off his chest. His muscles, now hard as mountain rock, did not feel the weight. He stood up, shaking the soot from his black hair. His violet eyes were dim, tired from the battle with Governor Haze and the drain of the Sun-Stone."Tiana!" he called out. His voice was a rasp, like sandpaper on wood.A few feet away, a pile of rubble began to glow with a soft, pink light. Tiana crawled out from beneath a collapsed table. She was covered in white dust, but she was not hurt. The "Dawn’s Light" had protected her like a warm blanket.When Inquisitor Kaelen had tried to take her, the falling Sun-Ship had changed everything. The crash of the massive golden fortress had sent a shockwave of raw mana through the city. It had shattered Kaelen’s silver vortex and thrown him back into the shadows. In the chaos, D

Half a mile away, on a high ledge that overlooked the Great Gate, a man was standing in the shadows.He was wearing silver armor that did not reflect the moon. He was holding a white book in his hand. His silver mask was cool and still.Inquisitor Kaelen.Beside him stood a sub-commander of the Solaris Guard. The sub-commander was a man in red armor, and he was shaking. He was holding a pair of magical binoculars, watching the three figures on the road below."Inquisitor, they are crossing the border!" the sub-commander whispered. "They are leaving the Empire! Why haven't we closed the doors? One shot from the Sun-Stone tower and we could vaporize the Null and the girl right now!"Kaelen didn't look at him. He was looking at the way the violet light of the Null seemed to eat the moonlight around it."Orders from the Sun-King," Kaelen said. His voice was like a cold wind. "The Null is no longer a simple criminal. He is an Abyssal Revenant. If we kill him here, his core will explode. It

A wave of blue frost shot out. It moved so fast that the air itself turned to snow. The frost hit Drogo’s chest, and for a second, the violet fire on his wings died down. A layer of thick, blue ice began to grow over his obsidian skin. It moved up his legs, over his stomach, and toward his heart.Drogo felt the cold. It was a cold that wanted to stop time. It wanted to turn his thoughts into stone."Drogo!" He heard a voice. It was Silas, shouting from inside his metal sphere.Drogo looked at the ice on his chest. He felt the Archive whispering in his mind. “The cold is just a lack of energy,” the voices said. “The Abyss is not just darkness. It is the friction of the void. It is the heat of the end.”Drogo gritted his teeth. He didn't use the [Entropy Flame]. He didn't use a spell. He willed his Abyssal Core to rotate.Inside his chest, the violet engine of his power began to spin. Faster. Faster. Faster.The heat started to rise. It wasn't the heat of a fire. It was a "Dark Heat."