The mages tried to cast their spells. But they were too close. Drogo moved like a shadow. He grabbed a mage by the head and crushed the skull. He swung his massive wing, and the sharp obsidian edge cut through five men and their armor as if they were made of paper.Crunch. Splash. Rip.Drogo was a whirlwind of black stone and red blood. In ten seconds, thirty mages were dead. But there were four hundred and seventy left.They began to surround him. They formed a circle. They held their staves together, creating a cage of lightning around Drogo."Trap him!" Kross ordered. "Drain his life!"The lightning hit Drogo from all sides. It was painful. It was slow. Drogo realized that fighting them one by one would take hours. He could feel the Radiant One getting closer. He could feel Tiana’s spark getting weaker in the North. He didn't have hours. He had minutes.[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: COMBAT EFFICIENCY LOW.][SUGGESTION: USE AREA-OF-EFFECT (AOE) ATTACK.][NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: ABYSSAL MIAS

The Gilded Highway was the pride of the Empire of Solara. It was a road made of white stone that stretched for hundreds of miles, connecting the rich cities to the Great Capital. Usually, it was full of life. You would see golden carriages pulled by six white horses. You would see merchants carrying silk, spices, and glowing mana-crystals. You would hear the sound of laughter and the clinking of coins. But today, the Gilded Highway was a place of fear.The news of the Iron Wall’s fall had spread like a fire in a dry forest. The Bridge of Sighs was gone. The Sun-King’s own flagship had been sighted in the North, locked in a battle with a "Dark Star." People were fleeing. The rich were trying to get into the capital’s high walls, and the poor were trying to hide in the woods. And in the middle of this chaos, a lone figure walked.He did not ride a horse. He did not have a carriage. He walked with a slow, heavy rhythm that never changed. He wore a tattered black cloak that was shredded

The Solarium was the highest room in the world. It sat at the very top of the Palace of Light, a tower so tall that the air was thin and cold. The walls were not made of stone or wood. They were made of living glass. Through the glass, one could see the entire world below—the green forests, the blue oceans, and the golden cities. But from this height, the people were so small they could not be seen. They were less than ants.In the center of this room sat a throne of white fire. And on that throne sat Emperor Solaris.The Emperor did not look like a man who was growing old. His skin was a perfect, shining bronze. His hair was a mane of white-hot wire. But his eyes were the most terrifying thing about him. They were two miniature suns. They did not have pupils or iris. They were just burning white spheres. When he looked at a man, that man felt as if his very soul were being weighed on a scale of fire.Solaris was not happy. He sat perfectly still, his hands gripping the arms of his

The crater was a quiet place, but it was a place of ghosts. The glass on the floor was still hot. It glowed with a soft, orange light. In the center of the dark mirror, Drogo Payne, the Void-Revenant, stood up. He was not okay.The Solar Flare had been the biggest magic attack in history. It was meant to turn him into a memory. It had hit him with the power of a thousand suns. He had survived. He had evolved. But there was a price. The light had not filled him. It had worked like a giant vacuum. It had pulled every drop of his own dark mana out of his body. It had left him as a perfect, empty, and starving hole.Drogo’s new body was eight feet tall. He was thin. He was obsidian-black. But he was hollow.Inside his head, the Abyssal Archive was no longer a book. It was a roar. It was the sound of a million mouths opening and closing.[CRITICAL STARVATION DETECTED.][MANA LEVELS: 0.001%.][STATUS: BERSERKER STATE INITIALIZED.][OBJECTIVE: EAT. EAT. EAT.]Drogo did not think about Tian

The air around the Black Spires did not feel like normal air. It was thick. It was cold. It felt like walking through deep, black water. Drogo Payne, the Void-Revenant, stepped onto the Great Bridge. This bridge connected the mountain peaks to the base of the High Spire.Drogo looked like a nightmare made of obsidian. He was eight feet tall. His body was thin and sharp. His skin did not reflect the light. It swallowed it. Behind him, his Void-Ribbons flowed in the air like black silk. He was a monster, but he was a monster with a goal.Tiana was at the top.He could feel her. Her Dawn Magic was a bright, pulsing heat in his mind. But as he took his third step onto the bridge, the world stopped moving.CLANG.The sound was so loud it made Drogo’s head spin. It was the sound of a giant foot hitting the stone.From the shadows of the Spire’s entrance, a man walked out.He was not like the other Inquisitors. He was not thin or elegant. He was a giant. He stood nearly nine feet tall. He