"Who the hell are you?"My voice was a raspy growl. The woman in white didn't answer immediately. She simply stood there, a pillar of blinding radiance in the middle of my growing darkness. Her armor wasn't just metal. It was woven light, pulsing with a frequency that made my teeth ache."I am Seraphina of the Silver Order," she said. Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried a weight that seemed to press my shadow back into the floor. "And you, Zorian Nightshade, are playing with a fire that will consume this world.""Fire?" I laughed, a dry, hollow sound. "My beast just ate a Rank-B guard and swallowed a Dragon’s Breath. I think it’s the one doing the consuming."The shadow at my feet hissed. It didn't like her. The ten shadow clones I had created began to circle her, their faceless heads tilted in predatory curiosity. They felt her power. It was pure. It was dense. It was the ultimate delicacy."Your beast is a void entity," Seraphina said, her eyes narrowing as she raised her silver s

The Whispering Graveyard was not a place of peace. It was a valley of jagged, black marble headstones that seemed to grow out of the earth like rotted teeth. A thick, waist-high fog clung to the ground, moving as if it had a mind of its own."Don’t breathe too deeply," Silas warned, his bone scythe cutting a path through the mist. "The air here is made of forgotten memories. Inhale too much, and you’ll forget your own name before we reach the center."I followed close behind, my boots crunching on the bone-white gravel. At my feet, my shadow blob was restless. It wasn't just hungry anymore. It was excited. Its form kept rippling, small mouths opening and closing all over its surface, tasting the stagnant mana in the air."You said there’s a King buried here," I said, my voice sounding muffled in the heavy fog. "Why hasn't the Silver Order claimed his soul?"Silas chuckled. "Because King Valerius wasn't a saint. He was a necromancer who tried to turn the entire continent into his perso

“The seals are thinning, Zorian. Do you hear the screaming from the other side?”The voice wasn't like Silas’s gravelly tone or the beast’s primal hunger. It was a chorus of a thousand whispers, vibrating through the very marrow of my bones. I staggered, the golden earth mana I had just stolen from Terros suddenly turning heavy as lead. My vision blurred, flickering between the red-and-blue horizon and a world of endless, swirling darkness."Zorian? Get a grip!" Silas’s voice barked, sounding miles away.I shook my head, my hand flying to my temple. The white streak in my hair felt hot, almost searing. "Do you hear that? The screaming?"Silas paused, his eyes darting to the sky. "The only thing I hear is the sound of your funeral approaching. The twins are less than a minute away. If you’re going to have a mental breakdown, do it after we’re not frozen or barbecued."I gritted my teeth. The screaming didn't stop. It was a sound of absolute despair, coming from somewhere deep beneath t