The laboratory behind them had fallen silent. Only moments earlier it had been filled with the roar of spells, collapsing steel, and the screams of powerful man who believed himself untouchable. Now those sounds had faded into distant echoes. Chief Vance lay broken beside the shattered control platform, his mana core destroyed forever. Caspian sprawled nearby, barely conscious, his Golden Lion reduced to scattered motes of dying light. Neither man had the strength to rise again. Kaelen did not spare either of them another glance. His attention had already shifted elsewhere. There was only one reason he had descended into the Sunken Vault. Only one life that mattered. "Elara..." The name escaped him almost silently. Without another word, he stormed through the wreckage of the laboratory. His boots crushed broken glass and twisted metal beneath every stride. The rescued children watched him pass with wide, frightened eyes, sensing that whatever lay beyond the ruined laborator

The translucent figure hovering above the pedestal watched him with detached amusement. Then the corners of its mouth slowly lifted. A laugh escaped it. It echoed across the chamber as though the walls themselves were laughing. "You still wear that expression," the projection said. "That desperate hope." Kaelen said nothing. His fists tightened until the muscles in his forearms trembled. All-For-One folded his hands behind his back. "You are wondering why I would leave her here." His crimson eyes narrowed. "The answer is simple. She was never meant to be rescued." The words struck Lyra like a blade. "What have you done to her?" she demanded. The projection glanced toward her briefly before returning his attention to Kaelen. "What I created is older than kingdoms." The chains surrounding the black box brightened. Ancient runes crawled across every glowing link. "They are bound by a forbidden curse the Soul-Lock." The chamber seemed to grow colder. Even the shallow

Smoke rolled across the laboratory ceiling in thick black waves. The shattered research facility groaned as support beams cracked under the growing heat. Green chemical fluid mixed with blood flowed through broken floor channels while warning sirens screamed throughout the underground complex. Kaelen stood before the cursed black pedestal for one final moment. His burned hands still trembled from the Soul-Lock's lightning. Behind him, Lyra silently watched the floating prison that held Elara. Every instinct told her to say something more to ease the crushing silence surrounding Kaelen but no words came. There were none powerful enough. A sudden scraping sound echoed from the entrance. Lyra's head snapped toward the doorway. Someone was crawling. A trembling figure dragged herself across the shattered floor, coughing violently as smoke filled her lungs. Mila. Her once-radiant silk gown had been reduced to filthy rags. Diamonds that had once glittered proudly around her ne

The moment Kaelen emerged from the cracked sewer entrance, the rain hit him like thousands of tiny stones. Cold water washed over the blood covering his obsidian skin, carrying crimson streams into the gutters of the slums. Behind him, the ruined elevator shaft trembled violently. Far beneath the streets, the Sunken Vault continued collapsing in on itself. Explosions echoed through the underground prison as laboratory equipment ignited one section after another. Thick black smoke poured from broken manholes across the district. The empire's greatest secret was burning. Kaelen barely noticed. His entire focus rested on the unconscious children hanging weakly in his arms. One little boy couldn't have been older than six. Metal puncture marks covered his spine where mana extraction tubes had been connected. Another child's breathing was so faint that Kaelen could barely hear it over the rain. "They're alive..." He whispered the words more to himself than anyone else. "They're

The northern mountains showed no mercy. They towered over the world like ancient giants, their jagged peaks disappearing into a sky swallowed by thick, swirling clouds. Endless sheets of snow swept across the mountain passes, carried by winds so violent they howled like starving wolves. Visibility stretched no farther than a few dozen steps before the blizzard devoured everything in white. It was a land where even experienced hunters hesitated to travel. Yet a lone black carriage crawled across the frozen path. Its wheels groaned under layers of ice. Its wooden frame creaked against the relentless wind. A pair of lanterns hanging from its sides flickered weakly, their light barely surviving the storm. The only sound louder than the blizzard was the slow scrape of iron chains dragging across frozen stone. Kaelen walked at the very front. Thick iron ropes were wrapped tightly around his shoulders and crossed over his chest before disappearing behind him, fastened securely to the