"She is fading, Soren! Get her up!"Varek’s panicked shout echoed through the pitch-black corridor, but Soren could barely hear him over the deafening roar of his own heart. He pulled Kaelen closer into his lap, his trembling fingers pressing against her icy neck, searching desperately for a pulse that felt entirely too faint."Kaelen, please," Soren begged, his voice breaking as he brushed her frozen hair away from her pale face. "Open your eyes. You promised me. You said we do this together!"She did not move. Her skin was turning a terrifying translucent blue, her lips bloodless, as if the magic she had poured into his mind had drained the very life from her veins."She used everything she had left to block the entity," Chief Karen said, scrambling through the dust on her knees and slamming her glowing hands onto Kaelen's heart. "Her core is completely hollow, Soren! If I cannot stabilize her soul in the next five minutes, her heart is going to stop!""Then take mine!" Soren scream

"Did you hear that?"Soren’s voice was barely a whisper, but it echoed through the silent cavern like a struck bell. He froze, his grip on Kaelen's hand tightening until his knuckles turned white.Kaelen looked up at him, her brow furrowing as she searched his face. "Hear what, Soren? The wind?""No," Soren rasped, his platinum-flecked eyes staring blankly at the dark chasm beneath their feet. "A voice. It called me... Aurelius.""Aurelius?" Tristan stepped closer, his heavy sword lowered, his jaw set in confusion. "That was the name of the First Dragon King. The founder of your line.""It came from down there," Soren said, pointing toward the black pit where the black sludge had poured out earlier. "It is calling my core.""Soren, no," Varek grunted, leaning heavily on his warhammer as blood trickled into his braided beard. "We barely survived Valerie and that shadowy nightmare above us. We are in no shape to go exploring deep earth.""We do not have a choice, Varek," Lyra called out

If you drop dead out here, I am leaving your body for the ash-crawlers."Varek’s gravelly voice rasped against the biting wind, but he did not slow his pace. He marched near the front of their small column, his heavy warhammer resting across his shoulder, his iron-soled boots crunching into the dark, glass-like sand of the Eastern Wastes."You say that every ten miles, Varek," Lyra called back from twenty paces ahead, her eyes sweeping the jagged obsidian ridges that flanked their path. "Yet every time he stumbles, you are the first one reaching out to grab his cloak.""It is bad luck to let a prince fall in the dirt," the dwarf grunted, though his eyes darted back toward Soren with genuine concern. "Bad for morale."Behind them, Soren kept his arm wrapped firmly around Kaelen’s waist as they navigated a narrow ridge of black ice and scorched rock. Every step felt like dragging lead weights through molten slag. The breath of Solarius inside his chest was no longer a gentle warmth; it

"You are too late, little prince!"The Blood Hand’s screech echoed with terrifying force as she threw her arms wide. A dense wall of dark crimson magic erupted from the glass sand, slamming directly into Soren’s chest.Soren was thrown backward, his boots skidding across the scorched glass floor as he drove his blade deep into the ground to anchor himself. Gold and silver sparks flew from his steel, cutting through the crimson mist."Soren!" Kaelen cried out, raising her hands to channel her frost, but a sudden wave of exhaustion washed over her, dropping her to one knee."Stay down, Kaelen!" Soren roared over the clash of steel echoing throughout the canyon.Above them, the Iron Vanguard poured down the cliff face like an avalanche of sun-steel. Tristan led the charge, his heavy broadsword swinging in wide, lethal arcs as he cleaved through shadow-weavers, his shield slamming into a dread-beast's jaw with a sickening crack."Clear the center!" Tristan shouted, his eyes locked onto So

"I watched the boy I loved plunge into absolute darkness, and my soul died right along with him."My hands slammed onto the scorching stone ledge, the heat blistering my skin as I clawed at the edge. I leaned over the dark void, my lungs burning, my throat tearing open as I screamed his name into the abyss."Soren! Please, Soren!"Down in the churning, pitch-black pit, the faint golden pulse of our linked cores flickered once, weak and trembling, before it faded into nothingness. The silence that followed felt heavier than the mountain itself."He is gone, little frost-girl," Valerie said, her voice dripping with cruel satisfaction. She glided across the raised dais, stepping over shattered black glass, her crimson eyes gleaming with cold triumph. "My dark fire tears through dragon blood like acid through paper. He was dead before he even hit the ledge.""Shut up!" I shrieked, spinning around on my knees as silver-gold frost erupted violently from my skin. Razor-sharp ice spears shot