No one moved.Hundreds of blades hung in the darkness behind Darian Voss.Some were embedded in the walls.Some rested inside stone pillars.Others floated above empty platforms.All of them had awakened.All of them were pointed toward Kael.Darian watched his son without blinking.Kael had imagined this moment for ten years.In some memories, his father was dead.In others, he was the traitor who had abandoned the family.Sometimes Kael remembered a funeral.Sometimes a grave.Sometimes nothing at all.Now the man stood before him.Alive.Older.Scarred.And entirely real.Kael's voice was cold.“You're alive.”Darian nodded.“Yes.”“You let me believe you were dead.”“I did.”“Why?”Darian looked beyond him.At Veyra.At the old keeper.At Arden.Then at the First Blade, visible through the distant opening.“Because if you knew I was alive, they would never stop looking for you.”Kael's jaw tightened.“They already found me.”“I know.”“And you watched?”Darian's expression changed

Kael's boots carved two lines into the stone.The force of Lucan's strike had driven him backward almost three meters.His wrists burned.The Shadow Blade trembled in his grip.Across the chamber, Lucan stood perfectly still.He had not even shifted his feet.Kael stared at the black sword.It carried no visible aura.No glow.No obvious technique.Yet something about it felt wrong.Not powerful.Familiar.Lucan tilted his head.“You feel it.”Kael said nothing.“You should.”Lucan raised the sword.“You died by this blade.”Darian stepped forward.“Enough.”Lucan looked at him.“You still protect the lie.”Darian's expression hardened.“You don't know what happened.”“I was there.”The words stopped everyone.Lucan's gaze returned to Kael.“I watched you fall.”Kael's grip tightened.“Then why am I standing?”Lucan smiled.“That is the question.”He attacked.Kael met him.Steel struck.The impact sent a sharp ring through the chamber.Lucan's sword slid along the Shadow Blade and ch

The darkness shattered.Kael fell.Not downward.Every direction disappeared at once.For one impossible moment, there was no ground, no sky, no blade, no sound.Then—Stone struck his back.Kael opened his eyes.The Sanctum.He rolled immediately, one hand reaching for the Shadow Blade.It was there.But something was wrong.The blade was silent.Too silent.Across the chamber, Lucan slammed onto the stone floor.His black sword lay beside him.The weapon was no longer black.Thin silver veins ran through its length.Lucan stared at it.“So,” he muttered, breathing hard. “You refused too.”Kael stood.“What happened?”“I don't know.”That answer bothered Kael more than anything else.Lucan was a man who always had an answer.Even when the answer was a lie.Before Kael could speak again, a sound tore through the Sanctum.CRACK.Every ancient blade mounted along the walls vibrated.Then another.CRACK.Dust fell from the ceiling.Lira shouted from somewhere beyond the chamber.“Kael!”

Darkness swallowed the Sanctum.Not darkness without light.Darkness without distance.Kael couldn't see his hands.Couldn't see Lucan.Couldn't hear Lira.For several seconds, there was nothing.Then—a heartbeat.Thump.Kael froze.Another.Thump.It wasn't his.It was coming from somewhere in the dark.Then a third.Thump.Kael raised the First Blade.Its edge produced a thin silver glow.Just enough to reveal the chamber.Everyone was still there.Lira stood beside Renn.Tomi was behind Darian.Arden had one hand against the wall.Silas was staring into the darkness.Veyra was gone.Kael's eyes moved toward the place where she had been standing.Empty.“Where is Veyra?”No one answered.Then Lucan spoke.“She ran.”Kael looked at him.“Why?”Lucan stared at the opening.“Because she knows who he is.”A shape moved inside the darkness.The masked man stepped forward again.The silver mask was cracked now.Through the crack, Kael saw an eye.Human.Familiar.Too familiar.The man re

Kael did not choose.The four blades remained suspended around him.Silver.Black.White.Red.Each carried a different pressure.Each seemed to pull at something inside him.But Kael had learned one thing in the trial.A choice made because someone else demanded it was not truly a choice.He lowered his hand.“I won't.”The red-bladed man smiled.“Still stubborn.”Kael looked at him.“Tell me about my mother.”Darian's head dropped.The man stepped closer.“Her name was Serah.”Kael's breath caught.He had almost forgotten that name.His mother's name.A memory surfaced.Warm hands.A soft voice.A woman singing beside a window.Then darkness.Then nothing.“She wasn't an ordinary woman,” the man continued.“She belonged to the first line of carriers.”Darian interrupted.“Enough.”Kael turned.“You don't get to decide when enough is.”Darian looked at his son.There was pain in his eyes.“I was trying to protect you.”“You erased my life.”“I saved what remained of it.”Kael's voice