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Home / Fantasy / Bones of the Betrayed: Rise of the Last Bonekeeper / CHAPTER 72— “THE PRICE OF THE THRONE”
CHAPTER 72— “THE PRICE OF THE THRONE”
Author: Milky-Grip
last update2025-12-16 00:48:53

The palace undercorridors breathed like a living thing. Stone groaned softly above Elias’s head as he moved through the narrow passage, every step measured, every breath controlled.

The Echo pulsed beneath his skin steady now, disciplined but restless, like a predator straining at its leash. Seren walked close at his side.

“Tell me we’re not walking into a trap,” she whispered.

Elias didn’t look at her. “We are.”

She swallowed. “That wasn’t comforting.”

Caedia halted suddenly, lifting her hand. “Quiet.”

Everyone froze. From beyond the bend in the corridor came voices low, urgent, unmistakably human. “…the ritual circle is ready.” “She won’t last much longer.”

“The Alchemist Council wants the Echo bound before dawn.”

Seren’s fingers dug into Elias’s sleeve. “That’s them.”

Elias felt his bones hum not in rage, but in clarity. “Lyra’s close,” he said softly.

Caedia turned her head slightly, listening deeper than sound. “Above us. The old marrow chamber beneath the throne hall.”

Seren’s b
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  • CHAPTER 78— “THE PALACE BENEATH THE PALACE”

    The tunnel sloped upward now. Elias felt it immediately not just the incline, but the shift in resonance. The bones around them were newer, reinforced, threaded with dampening sigils meant to suppress magic.“The palace,” Seren whispered. “We’re under it.”Caedia nodded. “The Undercorridors. Built after the Bonekeeper purge. Designed to imprison what the nobles fear.”Elias clenched his jaw. “They should’ve torn it down.”“They tried,” Caedia replied quietly. “The bones refused.”Seren glanced around nervously. “That’s… comforting. I think.”They moved slower now, careful. Every step echoed faintly, swallowed by thick stone walls veined with pale bone. Sylare whispered, “They patrol this level.”Elias looked back. “How do you know?”She swallowed. “Because I hid here. For three days.”Seren’s eyes widened. “Alone?”Sylare nodded. “I listened. Learned their steps. Learned when they dragged prisoners past.”Elias’s chest tightened. “Lyra?”Sylare hesitated. Then nodded. “She’s still ali

  • CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN — “THE CITY THAT BLEEDS”

    The city loomed above them like a wounded giant. From the ridge overlooking the capital’s underlevels, Elias could see the damage clearly now collapsed spires, cracked walls veined with glowing corruption, smoke rising in thin, constant columns.The once-proud bone-buttresses that supported the upper districts were fractured, some stitched together with crude Alchemist reinforcements that pulsed an unhealthy blue.Seren swallowed hard. “It’s worse than the rumors.” Caedia stood beside her, head tilted, listening to vibrations no one else could hear. “The city is screaming.”Elias didn’t answer immediately. His bones were already singing in response low, furious, restrained only by discipline earned through pain, loss, and relentless training.“They’re bleeding it dry,” he said finally. “Harvesting marrow straight from the foundations.”Seren looked at him sharply. “They’re using the city itself?”“Yes,” Elias replied. “That’s how they’re powering the ritual lattice.”Sylare hugged her

  • CHAPTER 76 — “THE THRONE OF BONES”

    The throne room did not smell like power. It smelled like rot. Elias stopped just inside the shattered doors, his bones humming sharply beneath his skin.Seren halted beside him, breath shallow, while Caedia remained a step behind silent, listening, already tense. “Something’s wrong,” Seren whispered.Elias nodded. “This place should be louder.”The palace’s inner sanctum had once been layered with noble resonance centuries of bloodlines echoing through bone-carved walls. Now, the sound was… thin. Hollow. Like marrow sucked clean.Caedia spoke quietly. “The Alchemists have been here a long time.”Seren swallowed. “Where’s the court? The guards? Anyone?”Elias took another step forward. A voice echoed from the far end of the chamber. “You’re standing in it.” They froze.From the shadows beyond the throne, a figure emerged robes stitched with bone-thread, hands stained blue to the wrist. His face was gaunt, eyes bright with fevered intelligence.Arch-Alchemist Veyr. Elias felt the Echo

  • CHAPTER 75 — “THE PRICE OF BEING HEARD”

    The palace undercorridor shook as something detonated far above them. Stone dust rained from the ceiling. Seren flinched. “That wasn’t us.”Elias stopped mid-step, bones humming violently beneath his skin. “No,” he said quietly. “That was a signal.”Caedia tilted her head, blind eyes glowing faintly. “They’ve begun the ritual.”Seren’s breath hitched. “Already?”“Yes,” Caedia replied grimly. “They know you’re close.”Elias clenched his fists. The Echo surged, sharp and furious, vibrating through his ribs like a living thing demanding action.“How much time?” he asked.Caedia hesitated. “Minutes,” she said. “Not hours.”Seren grabbed Elias’s sleeve. “Then we move now.”They broke into a run. The undercorridors twisted upward, narrowing into steep bone-lined passages reinforced with alchemical steel. Sigils burned into the walls containment runes, anti-resonance wards.Seren grimaced. “I hate these symbols.”“They’re meant to weaken Elias,” Caedia said. “And attract him.”Elias scoffed,

  • CHAPTER 74 — “THE THRONE OF MARROW”

    The throne room was silent. Not empty silent. Elias felt it the moment he crossed the threshold. The Echo inside him recoiled, humming low and uneasy, like bone scraping bone.Seren whispered, “This place is wrong.”“I know,” Elias murmured. The chamber stretched wide and tall, carved entirely from interlocked ribs and polished marrow-stone.Pillars shaped like spinal columns rose toward the vaulted ceiling, where faint blue light seeped through fractures in the bone.At the far end. A throne. Not gold. Not stone. Bone. Layer upon layer of fused skeletons, arranged deliberately, reverently. Skulls formed the backrest. Vertebrae the armrests.At its center pulsed a slow, sickly glow. Caedia stopped walking. Her blind eyes turned toward the throne. “The marrow-heart,” she whispered.Seren’s grip tightened on Elias’s sleeve. “That’s… that’s what the Alchemists built?”“Yes,” Caedia said. “And what they’ve been feeding.”Elias took a step forward. The Echo screamed. He staggered, catching

  • CHAPTER 73 — “THE SOUND OF BREAKING BONES”

    The palace undercorridor smelled of iron, wet stone, and fear. Elias slowed only when Caedia raised a clenched fist. “Stop,” she whispered.Seren froze beside him instantly. “What is it now?”Caedia tilted her head, listening not with ears, but with marrow. Her blind eyes clouded darker than usual. “They know,” she said quietly.Elias felt it too a wrongness in the air, like a note played off-key. His bones thrummed uneasily. “The Alchemists?” he asked.“No,” Caedia replied. “Worse.”Seren swallowed. “Please don’t say worse.”Caedia’s jaw tightened. “The palace guard has been reinforced. Bone-dampened armor. Resonance anchors in the walls.”Elias cursed under his breath. “They turned the palace into a cage.”“They turned it into a trap,” Caedia corrected. From ahead came voices many of them sharp, disciplined. Seren whispered, “That’s… a lot of people.”Elias adjusted his grip on the bone dagger. “We don’t fight head-on.”Caedia nodded. “Good. Because if you do, the Echo will answer a

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