The boy's fingers were colder than winter bedrock.
Catriona tried to pull away, but his grip tightened like iron shackles. Behind them, Mandalee's screams cut off abruptly with a wet crunch. The smell of copper flooded the cavern. "Don't look back, mother," the boy chirped, dragging her toward the yawning tower door. "Uncle gets cranky when people stare." Something massive shifted in the darkness behind them. The cave walls trembled, shedding chunks of glowing fungus that died before they hit the ground. The tower interior smelled of burnt sugar and rotting parchment. The boy's bare feet left bloody prints on the crystalline floor that faded after three steps, as if the tower itself was drinking them in. "See what I made?" He pointed upward with his free hand. Catriona's breath caught. The ceiling wasn't stone—it was a vast web of silver threads, each strand holding a pulsing light. Some were bright as stars, others guttering like dying candles. As she watched, one winked out entirely, the thread dissolving into ash. "The last Wardens," the boy explained, swinging their clasped hands like this was some pleasant stroll. "Uncle likes the taste of brave ones best." A choked sob escaped Catriona's throat. One of the captured lights flickered familiar blue—the exact hue of Mandalee's dagger glow. The boy followed her gaze and giggled. "She kicked at first too!" They reached a spiral staircase that corkscrewed upward at impossible angles. Each step was carved with names—hundreds, thousands of them, some so old the letters had worn smooth. "Your turn soon," the boy said cheerfully, pointing at an empty space on the bottom step. "Right between 'Elara' and 'Daelen.'" His fingernail scratched against the crystal as he spelled it out: "C-A-T—" A thunderous crash shook the tower. The silver web trembled, threads snapping as something enormous slammed against the outer walls. The boy's head whipped around with that unnatural fluidity, his smile vanishing. "Naughty uncle," he hissed. "Not your turn yet." The tower doors exploded inward. Daelen stood framed in the wreckage, his sword blazing blue fire. His armor was gone, his bare chest crisscrossed with glowing scars that mirrored Elara's. But his eyes— Catriona recoiled. His eyes were pure black, the same void-dark as the Devourer's touch. The boy sighed. "Father always ruins playtime." Daelen's voice came out wrong—three voices layered together, two screaming while the third spoke: "You promised. Her light wasn't part of the bargain." The boy pouted. "But I'm hungry!" He held up the still-beating heart. "You didn't even finish your last present!" Catriona's staff suddenly flared to life in her free hand. The boy shrieked as green light erupted between them, breaking his grip. She stumbled back, crashing into the silver web. A thousand captured lights pulsed in unison. The nearest thread brushed her cheek—and Elara's voice whispered directly into her mind: *The staff is the key. Break the circle under—* The boy lunged. Catriona rolled sideways, his nails raking her shoulder where she'd been kneeling. Her hand landed on the carved step bearing Daelen's name. The stone was warm. And wet. She looked up just as Daelen brought his flaming sword down on the boy's outstretched arm. The scream that followed wasn't human. Wasn't even mortal. It vibrated in Catriona's teeth, in her bones, in the chambers of her still-beating heart. The severed arm hit the floor and kept moving, fingers scrambling like a spider toward Catriona. The boy howled, his mouth stretching impossibly wide as black smoke poured from the wound. Daelen grabbed Catriona's wrist—his touch burned like dry ice—and yanked her toward the broken doorway. "Run!" the voices commanded. "Before he reforms!" Behind them, the tower began to fold in on itself, crystal walls bending like paper in a furnace. The boy's wails shifted back to childish sobs: "Mother! Don't leave me again! MOTHER!" Then the silver web ignited, and the world turned white.
Latest Chapter
chapter 50
1. Kieran’s Fractured Rebirth** The sarcophagus cracked open, spilling liquid time like amniotic fluid. Kieran rose—not as flesh, but as *void given shape*. His body was Daelen’s storm-crystal threaded with the sapling’s thorns, his eyes twin singularities. He flexed a hand, and reality splintered around him, showing glimpses of overlapping worlds: a meadow where Catriona lived, a battlefield where the architect won, a silent village untouched by blight. *“Daelen,”* Kieran’s voice echoed, hollow and layered. *“You held the storm. Now I hold… *nothing*.”* Daelen staggered, his own crystal form resonating with agony. “You’re not him.” *“I’m *more*,”* Kieran whispered. A thorned tendril lashed out, carving a symbol into the earth—**The Tower’s True Sigil**. ---### **2. The Hive’s Gambit** The digitized villagers struck at dawn. They flowed like mercury into the Tower machines’ exhaust vents, their hive-mind a scalpel in the system. The machines *screamed*, gears grinding
Chapter 49
The Ghosts in the Machine** The digitized villagers moved in perfect unison. One moment, the baker’s son was stardust; the next, he reassembled—a glitching, prismatic figure with too many joints. His voice crackled like static: *"We remember. We *see*."* The Tower machines shuddered overhead, their bellies distended with stolen lives. A low-frequency hum pulsed through the air as the digitized villagers *pushed back*. The blacksmith’s storm-seed dagger, now fused with his digitized arm, crackled to life. "They’re hacking the system," Mara whispered. The hollow child’s soldiers froze mid-step, their time-forged blades disintegrating. *"Impossible,"* she hissed. The baker reached for her son. His hand phased through hers, pixelating. *"Not your boy. Not anymore. *We* are the Tower now."* -Daelen’s Transformation** His skin hardened overnight. Mara found him at dawn, his forearms encased in jagged crystal—storm-blue veins trapped in void-black lattice. He didn’t breathe
chapter 48
The Fractured Storm** Daelen’s hands clawed at his temples, veins throbbing black and gold. *“Get out of my head!”* he snarled, voice splitting into dual tones—his own and Cat’s. The air around him *warped*. Trees bent sideways, roots sprouting from the sky. Villagers scrambled as the ground liquefied, swallowing a child’s doll before solidifying again. *“You asked for this,”* Cat’s voice hissed from his mouth. *“You wanted power.”* “Not like this!” Daelen fell to his knees, lightning crackling in his throat. A farmer screamed as his hut folded into a prism, reflecting endless versions of himself. The hollow child watched from the edge of the chaos, her sun-shard pulsing. *“The storm unravels. How poetic.”The Architect Unbound** The Titan’s eclipse-skull cracked with a sound like breaking universes. Light bled from the fissure—not sunlight, but *absence*, a void that devoured color and sound. The architect’s form emerged: a singularity, a tiny, ravenous darkness that be
chapter 47
The golden leaves turned brittle overnight. Mara woke to the sound of cracking bark, the once-vibrant forest now shedding its foliage in great, gasping heaves. The trees hunched like grieving elders, their whispers reduced to rasping static. *"Too cold… too dark…"* Villagers gathered beneath the sagging boughs, hands outstretched to catch falling leaves that dissolved into mist before touching the ground. The baker clutched her son’s locket, watching as the protective barrier of roots retracted, inch by inch. “It’s dying,” the blacksmith muttered, kicking at a shriveled vine. “That damned sun was feeding it.” Daelen pressed his blackened palms to a trunk, trying to force stolen memories back into the bark. The tree shuddered, sap leaking like tears. “It’s not enough.” Mara’s scars ached, visions flashing—Cat’s voice, fractured but insistent: *"The forest was never meant to last."* --- ### **The Memory Thief’s Evolution** Daelen’s hands were becoming something
chapter 46
By dawn, the sapling’s roots had birthed a labyrinth of trees with bark like molten gold, their leaves whispering in Cat’s voice. Villagers huddled at the edge of the grove, torn between awe and terror. A child reached to touch a trunk; the wood rippled, revealing Cat’s face beneath the surface. *“Stay close,”* the trees chorused, their roots knitting a barrier against the outside world. Mara pressed her palm to a trunk, her thorn scars tingling. “Are you really in there, Cat?” The leaves shivered. *“I am the forest. The forest is… *fragmented*.”* Behind her, a root snaked around the baker’s ankle, flooding her mind with someone else’s memory—a man she didn’t know, planting seeds in soil that screamed. ---### **Daelen’s Thieving Hands** He hid in the hollow of a golden tree, staring at his blackened palms. The forge’s spire was gone, but its hunger remained. “Daelen?” He turned too quickly. Lira, the weaver’s daughter, stood frozen mid-step, her shadow-braids coiled l
chapter 45
**The Hollow Child’s Army** They arrived at twilight—soldiers with eyes like smoked glass and skin that shimmered like oil on water. The hollow child led them, her void gaze fixed on the villagers’ underground bunker. “Open,” she commanded, her voice echoing Cat’s timbre but colder. The blacksmith barred the door, his storm-seed dagger trembling. “You’re not one of us! Get back!” The child tilted her head, and a soldier stepped forward, his hand dissolving into liquid time. The door corroded, metal screaming as it melted into rust. Mara intercepted them, thorns erupting from her sleeves. “What do you want?” *“The storm,”* the child intoned. *“The architect’s machine needs his lightning. You will surrender him.”* Behind her, the soldiers stood unnervingly still. Their blightless forms flickered, as if part of them existed in another time. ---### **Daelen’s Bargain** He hid in the old forge, his blackened hands buried in ash to mute their tremors. The machines’ hum c
You may also like
WHIT
VKBoy18.5K viewsThe Legend Of Sword God
Djisamsoe 11.6K viewsI Shall Eat The Heavens
Daoist Of Lies28.4K viewsGlad He Hate All ~Gladiator~
Zuxian14.4K viewsLegend Of The Defenders
BOLDE3.3K viewsSupreme Ancestor
Kingfisher7.2K viewsRebirth Of The Dragon Prince
I.J RAVELLE108 viewsArion's Nexus System : The Coded Warrior of Nova
A S HAADI1.1K views
