2025-07-30 15:35:55
O.O.C GabrielHi :) If you have enjoyed my chapters so far please subscribe :) Add to your library and support me :)
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 17: The Memory Spine
The hills beyond the Hollow March twisted like bones of a dead leviathan—scarred by Rift storms, half-shadowed by a sky that pulsed like an old wound. The path the group followed was marked only by the ancient spiral glyphs of the Vanguard, etched faintly into shards of stone that jutted from the earth like forgotten teeth.Kael walked in silence.The encounter with the Whisperbound still clung to his nerves like cold oil—its voice echoing within the deepest corners of his mind. "You are not the first. But you may be the last."Thorne led them westward, toward the ruins of an old Vanguard stronghold no longer on any charted map. “This is where the old blood was recorded,” he explained. “The ancients called it the Memory Spine. A living monument. Not just a record—but a voice. It listens. And sometimes… lies.”[System Alert: Proximity Warning]Artifact Signature Detected – Type: Living Sigil ConstructDesignation: Memory Spine (Partial Activation)Caution: Historical Corruption Detecte
Chapter 16: “Sigil Requiem”
The storm rolled over the high cliffs like a beast with no eyes—silent, but aware. Kael stood beneath it, the weight of the world tightening in his chest. They had reached the outskirts of the Hollow March, but what awaited them was no sanctuary.It was a ruin.The Sigil Sanctuary of Elrath’s Crown had once been a bastion of Spiral Vanguard research—hidden, fortified, blessed with radiant aether-lines that pulsed with protective wards. Now, those same sigils flickered like dying embers.The air stank of iron and distortion.Thorne knelt beside a broken keystone, tracing a gloved finger over the cracked rune.“This site was once protected by a living sigil... a sentient construct bound to its keystone,” he muttered. “But it’s been corrupted—twisted by something unnatural.”Kael’s gaze shifted toward the central chamber. Veins of black and gold writhed across the stones like parasites, pulsing with a rhythm too erratic to be natural.The system in his mind stuttered.[SYSTEM WARNING: SI
Chapter 15: The Hollow March
The path into the Hollow March was shrouded in gray mist and half-light. Even the sun, high above the fractured highlands, seemed reluctant to touch the cursed terrain. Kael Ardyn walked with his hood drawn and the pendant beneath his tunic pulsing faintly—never cold, never hot, but aware.It was the kind of silence that dared you to speak—and punished you if you did.Seris walked ahead with her blade drawn, her senses sharpened beyond what training alone could explain. Thorne remained at the rear, murmuring quiet protective sigils into the wind. They hadn’t seen another soul since the village of Velhollow, where the Spiral watchtower had been reduced to scorched stone and melted sigilglass.“Still no trace of the Vanguard,” Seris said quietly.“They didn’t flee,” Thorne replied grimly. “They were erased.”The Hollow March had once been a transit zone—a high valley of windswept stone and thorned brush where outposts kept vigil over Riftborne tremors. Now it bore the stench of still ma
Chapter 14: Mirrors of the Mind
The night after restoring Vered’s Edge, Kael couldn’t sleep.The stars above the basin glinted like shards of memory, and the ground beneath his bedroll felt too warm—as though the pulse of the old spell still ran through the stone. Seris had taken first watch. Thorne meditated under a twisted branch, murmuring faint invocations to cleanse the site.Kael lay still.But the moment he closed his eyes, the world twisted.It wasn’t a dream.Not like before.This was deeper.The moment he blinked, he stood in a space that wasn’t a place. The air was liquid. The sky hung low, a velvet void veined with pulsing crimson. The ground was mirror-smooth and black, reflecting nothing.Except himself.Kael turned—and faced… himself.But not quite.This reflection wore his face, yes. His build. His voice. But its eyes were wrong. Too gold. Too wide. And the sigil across his chest wasn’t the dual spiral. It was a single mark—a burning, writhing fang.“I know you,” Kael whispered.The reflection smiled.
Chapter 13: The Unwritten Ward
The hills ahead were barren, stripped of trees, bleached stone jutting from the earth like the ribs of a buried giant. Even the wind seemed hesitant here—whispers trailing like unfinished sentences. Kael felt it before he saw it.The scar in the world.It wasn’t a Rift, not exactly—no swirling void or temporal collapse. But the energy pulsing from the old ruins told a different story.“This was once a binding site,” Thorne said as they approached. “Part of a network of arcane wardings built to contain the Wyrmbound’s fragments. Most were activated during the final days of the war.”Kael turned slowly in place. “And this one?”“Unfinished,” Seris answered. Her eyes were sharp, scanning every glyph-strewn rock. “Either abandoned... or sabotaged.”Kael stepped forward as the pendant at his chest pulsed, faint but constant. This place was tethered to it—like an echo of a forgotten heartbeat.[System Alert: Vanguard Binding Ward Detected — Integrity Status: Incomplete]Primary Inscription
Chapter 12: False Sigils
The wind changed when they left the Vanguard ruins.Kael felt it in his bones—not a breeze or temperature shift, but something deeper. Like a vibration in his blood, a whisper in his thoughts. It was the kind of feeling that didn’t belong to nature, but to intent.Seris noticed it too. Her eyes scanned every bend in the trail as they descended into the basin below. Even Thorne walked quietly, staff gripped tighter than usual.They were two days from the ruins when they encountered the rider.He came from the east, his cloak bearing the red-threaded sunburst of the Ashborne Circle—a group of healers and warders known to patrol Rift-border settlements. The symbol marked him as neutral, perhaps even trustworthy. But Kael’s pendant thrummed in warning the moment the man dismounted.He had no horse scent.No travel dust on his boots.And his smile was too practiced.“I was sent by the Circle,” the rider said, voice calm, even warm. “Word of your presence reached us in Drenn’s Hollow. We we
You may also like
BEAST EMPEROR
Xamo29.6K viewsThe Invincible Ron Benedict
Olivia C. Onoh13.2K viewsSoul Avatar
Japhel14.1K viewsThe Greatest Martial Arts Cultivator
KidOO91.8K viewsThe Dark Hero Adventures
Viki VT1.7K viewsFate of the Cursed One
lon_okami1.3K viewsINDIGO (RISE OF CRIMSON)
sadboy1012.5K viewsIn Another World with Battle God System
Reset701 views