2025-06-24 17:14:21They called it the Veilroad—a forgotten stretch of cracked earth and moss-covered stones that wound through the northern forests, leading toward the jagged cliffs where the Rift slept.
The deeper they traveled, the quieter the world became. Birds grew scarce. Even the wind moved differently—curling in half-circles, as if trying to reverse its own direction. The trees leaned unnaturally inward, their trunks bending as if bowing toward something buried.
Kael rode in silence on the back of the Windfold, eyes scanning the horizon. Thorne walked beside him, murmuring runes under his breath, while Seris moved ahead like a shadow with eyes.
The pendant around Kael’s neck had not stopped humming since sunrise.
[System Alert: Mana Density Exceeding Safe Threshold]
Abnormal spiritual interference detected.
Caution: Temporal anomalies likely within next 12 miles.
Kael showed Thorne the message.
The old mage’s eyes narrowed. “We’re too close to turn back.”
“Define ‘temporal anomalies,’” Kael muttered.
“Memories may bleed through,” Thorne said. “Time slips. Ghosts. Even versions of yourself.”
Seris didn’t turn. “Just don’t talk to anything wearing your face.”
Around the tenth mile, the ground changed.
The forest ended without warning. In its place stood a grey field of ash and glass-like soil that shimmered with heat even though the air was cold. Cracks ran in spider webs beneath their feet, glowing faintly with blue pulses. It looked like the world had bled from within.
And the ground… breathed.
In, out. A soft rising motion, like a slumbering beast under their boots.
“I feel sick,” Kael whispered.
Seris gripped her sword. “Good. That means you’re not numb yet.”
The Windfold gave a low hum and refused to go farther. It turned without protest and trotted back the way they came.
“Even summoned beasts fear this place,” Thorne said.
Kael swallowed, and they continued on foot.
It hit like a wave.
Kael blinked—and the landscape changed. One moment he was stepping over brittle rock. The next, he stood in a sunlit meadow filled with white flowers.
Seris and Thorne were gone.
“Hello?” he called, spinning around. The pendant burned against his chest. The sky above him shifted—turning from blue to violet in seconds. Then, behind him:
“Kael?”
He froze.
It was his voice.
He turned—and saw himself.
Older. Hair longer, eyes darker. A scar ran across his neck. This version of Kael held a twisted sword pulsing with black veins.
“Don’t go farther,” the other Kael said. “The Rift changes you. Some parts don’t come back.”
“Who are you?” Kael asked, backing up.
But the figure vanished like smoke.
He staggered—then tripped—and the vision shattered. He was back in the ashlands. The Rift shimmered in the distance, like a heart under cracked glass.
[System Stabilizing…]
Temporal Drift Experienced: 11 Seconds
Memory Echo Registered: Variant Signature – “Fractured Kael”Status: UNHARMED
Recommendation: Reunite with companions.Kael turned in panic—but Seris and Thorne were nowhere in sight.
Then came the voice.
Not loud. Not close. Just… everywhere.
“Blood of the Rift. Bound of the Sigil. Little heirling… finally within reach.”
Kael froze.
A shadow rose from the soil ahead—black as pitch, twice his height, with no true face. Its outline was vaguely humanoid, but too thin, too long. And in place of a mouth, a glowing seam cracked open across its chest.
“I am the Herald of the Wyrmbound,” it rasped. “I come not to kill… but to claim.”
Kael lifted his sword. “You’re not real.”
“You say that… and yet the Sigil pulses. You feel me.”
[System Warning: Hostile Sentience Detected. Source: Rift Entity – Bound Status Confirmed]
Recommendation: Do not engage. Mental resistance advised.Kael backed up slowly.
“I’m not yours.”
The Herald stepped forward. “But you are his. Born of sealed blood. Forged in the heartbeat of flame. Your path ends at the Rift… or it begins with us.”
The pendant burned hot—searing hot.
Kael cried out, clutching it—and the Herald flickered, howling in agony before vanishing into dust.
He dropped to his knees, chest heaving.
When he opened his eyes, a soft light stood before him.
Not threatening.
Familiar.
A woman—tall, hair like woven dusk, eyes the same storm-grey as his own. Her form shimmered slightly, as if made of memory. Her hands folded before her chest. The pendant around Kael’s neck grew still.
“Kael,” she said softly.
His breath caught. “Mother?”
She nodded.
“But… you’re dead.”
“I am. What remains is a shard of me—bound to the Sigil to awaken if the Rift ever reached for you.”
Tears stung his eyes. “I saw you in a vision. Running. Carrying me. Why didn’t you tell me who I was?”
She smiled gently. “Because the moment you knew, the world would reach for you like a flame. You were safest in darkness.”
“I’m not safe anymore,” he whispered.
“No,” she agreed. “But you’re stronger.”
He reached out—but his hand passed through her.
“There are things in the Rift that remember me. Some want revenge. Others want redemption. But all will seek you.”
She looked away, face darkening.
“Kael… not everything inside the Rift wants to kill you. Some want to wear you.”
He shuddered.
“You must choose wisely what you let inside. Especially when the Rift starts speaking in voices you love.”
The image began to fade.
“Wait! How do I stop it?”
“Find the heart of the Rift. The wound that never healed. That’s where the Wyrmbound’s soul still dreams. Sever it—before he awakens fully.”
And she was gone.
Kael ran.
His legs burned, lungs scorched—but he pushed forward until the ash gave way to blackstone ridges.
Then—at last—he saw them.
Seris and Thorne stood near the base of a craggy slope, weapons drawn. When Seris saw him, relief flickered across her face, quickly masked.
“You disappeared,” she said.
“I saw… things. The Rift’s warping me.”
Thorne stepped forward, examining him. “The pendant glowed a mile off. It flared like a beacon. What did you encounter?”
Kael looked at them both.
“A Herald of the Wyrmbound.”
Thorne’s face paled.
“They’re usually tethered inside. It must be stretching outward.”
“And,” Kael added quietly, “I saw my mother. She warned me.”
They stood in silence, the wind biting harder now.
“Then we go faster,” Seris said. “Before the Rift tries to speak to us too.”
[System Update: Crimson Path – 22%]
Wound Reading: Level 2
New Passive: Memory Immunity – 30% resistance to false memory manipulations.System Tracking Activated: Herald Energy Signature (Faint)The trio crested the final ridge by dusk.
Ahead, in the shadow of broken cliffs, was a wound in the land—wide as a fortress, deep as a god’s grave. Lightning crackled across its surface, veins of mana twisting in slow, spiraling descent.
A single black spire rose in the center, half-sunken and broken at the top. Around it: fragments of stone temples, rusted weapons embedded in the ground like forgotten prayers.
“The Rift,” Thorne said grimly. “And that… is where your mother died.”
Kael didn’t speak.
He just stared into the pulsing dark—and stepped forward.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 27: The Crown’s Shadow
The ruins still smoked when Kael reached the stronghold.The Vanguard banners that once snapped above the walls now lay charred in the dirt. Stone towers stood cracked, blackened from within as though fire had eaten them hollow. Not a single cry of resistance had carried into the night; the fortress had fallen in silence, smothered beneath a tide that moved with inhuman precision.Kael stepped across the threshold, boots sinking into ash.The bodies lay where they had fallen, arranged almost unnaturally—soldiers struck down in mirrored stances, as though their deaths had been choreographed. A twisted stillness hung in the air, broken only by the hiss of burning timber.Seris trailed behind him, her blade drawn though the battle had already ended. Her face was pale in the firelight. “No resistance? Not even a warning flare?”“They didn’t need one,” Kael muttered. “The Fang didn’t fight like men. They moved like… reflections.”He didn’t say the rest. That as he walked among the dead, hi
Chapter 26: The Serpent’s Lie
The council’s verdict lingered like ash on Kael’s skin. His oath still burned faintly in his chest, an ember of restraint that hummed beneath his ribs. Yet even within the stronghold’s walls, he could feel eyes on him—soldiers whispering as he passed, wardens exchanging glances. Trust had thinned into suspicion, and suspicion was almost worse than open hatred.Seris walked at his side, but even her silence pressed differently now—measured, cautious, like a blade balanced at rest.By dawn, the first reports came.A scout returned to the gates, armor singed, voice ragged. “They march,” he told the wardens, collapsing to his knees. “The Fang hosts… they move like one. Not soldiers—shadows. Each step the same, each strike mirrored. They don’t speak. They don’t need to.”The chamber stirred with unease. If the Fang had found a way to bind will, to move hosts as a single body, then no line of defense would hold against them for long.And every time the Fang were named, eyes flickered to Kae
Chapter 25: Ashen Oath
The valley smoldered like a graveyard of fire.Kael stumbled through the ash, Seris’s arm steadying him. His body felt fractured, every step tearing against veins still scorched from the crown’s call. The shard in his chest pulsed erratically, no longer steady flame but ragged bursts, like a heart that couldn’t decide whether to live or burn itself out.Behind them, the remains of the Fang encampment groaned and hissed as embers consumed what little had been spared from the blast. Charred corpses of hosts lay where they had fallen, some half-twisted into monstrous serpentine forms before the ritual collapsed. Yet others had fled, carrying shards of the crown’s power with them. The war had only just begun.Kael tried to speak, but only ash came from his throat. Seris stopped him, pressing a flask to his lips. “Save your strength. You nearly burned yourself alive.”“I…” He coughed, his voice raw. “I didn’t choose it.”Her gaze cut sharp. “Didn’t you?”The question lodged deeper than any
Chapter 24: Crown of Ash
The valley below was a bowl of fire.Kael crouched on the ridge beside Seris, his eyes fixed on the Fang encampment. Hundreds of campfires burned in the dark, arranged in circles like ritual markings. Banners of black and crimson swayed in the night wind, each inscribed with the same coiling serpent sigil. And at the camp’s center stood a stone dais, carved from ashrock and pulsing faintly with molten veins.The shard in Kael’s chest flared at the sight, as though recognizing its place. He grit his teeth, clamping a hand over his breastbone.“They’re not just camping,” Thorne murmured. His voice was hushed, but heavy. “That’s a rite. Look how the fires are spaced. They’ve woven a circle—large enough to anchor a crown.”Mira’s face paled. “The Hollow Crown.”Kael nodded grimly. “They mean to reforge it.”Every step of their march had led to this—the burning villages, the mirror sigils carved into the earth, the hosts bearing false marks. It was all preparation for the ritual unfolding
Chapter 23: The Ashen March
The shard would not stay quiet.Even sealed beneath seven wards in the heart of the Vanguard’s stronghold, its pulse bled through walls and stone, rattling chains and igniting whispers in Kael’s dreams. When he closed his eyes, he saw it: a jagged crown fragment, molten veins weaving through its black surface, calling him by the name he hated—Vaeren.It had been three nights since the emissary escaped in smoke and ash. Three nights since Kael had refused the shard, only to find it had not refused him. Wherever he walked in the camp, he felt the pull. Like a tether hooked through his ribs. Like a voice that was not quite sound, urging him to finish what others had begun.The Council kept him close. Guards shadowed his steps, though none dared walk too near. To most, he was no longer Kael Ardyn, comrade or protector. He was a question wrapped in fire. A burden. A threat.By the fourth dawn, rumors spread that the Fang were marching openly. Not in shadows, not through infiltrators, but w
Chapter 22: The Hollow Crown
The summons arrived at dawn, carried by a falcon draped in Vanguard colors. Its cry split the smoky silence of the camp, startling Mira awake and driving Seris to her feet before the letter even touched the ground.Seris unrolled the parchment with a practiced motion. Her eyes skimmed the words once, twice, before hardening. She turned to Kael, who had been standing near the edge of the campfire circle, still half-dreaming of chains and flames.“The Vanguard calls you to stand before the Council,” Seris said. Her voice was steady, but Kael heard the undercurrent of strain. “They demand explanation for the fire you now wield.”Kael’s throat felt dry. “Explanation? Or judgment?”Thorne stirred from where he sat hunched over his staff. “The two are often the same, boy. But better to face them in the open than let rumor and fear decide your fate for you.”Kael nodded, though his stomach twisted. In the flames he had wielded against the False Sigil, he had glimpsed both power and ruin. How
You may also like
Skeletal Dragon Avatar
zad133313.5K viewsI am the King of the Undead
Matthew 26.4K viewsREBIRTH OF A WARRIOR
Highpriest 17.9K viewsSupreme Alchemist
Know Micro38.8K viewsVoid Lycan's Advent
Seraphim244 viewsThe Godslayer's Return
Tyna Morrin355 viewsBreaking The Simulation
Kuraii1.1K viewsEvolving Infinitely: SSS-Ranked Talent Awakening
Tenzen359 views