ONYXSPIRE: THE DESCENT OF CLIVE COLLINS

Chapter 03. The Bloodstained White Mandate

Dawnlight in the Shadowfell Wilds never brought warmth.

The sky merely shifted from pitch black to a suffocating shade of dull gray. Fog slithered between the tree roots like starving ghosts, soaking Kael’s leather cloak and Clive’s ragged clothes with acidic dew that stung against the skin.

Clive woke with violent nausea twisting in his stomach.

The heartbeat inside his pack, so vivid the night before, had faded into a faint pulse now. Yet every time it throbbed, the nerves in his left arm felt stabbed by icy needles.

“Wake up, kid. Don’t act like some sleeping princess. We need to cross the swamp before the sun fully rises,” Kael grumbled while crushing the remaining embers beneath his heavy boots.

Clive forced himself upright, his body stiff and aching.

“Kael... last night, the box...”

“I know,” Kael cut him off sharply.

He looked even more exhausted than yesterday. The lines across his forehead seemed deeper now.

“Don’t talk about it. The less you know about what you’re carrying, the better your chances of staying sane. Now grab your pack. We move.”

[Subject Physical Status: Level 2 Neural Fatigue.]

[WREN Recommendation: Consume additional water. Also stop staring at Kael like he’s your god. Statistics indicate psychological dependence on another individual reduces subject reaction speed by 12%.]

“I’m not dependent, WREN. I just don’t want to die like an idiot,” Clive shot back internally.

They pushed deeper into the forest.

Kael led the way, hacking through thorn-covered branches with his massive axe while Clive followed behind, breathing harder with every step.

The silence felt wrong.

Normally there would be distant screeches from carrion birds or the growls of unseen predators lurking in the woods. But this morning, Shadowfell felt deaf.

“Stop.”

Kael suddenly raised a hand. His entire body stiffened.

Clive froze beside him.

“What is it?”

“That smell... it’s not the forest.”

Kael sniffed the air, eyes narrowing.

“It’s armor cleanser. Jasmine and Lumerian steel.”

Clive’s heart slammed against his ribs.

“You mean pursuers? But Benedict said this mission was secret!”

“Secret to you. Maybe protocol to them.”

Kael tightened his grip on his axe.

“Get behind that tree, Clive. Now!”

Before Clive could move, a sharp whistle split the air.

Fssshhh!

An arrow of light, an energy projectile used only by Lumeria’s military, slammed into the ground in front of Clive’s feet, exploding black mud upward.

From within the fog, a dozen figures emerged.

They wore gleaming white armor radiating faint light against the darkness of the forest around them.

Radiant Guard.

At their center stood an officer draped in a flowing silver cloak. His face was cold and emotionless, like a man hunting rabbits instead of human beings.

“Clive Collins.”

The officer’s voice echoed calmly, yet carried unmistakable menace.

“By the authority of Lumeria and the White Mandate of Lord Benedict Archibald, surrender the Silver Box immediately.”

Clive stood frozen.

“But... Lord Benedict told me to deliver it to Onyxspire! I have the assignment papers!”

The officer smiled faintly.

The sight made the hair rise along Clive’s neck.

“Your task is complete, Porter. You carried the ‘container’ deep enough into Shadowfell that its energy signature could no longer be traced back to the city. Now you are simply an unnecessary witness.”

“Shit... we were set up,” Clive whispered, his voice trembling violently.

[Warning! High-Level Threat Detected.]

[Enemy Count: 12 Radiant Guard Personnel.]

[Victory Probability: 0.0001%. Escape Probability: 2%.]

[WREN Recommendation: Use individual Kael as a distraction and flee toward the ravine at two o’clock.]

“No! I’m not leaving Kael behind!” Clive screamed internally.

“Kid, listen to me,” Kael whispered without taking his eyes off the soldiers. “The second I charge, you run. Don’t look back. Keep running until you find the river.”

“No, Kael! We can fight them!”

“Fight them with what? Your kitchen knife?”

Kael let out a bitter laugh.

“I’m old, Clive. My life’s already stale. But you... you still have a sister to save. Run.”

Without waiting for an answer, Kael roared and charged forward.

His massive axe swung with enough force to split stone.

CRASH!

His first strike slammed against a soldier’s light shield, sending blinding magical sparks exploding outward.

“Kill the old porter. Secure the box,” the officer ordered coldly.

The battle was hopelessly uneven.

Kael fought like a wounded lion, slashing and kicking wildly, but the Radiant Guard moved like trained killing machines. They advanced in formation, thrusting their plasma spears one after another with terrifying precision.

Clive stood paralyzed.

His eyes widened as Kael became surrounded.

A plasma spear pierced through Kael’s thigh, burning flesh with the sickening smell of charred meat. Kael dropped to one knee, yet still managed to swing his axe and sever one pursuer’s leg, spraying fresh red blood across the sacred white armor.

“KAEL!” Clive screamed, tears spilling down his dirt-covered face.

“RUN, YOU IDIOT! NOW!”

Kael’s voice cracked as a blade of light drove through his shoulder.

Clive turned and ran.

His legs felt heavy. His lungs burned. But Kael’s screams kept forcing him forward.

Behind him, he could hear the sounds of flesh being pierced and Kael’s agonized grunts.

“Catch the boy! Don’t let him reach the ravine!”

Clive sprinted through thorn-covered brush that sliced his face and hands open. Bolts of light hissed past his ears, scorching tree branches around him.

[Stamina: 10%. Cardiac Failure Warning.]

[WREN: Subject, if you do not jump now, you will be shot in the back. Ravine directly ahead.]

Clive reached the cliff’s edge.

Below him stretched only endless darkness and the thunderous roar of a waterfall.

He stopped for one second and looked back.

The Lumerian officer stood only ten meters away.

Beside him was Kael.

Kael could no longer move. Both of his arms had been pinned to the ground with spears of light. Blood poured from his mouth, soaking his white beard crimson.

Yet his eyes still stared at Clive.

An expression filled with apology.

And a plea for Clive to survive.

“Goodbye, old Porter,” the officer said as he raised his sword.

Slash.

For Clive, the world stopped turning.

He watched Kael’s head separate from his body in one clean, graceful motion. Blood sprayed through the air, raining red across the mud of Shadowfell.

“NOOOOO!”

Clive’s scream shattered the silence of the forest.

It was no longer a human cry, but the raw howl of a soul breaking apart.

Hatred erupted from deep inside him, flooding through every vein in his body.

At the same moment, the Silver Box on his back began shaking violently. The heartbeat inside exploded into deafening thunder.

“Kill him,” the officer ordered, pointing at Clive.

Three soldiers advanced, plasma spears aimed directly at his chest.

Clive stumbled backward, his foot slipping on the cliff edge slick with blood and snow.

“You’re all... monsters...” Clive whispered.

His eyes darkened as terrifying red began spreading across his irises.

[Emergency Synchronization Initiated...]

[Protocol: Survival at All Costs.]

Just before the first spear reached him, Clive let himself fall backward into the endless abyss.

The wind screamed past his ears, but fear no longer existed inside him.

All he could see was Kael standing tall before his head was severed.

Benedict... Lumeria... I’ll come back.

CRASH! BOOM!

Clive’s body smashed through branches along the ravine wall before slamming into the frozen ground below with the horrifying sound of breaking bones.

He lay motionless.

His left arm had been crushed beneath a massive boulder, blood slowly spreading across the white snow and staining it dark crimson.

Beside him, his porter pack had split open.

The Silver Box rested only inches from his face.

Cracks had begun spreading across the beautiful silver surface.

The pale dawnlight illuminated the bottom of the ravine, revealing a horrifying sight.

A dying young man beside the corpse of the companion who had fallen with him.

And a monster preparing to be born from inside the box.

[Status: Critical.]

[Subject Consciousness: 5%.]

[WREN: Welcome to the real hell, Clive. Now there is only one choice left. Die as a human, or live as a monster.]

Far above, atop the cliff, the Radiant Guard stared down into the abyss.

“He fell into The Maw. Nobody survives down there,” one soldier muttered.

“Search below. We need the box,” the officer commanded. “The corpse doesn’t matter. But that object is Lumeria’s future.”