Sovereign Beyond Creation

Chapter 13

The air inside Catherine’s tower was heavy, smelling of ozone and dried lavender. Outside, the night was rapidly losing its light. 

A thick, ominous shadow began to creep across the surface of the moon. The lunar eclipse—the night when the veil between worlds grew thinnest, had arrived.

Adam stood before Catherine’s massive oak desk. His black coat was still covered in the fine, white dust of the arena sand. He was tired, his muscles aching from the strain of the void-energy he had channeled during the duel, but he stood straight.

Catherine paced the small, circular room. Her movements were erratic, like a bird trapped in a cage. She kept clutching her chest, where the black, smoky rot still pulsed beneath her pale skin.

"Ten hours, Adam," she whispered, her voice cracking. "In ten hours, the eclipse will reach its peak. If the seal isn't broken by then, the corruption will eat my heart completely. I will become a mindless husk of ice and shadow."

Adam looked at her. He saw the genuine fear in her eyes, a fear that no amount of pride could hide. "You told me it was a curse. Who did this to you, Catherine?"

She stopped pacing and looked toward the north window, where the moon was being slowly swallowed by darkness. "My own family," she said, her voice dropping to a hollow whisper. "The Frost-Vein Coven. They are the most powerful ice-mages in the northern kingdoms. My father, the High Elder, wanted to force me into a political marriage with a neighboring Warlord. I refused. I ran away to Bourbon Academy. I thought I was safe here."

She touched her chest, her fingers trembling. "They found me. They placed a Demonic Seal on my heart before I even left the north. It was meant to slowly drain my mana and rot my blood until I was forced to return as a beggar, pleading for their 'cure.' I didn't return. I chose to rot instead."

Adam felt a surge of cold fury. "They are your blood. They did this to you?"

"In the world of high-level magic, blood is just fuel," Catherine said, turning to face him. "Adam, you saved me once in the library, and you saved me again in front of the Inquisition. But this seal is different. It is anchored in blood and demonic essence. To break it, we must be at the fountain in the center of the courtyard during the eclipse. You will have to act as the conduit again. You will have to draw the seal out of me and into the Void."

Adam’s system flickered.

[New Mission: Breaking the Seal.]

[Objective: Assist Catherine Cook in cleansing the Demonic Seal during the eclipse.]

[Time Remaining: 9 Hours, 45 Minutes.]

[Difficulty: Extreme.]

[Warning: The ritual will leave both the Host and the target completely vulnerable.]

"I’ll do it," Adam said firmly.

Catherine looked at him for a long moment, then reached out and placed a hand on his cheek. Her skin was no longer ice-cold. It was warm, alive. "If we fail, Adam, there will be nothing left of us. The seal will explode. Are you sure?"

"I’m sure," Adam said.

They moved quickly. As they descended the stairs of the tower, the Academy felt wrong. The usual hum of student mana was absent. 

The halls were unnaturally quiet. The floating lanterns had flickered out, leaving the corridors shrouded in deep, suffocating shadows.

They reached the courtyard. The great stone fountain in the center was carved into the shape of a weeping angel. 

Tonight, it looked dark, the water inside reflecting the blood-red color of the eclipse-sun.

"Prepare the circle," Catherine said, stepping into the water. She began to chant in a language that sounded like cracking glaciers. The ground around the fountain began to glow with a soft, pale blue light.

Adam knelt at the edge of the fountain, his hands trembling slightly as he opened his mind to the System. He could feel the Void coiled inside him, waiting to be unleashed.

Suddenly, the air in the courtyard tore open.

It wasn't a sound of magic; it was the sound of fabric ripping. A dozen shapes detached themselves from the shadows of the nearby library building. 

They were tall, gaunt figures wearing robes of tattered black silk. Their faces were hidden behind masks of bleached bone.

"Shadow Assassins," Catherine gasped, her chanting breaking off. She stood up, her eyes wide. "They’re not from the Coven. They’re... they’re necromancers!"

"Martinez," Adam hissed, recognizing the lingering stench of the boy’s arrogance on the black energy the assassins leaked. Julian hadn't just sent assassins; he had sold his soul to darker powers to get his revenge.

The assassins didn't speak. They moved in perfect, ghostly unison. They threw dozens of jagged, obsidian daggers toward the fountain.

Adam roared, pushing his hand toward the air. "Void Shield!"

A wall of purple-black smoke erupted, catching the daggers. The blades hissed and melted as they touched the shadow, but the assassins were already moving again. They began to chant, their voices raspy and dry like shifting sand.

"They're summoning something," Catherine warned, her hands glowing with desperate ice. "Adam, stop them! I have to hold the circle, or the seal will kill me instantly!"

Adam lunged forward. He used his Shadow Step to blink into the middle of the attackers. He felt like a lightning bolt made of darkness. He grabbed the nearest assassin by the throat. The creature felt like cold, dry parchment.

Adam squeezed. The assassin didn't bleed; it turned to ash and blew away in the wind. But there were too many.

The assassins reached the center of the courtyard. They stopped and slammed their staff into the ground. 

A massive, pulsing sigil of sickly green light appeared on the stone. The ground began to shake. Huge cracks spread out from the center, and the smell of ancient, rotting earth filled the air.

"Rise," the assassins chanted.

The earth erupted. Huge, yellowed bones burst from the ground—ribs the size of ships, a skull that could crush a carriage, and claws that ripped through the stone like butter. 

A Bone Dragon, a creature of legend that had been dead for a thousand years, pulled itself out of the courtyard floor. Its eyes were hollow sockets filled with flickering, baleful emerald fire.

The creature let out a silent, psychic screech that brought Adam to his knees. It was a monstrosity of raw, dead magic.

Catherine screamed as the dragon’s tail swung, shattering the fountain’s stone base and throwing her into the water. The blue light of her ritual circle flickered and died.

"Catherine!" Adam shouted, scrambling to his feet.

The Bone Dragon lowered its massive, skeletal head toward Adam. It opened its jaws, and a torrent of green, necromantic fire began to build in its throat.

Adam looked at the timer in his vision.

[Time Remaining: 9 Hours, 15 Minutes.]

He looked at Catherine, who was struggling to pull herself from the wreckage of the fountain. He looked at the Bone Dragon, a behemoth that could level the entire Academy with one strike.

He had no sword. He had no army. He only had the hunger of the Void and the desperate need to save the woman who had finally shown him a reason to live.

"You want a fight?" Adam whispered, his eyes turning entirely black. "Fine. Let's see how you taste."

He stepped toward the dragon, his coat snapping in the wind, his hands glowing with a light that made the darkness of the eclipse look like a candle flame. He was ready to consume death itself.