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CHAPTER 72
The rising waters beneath the Sun-Slayer surged with violent momentum, thrusting the heavy black-oak warship forward through the thick fog like a wooden projectile. They had breached the perimeter of the Leviathan’s Graveyard.Above them, the sky churned without a breath of wind, painted in bruised purples and pitch black. Crackling ribbons of unnatural black lightning split the clouds, casting harsh, shadowless flashes over the water. Ancient leviathan ribcages, fossilized to stone and large enough to swallow small galleys whole, breached the surface alongside razor-sharp coral reefs that glistened with dark, oil-like slime."Hard to port!" Julian screamed from the helm, his boots skidding across the slick wooden deck as he threw his entire weight against the heavy oak wheel. "Brace for impact!"The Sun-Slayer groaned in protest, her runic steel keel scraping against a submerged reef with a sound that vibrated straight through the crew’s teeth. Water erupted in white plumes over
CHAPTER 71
The war room in the grand naval docks smelled of damp pine, old parchment, and stale tea. Maps of the continent were strewn across the massive oak table, weighed down by brass inkwells and dented iron compasses. Around it stood the Julian, his hands resting on the pommels of his twin daggers; Lyra, leaning heavy against her broadshield; Alysia, idly tuning her recurve bowstring; and Corvus, peering through his rimless spectacles at the sprawling borderlands.The door swung open and Every eye snapped to the doorway. Jayd stood in the entrance, shadowed against the grey morning light. He had been gone for three days—no word, no track. The golden radiance that usually clung to his shoulders like a mantle was utterly extinguished. He looked hollowed out, his jaw stubbled and hard, his dark eyes unnaturally calm."Jayd," Lyra breathed, taking a half-step forward, relief breaking across her weathered face before catching herself. "Where in the hells have you been?"Jayd didn't answer. He
CHAPTER 70
Jayd had vanished before the dust settled over the sunken palace grounds.He had left no message, no track for Lyra’s sharp eyes to follow, and no lingering trace of his divine aura. The once-blazing guardian of Midgard, whose presence had held back the dark had retreated into the cold isolation of his own shattered mind.In a forgotten, windowless stone watchtower perched high on the northern cliff-faces overlooking the marshlands, Jayd sat in complete darkness. Jayd stared at his calloused hands in the dim moonlight filtering through the arrow-slits. For the first time since inheriting his Valhalla core, he felt nothing—no warmth, no divine certainty, only a hollow, suffocating emptiness that threatened to crush his chest.Naj’s mocking laughter still echoed in his ears, louder than the howling wind outside. He had played the dutiful champion, marching where he was needed, bleeding for every village, saving every soul he could reach. And every single step had been calculated by
CHAPTER 69
The blinding pillar of solar light from the Aegis-Breaker cut through the subterranean chamber, driving back the shadows and searing the front rank of the Abyssal knights into smoldering husk and ash. Yet, on the blood-stained altar, Lord Naj did not flinch. He merely watched Jayd step over the smoking remains of the dark juggernauts, a look of profound, agonizing pity settling into his cold, crimson eyes."Look at you," Naj said softly, his voice effortlessly overriding the deafening roar of the magma-veined Titan clawing its way from the abyss. "So resolute and noble. Stepping forward to play your part."Naj took a slow, deliberate step down the altar stairs, crossing his massive, shadow-encased arms over his chest. He looked down at Jayd not as a rival general, nor as a mortal enemy, but as a man watching a child build castles in the mud while the tide came in."You never understood the difference between fighting a war and putting on a show."Jayd’s knuckles turned white agains
CHAPTER 68
High atop the blood-carved altar, Lord Naj stepped forward beside the Magistrate. The shadow-plate encasing his massive arm shifted with an oily, unnatural slickness, the obsidian crystals grinding together like breaking bones. He looked down at Jayd standing alone in the center of the arena floor and his face twisted into a mocking sneer."Look at you," Naj rumbled, his voice carrying the deep, grinding resonance of sliding tectonic plates. "Standing there in your polished bronze, holding the dead sword of a forgotten age. You truly believed you were a hero, didn't you? A champion marching to shatter the darkness."Naj let out a harsh, barking laugh that echoed off the vaulted stone tiers, drawing cruelly amused chuckles from the hundreds of hooded cultists perched in the galleries."You fought so hard across the eastern reaches, Jayd. You bled at Oakhaven. You breached our lines. You ran yourself ragged trying to save every pathetic, worthless soul in your path," Naj taunted, le
CHAPTER 67
The cold dampness of the royal drainage pipes yielded to a suffocating, unnatural heat as the party ascended into the high catacombs beneath the palace foundation. The air here was dense, smelling of copper, scorched marrow, and the dry, powdery dust of ancient mausoleums.Passing through a shattered set of ancient oak doors, they stepped into a vast, subterranean necropolis that stretched into the blackness. The vaulted stone ceilings were held up by pillars of carved obsidian, but the ancient burial niches had been repurposed for a far more sinister end.Rank upon rank of glowing, chrysalis-like shadow pods clung to the walls and floor like monstrous hornets' nests. Inside each translucent, pulsing membrane hung a, commoners from the outer districts, imperial guards in tarnished armor, and merchants still clad in their traveling cloaks. They suspended in a dark, gel-like fluid, their eyes closed, their chests rising and falling in slow, unnatural rhythms as faint threads of gold
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