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The Empress ascend
Author: YATES
last update2025-07-04 13:26:18

The throne room of Velundar trembled.

No one had seen the Empress for days, and rumors churned like storm clouds through the marble corridors. Some said she was dead. Others, that she'd gone mad. But the truth—terrifying and untold—was locked deep within the Temple of the Celestial Flame, beneath the palace, where fire met fate.

Empress Solaria Lux stood before a crystal coffin, encased in flame.

Inside it, the stolen Dragon Core pulsed. Not just any core, but one torn from the sacred vault under Drakar stronghold—smuggled during the Night of Scorching Winds. It had devoured seven mages who tried to contain it. It had cracked reality around it. It whispered.

And Solaria listened.

She had always been beautiful. But now her face shimmered with inhuman radiance, like the sun glimpsed through broken glass. She wore a crimson ceremonial robe, bare feet upon the molten glyphs etched into the obsidian floor. Around her, Void Scribes chanted in a dead language, their skin blackened from expos
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  • Lyra Oath

    The flames licked at the stone altar, casting monstrous shadows on the cracked walls of the Hollowed Sanctuary. Deep beneath the Cradle of Fire, this place was older than the Academy, older than the Empire itself. The ancient runes carved into the walls glowed crimson as if remembering old blood.Lyra knelt at the center, her silver hair cascading down her back like moonlight touched by ash. Her armor was gone, replaced by ceremonial robes of obsidian silk threaded with ember-weave. She looked small there, delicate—until you saw her eyes. Those storm-grey eyes now shimmered with defiance and dread.Rey stood outside the sanctum, unable to enter. Not because he wasn’t allowed—but because the soul-purge ritual could only be undergone alone.A skeletal figure robed in molten gold circled Lyra. The Flamebound Exarch. Once human, now more ember than flesh. His voice crawled like heat through stone."You come to sever your blood. But what if your blood refuses to be severed?"Lyra looked up

  • Moonfall accord

    The cold winds of the Moonspine Mountains howled through the night as Zayne stood at the narrow cliff pass, the crimson cloak of the Flameborne wrapped tightly around his shoulders. Behind him, Emberclaw’s distant hum pulsed through the air like a heartbeat shared by the mountain itself. Every breath he took fogged in the air, but the fire within him burned steadily."They said this was neutral ground," Elira whispered beside him, eyes narrowed as she scanned the black ridge that stretched above them. Her skin was pale from her still-lingering visions, and the streak of silver now threading her hair shimmered beneath moonlight. "I don't trust the silence."Zayne gave a curt nod. "Neither do I."He glanced behind at the rest of their envoy. Only six Flameborne accompanied them—handpicked by Rey for loyalty and discretion. The Cradle had sent scouts to confirm the rumors: the Moonspine rebels had grown more organized, stronger, more mystical. Whispers claimed they no longer answered to

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  • Veins of the Ancients

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