2024-10-31 00:59:27
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Chapter 450
Caster stared at the empty clothes lying on the road. A small red shoe. A brown coat. A white baker’s apron.The Tower’s own defenses were actively eating the citizens. The machine was doing exactly what it was built to do. It was balancing the scale, and it was using human lives as weight."This is my fault," Caster whispered. His chest heaved with heavy, painful sobs. "I built the tether. I started this."Suddenly, a massive, deafening sound rolled across the entire city.BONG.The sound was so deep and heavy that it shook the teeth in Caster’s mouth. It rattled the glass in the windows of the houses.BONG.Caster looked up toward the center of the city.High above the spinning, massive helix of ash that wrapped around the Sage Tower, a giant bell was ringing.But it was not a real bell. There was no giant bell in the Tower.It was a magical alarm. It was an ancient spell built into the very bones of the earth. No one alive today had ever heard this sound. Archmage Vane had never he
Chapter 449
The floor of the Grand Foyer broke with the sound of a dying mountain.Caster Spellbound felt the smooth white marble vanish from beneath his boots. Gravity grabbed him violently. He fell forward into the massive, dark crack. The freezing air rushed past his ears. Pieces of broken stone, glass, and gold metal fell with him.He heard the terrified screams of the children above him. He heard Archmage Lysane shout his name. But he could not reach her. The distance was already too great."I will not die here!" Caster roared into the dark.He closed his eyes. He stopped trying to grab the falling rocks. He reached deep into his own chest. He grabbed the heavy, thick power of the Ash Warden that lived inside his soul.He threw both of his hands down toward the bottom of the black pit.A massive blast of dark gray ash shot out of his palms. It did not act like a fire. It acted like a giant, soft pillow. The dark magic hit the ground far below and pushed back up against him. It slowed his fal
Chapter 448
It started at the bottom and tore upward like lightning moving in reverse. Giant blocks of white marble, some the size of houses, exploded outward. They crashed down into the empty courtyards and crushed the beautiful floating gardens below.The ancient blue runes carved into the outside of the Tower flashed one final time. They burned bright, angry red, screaming against the dark magic, and then they shattered into a million pieces of useless glass.More cracks appeared. The base of the Tower was splitting open like the shell of an egg being crushed by a giant hand.And from those massive, deep cracks, the dark did not just leak out.It poured.Thick, heavy clouds of dark gray ash exploded from the broken base of the Tower. It looked exactly like breath coming from a giant, open mouth. The Tower was exhaling the consequence of a thousand years of stolen magic.The ash flooded the streets of the First Ring, burying houses, covering statues, and eating the light. The people screamed a
Chapter 447
The thousands of layered voices spoke just two sentences. "The Covenant is fulfilled."The words vibrated in Caster’s teeth. They bypassed his ears and spoke directly into the marrow of his bones. "My vessel is ready."The voice faded away. The dark black reflections in the glass and the stone remained, but the sound was gone.For one more incredibly long second, the frozen silence held the world tight.In that single frozen second, a terrible, crushing realization hit Caster Spellbound like a heavy iron hammer.He stared into the dark floor. His mind worked furiously, putting all the pieces of the puzzle together.The words were not a threat. A monster makes a threat. A monster says, "I am going to kill you."The Warden did not make threats. The Warden only stated facts.The Covenant is fulfilled.The ancient founders had built a contract. They had chained the Ash Warden to the earth to hold the broken world together. They had built the Tower on top of it. They had fed it the dark wa
Chapter 446
The air inside the Grand Foyer was freezing cold. It was the kind of cold that did not just chill the skin, but bit deep into the bones.Caster Spellbound remained on his knees near the edge of the massive crack in the floor. Archmage Lysane stood behind him, holding the heavy, wrapped book tightly against her chest. Behind them, hundreds of terrified children huddled together. Little Finn held Elara’s hand so tightly his knuckles were completely white.Everyone was perfectly still. Everyone was listening.Thrum.The heavy pulse came from deep below. The giant engine of the Tower, the Mana Core, was no longer pumping bright blue magic. It was pumping the dark, heavy magic of the Ash Warden.Every time the slow heartbeat echoed through the stone walls, the sick, pale gray lights flickered. The shadows in the corners of the large room seemed to grow longer. They seemed to reach out with thin, dark fingers."It has the core," Lysane whispered. Her breath turned into a thick white cloud
Chapter 445
"No," Kael sobbed. He did not want to lose his sadness. The sadness was the only thing he had left of Elara. If he stopped being sad, it meant she was truly gone. "Please. Leave my memories alone."The memories are heavy. The heavy things fall. It is the law.The gray ash crawled up Kael’s neck. It touched his cheeks. It touched his eyes.Kael looked at the giant black void one last time. He finally understood what Caster Spellbound had tried to tell him.This was not a monster. This was a machine built to take away the pain of the world, by taking away the world itself."Elara," Kael whispered.He closed his eyes.He stopped fighting. He let his hands fall to his sides. He surrendered.The consumption was not violent. There was no blood. There was no screaming. There was no tearing of flesh or breaking of bones.It was completely silent.Kael Dorn simply began to lose his solid shape.His heavy boots turned to fine gray dust. His blue Tower coat turned to gray dust. His hands, his ch
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