Chapter 57
They left Vorthal-Teyn behind — but it did not truly leave them. Each step Nezutsu took through the bone-lined exit felt like dragging a chain of invisible weight. The world outside was no longer as it had been.
The sky had dimmed.
The wind no longer whispered.
And far in the distance, a thunderstorm brewed, but it did not flash with lightning — it flashed with falling thrones.
Return to the Surface
Kaelith and Eshryn helped Nezutsu into a grove shaped like a spiral crater — the same place they had once entered the catacombs. The earth was scorched. Trees were cracked. The silence was unnerving.
"Something's wrong," Eshryn murmured.
Kaelith looked up. "The storm… it's not clouds. It's power vacuums. Thrones are collapsing."
Suddenly, the sky cracked — not with lightning, but with shattered banners of the gods.
One by one, across the lands, ancient magical thrones once held by celestial houses were breaking apart.
"Someone is toppling the divine seats," Nezutsu whispered.
"Not someone," Kaelith said. "You started it."
Subplot: The Scholar from the Broken Moon
As they fled the crater, a strange figure awaited them at the next ridge — robed in luminous silk that shimmered like falling snow.
She had one eye made of living crystal and one made of void.
"Nezutsu," she said, voice echoing like a chime, "do you remember me?"
"No."
"Then it is true. The Moon's curse is still active. You were supposed to be my student."
Her name was Serapheia D'mune, the last surviving Lorekeeper from the Broken Moon Citadel — a hidden sky temple destroyed during the war of the Second Dawn.
She had once taught all Celestial Candidates… including the gods.
"I bring a warning," she said. "The thrones are falling because one has returned: the Thronebreaker."
Nezutsu narrowed his eyes. "That's a title from the forbidden histories."
"No longer forbidden. They are now prophecy."
The Thronebreaker Rises
From Serapheia, they learned a chilling truth: Nezutsu's act of shattering his mirrored self had created a ripple — a reality shift strong enough to awaken a sealed soul.
The Thronebreaker was not a king or a tyrant, but a former Celestial Architect who had built the first thrones — then shattered his own in rebellion.
"He was erased from memory," Serapheia explained. "And now he returns. The gods cannot stop him — because he made them."
Kaelith frowned. "So now Nezutsu has made himself into… what? A catalyst?"
Serapheia looked at him, her void-eye glowing.
"No. He's something far worse. He's a free flame. The only thing the Thronebreaker fears."
Attack of the Silent Ascendants
As they made camp beneath the Skyshard Trees, Serapheia suddenly tensed.
"They found us."
Out of the shadows, tall figures in robes of flickering silence emerged. They wore no symbols. They cast no shadows. Their eyes glowed silver, and their movements made no sound.
"The Silent Ascendants," Eshryn gasped. "God-forged assassins."
Each one was a former mortal, elevated by the divine to enforce silence upon rebellion.
Their weapons: Echoless Blades that absorbed all noise and magic.
Battle erupted.
Kaelith clashed with two at once, each strike of her sword nullified in a strange void of sound. Serapheia summoned moonlight scrolls, twisting gravity around her.
Nezutsu, still recovering, was nearly caught — until his hand instinctively ignited with flame not of fire, but of rejection.
He burned the silence. The blade shattered.
"You cannot silence what was never yours," he growled.
The Thronebreaker's Message
As the last Ascendant fell, a scroll burst into black ash and reformed mid-air. It read:
To the Flame That Refused:
You have sparked the final descent.
I am returning to the surface. When I arrive, the sky will bow.
Burn well, little brother.
— The Thronebreaker
Nezutsu stared at the message, heart pounding.
"Brother?" he whispered.
Serapheia lowered her head. "There's something… I didn't tell you."
The wind howled.
And far to the north, a new sun rose — not of light, but of ash.
[TO BE CONTINUED...]