The shrine burned.
Smoke coiled into the sky, dancing with sparks of shattered glyphs and fractured flame wards.
Kael stood in the clearing, heart pounding, eyes blazing with flickers of golden fire. Around him, Serida held her stance — dual blades in hand, cloak torn, blood soaking her sleeve.
Eron's voice echoed from the trees.
"You've grown strong, boy. But strength without surrender is rebellion."
Kael gritted his teeth. "Then I'm a rebel."
They came from all sides.
The Woken.
Elite agents of the Cradle, trained in null-weaving and memory disruption. Fast, silent, merciless. Quen moved first — flickering across the field like a shadow through a storm. Serida intercepted him, her blade flashing bright against the null-blade's sickly hum.
Kael barely blocked Thess's strike, but her flute whistled with sonic disruption, making his vision blur.
"Kael!" Serida shouted. "Break the ground! Use it now!"
He stomped.
Flame erupted — ancient runes beneath the shrine responded to his blood, the scroll lighting up in the tent like a living pulse. The earth split, a wall of fire and smoke erupting into the sky.
But it wasn't enough.
A needle of memory-magic struck Serida from behind.
She gasped — paralyzed.
Kael saw her fall.
And something broke.
---
Inside him, the flame screamed.
But it wasn't just the Devourer.
It was Kael.
The scroll burned against his chest. His voice echoed without sound. Symbols etched into his arms — old, forgotten, primordial.
His skin shimmered like molten glass, hair floating, eyes glowing brighter than flame.
"You won't take her," he said.
The Woken faltered.
Even Eron stepped back.
Kael moved — not with control, but with sheer force. The earth buckled beneath him. Two Woken vanished in a wave of heat and memory collapse. Quen's null-weave shattered on contact with Kael's hand.
But it was still too wild.
Thess struck him with a binding chain of soulsteel — and he screamed as his body seized. Riven emerged then, cloaked in shadow, driving a blade deep into Kael's side.
"Enough," Riven said. "You've shown us all we need."
Kael collapsed, vision fading.
---
He woke in chains.
Heavy ones. Bound by memory locks and old blood magic.
His wrists burned. His magic felt distant.
Serida was gone.
No—taken. He didn't know.
But she lived.
She had to.
Kael closed his eyes.
"I'll burn this world before I lose anyone again," he whispered.
And deep inside his soul, something ancient stirred.
Watching.
Waiting.