The ground cracked beneath the Bone King's hooves. With each step, its presence seemed to press down on the air itself. This wasn't a beast.
It was a memory.
A myth with bones.
The Crimson Pact forces scrambled into defensive formation, drawing weapons, forming spirit barriers. Vex was already yelling commands, his own serpent-beast hissing beside him with a tail charged for venom strike.
But none of that mattered.
Because the Bone King wasn't looking at them.
It was looking only at Kaden.
Kaela moved in close, whispering sharp and fast. "Kaden, what are you doing? That thing could level a fortress."
"I know," he replied, voice low.
"You're not going to fight it, are you?"
Kaden's hands twitched at his sides. Not with fear—but restraint.
"No," he said. "I think I'm supposed to remember it."
Inside the Flame
The Bone King reared back and bellowed—not a roar of challenge, but of recognition.
Kaden stumbled as something inside him snapped open.
Flashes—
A circular room of steel and glass.
A lab coat shouting, "He's syncing again—pull him out!"
The sound of chains clattering to the floor.
And a boy, younger than he is now, eyes burning like a sun behind storm clouds, staring at a caged creature that mirrored his face.
Back in the present, Hunter stepped forward.
But the Bone King raised one taloned finger and pointed.
Straight at Kaden's chest.
Right where the soulcore lay.
The Pact Beyond Life
The Oathfire hadn't just awakened his link to Hunter. It had torn the seal on a buried pact—a forgotten contract made when Kaden was just a child soldier in Project Chimera.
A test subject.
A failed prototype.
Except… maybe not so failed.
Kaela read the markings etched in glowing dust around the Bone King's feet.
"They say... 'He who broke the leash. He who walks both paths. He who shall inherit the Crown of Feral Kings.'"
Vex scoffed. "Is this supposed to be prophecy, or just a really edgy title?"
Kaela's eyes didn't leave Kaden. "I think it's both."
The Beast's Offer
The Bone King didn't attack.
It kneeled.
And from its ribs, a piece of bone dislodged—a jagged shard, glowing faintly with spirit energy.
A key.
To something ancient.
Something locked in the center of Hollowgate.
Kaela moved to stop Kaden.
"You don't know what that thing wants from you."
He looked at her. Tired. Resolute.
"I do."
He stepped forward, took the shard—and for one terrifying moment, the entire world dropped into silence.
Then the Bone King vanished. Like smoke in the wind.
No fight.
No blood.
Just a riddle left behind in the dust.