The ruins of the Soul Temple burned behind them, the air thick with smoke and static soul energy. Kael stood at the cliff's edge, blood drying on his cheek, Emberfang buried in the cracked stone beside him.
Five days.
That's all the Gatebind Protocol had bought them.
Five days before Ashen awakened… and the Gate opened.
He glanced back at Elira, who sat mending her shoulder, wincing with each movement. Ashen lay in a faint sleep, surrounded by a protective runic shell Elira had etched using the last of her soul-ink.
"We need reinforcements," Kael said aloud.
"To do what?" Elira snapped. "Fight a war we can't win? They knew where we were, Kael. That means the Hollow King's watching every move."
Kael didn't flinch. "That's why we don't fight his war."
She looked at him, wary. "Then whose?"
---
They camped that night in the ruins of a half-collapsed cavern deep beneath the temple floor. Kael activated a hidden mechanism in his blade, unlocking a map from within Emberfang's core a legacy artifact left by the First Flamebearer.
It glowed faintly, revealing six symbols and a seventh pulsing weakly at the center.
"The Soulforged Titan," Kael whispered. "The last living creation of the First Sealbearers. If we find it, we can tap its core to enhance the tether maybe even stabilize Ashen."
Elira leaned over the glowing glyphs. "That thing's not supposed to exist anymore."
"I'm not supposed to be alive either," Kael said with a bitter smile. "We don't get to play by old rules anymore."
---
Elsewhere…
Serin stood before the Hollow King, head bowed low. Around her, the floor shimmered with captured soul echoes the screams of dozens of past Sealbearers feeding the Gate.
"He's going after the Titan," she reported.
The Hollow King chuckled. "Let him. He'll find only death."
Behind him, the Devouring One's shadow stirred against the seal wall its voice slithering through the chamber like oil on fire.
"Let the boy run. Let him burn. His pain is my opening."
---
Back in the cavern
Ashen stirred.
Kael crouched beside him, watching his breathing steady.
"You awake?"
Ashen opened his eyes slowly. "I had a dream. I was in the Gate. I could see the thing inside. It… wants me. It's not just power it's memory. Rage. Loss."
Kael nodded. "You're not alone in that."
"I don't want to become it, Kael. But I can feel it pieces of me slipping."
Kael placed a hand on his shoulder. "Then we find the Titan. Together."
---
Three days later
The Obsidian Range loomed ahead a mountainous spine of twisted cliffs and storms. Somewhere within its frozen peaks, the Soulforged Titan slept.
As they ascended, Kael's system buzzed.
System Message:
Gatebind Protocol holding.
Tether Integrity: 71%
Proximity to Resonant Node detected.
Elira pointed to a collapsed structure at the cliff's edge.
"A shrine," she said. "But not for gods."
They entered cautiously.
Inside, ancient murals told a forgotten story of a Sealbearer who defied the gods, who sealed a part of his soul inside a machine to stop the war that would end the world.
The Titan.
Suddenly, a pulse shook the earth.
Stone split open.
And from beneath the floor, a massive hand of blackened steel erupted clawed fingers glowing with dormant glyphs.
The Soulforged Titan had awoken.
Its voice boomed through the storm: "Who dares awaken me?"
Kael stepped forward, blade glowing.
"I'm Kael Arin. We're here to stop a god."
The Titan's eyes flared gold.
"Then prove you're worthy."
Its body rose fully thirty feet tall, forged from obsidian and soulmetal, still humming with old war protocols. The mountain cracked beneath it.
"Face the Trial of Purpose," it said. "Or be crushed by your own doubt."
Kael grinned.
"Finally… something honest."