The climb down from the Obsidian Range was quiet.
Too quiet.
Kael, Elira, and Ashen moved swiftly across the jagged valley paths, the Soulforged Titan now slumbering beneath the mountain its energy embedded in Kael's body. Though victorious in the Trial of Purpose, the cost of what lay ahead weighed heavier than ever.
The wind howled low and angry, like a warning.
Kael adjusted the new soulplate grafted over his left arm part of the Titan's gift. Its lines pulsed with an inner light, warm yet unfamiliar.
System Notice:
Soul Engine Core Stabilized
Tether Integrity: 88%
Next Anchor: Location Unknown. Recommend Soultrace Activation.
"We've got four days," Kael muttered. "That's not time it's a countdown."
Ashen stumbled but caught himself. "I'm still holding... but the voice is louder. It knows we've slowed it, and it's not happy."
Kael nodded. "Then we stay ahead."
Elira walked beside them silently.
But something was off.
---
They stopped to camp beneath an old sky-arch one of the last remaining Sealbearer pylons that marked soul leyline intersections. As Kael set the glyph wards, he glanced toward Elira. She hadn't spoken in hours.
"Elira," Kael said. "Something's wrong."
She looked at him. Then at Ashen.
And then, finally, she sighed.
"I've been hiding something. Since the beginning."
Ashen stirred. "What do you mean?"
Elira stepped forward and removed the pendant from around her neck an obsidian shard with an ancient, faded rune. As she turned it in her hand, the glyph glowed faintly gold.
Kael's system buzzed.
> Relic Identified: First Gate Sigil Fragment
> Cross-referencing... Soulline match: Elira Veyna - Descendant of Lysera Veyna, The Sealmother.
Kael's breath caught.
"You're…?"
Elira nodded. "My ancestor was the one who opened the First Gate."
---
(Flashback: 3,000 Years Ago)
A woman in white and flame Lysera Veyna stood before the first seal circle. Behind her, the other Sealbearers begged her to reconsider. But Lysera's voice rang clear:
"We bind what we don't understand. I would rather know what we fear."
The Gate cracked open.
And something reached through.
A being of void and hunger.
Lysera vanished inside and the war began.
---
"I've carried the guilt of that legacy my whole life," Elira said, voice trembling. "The Veyna line was nearly wiped out. But my mother… she taught me to make it right. That's why I joined the resistance."
Kael stared at her.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because if this failed if Ashen lost control you'd hesitate to stop me too. I had to make sure I was a soldier first."
Silence hung in the air.
Then Kael nodded. "Thanks for telling me. Now let's end what she started."
---
Elsewhere…
Serin stood atop a mountain ridge, flanked by two Inquisitors. Before them, a soul-chained prisoner trembled on her knees an oracle with empty sockets, once bound to the Temple of Whispers.
"She saw them find the Titan," Serin said. "But now she speaks of a second awakening."
The oracle whispered:
"The Sixth Node stirs…
The boy is not the only key."
The Inquisitors froze.
Serin narrowed her eyes. "Another? Where?"
The oracle smiled blood on her lips.
"She walks among them already."
---
Back at the sky-arch, Kael finished reactivating the ancient Seal pylon using Titan energy. A ripple of power extended through the leyline and deep underground, across the continent, other pylon glyphs flickered awake for the first time in centuries.
A map of the old Sealbearer network appeared.
Kael marked one point glowing bright crimson.
"Ashen's soulline is reacting to this node. That's where the next tether anchor is," he said. "And it's moving."
Elira scanned the glowing lines.
"That's the Ruined Cradle. A fallen Sealbearer fortress… overrun by Devourer spawn decades ago."
Kael looked at Ashen.
"You up for a trip into hell?"
Ashen grinned weakly. "Long as you've got my back."
---
They set off at dawn.
Above them, the skies darkened as the Hollow King's fortress began to rise an airborne citadel of bone and soulsteel, circling like a predator drawn to flame.
And far beneath the surface, sealed beneath a forgotten temple, something ancient stirred...
Not Devourer.
Not Sealbearer.
But Original.