The sun rose red behind smoke as Kael walked into the ruins of Lysborne a city once known for its temple bells now silent now broken now buried beneath vines and vengeance
Vael walked beside him her sword dragging a line in the dust not from fatigue but ritual
Needle stayed close holding tight to the leather strap Kael had tied around his wrist a child's tether in a world without mercy
The city was quiet too quiet not the quiet of peace but the silence before something terrible returns
Kael knelt near the edge of an old square where bones still lay scattered
Their armor bore the sigil of House Graven once lords now dust
He remembered their betrayal
Remembered the way they knelt before the Demon King when the flames fell
These bones weren't victims they were traitors
They passed through the cathedral gate where once light poured now shadows pulsed in steady rhythms like breathing
Inside the air was thick with rot and old hymns sung by nothing
A voice rose from the altar
So the Ash-Walker comes not to pray but to bury
Kael stepped forward
I've buried gods and kings your bones won't slow me
The speaker emerged robed in white but with no eyes only a smooth burned mask where a face should be
The Bell Priest
One of the Demon King's faithful
He raised a hand and from the pews they rose not worshippers but corpses cracked with flame and bound by holy chains
Vael did not wait she charged with a scream so raw it peeled the silence
Kael followed his blade drawn black with ash and memory
The battle tore through the cathedral as bells cracked and walls bled
Needle hid in the broken confessional clutching a blade too big for him but he did not run
Kael's sword burned as it struck chain and bone each blow a hymn to rage
Vael was a fury beside him a storm in armor bloodied but unbending
When the Bell Priest fell he whispered not in pain but in prophecy
He waits for you Kael beneath the shattered throne
Then he crumbled like ash in wind
Kael stood breathing hard bones all screaming blood like thunder in his ears
Vael touched her shoulder where blood ran
You've got demons chasing you
I've got one chasing me Kael said
And I intend to catch him
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Mini Side Story – The Priest Who Stayed
Before the bells fell and the city burned the Bell Priest had a name
Erian
He was not a faithful man but he believed in the rhythm of life in the sound of bells guiding the dying to peace
When the Demon King came he offered a choice serve or be silenced
Erian chose silence
But the Demon King took his eyes gave him sight in chains
He rang the bells even as they burned even as the people screamed and when his hands broke the chains rang for him
They say the cathedral still echoes with those sounds
Not prayer not song
Just regret and ringing