Great—then Chapter 7 will blend after
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Chapter 7: Beneath the Cradle Sky
The battlefield reeked of charred flesh and rune-scorched metal.
Kaelen staggered through the wreckage, one hand pressed to his ribs. Every breath was agony, but he couldn't stop. Not here. Not now. Not when he could feel eyes—not human, not guard—watching from the fractured horizon.
Ash drifted down like snow.
>
—NEW NODE: VOID TRACE —
Kaelen dropped to his knees, overwhelmed.
The system flooded his mind with new pathways. Choices. Power. A web of options unfurled like constellations—each thread representing a potential mutation of his current path.
> Eclipse Ladder – Rung 2: Branch Selection
• Path of Silent Reign – Enhances stealth, allows bound shadows to speak through the host
• Path of Hollow Crown – Grants partial autonomy to bound elites, enables chain-binding
• Path of Living Dusk – Soul begins fusing with Void, host gains passive regeneration in darkness
Kaelen hesitated… then chose:
> Path of Hollow Crown.
A crown of dusk-light flickered briefly above his head before vanishing. The Ashwalker Captain's echo stirred faintly in his shadow, not fully gone—remembered.
And then…
The sky cracked again.
Not with thunder, but with laughter.
A chorus of voices echoed through the ruined plaza—layered, ancient, wrong.
"A Sovereign rises before his time. So early. So raw. Shall we greet him, brothers?"
From the broken sky, a tear of darkness opened.
And three figures stepped through—draped in tattered cloaks made of stars and smoke, each bearing a mark more ancient than gods:
The First Eclipseborn.
Kaelen's shadow trembled.
And for the first time since bonding the Core, he felt something deeper than