The Bound rushed from the shadows — snarling beasts wrapped in cracked armor, their faces half-melted beneath rusted helms. Chains dragged behind them, clinking like funeral bells. Their eyes, if they had any left, glowed with a sickly green fire.
Kael didn't hesitate.
He surged forward like a crimson tempest, Ashrend's reforged blade gleaming with twin edges of shadow and light. His first strike tore through a Bound knight's torso, severing chainmail and cursed flesh alike. The enemy's scream was short — silenced by a flash of black lightning that scorched the ground behind it.
"Darric, left flank!" Kael shouted.
Darric's greatsword met another Bound's cleaver mid-air. The impact cracked stone beneath their feet. "I've got this one!" he roared.
Lyra danced between two opponents, twin daggers flashing like silver serpents. She moved fast — too fast — tracing sigils of arcane disruption in the air as she cut tendons and dodged strikes that should've split her in half.
"They just keep coming!" she called out.
"No," Kael muttered. "They're not endless. They're desperate."
One of the larger Bound, wielding a jagged war hammer fused to its arm, charged Kael with inhuman speed. The air rippled behind it like heat waves. Kael raised Ashrend and whispered:
"Cleave the Fallen — Crimson Vein."
A pulse of red surged from the blade, spiraling outward in a vortex. The hammer-wielding creature was caught mid-swing. Time slowed.
And then the world snapped back with a thunderous boom — the creature was split down the middle, its body unraveling into ashes.
Darric whistled. "That new form of yours packs a punch."
Kael didn't respond. His eyes scanned the darkness. Something wasn't right.
The chamber trembled.
From the deepest part of the sanctum, something stirred. A heavy thud echoed. Then another. The floor cracked as a gate beneath the altar was torn open by unseen hands.
Out of it crawled a giant.
Ten feet tall, hunched in blackened armor, a massive cleaver fused to its spine. Its face was hidden by a melted knight's mask — and where its heart should have been, a shard of glowing obsidian pulsed like a heartbeat.
Lyra's face paled. "That's not a Bound."
Kael gritted his teeth. "No. That's one of the Fused."
The Fused were legends — souls of fallen warriors and cursed relics melded into living engines of torment by Sovereign sorcery. Hard to kill. Harder to forget.
The creature bellowed a guttural sound that shook dust from the rafters. Then it charged.
Kael didn't wait.
He sprinted to meet it, cloak trailing like fire behind him. His sword crackled with energy — red lightning licking the stone floor as he closed the gap.
They collided.
A shockwave erupted — Lyra was thrown back, and Darric had to brace against a pillar to stay upright. Stone shattered under the weight of the clash.
Kael ducked a wide swing of the creature's cleaver, slashing upward and carving a deep gouge into its chest. But it didn't slow. Instead, the Fused backhanded him with enough force to dent his pauldron and send him skidding across the ground.
"KAEL!" Lyra shouted.
Kael coughed blood but stood. "I'm fine."
Ashrend pulsed.
"Reap the forgotten. Exile the cursed."
He narrowed his eyes and whispered:
"Crimson Execution — Severance Arc."
In a blur, Kael vanished.
The Fused roared, looking around—
Then Kael reappeared mid-air above it — blade reversed — and brought Ashrend down in a violent arc of searing red light. The strike landed squarely across the creature's neck.
For a moment, nothing.
Then — with a sickening crunch — the cleaver-wielding monster was beheaded.
Its body stumbled.
Collapsed.
Silence.
Ashrend's blade still hummed as Kael landed. His eyes glowed faintly as he turned toward the rest of the chamber.
The Bound had stopped. Watching.
Then, without warning, they fled — scattering into the shadows like roaches from fire.
Kael exhaled and finally spoke.
"They were guarding that shard. The Sovereign knew we'd come."
Lyra approached slowly. "So what now?"
Kael turned toward the now-exposed gate, where faint winds whispered from deep underground.
"Now we go deeper."