The city of Viremont no longer felt like home.
By dawn, Dominion banners hung from every tower. Silver-armored patrols marched through the streets, scanning citizens with detection sigils that pulsed faintly blue whenever latent magic stirred. Kael watched from the shadow of a collapsed bell tower, cloak drawn low, the mark on the back of his hand concealed beneath leather wraps.
They were searching for him.
But the Dominion was not the only force that had sensed the awakening.
Magic traveled like ripples in deep water. And something darker had begun moving beneath the surface.
Kael adjusted the satchel slung over his shoulder — inside were his father's star charts, the meteorite shard (now cracked but still faintly luminous), and a leather-bound journal filled with fragmented equations. Among the scribbles was a name written repeatedly in black ink:
The Obsidian Covenant.
A faction older than the Dominion. Secretive. Ruthless. Devotees of shadow-alchemy — a branch of magic that did not draw from natural elements, but from absence itself.
Void manipulation.
Where elemental mages summoned fire, wind, or water, Covenant adepts manipulated entropy.
And according to his father's notes, they possessed one of the Treasure fragments.
Kael exhaled slowly.
"If they have a fragment," he muttered, "then they have part of the Final Formula."
He moved.
The Covenant did not dwell in palaces or towers. They thrived beneath cities — in forgotten tunnels, catacombs, and abandoned aqueducts. Kael descended through a broken drainage arch near the eastern wall of Viremont, stepping into darkness that swallowed even the sound of his breathing.
He whispered softly:
"Formula Five: Lumen Minor."
A sphere of soft golden light formed above his palm.
Unlike fire, Lumen Minor was harmless — a structured illumination equation built from light essence and steady breath. It required precision rather than emotion.
His footsteps echoed as he advanced deeper underground.
The temperature dropped.
Then he felt it.
A distortion in the air — subtle but unmistakable.
Void residue.
Before he could react, shadows peeled away from the walls and formed into figures.
Three of them.
Black cloaks. Masks carved from obsidian stone. Their presence absorbed light rather than reflected it.
One stepped forward.
Obsidian Covenant
"We were wondering when the marked heir would find us," the masked figure said, voice distorted as though spoken through layered echoes.
Kael extinguished the light sphere.
"You have something that belongs to me."
A soft chuckle rippled among them.
"Belongs?" the leader repeated. "Power belongs only to those who solve it."
The air thickened.
Kael felt the mark on his hand pulse — reacting to something nearby.
A fragment.
Definitely.
"Where is it?" Kael demanded.
Instead of answering, the Covenant leader raised a gloved hand.
"Formula: Nihil Grasp."
The darkness beneath Kael's feet liquefied. Black tendrils shot upward, attempting to bind his legs.
Void magic did not burn or freeze.
It erased.
Kael reacted instantly.
"Formula Six: Ignis Spiral!"
Flames erupted around him in a rotating vortex. Fire clashed against shadow — sparks and ash exploding in violent bursts. The void tendrils recoiled, hissing like living creatures.
The tunnel shook.
The two flanking Covenant adepts began chanting in unison.
Kael recognized the pattern too late.
Triangular formation.
Entropy compression.
"Formula Seven: Umbra Collapse."
The shadows converged into a dense sphere above him — a gravity-like anomaly that pulled debris, air, and light inward.
Kael dropped to one knee, calculating rapidly.
Void magic consumed energy.
Fire alone would not counter it.
He needed opposition — not heat.
Structure.
Balance.
He grabbed the cracked meteorite shard from his satchel and slammed it against the stone floor.
"Formula Eight: Caelum Anchor!"
Blue-white celestial lines shot outward in geometric patterns, stabilizing the collapsing sphere. The meteorite fragment resonated with the mark on his hand.
For a brief moment, the void and the celestial force balanced perfectly.
The Covenant leader's head tilted.
"Interesting…"
Kael stood, sweat dripping from his brow.
"You have the fragment," he said again.
The leader reached into his cloak.
And withdrew a small crystalline shard — pitch black, yet faintly pulsing with red veins of light.
Kael's mark flared in response.
There it was.
A Treasure Fragment.
Even from several meters away, he could sense encoded equations radiating from it — symbols layered in impossible complexity.
The Covenant leader held it up.
"This fragment contains the Second Variable," the figure said. "Your awakening granted you the First."
Kael's pulse quickened.
Variables.
So the Final Formula required multiple components — each stored in different fragments.
"How many fragments exist?" Kael asked.
The leader paused.
"Seven."
Of course.
Seven was the number of celestial alignment cycles in Elyndor's ancient cosmology.
Seven variables.
One equation.
Infinite power.
The two adepts resumed chanting, preparing another void compression.
Kael made a decision.
Reckless.
Necessary.
He bit into his palm, drawing fresh blood.
The Covenant leader's tone shifted slightly.
"You would invoke blood amplification here?"
Kael's eyes hardened.
"Formula Nine: Sanguis Ignition."
He slammed his bleeding hand onto the ground.
Fire erupted — not outward, but inward. Compressing. Intensifying. Feeding on his life force.
Blood amplification multiplied magical output at the cost of physical stability.
Pain lanced through his veins.
The flames turned white.
The tunnel walls cracked.
The void sphere above him destabilized violently.
The Covenant adepts faltered.
Kael launched himself forward through the collapsing distortion, flames trailing behind him like wings.
The leader reacted instantly.
"Umbra Veil!"
Shadows surged defensively — but Kael's amplified fire tore through the veil in a blinding explosion.
The shockwave blasted all four of them backward.
Stone collapsed from the ceiling.
Dust filled the tunnel.
Kael hit the ground hard, vision swimming.
The blood amplification was already taking its toll — his heartbeat erratic, muscles trembling.
Across the chamber, the Covenant leader rose slowly.
The fragment still clutched in their hand.
Impressive resilience.
Then something unexpected happened.
The fragment pulsed violently.
Not toward the Covenant.
Toward Kael.
The leader stared at it in disbelief.
"No… it has not completed compatibility testing—"
The shard ripped free from the leader's grasp and shot across the chamber like a meteor.
It struck the mark on Kael's hand.
Light exploded outward.
Symbols burned into the air — ancient runes assembling themselves in rotating layers around him.
He screamed as knowledge forced itself into his mind.
The Second Variable.
Encoded within the fragment:
V₂ = Umbra Controlled Through Celestial Constant
Void energy could not simply be opposed.
It had to be regulated through celestial anchoring.
Balance.
Not destruction.
The flames around Kael dimmed instinctively.
He understood.
With shaking hands, he whispered:
"Formula Ten… Umbra–Caelum Equilibrium."
The celestial lines from the meteorite shard reformed — but this time, instead of repelling the void, they integrated it.
Black and blue light intertwined.
The oppressive gravity lifted.
The Covenant adepts staggered backward.
The leader lowered their mask slightly, revealing sharp eyes filled not with rage — but fascination.
"You solved partial integration in seconds…"
Kael stood slowly.
The black fragment fused partially into the sigil on his hand, forming a second ring around the star.
Two variables acquired.
Five remaining.
The tunnel began collapsing entirely now.
The Covenant leader stepped back into shadow.
"This changes the board," the figure said. "The Dominion will not be your greatest obstacle."
"And you?" Kael asked.
A pause.
"We will observe."
The Covenant members dissolved into darkness just as the ceiling gave way.
Kael sprinted through falling debris, lungs burning.
He burst out of the drainage arch into the early morning light as the tunnel sealed behind him in a thunderous collapse.
He dropped to one knee, breathing heavily.
The mark on his hand now pulsed with dual energy — red and black interwoven.
Fire and void.
Balanced.
For now.
He stared at his trembling fingers.
"Seven variables…" he whispered.
If the Covenant held one.
If the Dominion sought another.
Then other factions must possess the remaining fragments.
The Sea Wraiths.
The Ember Throne.
And something else his father had hinted at — a sealed vault beneath the ocean.
Far away, beyond the mountains, thunder rolled despite clear skies.
Somewhere deep under black water, a colossal eye opened.
And in the Citadel of Silver, Lord Valerius knelt before a towering mirror of living mercury.
"The heir has bonded with two variables," Valerius said.
The mirror shimmered.
A distorted voice echoed:
"Then accelerate Phase Dominion."
Valerius bowed his head.
"Yes… Sovereign."
Back in the streets of Viremont, Kael rose slowly.
He had claimed two fragments in one night.
But power was not victory.
It was invitation.
The Century Treasure was no longer a myth.
It was assembling.
And the equation was beginning to choose its solver.
Kael wrapped his hand again and stepped into the awakening city.
Five variables remained.
And the war for the Final Formula had officially begun.