The Stormcrown Peaks stabbed upward like lightning-frozen claws black rock veined with silver quartz that caught every flash of thunder. Storms never truly ended here; clouds boiled perpetual, lightning arcing between summits in endless, blinding webs. The air tasted of ozone and wet stone. Wind howled so loud it drowned thought.
Elara, Thorne, Seraphine, and the five warriors climbed a narrow goat path carved into the cliff face. Ropes of woven kelp Seraphine's craft secured them to one another. The resonance pulled them toward the highest peak: Stormcrown itself, a jagged spire crowned by a shattered observatory where the fifth fragment waited.
Lightning struck close too close. Rock exploded in a shower of sparks. Thorne shielded Elara with a wing; the impact scorched feathers but did not burn.
"Keep moving!" Seraphine shouted over the gale. "The fragment feeds on the storm. The longer we linger, the stronger it grows."
They reached a ledge halfway up. A cave mouth yawned dark, lit only by intermittent violet flashes from within. The resonance sang discordant, almost frantic.
Inside, the cave widened into a vast chamber. Lightning rods of quartz jutted from walls and floor, channeling storm energy into a central platform. Atop it hovered the fifth fragment: a storm made flesh swirling cloud and lightning shaped like a towering queen, crown of crackling bolts, eyes twin thunderheads.
Anchor, it boomed voice like rolling thunder. You bring more to witness your fall.
Seraphine stepped forward staff raised. "You are not my queen. You are what devoured her voice."
The storm-queen laughed lightning forking through the chamber. I am what she feared to become. Power without silence. Power without end.
Thorne's wings flared. "Then end quietly."
He launched curse-flame roaring against the storm winds. Lightning answered bolts striking his scales, forcing him to twist mid-air. Elara channeled Temporal Anchor time slowing around the strikes just enough for him to evade.
Seraphine wove violet barriers deflecting lightning back toward the fragment. Her warriors formed a perimeter, blades glowing with minor echo wards.
The storm-queen descended winds whipping into tornadoes. You cannot bind lightning.
Elara felt the fragment's core tied to the observatory's lightning rods, feeding on the eternal storm. "The rods," she shouted. "Destroy them!"
Thorne dove talons raking the first rod. Sparks exploded; the storm faltered for a heartbeat.
Seraphine joined him staff channeling violet energy to shatter another. Warriors attacked the rest blades clashing against quartz.
The storm-queen roared winds intensifying. Lightning struck Seraphine throwing her back. She hit the wall hard, staff cracking.
Elara rushed to her side golden chains wrapping the wound, staunching violet burns.
Seraphine coughed blood flecked with light. "Finish it… for all of us."
Elara nodded turning back to the fragment.
Thorne had cleared the last rod. The storm weakened winds dying, lightning dimming.
Elara channeled everything: Queen's Chorus, Voice of Silence, Temporal Anchor. Golden chains erupted wrapping the storm-queen, muting its thunder, slowing its movements.
Thorne added curse-flame black fire burning through the chains, searing the core.
The fragment convulsed lightning arcing wildly, then fading.
With a final, deafening crack, it shattered storm dissipating, violet light winking out.
A fifth shard fell absorbed.
[Devourer Fragment (Storm Queen) – Neutralized][Eternal Resonance Upgraded: Storm Ward – Temporary resistance to lightning/electrical attacks. Current count: 6/7 detected.]
Seraphine rose leaning on her cracked staff. "One left."
Elara looked east toward the final pull. The resonance thrummed urgent, almost desperate.
"The core remnant," Thorne said quietly. "It's calling everything home."
The chamber grew still only distant thunder now, soft and retreating.
They stepped back into the storm calmer, but not gone.
Six fragments down.
One remained.
And it waited at the edge of the world.
[End of Chapter 8 – Volume 2]