Chapter 14: Generals of the Abyss

Abyss Order’s fortress was no longer just a stronghold—it had become a living organism.

Void roots twisted through the foundations. Walls whispered in forgotten tongues. The Rift Engine pulsed like a heartbeat, its rhythm syncing with Kael Draven’s breath.

And Kael—reborn as the Voidborne Rider—was building something even more dangerous than his army.

He was building his inner circle.

Deep below the fortress, in a ritual chamber lit by abyssal flame, Kael stood before three figures.

Not soldiers. Not followers.

But monsters. Each broken, then remade.

Selene stepped forward first. Once a swordswoman exiled for defying her noble house, she had become Kael’s most loyal shadow. Her blade now crackled with voidsteel, and her armor shimmered with refracted dimensions.

Kael extended a shard of living abyssal crystal. “Do you still trust me?”

Selene didn’t hesitate. She pressed it to her chest. The crystal vanished beneath her skin.

Screams. Then silence.

When she rose again, her eyes glowed the color of collapsing stars.

“General Selene – Abyssblade.”

Next came Myrr, the demon who had once clawed her way from the Underhells to escape her chains. She grinned as the void energy licked at her skin.

“I’ve already made a pact with hell,” she said. “Let’s see how this one tastes.”

The crystal shattered as it entered her—a chaotic burst of energy reshaping her horns, her limbs, her voice. Tentacles of arcane ink flowed from her tattoos, wrapping her like armor.

“General Myrr – Voidcaller.”

The third was Varek, the engineer and alchemist who had first helped Kael bind Rider tech to Arcanis’s laws of magic. Now, he stood before the Rift Engine—ready to merge with it.

He didn’t speak.

He simply connected.

The machine surged, rewriting Varek’s very biology. His limbs reshaped into hybrid conduits of flesh and circuitry. Tubes pumped liquid void through his spine.

“General Varek – Riftmind.”

Kael surveyed them all.

“You are the first. But more will come. We need weapons not just of war—but of fear.”

Selene asked, “What’s the next target?”

Kael turned, summoning a shimmering map of Arcanis.

“The Heartspire,” he said.

The towering city-fortress of the Arcane Union. A symbol of magical control. Their seat of power.

Lyra, watching from the shadows, raised an eyebrow. “That’s suicide.”

“No,” Kael replied. “It’s a message.”

He reached into his new Voidborne Driver and withdrew a sigil—a triangle with an ever-shifting eye in the center.

“We break the Heartspire’s skywall. We unleash the void above their council. And when they look up… they’ll know.”

“The Age of Heroes is dead.”
“The Abyss has risen.”