Chapter 16: Echoes of Ruin

Smoke still curled above the ruins of the Heartspire.

Birds no longer flew over the city.

Magic no longer pulsed through its veins.

The world had changed.

Far from the devastation, in a chamber carved from black stone beneath the Darkveil Mountains, Lord Varrick stood over a burning map of Arcanis.

He traced the scorch mark left by Kael Draven’s assault. The Heartspire was gone. The magical seat of balance—obliterated in a single night.

Behind him, his generals waited in tense silence.

“He’s done it,” Varrick muttered. “He broke the balance.”

General Thorne—a beast-man hybrid with volcanic skin—growled, “You wanted the Union weakened. Now they’re crushed. Shouldn’t we be celebrating?”

Varrick shook his head.

“No. We don’t rule a dead world. If the Abyss grows unchecked, he won’t just rule… he’ll erase.”

A moment later, a scout rushed in, kneeling.

“My lord. The Arcane Union… they’re requesting parley.”

The chamber went silent.

Varrick’s eyes gleamed.

“So. Even the gods of light now beg the monsters of shadow for help.”

Elsewhere, within the last standing bastion of the Arcane Union—Silverhall Citadel, floating above a frozen lake—Grand Arcanist Elira Dawnbreaker read from a glowing scroll.

“To the Lord of Darkveil: The world crumbles. We offer a ceasefire, and propose a summit at neutral ground. Kael Draven is no longer a rogue Rider. He is the storm that ends empires.”

Her hands trembled only slightly as she sealed the scroll.

“You’re willing to trust him?” asked Councilor Dren.

“No,” she said. “But I'd rather sit at a table with a viper... than be swallowed whole by a void.”

Meanwhile, beneath the earth in the Abyss Order citadel, Kael stood at the edge of his new throne chamber. It wasn’t made of gold or stone—but of bone, steel, and shifting crystal—alive with whispers from beyond.

Selene approached with a sealed report.

“The Union and Darkveil. They’re meeting.”

Kael didn’t react. He merely looked up—toward a swirling fragment of void floating above his throne.

“Let them,” he said. “The more they unite, the harder they’ll fall… together.”

He turned to his generals.

“We’ll let them think they have time.”

His eyes glowed once more.

“Then we erase it.”