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Chapter 12 – Descent into the Heartforge
The stairs spiraled endlessly.
Cold blue fire lit the path in flickering intervals, casting jagged shadows across the stone walls. Kael moved carefully, Bonefire Fang strapped across his back now, Emberfang at his hip. The two blades pulsed differently—one warm, one cold. Fire and ghost. Past and future.
Behind him, Lys moved in silence, but her breathing was tight. Focused. Alert.
They had descended for what felt like an hour, yet the pressure only increased.
"I can feel the Qi thickening," Kael muttered, "like syrup in my lungs."
"It's the density," Lys replied. "We're deep underground. The spiritual energy pools here."
"Doesn't feel like a blessing."
"It isn't. It's a trial. Every breath here weighs more than it should."
Kael could already feel it. His limbs were slower, heavier. His flame sparked slower with each step. But even as the weight dragged at him, his core responded differently.
A faint chime echoed in his mind.
> Gracebound System Notice:
Cultivation Advancement in Progress…
Fire Root Stage: 25% → 29%
Kael stumbled slightly. "Did you get that?"
"Yeah," Lys said, pausing with one hand against the wall. "My frostroot Qi just jumped too. I'm at 33%."
So it wasn't just pressure—it was refinement. The constant drag on their bodies was slowly distilling their Qi, pressing impurities out with each step, like crushing ore into refined metal.
"It's training by walking," Kael said. "Cruel genius."
They continued, sweat forming despite the cold. The stairs opened at last into a vast subterranean chamber—a forge, but not one made by men.
The ceiling stretched high above, supported by draconic statues melted halfway into obsidian walls. Lava veins ran through the floor, not bright orange but deep crimson, glowing with life. At the center stood a raised platform, surrounded by stone anvils and enormous gears still turning slowly, as if time hadn't touched them.
In the middle hovered a shard of crimson crystal.
The Wyrm Seal fragment.
Lys cursed under her breath. "That's what we're here for, isn't it?"
Kael didn't answer.
A figure emerged from the far end of the forge.
Not a beast.
A cultivator.
He was cloaked in charred robes, one eye burned shut, the other glowing like molten coal. Tattoos of dragon-scale patterns covered his arms, and Qi oozed from him like fog—corrupted, blackened, but old.
"Another seeker," the man rasped. "Another fool."
Kael stepped forward. "Who are you?"
"Once? Keeper of the Flameforge. Now?" The man smiled, slow and broken. "Its prisoner."
Without warning, he attacked.
Kael barely dodged the first blast of flame—it wasn't ordinary fire. It screamed. He responded with Twin Burn, the red and violet arcs streaking forward—but they dispersed against the man's barrier.
Lys blurred in from the side, daggers aimed at his neck, but he spun with uncanny grace, parrying her with a flare of black Qi.
Kael gritted his teeth. "This guy's not a relic. He's a warrior."
> Enemy Identified:
Name: Thalen Draak
Cultivation: Peak Ember Vein Realm
Status: Corrupted Keeper
Threat Level: High
Kael's pulse spiked. That was three full realms above him.
He couldn't win this through brute force.
Instead, he reached deep into Bonefire Fang. "Spectral Fang," he whispered.
The blade pulsed—and unleashed a ghostly dragon's maw that lunged across the field. It collided with Thalen and actually staggered him.
Kael followed through with a blazing dash, slamming Emberfang into the ground—flames surged up in a cone. Lys added a frost spike trap under Thalen's feet, slowing him just long enough for Kael to land a solid hit across the man's ribs.
Thalen roared. His corrupted Qi flared out wildly—and Kael felt it.
A pressure in his mind.
In his core.
> Cultivation Trial Engaged: Resist Corruption
Fire Root Stage: 29% → 31%
Internal Stability: Holding…
Kael grit his teeth and pushed through, resisting the sickening twist inside him. His flames rejected the corruption, pushing it out like poison.
Lys fought beside him, her ice magic layering the ground with traps. They didn't aim to overpower him—they wore him down, strike by strike, forcing him to burn more energy than he could restore.
Finally, Kael activated Mirror Shards. Three illusions sprinted forward.
Thalen struck the first—wrong target.
Kael burst from the second shard and slammed Bonefire Fang through the man's chest.
For a moment, everything froze.
Then Thalen staggered, coughing up dark smoke. "Perhaps… you're not a fool after all…"
His body turned to ash.
The forge went still.
And the crystal—Wyrm Seal fragment—descended slowly into Kael's outstretched hand.
> Quest Progress: Wyrm Seal (1/3 Fragments Acquired)
Reward: 100 Grace Points
Total GP: 155
Passive Unlocked: Draconic Endurance (Minor)
Fire Root Stage: 31% → 36%
New Realm Detected: Flame Vein – Not Yet Accessible
Kael collapsed to his knees, chest heaving.
Lys dropped beside him, shaking her head in disbelief. "You actually did it."
Kael looked at the crystal. "One fragment down."
Lys looked at the ceiling, where something vast and dormant stirred beneath the stone.
"And two more to go," she murmured.