❖❖❖
The Soulfire within Kaen was no longer a spark.
It was a storm waiting to break.
He had slain the Joymother, resisted a full dreamtrap, and returned with fire still pulsing in his veins. But the truth lingered: the curse on Mira wasn't fading. If anything… it was adapting.
Daizo gathered the surviving Ashen Blades in the Hall of Flame — an ancient war chamber beneath Bladestone Hollow, walls etched with runes that flickered with trapped memories of fallen warriors.
"The Joymother was a Herald," Daizo began, voice grim. "But not the source."
Kaen stood beside Mira, her hand trembling in his. He looked up.
"Then what is the source?"
A voice spoke from the shadows.
"The Hollow King."
From behind the flame-carved throne emerged an old woman, cloaked in robes of black and blood-gold. Her face was masked, and from her neck hung a pendant shaped like a burning eye.
"This is Seer Nami," Daizo said. "She reads the Gloom."
Seer Nami raised a frail hand, and a ripple of violet light flowed from her palm, forming an image in the air — a throne of bones, seated atop a mountain of ash. Upon it sat a horned figure wrapped in chains of writhing flame.
"The Hollow King," she whispered, "is the soul that commands the Gloamspawn. He has slept for centuries… but now he stirs. Your fire woke him."
Kaen clenched his fists. "Where is he?"
"Deep beneath the Cursed Vale," Nami said. "In the ruins of Varkhaal — once a holy city, now a nest of death."
Mira gasped. "That name… I've heard it in my dreams."
Kaen turned to Daizo.
"Then that's where we go."
❖❖❖
The Hollow Hunt began at dawn.
Daizo led a team of six elite Ashen Blades — Kaen, Rika the flame archer, Baldan the stone-skinned brute, Lys the dagger-dancer, and Seer Nami as guide. Mira stayed behind, watched over by Master Kira.
Kaen gave her a final promise.
"I'll return with your soul unbound."
She touched his cheek. "Don't forget who you are."
Kaen smiled.
"I'm your flame."
The journey to Varkhaal took them through the Scorchfields, a land burnt by endless war. Here, ghosts wandered at twilight, reliving their deaths. Rika's arrows sang through the dark, warding off whisperbeasts. Lys scouted ahead, silent as shadow. Baldan, walking without armor, crushed cursed stones beneath bare feet.
Kaen trained at every rest stop — sharpening not just Emberfang, but his control.
He learned to wrap the flame around his body like armor.
To send sparks flying from his strikes.
To burn illusions with a scream.
But still, the fire whispered.
"Let go. Let me take over."
He refused.
One night, while meditating near a Soulfire tree, Kaen saw a vision.
Mira — but twisted.
Her arms bound by ash.
Her eyes completely violet.
And behind her stood a towering shape of black flame — horned, silent, watching Kaen with hollow, endless hunger.
When he awoke, the tree had turned to cinder.
They reached the Outer Ruins of Varkhaal by the seventh night.
A storm raged overhead, purple lightning lacing the sky. The ruins were crawling with Twisted Priests — former holy men now consumed by the Gloom, chanting in dead languages, their mouths stitched shut with curse-wire.
Daizo led the charge.
Steel and fire met corrupted flesh.
Kaen spun through the enemy ranks, Emberfang slicing and burning. Rika shot through the sky with flaming arrows, Lys danced beneath enemy blades, carving legs and throats. Baldan waded in like a boulder of flesh, smashing heads with hammer fists.
They cleared the outer gate.
But as they entered the inner city, they found…
no resistance.
The throne chamber was deep below — beneath a shattered cathedral, its roof half-collapsed.
Inside, fire torches burned violet.
At the center of the cathedral lay a hole — not dug, but born, like something tore upward from the earth.
Nami stared down it, eyes wide.
"He's not waiting."
Suddenly, the ground shook.
The ash breathed.
A voice spoke in Kaen's mind.
"So this is the child of fire. You bring flame… to my void."
Kaen fell to one knee, gripping his skull.
He saw visions — Mira chained, screaming. Himself burning. The world turning to smoke.
Daizo grunted. "Seer Nami! Shield!"
The seer raised both hands, casting a ward that sealed the mental assault.
But then—
A scream.
Rika.
Dozens of Hollowborn rose from the walls — skeletal creatures made of ash and memory. Their claws were dreams. Their breath was despair.
The real battle had begun.
Kaen roared and charged, fire blazing from every limb. He moved like lightning, carving Hollowborn in half. But for every one slain, another emerged.
Baldan took three wounds. Lys was nearly strangled by cursed chains. Rika bled from the eyes, still firing.
Then — the earth split.
And from the pit rose the Hollow King.
Towering. Cloaked in chains and black fire. No face. No mouth. Just a crown of bone and eyes glowing within a veil of eternal dusk.
"You seek to free the girl?" he boomed.
"I'll do more than that," Kaen shouted. "I'll burn you."
"Then come, little fire."
Kaen charged.
And the Hollow King met him.
The two forces collided with a shockwave of fire and death.
Kaen struck high — blocked.
Swept low — countered.
The Hollow King was fast. Unreasonably fast. He moved like thought, and every strike drained Kaen's soul.
Daizo and the others tried to help — but the King unleashed a pulse of void energy, tossing them like dolls.
Only Kaen stood.
He dropped to one knee.
The King raised his hand.
"This is the weight of eternity," he said. "You are a flicker."
Kaen whispered…
"No."
He remembered Mira's voice. Her laughter. Her tears. Her music.
He remembered the screams of Ember Hollow.
The promise he made.
He rose.
And for the first time…
He let the fire take him.
The flame exploded.
His body became a conduit of pure Soulfire — hair blazing, eyes glowing, Emberfang now a living flame.
He launched into the air — and struck the Hollow King with everything he had.
A final scream.
A slash of eternity.
And the void… shattered.
When Kaen awoke…
The King was gone.
The Hollowborn dust.
His allies wounded, but alive.
But most importantly…
In the distance, back at Bladestone Hollow…
Mira opened her eyes.
The curse had lifted — for now.
✴️ END OF CHAPTER 4