Chapter Summary:
As Kael's strike team faces monstrous Frostbound wolves in the icy tunnels, Echo holds the first defensive line at the city gates. But Liora unleashes a forbidden weapon — a shard of the Eternal Frost, capable of extinguishing fire magic. With her people dying and the Heartflame flickering, Echo must decide whether to use her forbidden power… or let Flamehold fall.
Chapter 109: The Blade and the Burn
The tunnel was slick with blood and frost.
Kael stood above the last of the wolves, his breath ragged, swords dripping with blue-tinted gore. Behind him, two of his soldiers lay motionless — their armor torn as if paper.
"We seal it now," he barked. "Before more come."
The team moved fast. Explosive runes were etched into the walls — ancient sigils Kael barely remembered from Frostbound war chants. But the moment he laid the last glyph, a pulse echoed through the stone.
And from the shadows came a whisper.
"Still wielding both blades, Kael?"
The voice was familiar — a slow, cold drawl that once ruled Frostbound courts.
Kael froze.
"Varen."
From the far end of the tunnel emerged a tall man clad in gleaming froststeel. His skin was pale as the glacier, his eyes colder than the ice around them.
Varen — Kael's older brother. The Frostbound general who vanished during the civil wars.
"I should've known you'd slither back," Kael muttered.
Varen smiled. "And I should've killed you when you took her side."
At the Flamehold gates, Echo stood on the battlements as waves of Frostbound soldiers surged forward.
The first magical barriers shattered in bursts of white flame.
Echo raised her father's sword high.
"Hold the line!" she shouted, her voice carried by magic across the ranks.
Behind her, mages began channeling defensive wards while archers lit their arrows with fire sigils.
But then the temperature plummeted.
A strange wind rose — heavy, unnatural.
And from the center of the Frostbound army, Liora raised her hands.
The sky darkened.
And then it fell.
A sphere of solid ice plummeted from the heavens, crashing into the outer gate with the force of a comet. Fire wards flickered and died.
The ground shook.
And the Heartflame, deep within the palace, trembled.
In the glacier, Kael circled Varen.
"You fight for Liora now?" he growled.
Varen laughed. "She understands the old ways. The power we discarded. The truths we buried."
"You mean domination," Kael snarled. "Control. Fear."
Varen's blade glowed with cold magic. "You think fire will save her? Save you? Look around, little brother. Fire dies in ice."
They clashed — a whirlwind of sparks and shards.
Echo staggered as the second barrier collapsed.
She reached toward the Heartflame, now dimming. Something was wrong — not just outside, but within.
Liora's weapon… it's drawing the heat away. Killing the flame.
Echo gritted her teeth.
"Pull the second line back," she ordered. "Collapse the inner walls."
General Merek blinked. "That'll trap hundreds of—"
"I know what I'm doing," she snapped. Then softer: "Trust me."
As soldiers retreated, Echo sprinted toward the sanctum beneath the palace — where the Heartflame pulsed like a wounded star.
Inside, the light flickered violently.
And something inside her hand began to burn.
In the glacier, Kael was losing.
Varen was faster. Stronger. Colder.
"You're still protecting her," Varen sneered. "That girl is your undoing."
Kael spat blood. "No. She's my reason."
With a final cry, Kael drove both blades into the ice beneath Varen's feet — channeling heat and cold into one explosive surge.
The glacier cracked.
Varen screamed as the ice gave way — a crevasse swallowing him whole.
Kael collapsed, breathing hard.
Then lit the final rune.
The tunnel exploded behind him.
Beneath the palace, Echo stood alone before the Heartflame.
Its color had faded to pale orange.
"I won't let you die," she whispered.
The sigil on her hand flared. Fire and frost twisted up her arm.
Her breath caught.
Pain exploded through her chest.
And a voice — her voice, yet not — echoed in her skull.
The balance must be broken… to be made new.
Her eyes burned.
The frost in her veins ignited.
And the Heartflame surged, devouring the frost infecting it. Echo fell to her knees, screaming as her power split — one half pure heat, the other deathless cold.
And still, she held on.
Outside, the sky turned crimson.
The city gates stopped burning.
And Flamehold roared.
Later, Kael returned through the eastern passage, his team reduced to three.
He found Echo collapsed beside the Heartflame, her armor scorched, her eyes glowing with unnatural light.
He rushed to her side.
"Echo—"
"I'm fine," she rasped. "But she's coming. She'll come herself this time."
Kael stared at the Heartflame, now pulsing with both colors.
"What did you do?"
"I didn't choose fire," she said softly. "Or frost."
She looked up at him.
"I chose both."