The ancient vault was silent again.
Only the flickering sealfire from Kael's blade lit the ruined walls. Ashen sat against a fractured glyph column, breathing heavily, while Elira knelt beside a wounded Hunter who had surrendered mid-battle a woman barely older than them, her eyes wild with fear.
Kael stood before the still-hovering Fourth Node, its light now dormant.
The cost of claiming it hung in the air.
Blood. Secrets. And a truth no one was ready to speak yet.
"Are we safe for now?" Elira asked.
Ashen nodded weakly. "For now. Seyric won't return without backup. He'll want to regroup, maybe even alert the High Court."
"That buys us time," Kael said. "Not safety."
He turned to the womanb*Serin* the wounded Hunter.
She glared at him, one arm held by a dissolving soulbind. "You're a heretic."
Kael crouched. "Maybe. But I didn't kill you, did I?"
She didn't respond.
"I need answers," Kael continued. "Where is the Fifth Node?"
Serin laughed, bitter. "You think it's hidden? The Fifth Node isn't a place. It's a *person*."
The room froze.
"What do you mean?" Elira said.
Serin stared at Ashen. "He never told you, did he? That the Fifth Node isn't something you claim—it's something that *awakens*. And when it does, the Gate opens."
Kael turned to Ashen. "Is this true?"
Ashen's eyes dropped to the floor. "It's more than true. The Fifth Node… is inside me."
---
Ashen's story spilled slowly.
He wasn't just a Sealbearer remnant—he was the final experiment of the original rebellion, created to bind the Fifth Node into human form. A living key. The last seal before the Gate.
"I was supposed to be kept asleep," Ashen whispered. "But when Kael broke the Third Node's protocol and chose the rebellion, the system woke me up."
Kael looked at him, his mind racing.
"You're telling me if you die… the Gate opens."
Ashen nodded. "And if I awaken fully it opens anyway."
---
Above ground, the Hollow King received Seyric's report.
The Fourth Node had been claimed.
The Fifth was identified.
The King did not rage.
He smiled.
"Then the game enters its final stage."
He raised his hand, and across the empire, *Devourer Seals* cracked.
Dormant Lords awoke.
And from the Soul Gate itself, a sliver of darkness leaked into the world whispering.
---
Back at Vhal'Aras, Kael stood before a soul mirror left behind by the Sealbearers.
It flickered, then showed him a vision of the *original rebellion*.
Thousands of years ago, Sealbearers once stood at the height of power guardians of balance, not consumers of it. They built the Gates to contain what they couldn't destroy: the *Devouring God*, a being born from a failed Ascension.
But their fall was not from weakness.
It was from betrayal.
Someone inside their ranks had opened the Sixth Node early, sacrificing their own to gain favor with the beast inside.
Kael gritted his teeth. "History never remembers the full truth."
The mirror shifted again this time showing *Kael himself*, standing at the final Node… surrounded by fire, with *Ashen collapsed beside him* and *Elira holding off an army alone*.
The vision faded.
System Notification:
"Fifth Node Detected
—Carrier: Ashen Vahl
> Status: Dormant
> Awakening Threshold: 87%
WARNING: System instability increases with continued use of Sealblade and Soulburn techniques near Carrier."
Kael stepped back.
They had to move.
---
Night fell over the surface, but the trio had already departed. Using an underground network of soul tunnels, they headed toward the *Obsidian Steppe*, where the last known Sealbearer archive might contain a way to *delay* Ashen's awakening.
Elira walked beside Kael, silent.
"You saw it too, didn't you?" he asked.
"The vision?" she replied. "Yeah. I saw us losing."
Kael gripped Emberfang. "Then we change it."
They didn't notice Serin's soulbind slowly unraveling behind them… or the shimmer in her eyes as a Devourer Tracking Sigil flared.
---
Far away, in a floating fortress cloaked in flame, the Hollow King stood before the Soul Gate, listening.
The voice inside whispered:
"He's almost ready. Just one more push… and I will walk again."