The Hollow Sanctuary
The world was smoke and silence
Kael stood beneath the ash-streaked sky his hands drenched in the blood of a hundred fallen beasts around him the cracked bones and torn flesh of his enemies marked a trail of carnage no soul could mistake for anything but vengeance
He had not spoken since the scream of the archfiend had died with the last pulse of its heart but his silence was no longer the silence of shock it was the silence of someone who had tasted blood and decided he would never be satisfied
The path ahead led into a ruined monastery its walls crawling with thorned black roots its stained glass shattered and glowing faintly from some inner curse
Beside him limped Corin the reanimated knight whose soul Kael had bound with infernal scripture His eyes glowed faint blue empty of their former nobility but useful nonetheless
Behind them followed a new presence a side character born in blood and pain Mirell a cursed healer banished from her holy order now walking with Kael after he had saved her not out of kindness but because her healing was more effective when fueled by agony
They entered the sanctuary as the wind howled like the cries of the damned The ground was littered with cracked statues of long dead saints each one weeping red sap from hollow sockets
Kael walked among them with no reverence There was no faith left in him Only purpose
Inside the central chamber a circle of robed figures stood whispering to a grotesque creature pinned to a ritual stone It was humanoid once but had since been hollowed out its ribs pried open like gates its heart a black crystal pulsing with hatred
One of the robed figures turned revealing a face stitched from multiple others and spoke without mouth movement
You carry the mark of the abyss Why do you come
Kael stepped forward Corin and Mirell behind him His eyes burned brighter than their fire
I am not here to ask
The moment snapped
Kael raised his hand and five lances of black flame erupted from his fingers impaling three cultists where they stood Corin charged with his broken blade swinging with no regard for defense His metal arm clanged against bone and steel Mirell screamed and unleashed a wave of corrupted light that peeled flesh from bone
The hollow beast on the stone tore itself free its black crystal heart floating above its chest now glowing brighter than a full moon
It lunged
Kael caught it with his bare hand and for a moment both screamed Kael's in rage the beast's in ancient pain The contact burned his skin to the bone but he refused to let go
He spoke a name Not a word but a name older than language One he had heard only in his deathdreams
The heart cracked
The beast exploded into shards each one melting through the stone like acid
Blood smoke bone
The room was silent again except for the breathing of the three who remained
Kael turned to Mirell who was bleeding from her eyes and smiled without warmth
We go deeper
Corin said nothing but nodded
Beneath the sanctuary lay the true prize a forgotten tomb where the Wretch King had been sealed one of the seven archfiends who had served the God of Chains in the age before time
Kael's goal was no longer vengeance
It was ascension
The deeper they went the more twisted the corridors became like the roots of a dying world trying to hold them back Whispering shadows wrapped around them pressing into their skin with memories that weren't theirs
They reached the sealed gate marked by seven chains each forged from a different soulmetal
Kael placed his hand on it and the chains recoiled as if stung
They know me now
He drew a dagger carved from the fang of a void serpent and slit his palm letting his blood flow into the engraved circle at the base of the door
The chains unraveled one by one the screams of their former owners echoing through the tomb
The gate opened
The Wretch King was not dead only dreaming its body suspended in a lake of mercury its limbs broken but twitching its mouth sewn shut with wires of starlight
Kael stepped to the edge and spoke not with voice but with will
I will not kneel I will not beg I offer you freedom in exchange for power
The lake bubbled
The King opened its single remaining eye and Kael met it without flinching
A bargain was made
The mercury rose like hands and pulled Kael in His body burned His mind shattered and reformed He saw his past present and a thousand possible futures one where he ruled a kingdom of bone another where he consumed gods
He chose the darkest path
He emerged changed
His eyes now black with red irises swirling like galaxies His veins visible and glowing His left arm no longer flesh but sculpted obsidian etched with demonic runes
Mirell fell to her knees not in fear but in awe
Kael looked at her then beyond her to the darkness where new enemies waited
They would come stronger faster crueler
He welcomed it
Because now he wasn't just the reincarnated boy who had died in chains
He was the Abyss Walker the one who would turn this cursed world inside out and carve his throne from its spine
And no god no demon no memory of mercy would stand in his way