The darkness didn't stay silent for long.
Something pushed through.
Stone split like wet clay, spraying dust and shards into the room. A shape clawed its way out, too thin to be human, too fluid to be made of flesh. Its limbs bent the wrong way, twisting with a wet, papery sound.
Liora stumbled back, but the thing ignored her.Its head, if it could be called that, turned toward Kaelen.
There was no face. Just a gaping oval, pulsing faintly with red light.And in that light, Kaelen saw something that made his grip on the sword falter.
Inside the creature's hollow chest… was a shard of the First Crown.
It shouldn't exist. Not here. Not in this century.
The air thickened, pressing against his lungs like tar. Every rune on the wall flared in warning, each sigil vibrating violently.
The thing stepped forward, and with every movement, the light inside it grew brighter. The pulse matched Kaelen's own heartbeat.
It knows me.
The thought wasn't his own. It slithered into his mind like oil, spoken in the same voice that had whispered through the wall.
Liora grabbed his arm, snapping him out of the trance."Kael, we need to move"
Too late.
The creature lunged, faster than the torchlight could catch, its hand punching straight through the floorboards where Kaelen had been standing a heartbeat ago.
The shockwave threw them both against the far wall.
Through the settling dust, the thing tilted its head, not in confusion, but in recognition.
"The blood… returns."
And then it charged.