The torches sputtered back to life, not by human hands, but by the flare of Kael's mark.
Every villager stared at him. Some with awe, most with terror. The voice still echoed in the air, rolling over them like thunder on the horizon.
"Return what is ours."
The words seemed carved into Kael's bones. His chest burned, his vision fractured—one moment he saw the village square, the next he stood in a hall of endless stone pillars, shadows slithering across walls that bent and shifted like smoke. The ruin was here, inside him. Or perhaps he was inside it.
Serenya's grip kept him tethered. "Kael!" she shouted, shaking him. Her voice was distant, muffled, but it was the only sound that pierced the roar inside his skull.
He staggered, clutching his head. "Do you hear it?" His voice cracked. "The voice—it's in me—"
The villagers broke into panic. Some fled, others dropped to their knees in prayer. But a handful, their fear twisted into rage, lifted weapons toward him.
"Enough!" a man roared. "He'll bring ruin upon us all! Kill him before it's too late!"
The mob surged forward.
Eldran slammed his staff into the ground, and a wave of light rippled outward, forcing the front line to stumble back. "Fools!" he thundered. "Do you think your pitchforks will save you? He is the only reason you yet draw breath!"
But his words did little. Fear had already rooted too deep.
Kael wanted to speak, to deny, to plead—but the voice inside drowned him.
"You are the vessel. The covenant sealed in blood is yours to complete. Return. Return."
His knees buckled. Shadows pooled beneath him, coiling like serpents. Serenya's bow clattered to the ground as she dropped beside him, both hands clutching his face. "Stay with me! Look at me, Kael—don't listen!"
Her eyes were fire, defiance burning bright even as the world darkened around them.
For a moment, it worked. Her voice cut through the whispers. Her touch anchored him.
But then the shadow surged upward, engulfing them both.
---
Kael was no longer in the square.
He stood in a vast chamber of black stone, the pillars rising higher than sight. Chains thicker than trees hung from the void above, each link glowing faintly with crimson runes. And in the center of it all—a throne, half-formed from bone and ash, upon which nothing sat.
Yet he felt its presence.
The voice resonated through the chamber, vibrating the very marrow of his bones. "At last, the blood has awakened. The covenant is unbroken. You are ours."
Kael staggered back. His cleaver materialized in his hand, summoned not by will but by instinct. "I'm not yours," he growled, though his voice shook. "I belong to no one."
The shadows writhed, coalescing into something almost human. A face, a hand, a figure cloaked in endless dark.
"You bear our mark. You drew upon our power. You slew the beast not with your strength, but with ours. Every strike you dealt was ours. Every breath you take is ours."
Kael's grip tightened on the cleaver. He remembered the fight—the surge of strength, the unnatural clarity, the way the ichor had felt like fire and yet had not harmed him. Had it all been borrowed power?
"No," he whispered, desperate. "I chose. I fought."
The figure leaned closer, though its form never solidified. "And in choosing, you bound yourself to us. You are the covenant. You are the hunger. You will return what is ours."
The chains above rattled, shaking dust from unseen heights. Kael's mark seared so hot he thought it might burn through flesh and bone entirely.
He dropped to one knee, gasping. His will faltered.
And then—faint, but sharp—Serenya's voice cut across the void.
"Kael!"
It wasn't possible. She wasn't here. And yet… he heard her. Her words echoed like an arrow piercing the fog.
"You are not theirs! You're you! Do you hear me? Fight it!"
Kael's eyes snapped open. He saw her—not in the chamber, but beyond it. A glimpse of torchlight, her hands clutching his face, her lips moving with desperate words.
The figure recoiled, hissing. "The tether. Break it."
Chains whipped toward him, snapping through the void like serpents. Kael roared and swung his cleaver, sparks of crimson and silver exploding as metal clashed with impossible steel.
One chain shattered. Another struck his shoulder, searing pain down his arm. He staggered, but forced himself upright.
"I am not yours," he snarled. "And I will never be."
The chamber shook, shadows convulsing. The figure's voice deepened, no longer thunder but an earthquake tearing through the void.
"Then you are ours by defiance. You will feed us—whether through your will… or through your ruin."
The chamber collapsed inward, darkness swallowing him whole.
---
Kael gasped and jolted upright. He was back in the square, Serenya clutching him, Eldran standing guard before them. Villagers cowered at the edges, staring at him as though he were a beast freshly unchained.
The torches flickered again. But this time, the shadows did not recede.
From the forest's edge, shapes emerged—taller, broader, their limbs twisted and wrong. Beasts like the one from the ruins, but more numerous. Their eyes glowed with the same crimson runes as the chains Kael had seen.
The villagers screamed.
Eldran's face hardened. "The covenant has sent its hounds."
Kael staggered to his feet, Serenya steadying him. His body trembled, the mark still burning, but his cleaver was already in his hand.
The villagers backed away from him, fear plain in their eyes. But not Serenya. She stepped beside him, bow raised once more, her voice steady despite the chaos.
"If they want to take you," she said, "they'll have to go through me first."
Kael looked at her, stunned. The mark pulsed, the whispers hissing louder, urging him to embrace the power, to let it consume. But Serenya's defiance anchored him still.
Eldran raised his staff, light gathering at its tip. "Then stand ready. Tonight, the covenant does not come to bargain. Tonight, it comes to claim."
The beasts roared as one, the ground shaking beneath their charge.
Kael tightened his grip on the cleaver. The fear in his chest twisted into something else—not despair, but resolve.
The covenant wanted him?
Then let them come.
---