The throne chamber still hummed with residual power golden veins now threading through the crimson, holding the Final Node in fragile equilibrium. But the Emperor's absence left a void that felt louder than his presence ever had. Alarms wailed distantly through the palace corridors; boots thundered overhead as imperial guards mobilized. The small band had minutes, maybe less, before the halls filled with soldiers.
Lira moved first sharp, decisive. "We can't stay. The Emperor will regroup in the Shadow Vault his private sanctum beneath the eastern spire. It's where he stores unbound echoes. If he's going to force the ritual to completion, that's where he'll do it."
Elara nodded, still leaning on Thorne for support. The surge of power she'd channeled into the node had left her drained muscles trembling, vision edged with spots but the resonance kept her upright. Thorne's strength flowed into her steadily, a quiet anchor.
"How do we get there without walking into a trap?" Thorne asked, wings half-furled to fit the chamber's confines.
Kael pointed to a side passage half-hidden behind a fallen pillar. "Service tunnels. Used by servants and assassins. Narrow, but they run parallel to the main halls. We can bypass most patrols."
Ryn handed out cloaks from a fallen mage dark, hooded, embroidered with faint imperial sigils. "Wear these. From a distance, we look like them. Buy us seconds."
They moved fast, silent. The service tunnels were cramped, lit only by occasional flickering echo-lamps. Dust and old incense clung to everything. Elara's crown mark pulsed in warning every time they passed a ward; she murmured soft commands from Isolde's memory, dimming the runes just enough to slip through undetected.
Halfway through the descent, voices echoed ahead two guards arguing in low tones.
"…said the prince was here. Wings and all. If he's loose in the palace"
"Quiet. You want the inquisitors hearing that?"
Thorne signaled a halt. He glanced at Elara. Through the bond: I can take them quietly.
She shook her head. Too much noise. We need surprise on our side.
Lira stepped forward instead. She whispered a short incantation Veilwarden weave and shadows thickened around the guards' feet, rooting them in place. Before they could shout, Ryn and Kael moved swift, precise. A muffled thud, then silence.
"Clean," Kael muttered, dragging the bodies into an alcove.
They pressed on.
The eastern spire loomed closer its base a fortified tower rising from the palace's undercroft. The air grew colder, heavier with unbound echo energy. Elara's skin prickled; she could feel the Devourer stirring again impatient, testing the weakened seal.
At the final junction, Lira stopped. A narrow iron door stood before them sealed with multiple wards and a heavy lock. Beyond it, faint chanting resumed.
"The Vault," Lira said. "Once we breach this, there's no retreat. The Emperor will know we're here."
Elara placed her hand on the door. The wards flared crimson resisting. She channeled Sovereign Pyre through the resonance; golden flame licked along the seams. Thorne added his curse-fire black-edged, hungry. Together, the flames ate through the wards like acid through paper.
The door groaned open.
Inside: a circular vault of polished obsidian, lit by floating crimson orbs. Shelves lined the walls each holding sealed echo jars, glowing faintly with trapped souls. At the center stood a smaller throne black marble veined with red where the Emperor sat, Mirael at his side. Between them hovered the unbound fragment of the Devourer: a writhing mass of shadow and teeth, smaller than the first echo but far more potent, feeding directly from the Emperor's outstretched hands.
He looked up as they entered. No surprise only cold amusement.
"You're persistent," he said. "I'll grant you that."
Mirael drew her blade shadows coiling along its edge. "Let me finish them, my lord. The girl's bond is strong, but not unbreakable."
The Emperor raised a hand. "No. Let them watch."
He pressed both palms to the small throne. The Devourer fragment pulsed growing, stretching tendrils toward the ceiling. The air vibrated with its hunger.
"The seal is cracking," he continued. "In moments, it will shatter. The Devourer will rise not as a mindless force, but as my weapon. An empire without end. Without weakness."
Elara stepped forward Thorne at her side, wings spread protectively. "You're wrong. It won't serve you. It never has. It consumes. That's all it knows."
The Emperor smiled thinly. "Then let it consume you first."
He slammed his hands down. The Devourer fragment surged tendrils lashing toward them.
Thorne roared full draconic fury and launched forward, wings beating, fire erupting from his mouth in a controlled torrent. He met the first wave of shadows head-on, burning them back.
Elara activated [Flameweave – Full Link]. Golden chains erupted from her palms, threading through Thorne's flames, amplifying them into a blazing net that wrapped the Devourer fragment. It shrieked sound tearing at their minds.
Mirael charged blade aimed at Elara's heart.
Lira intercepted silver light clashing with shadow. "Not today, inquisitor."
Kael and Ryn flanked, engaging the handful of elite guards who poured from side doors.
Chaos erupted.
Elara focused on the fragment pouring everything into the chains. Isolde's voice guided her: Bind it. Not with blood. With choice. With what you refuse to lose.
She reached through the resonance felt Thorne's fire, his pain, his unyielding will. She poured their shared life-force into the weave.
The golden chains tightened. The Devourer fragment convulsed tendrils snapping, mouths closing in agony.
The Emperor rose eyes wide with fury. "Impossible"
He thrust a hand forward. Crimson power slammed into Elara pain like fire in her veins. She staggered, but Thorne was there catching her, shielding her with his body as he poured more flame into the net.
"Hold on," he growled through gritted teeth.
The fragment shrank fighting, raging then collapsed inward, imploding in a burst of dark light that knocked everyone back.
Silence fell broken only by heavy breathing.
The Emperor stared at the empty space where the fragment had been. His face twisted in rage.
"You… destroyed it."
Elara rose on unsteady legs. "We bound it. Again. Your ritual is broken."
He laughed bitter, hollow. "You think this ends it? The Devourer is eternal. It will find another way. Another vessel."
He lifted his crown black gold, thorns sharp enough to draw blood and placed it on his head. Shadows poured from it, wrapping him like armor.
"Then I will become the vessel."
His form began to shift growing taller, limbs elongating, eyes turning black voids. The Devourer's essence poured into him not as servant, but as merger.
Mirael backed away fear finally cracking her composure.
Elara felt the resonance flare in warning. The Emperor wasn't just empowered now.
He was becoming the Devourer incarnate.
Thorne stepped in front of her wings wide, blade raised.
"Run," he said quietly.
"No," she answered. "We finish this. Together."
The Emperor no longer fully human roared.
The vault shook.
The final battle had begun.
[End of Chapter 13 – To Be Continued...]