Kaelen felt the darkness recede.
The fragments of the Pestilence were gathering, pulled together by the bond, by his will, by the light that flowed through him. The miasma thinned. The land began to heal. The people in the distant villages, the ones who had been dying, they began to live.
But something else was happening.
Deep beneath the dungeon, beneath the layers of stone and magic, something shifted. A presence that had been dormant for centuries, waiting for this exact moment, stirred from its slumber.
[Ding!]
The sound echoed through Kaelen's mind, clear and sharp as a bell. It was not a physical sound. It was something deeper, a vibration that resonated through the bond, through the Heartstone, through every fiber of his being.
[100 percent charged.]
The voice was calm, neutral, devoid of emotion. It spoke in his mind, clear as water.
[Hello, Host. It has been a long time.]
