Gloom hung over the palace halls after the crack appeared in the crystal. That fissure was a warning that Alaric's "spirit" had begun leaking from its vessel of preservation. Eleonor realized that the king's existence as a physical law or a guardian spirit was a temporary solution, and that the city, now gnawed by doubt, needed a material "grip" and eyes that could be looked upon.
"The ritual you seek, Eleonor, is heresy against every law of nature," said Azrael, placing a bundle of rare herbs and molten metal upon the ritual table. "You want to summon flesh from nothingness and bind it to a spirit that has dwelt in the void. He may return… but he may not return 'human.'"
"We have no choice," Eleonor replied sternly, having drawn a complex circle of "death-sand" in the center of the throne room. "The city is dying slowly from fear. Alaric sacrificed his body to stabilize the land, and now the land must return the favor. We will use the 'clay of Ocasia' mixed with the tears of the fallen, and the salt of ancient seas, to form the new vessel."
The rites began at midnight, beneath a starless sky, as if the "Celestial Council" were holding its breath to witness this human insolence. Eleonor stood at the center of the circle, raising the cracked crystal high.
"O you who dwelled in stone and tree… O you who became a pulse within the rock… answer me!" Eleonor chanted, and her voice echoed throughout the city, making the walls tremble in response.
Particles of ash and dust began to gather from every corner of the hall, drawn toward the center of the circle as if by spiritual magnetism. The clay began to form, to grow, and to take on a human shape with agonizing slowness. The scene was chilling: bones built from the calcium in the marble, muscles woven from threads of emerald and black magic.
Eleonor poured the "messages of blood"—blood donated willingly by the Forgotten Ones—over the clay body. Suddenly, the black crystal exploded in her hand, and from it shot a sharp violet ray that settled into the chest of the newly formed body.
The entire palace shook. Eleonor collapsed, unconscious from the strain, while Azrael drew his sword to protect the nascent "entity" from any outside interference.
From the midst of the smoke and dust, a naked body stood, its skin the color of ash, its eyes still closed. This was not the young Alaric they had known; the body appeared stronger, rougher, and upon its shoulders bore natural markings resembling the cracks of ancient earth.
The king opened his eyes. There was no white; his eyes were pure "void," as if one were gazing into the depths of the cosmos.
"Alaric?" Azrael whispered cautiously.
The king moved slowly, looking at his hands, which were touching flesh for the first time in ages. He walked toward the fallen Eleonor and knelt beside her. When he touched her, his touch was not cold as ice, as expected, but warm, like dormant volcanic lava.
"Eleonor…" he spoke in a deep voice, a voice carrying the echo of mountains and the crash of waves.
Eleonor awoke and looked upon his face. It was him, but with a different essence; Alaric had returned in a body, but a body made from the very "essence of Ocasia." He had now become the "Incarnate King," the ruler no longer separated from his land by any veil.
But before the joy of return could be completed, the sound of a silver trumpet rose from the distant horizon. The "Celestial Council" had witnessed the ritual and deemed it a declaration of all-out war.
"The body has returned," said Alaric, standing with majesty, as darkness enveloped his form to shape new armor that sprouted directly from his skin. "And now, we shall teach them that the earth upon which they have walked so arrogantly… has claws."
Chapter Fifty ended with Alaric's material return and the beginning of the great Celestial advance toward Ocasia, where the coming battle would not be a defense of a city, but a struggle to wrest the very sovereignty of "existence" from the hands of the gods.
What will be the first step of the returned king? Will he first purge the city of Scepter's poison, or will he confront the Celestial legions directly?