The moon hung bright above Lakeheart Isle.
It should have made the island beautiful.
Instead, it made everything feel haunted.
Silver light spilled over the gardens, over broken statues and flowering vines, over blood-slick stone and drifting ash. Beneath the thick canopy of old trees and climbing flowers, the long stone corridor where Selene Voss hid felt like the throat of a tomb.
She sat at the very end of it on a slab of cold stone, knees pulled tight to her chest.
Outside, monsters howled.
The cries rose and fell across the island like wolves fighting over a corpse. Every shriek made her shoulders tighten. Every crash made her heart slam harder against her ribs.
Then suddenly—
silence.
The howling vanished.
The night insects began chirping again in the grass.
The quiet somehow felt worse.
Selene slowly lifted her head, her fingers clenched tightly around the sheathed hilt of the Jade-Wave Blade.
"What happened out there..." she whispered.
She wore only a thin inner robe, hastily thrown on earlier. Cold night air slipped through the corridor and brushed against her bare legs and throat. She shivered.
"Did they win?"
A violent explosion answered her.
BOOM.
The entire corridor shook.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Selene jolted upright.
Her eyes locked onto the far end of the corridor, where darkness pooled like ink.
Another impact.
Then another.
Slow.
Rhythmic.
Heavy.
Each step made the stone floor tremble beneath her feet.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
It sounded like something enormous was walking toward her.
Something ancient.
Something hungry.
Selene swallowed hard.
"What even is that...?"
Her knuckles turned white around her weapon.
Then she forced herself to breathe.
"As long as it isn't those disgusting spider things..." she muttered shakily. "I'm not scared of anything else."
That was a lie so obvious even she nearly laughed.
Her chest tightened.
Her pulse raced harder.
Fear crawled under her skin.
She reached into her robes and pulled out a crystalline talisman hidden near her chest.
Her hands formed rapid signs.
She whispered an incantation.
Cold blue mist began spilling from empty air.
It spiraled around her.
The corridor temperature dropped instantly.
Frost crept over nearby stone.
The mist thickened.
Condensed.
Rotated faster.
Then Selene thrust both hands forward and shouted—
"Rise!"
The blue vapor exploded outward.
A beast appeared before her.
It was the size of a bull.
Its body was covered in jagged scales of blue-white ice.
A single horn curved from its skull.
Its massive paws ended in hooked claws.
Its breath came out in freezing vapor.
At first it remained curled on the ground, eyes closed as if sleeping peacefully.
Selene exhaled in relief.
She crouched beside it and gently stroked its horn.
"There," she whispered. "Now I'm not alone."
The beast huffed softly.
She leaned against it for warmth that should not have existed from a creature made of frost.
"Protect me later, alright?"
Suddenly—
the forest ahead erupted into chaos.
Monsters screamed.
Branches shattered.
Vines lashed through the air.
Lightning crackled.
Explosions flashed white, blue, and crimson through the trees.
Selene's eyes widened.
Lyra's traps.
Something had triggered Lyra Farrow's defensive mechanisms.
And judging by the endless screaming—
a lot of things had triggered them.
The forest roared endlessly.
Wave after wave of creatures charged through.
Then several broke through the treeline.
They rushed into the corridor.
Selene stared—
and her face went pale.
"No..."
Five skeletal blood-spiders charged toward her.
Their long hooked legs scraped sparks across stone.
Their crimson bone limbs twitched violently.
Their shrieks made her skin crawl.
Of all creatures—
she hated these things most.
The spiders seemed to smell her fear.
They rushed faster.
Selene grit her teeth.
"No. No, you disgusting things are NOT touching me!"
She ripped the Jade-Wave Blade free.
Steel screamed from its sheath.
Blue light gathered along the weapon's edge.
She prepared to unleash the Crystalwave Slash—
Then the corridor itself moved.
A pulse of mechanical force rippled through the structure.
Stone warped.
Walls twisted.
Loose pillars, railings, and broken slabs suddenly tore themselves free.
Selene froze.
"What—?"
The shattered stone pieces slammed together at terrifying speed.
Within seconds, they formed towering humanoid stone constructs nearly ten feet tall.
They blocked the corridor like an iron wall.
The spiders crashed into them.
And died.
The stone guardians pounded them into ruin.
Heavy fists shattered crimson limbs.
Bone fragments exploded through the air.
The spiders shrieked.
Then stopped.
Moments later, the constructs collapsed into harmless rubble again.
Silence returned.
Selene stood frozen.
Her mouth hung open.
"What... was that?"
Then more fighting sounds echoed from the eastern side of the island.
She rushed to a nearby stone window.
Her eyes widened.
At the hanging bridge leading to the island—
massive earthen giants were fighting.
"Mira!"
Mira Stonwell stood behind them, playing the Earth-Spirit Flute.
Her soft face was full of concentration.
Beside her stood Rovan Ashford with his staff weapon raised, guarding her flank.
And in front of them—
chaos.
Skeletal soldiers with halberds.
Two-headed skeleton warriors carrying massive swords.
Dozens of blood-spiders.
They flooded across the bridge like a wave of death.
But Mira's earth golems held.
Each giant smashed skeletons off the bridge.
Others shattered under enemy attacks—
only for new ones to rise from the earth below.
Their numbers remained steady.
Seven.
Eight.
Always enough.
Bodies rained into the lake below.
Rovan crushed any enemy that slipped past.
Selene stared in amazement.
"With the Earth-Spirit Flute... Mira's become this strong?"
For the first time in what felt like hours—
Selene began calming down.
Then she noticed something horrifying.
The bridge.
It swayed violently.
It was already badly damaged.
And now too many undead were piling onto it.
It looked ready to snap at any moment.
Then a voice drifted behind her.
Cold.
Wet.
Dead.
"Who restored these old mechanisms?"
Selene went rigid.
Her blood turned to ice.
She spun around—
and nearly screamed.
A bald figure in white robes stood behind her.
Its flesh had mostly rotted away.
Its skull showed through torn skin.
Its eyes burned with corpse-light.
Lord Ossian.
Selene's face lost all color.
"H-how...?"
Her voice cracked.
"How did you get past the traps?"
Lord Ossian laughed softly.
It was somehow worse than screaming.
"You little fool."
He spread his arms proudly.
"Have you never heard of my art... Ash and Smoke?"
His body flickered.
Blurred.
Vanished.
Returned.
"Your broken traps could never stop me."
Selene drew in a shaky breath.
She raised her blade defensively.
Lord Ossian drifted closer.
"I'll ask once."
His voice sharpened.
"Who possesses the Sevenfold Shroud?"
Selene's heartbeat thundered.
"No idea."
A lie.
"I don't know."
Another lie.
"And even if I did know..." she snapped, trembling violently, "I'd never tell you!"
Lord Ossian grinned.
Rotten flesh peeled apart around his teeth.
"Such courage."
He moved.
Selene reacted instantly.
She slashed.
The Crystalwave Slash burst forward—
a crescent of blue power screaming toward his skull.
Lord Ossian lazily waved a sleeve.
The attack vanished.
Gone.
Selene stared.
Impossible.
She unleashed another slash.
Then another.
Then another.
Each one vanished effortlessly.
And suddenly—
he was right in front of her.
Selene screamed and leapt backward.
"Wake up already!"
The Frost Griffin opened its eyes.
It exploded forward like lightning.
It slammed into Lord Ossian hard enough to throw him sideways.
For the first time—
he looked surprised.
The beast roared.
Its claws ripped through his sleeves.
Shredded enchanted fabric.
His expression darkened.
He slid backward.
The Frost Griffin pursued relentlessly.
"Yes!" Selene shouted. "Don't let him escape!"
Lord Ossian vanished.
Then reappeared beside her.
Selene's scream caught in her throat.
The beast was too far away.
He was reaching for her—
"Freeze!"
The command burst from Selene's lips.
Her Frost Griffin blazed with brilliant blue light.
Its jaws opened.
A stream of freezing blue fire erupted.
Lord Ossian sensed danger too late.
He dodged—
but not fully.
The flames struck his right shoulder.
Ice consumed his arm instantly.
He turned.
His entire right arm had become a frozen pillar.
His expression finally changed.
Shock.
"Ice flame?"
His voice darkened.
"A girl like you commands such a beast?"
He shattered the ice.
Frozen sleeves exploded apart.
His true arm emerged beneath—
a blood-red skeletal limb.
Selene nearly vomited at the sight.
The Frost Griffin attacked again.
Lord Ossian retreated.
The red skeletal arm trembled from lingering frost damage.
He could not move freely.
Selene's hope surged.
"We can win!"
But the Frost Griffin kept barely missing him.
Again.
Again.
Again.
"Damn it!"
She gathered more Aether.
Forced more power into the beast.
"Freeze!"
The Frost Griffin opened its jaws again.
More blue flame erupted—
and this time Lord Ossian stopped moving.
He was caught.
Completely engulfed.
Selene gasped.
"We got him—!"
Lord Ossian vanished.
He dissolved into ash mid-attack.
The ice flames struck empty stone instead.
The ground froze solid.
Blue crystal ice spread across the corridor floor.
Then Lord Ossian reappeared several steps away.
Laughing.
"That..."
Selene whispered.
"That's impossible..."
Lord Ossian spread his arms.
"This is Ash and Smoke."
He rushed her again.
Selene desperately commanded the Frost Griffin.
Again and again it attacked.
Again and again he vanished.
He slipped past the beast repeatedly.
Each time he came closer to Selene.
Her breathing grew ragged.
She kept forcing the Frost Griffin to unleash more ice flame.
Too much.
Far too much.
Her Sanctum throbbed violently.
Her Aether reserves plummeted.
The Frost Griffin's body began flickering.
Its form dimmed.
Lord Ossian noticed instantly.
He laughed.
"The beast is magnificent."
His eyes gleamed.
"But its master is weak."
Selene's stomach dropped.
"No..."
Lord Ossian raised a claw toward empty air.
He slashed downward.
At first—
nothing happened.
Then space tore open.
A massive crimson skeletal claw burst from the void.
It was larger than a carriage.
Selene's face went white.
The Frost Griffin tried to dodge—
too slow.
The claw seized it.
"Begone."
Lord Ossian clenched his fist.
The giant claw crushed.
The Frost Griffin exploded.
Blue light shattered into countless fragments.
Selene's mind went blank.
"No…"
The creature was not truly dead.
Phantom beasts could recover.
Eventually.
But not soon.
Not when it had been destroyed like that.
Blue mist drifted away.
The giant claw retreated into darkness.
Lord Ossian laughed thunderously.
"This is the Underworld Claw."
He appeared before Selene in a blur.
"So tell me, little girl…"
His skeletal fingers reached toward her throat.
"Are you frightened now?"
Selene could not move.
Could not breathe.
Could not scream.
All she could do—
was watch death rush toward her.
Selene's body shook so hard her teeth clicked together.
Lord Ossian's skeletal hand clamped around her throat before she could even recover from the destruction of her Frost Griffin.
Her feet left the ground.
The world tilted.
Her fingers spasmed open, and the Jade-Wave Blade slipped from her grasp and struck the stone floor with a sharp metallic crack.
"Speak." Lord Ossian's voice rasped like rusted blades grinding together. "Who possesses the Sevenfold Shroud?"
His claws loosened just enough for her to breathe.
Just enough to answer.
Selene coughed violently, tears spilling from the corners of her eyes. Then hatred surged through her like boiling water.
He had hurt her master.
He had shattered her beloved phantom beast.
And now—
Now he dared touch her.
"Go to hell!"
Lord Ossian chuckled.
"If you won't tell me, I'll search for it myself." His hollow eye sockets burned with red embers. "No one on this island is leaving alive anyway."
Selene's face flushed crimson with rage.
"Dream on!" she screamed. "You're the one who won't leave!"
He stared at her.
Those black eye sockets seemed endless.
Like pits that led straight into damnation.
Selene shut her eyes and lifted her chin.
"Then kill me."
Her voice trembled, but she forced the words out.
"Someone will avenge me."
Lord Ossian suddenly laughed.
"A vicious little thing."
His rotten face moved closer.
Far too close.
The stench hit her first.
Rotting meat.
Old blood.
Grave dirt.
His ruined nose twitched as if inhaling her scent.
Then his voice sharpened with excitement.
"Oh?"
He inhaled again.
"How sweet."
Selene's blood turned to ice.
"Your essence must be extraordinarily pure…"
His dead fingers slowly traced the side of her throat.
Then lower.
Across her collarbone.
Her entire body erupted in gooseflesh.
"And such tender flesh..." he whispered. "Beautiful. Delicate."
His laugh became uglier.
"You'd make an exquisite Furnace-Cauldron."
Selene's entire body trembled violently.
Fear unlike anything she had ever known swallowed her whole.
"No…"
She struggled wildly.
Kicked.
Twisted.
Tried clawing at his wrist.
Nothing worked.
She was too weak.
Too drained.
His grip was absolute.
Then his expression changed.
"Hm?"
He leaned closer to her face.
Even closer.
His empty eye sockets nearly touched her.
"What lovely features…"
He studied her like a butcher inspecting expensive meat.
"Do you have some hidden treasure on you?"
Selene stared into those endless black sockets.
She nearly fainted.
"Let her go!"
The roar exploded through the corridor.
Lord Ossian slowly turned.
Selene's heart surged—
Kael.
He was running toward them.
Alive.
Her relief lasted less than a second.
Then she looked behind him.
No Lyra.
No Mira.
No one.
He had come alone.
Her heart dropped straight into her stomach.
You idiot.
You absolute idiot.
Lord Ossian smiled coldly.
"You wish to save her?"
Kael skidded to a stop.
Then he finally saw exactly who held Selene.
His face went white.
For one horrifying moment, Selene thought he might actually run.
Instead, he swallowed hard and forced a crooked grin.
Lord Ossian asked casually, "Do you know who has the Sevenfold Shroud?"
Kael's eyes flickered.
Then he said, "Let her go, and I'll tell you."
Lord Ossian's laughter boomed through the corridor.
"You think you can bargain with me?"
His voice turned deadly cold.
"Refuse—and I kill you first."
Kael spread his stance.
His sleeve slid back.
The Eight-Claw Flamescourge coiled around his arm, its crimson scales glimmering like living fire.
"Well?"
Kael barked.
"Come kill me."
Lord Ossian's gaze locked onto the weapon.
His expression shifted.
"Oh?"
He leaned forward.
"That weapon…"
His voice sharpened with greed.
"Dragon scales?"
Selene desperately shook her head.
"Kael, run!"
Her eyes pleaded with him.
Find help.
Live.
Please.
Kael ignored her.
Instead, he shouted at Lord Ossian.
"You're supposed to be some legendary terror?"
He laughed mockingly.
"And you're bullying an exhausted girl?"
He spat on the ground.
"That's pathetic."
Lord Ossian's expression darkened.
Kael kept going.
"If word gets out, every warlord in the realm will laugh themselves sick."
Selene nearly screamed in frustration.
Was he insane?
He couldn't even beat her in a fair fight.
How could he possibly fight this monster?
"Kael!" she screamed. "Get out of here!"
He flashed her an infuriating grin.
"What? You don't like that joke?"
"I said RUN!"
He winked.
"Keep yelling at me and I might stop helping."
Her chest tightened.
"Who asked for your help, idiot?!"
She screamed through tears now.
"Pig-headed bastard! Moron! Run!"
But then—
she saw his eyes.
And her voice caught in her throat.
The joking mask remained.
But beneath it—
steel.
Resolve she had never seen before.
Something in her chest twisted painfully.
Lord Ossian snarled.
"Enough."
His hand tightened.
Selene's vision blurred.
Darkness swallowed her whole.
---
Kael's smile vanished the instant Selene collapsed.
Cold terror slammed into him.
"Good."
He forced another grin.
"Much quieter now."
He raised the Eight-Claw Flamescourge.
"Come on, bone bastard."
Lord Ossian tossed Selene aside like trash.
Her unconscious body hit stone.
Kael's entire body trembled with fury.
Lord Ossian pointed at the whip.
"My skeletal dragon construct requires additional armaments."
He grinned.
"That weapon will do nicely."
Then he moved.
Not fast.
And yet impossibly fast.
One moment he stood across the corridor.
The next—
he was in front of Kael.
"Oh shit—"
Kael whipped the Flamescourge forward.
The weapon screamed through the air.
Lord Ossian twisted aside.
Bone claws slashed toward Kael's stomach.
Kael barely escaped.
He retreated in a frantic blur, whipping wildly to keep the monster back.
Lord Ossian pursued relentlessly.
One hand remained behind his back.
The other unleashed death.
Claw strikes multiplied.
Ten became fifty.
Fifty became hundreds.
Crimson afterimages flooded Kael's vision.
Every strike aimed for his throat.
His heart.
His skull.
His eyes.
Every vital point.
Kael barely survived.
Sweat flooded his body.
His breathing became ragged.
And through it all—
his eyes kept darting toward Selene.
How do I save her?
How?!
Lord Ossian's attacks grew even more vicious.
Blood-red energy erupted from his claws.
Serpentine streams of scarlet power lunged through the air like hungry vipers.
The attack range doubled.
Kael nearly screamed.
He could barely survive the claws.
Now this?
One red strike nearly tore through his face.
Another missed his ribs by inches.
A third ripped through his sleeve.
Kael's thoughts spiraled.
I'm dead.
I'm completely dead.
This old monster's evil arts are terrifying—
why the hell is his close combat even scarier?!
He lashed the Flamescourge desperately.
Yet Lord Ossian repeatedly grabbed the weapon bare-handed.
The undead monster barely seemed afraid of dragon fire.
"This isn't working…"
Kael's mind raced.
Then—
an idea.
Terrible.
Desperate.
Possibly suicidal.
Perfect.
He muttered an incantation under his breath.
Then deliberately stumbled.
He let his footing collapse.
Lord Ossian lunged instantly.
The killing strike came.
Kael's eyes flashed.
Ember Dash.
He exploded forward.
Fire sparks erupted beneath his feet.
He shot sideways like a meteor fragment.
Straight toward Selene.
Fast enough to shock even Lord Ossian—
but not enough.
The undead lord's left claw moved.
It had been waiting.
The strike landed directly in Kael's abdomen.
Agony beyond language detonated inside him.
It felt like every organ in his body had been shredded into pulp.
Kael flew backward like a broken doll.
He slammed into stone and coughed blood.
Lord Ossian laughed.
"You cannot even save yourself."
He approached.
"You truly believed I couldn't see your little scheme?"
His claw rose toward Kael's skull.
Death descended.
Kael's hand shot into his storage pouch.
Please work.
Please—
He hurled an object as hard as he could.
It spun through the air.
Green lightning flashed across its surface.
Lord Ossian froze.
Then screamed—
"THE SEVENFOLD SHROUD!"
He abandoned Kael instantly.
And launched after it.
Kael stared in disbelief.
Holy hell.
That actually worked.
He staggered to Selene.
Scooped her unconscious body into his arms.
And ran.
Behind him—
Lord Ossian seized the mask.
Triumph exploded across his ruined face.
Then—
the entire corridor shook.
Stone walls cracked.
Ancient mechanisms awakened.
Chunks of rock tore free from the floor and walls.
They assembled into towering humanoid guardians.
A dozen massive stone constructs surrounded Lord Ossian.
Kael looked back.
And nearly laughed.
"Ha!"
He ran harder.
"Looks like Shreve Lyra's repaired formation still works!"
Lord Ossian snorted.
"A broken formation?"
He exploded upward.
"Worthless."
He tore through the constructs with horrifying ease.
One claw strike shattered torsos.
Another ripped off heads.
Massive fists missed him repeatedly.
He moved like smoke.
Like death itself.
Kael's smile vanished.
Yeah.
Those things weren't stopping him long.
Then another thought struck him.
The mask.
A few strange lines of control scripture flashed through his memory.
Words taught long ago by Aldric Crucible.
At the time, they had seemed meaningless.
Now—
Kael began reciting them.
Quietly.
Desperately.
Behind him—
Lord Ossian shattered another construct.
Then paused.
His robes jerked violently.
His expression changed.
The Sevenfold Shroud flew from his robes on its own.
"What?!"
He lunged for it.
Missed.
The mask shot across the corridor.
Straight toward Kael.
"No no no no—"
The mask slammed onto his face.
Darkness exploded behind his eyes.
His entire body convulsed.
Countless alien sensations invaded him.
Power.
Madness.
Violence.
Ancient hunger.
Kael nearly ripped it off immediately—
but Lord Ossian was still coming.
So he ran.
Faster than ever before.
The world blurred.
The corridor stretched into streaks of color.
His heartbeat thundered violently.
It felt like lightning was ripping through his veins.
"What the hell is this thing?!"
Terror gripped him.
"This mask is cursed!"
Behind him—
Lord Ossian roared.
He had finally broken free of the stone guardians.
The howl shook Kael's soul.
He ran harder.
Then another shriek came.
Even louder.
His inner Vitae circulation destabilized instantly.
His speed dropped.
Cold dread consumed him.
He looked back.
A tidal wave of red light surged through the corridor.
Lord Ossian was coming.
Fast.
Far too fast.
And then the voice arrived.
It echoed directly inside Kael's skull.
"You cannot escape…"
"You are tired…"
"So tired…"
"Surrender…"
"Become my eternal slave…"
Kael screamed.
The pressure crushed his mind.
Every word drilled into his will.
His previous abdominal wound exploded with fresh agony.
His knees buckled.
"No—!"
He crashed to the ground.
Still clutching Selene as they slammed into cold stone together.