Sylva Dreyn glanced toward Isara Ashvane's pale face.
The white-haired mistress of Vane's Summit sat motionless beneath the dead trees, eyes shut tight, blood staining the corner of her lips while she forced her battered Vitae through ruined Channels. Every breath she drew looked painful. Wisps of gray-black corruption still crawled beneath the skin around her neck where the Soul-Eroding Curse had flared again under the strain of battle.
Sylva knew exactly what her Master was doing.
Healing.
Or trying to.
Buying seconds.
So she kept talking.
"Which boy?" Sylva asked carefully.
Lord Ossian's skull-face turned toward her. Only scraps of rotten flesh still clung to the ancient undead's jaw, yet somehow his fury remained horribly visible. The empty sockets burned red.
"The little bastard with the chain," he hissed. "The slippery runt who keeps ruining my affairs."
Selene Voss felt ice crawl through her stomach.
Kael.
Even hearing Ossian speak about him made her chest tighten with fear.
Sylva answered quickly before Selene could.
"And why are you so desperate to find him?"
Lord Ossian's exposed teeth ground together with an ugly scraping noise.
"There is something that belongs to me in his possession." Hatred thickened every word. "I will skin him alive, strip the flesh from his bones, and forge him into an eternal slave."
Selene's face turned white.
"You're insane!" she shouted.
But Sylva kept pressing, trying to stall for every heartbeat possible.
"What did he take from you?"
The Bone Ancient suddenly stopped speaking.
The red fire inside his eye sockets flickered.
Then his head slowly turned toward Isara.
Sylva's heart dropped.
Damn it.
He noticed.
Lord Ossian stared at the silent woman seated among the roots and broken corpses. His voice became soft and terrible.
"So the disciple of Primus Valder still clings to life." He chuckled darkly. "Last time the Soul-Eroding Curse failed to kill you. Now you survive even after taking my Underworld Claw head-on."
His skeletal fingers rose.
"Then let me give you another."
The women around Isara stiffened in horror.
None of them could move fast enough.
Not injured.
Not surrounded by thousands of blood-spiders.
Not with Lord Ossian standing over them like death itself.
The Bone Ancient began forming seals with his fingers—
Then the sky screamed.
The sound rolled over the mountain like the roar of some ancient beast awakening beneath the earth. It carried the deep metallic howl of a dragon, so loud it shook leaves from branches and rattled bones beneath the ground.
Everyone looked up.
Through the dead treetops came a monstrous crimson shape.
A skeletal dragon.
Over a hundred feet long, with a narrow skull, jutting brow ridges, and a serpentine body stripped bare to blood-red bone. No scales. No flesh. Only crimson bone and burning ghostlight in its eyes.
It twisted through the clouds like a nightmare made real.
The women of Vane's Summit felt despair crash over them all at once.
Another one?
Another horror?
Selene's fingers trembled around her weapon.
Even Lord Ossian looked stunned.
The Bone Ancient stared upward, genuine confusion flickering across his ruined face.
Impossible.
The dragon's reconstruction core had been damaged. It should still be dormant deep inside the Bone Warren recovering.
So why was it here?
His suspicion deepened instantly.
Without hesitation he rose into the air, dark smoke swirling beneath his robes as he flew toward the approaching dragon.
—
Kael rode the skeletal dragon across the skies above Mirekeep.
The wind hammered against his armor while the Sevenfold Shroud pulsed against his face like a living thing.
Below him the city burned.
The battle still raged across shattered walls and blood-soaked streets, but Kael barely looked at any of it. He searched desperately through smoke and ruin for Isara and the others.
Come on…
Where are you…
The skeletal dragon crossed half the city before Kael finally spotted movement near the northern mountain forests.
An ocean of blood-spiders.
Thousands of them swarming across the slopes like a tide of crawling flesh and bone.
Kael's eyes sharpened.
Then he saw the trapped figures inside the sea of monsters.
His Master.
His Sorors.
Alive.
Relief slammed into him so hard it almost hurt.
"There you are!"
He immediately drove the skeletal dragon downward—
And froze.
Lord Ossian was flying directly toward him.
Kael's pulse jumped.
The Bone Ancient approached fast, black robes whipping behind him. His crimson eyes locked onto the war chariot pulled behind the skeletal dragon.
The six construct skeletons mounted around the chariot were fully active now, weapons spinning wildly while they guarded the vehicle. The Asura Flames surrounding the carriage roared violently, dark fire pouring away precious stored Aether in every direction.
The sight made Lord Ossian furious.
"That is MY mount!" he roared. "Who dares ride my dragon?"
Kael sat hidden beneath layers of protection.
Skeletal armor.
Bone helm.
The Sevenfold Shroud.
The curtain of Asura Flames.
And behind him the six battle skeletons moved in chaotic defense.
No normal person could identify him.
Yet strangely…
Kael felt no fear.
Not even facing Lord Ossian directly.
The power roaring through his body drowned everything else out.
He glanced downward once more and saw how close his Master and the others were to death.
Something savage rose inside him.
"Old corpse bastard," he spat.
Then he attacked.
The skeletal dragon lunged forward with a deafening roar.
Lord Ossian immediately formed a control seal and invoked the dragon-binding restriction he had personally branded into the beast long ago.
The skeletal dragon convulsed in pain.
For one moment Kael thought the dragon might actually turn on him—
Instead the undead beast threw back its head and vomited a torrent of crimson breath directly at its former master.
Lord Ossian's expression changed instantly.
He dodged sideways with explosive speed, but the edge of the dragon-breath still clipped his robes.
The cloth dissolved immediately.
Entire sections vanished into smoking rot, exposing wet crimson bone beneath.
The Bone Ancient looked genuinely rattled.
Kael's confidence exploded upward.
He surged after him, shield raised, Soul-Binding Chain whipping through the air like lightning.
Lord Ossian roared and counterattacked midair.
Below, the women trapped among the blood-spiders stared upward in disbelief.
Zaeli blinked hard.
"Am I losing my mind?" she muttered. "Why is the old monster fighting his own dragon?"
Sylva narrowed her eyes.
"There's someone on that chariot," she realized. "Someone stole control of the beast."
Mira looked shocked.
"But shouldn't he have restrictions placed on his own mount?"
"I don't know," Sylva admitted, still staring upward. "Maybe something went wrong."
Zaeli lay against the bloodstained ground and laughed bitterly.
"Good. Let them tear each other apart."
—
Kael felt invincible.
Power flooded him endlessly.
Vitae.
Aether.
Heat.
Violence.
Everything inside him surged like a tidal wave.
The Soul-Strike Shield thundered with crackling force while the Soul-Binding Chain lashed through the air in arcs of lightning. Combined with the skeletal dragon, the six construct guardians, and the raging Asura Flames, the assault became overwhelming.
Even Lord Ossian began getting driven backward.
Kael dimly realized where the power came from.
The mask.
The Sevenfold Shroud.
The artifact clinging to his face radiated intoxicating force directly into his body. Pleasure and madness mixed together until Kael almost laughed aloud.
He could feel the corruption now.
The addiction.
A tiny part of him had already begun craving the mask.
Loving it.
Above the battlefield, Lord Ossian stared through the dark flames and finally caught sight of the thing covering Kael's face.
The Sevenfold Shroud.
Shock tore through him.
How?
How did this unknown figure possess the Demon Sovereign's Mantle?
Who in the hells was he?
Several massive Underworld Claws smashed toward the chariot one after another, but the dragon and Asura Flames blocked them each time.
Lord Ossian's fury deepened.
Then suddenly—
Ash and Smoke.
His body dissolved.
He vanished.
Kael's instincts screamed.
Too late.
Lord Ossian reappeared directly behind the war chariot.
The Bone Ancient raised his defensive power to its limit and forced himself bodily through the curtain of Asura Flames.
The black fire tore into him savagely.
His bones smoked.
Flesh burned away.
But he endured it.
Inside the chariot, Lyra Farrow and Auryn Gale both cried out in alarm.
Kael twisted around to strike—
The Underworld Claw materialized inside the carriage itself.
A gigantic skeletal hand erupted from empty air and closed around Kael's entire body.
Agony detonated through him.
Kael grunted hard as blood exploded from his mouth.
Lord Ossian landed atop the edge of the chariot and stared down in savage delight.
"You survived that?" he snarled. "Excellent. Excellent! Let's see how long you last!"
He poured more power into the technique.
The massive claw tightened.
Kael braced the Soul-Strike Shield against one side while using his arm to resist the crushing pressure, but destructive dark power forced itself into his body from every direction.
His organs felt ready to burst apart.
Blood sprayed from his mouth again.
But Lord Ossian was suffering too.
Forcing himself through the Asura Flames had heavily damaged him internally. His power circulation wavered dangerously.
Still—
Victory was close.
So he endured.
Inside the carriage, Lyra watched rapidly.
She still did not know the masked figure was Kael.
But she understood one thing clearly.
If Lord Ossian won here, every one of them would die.
Quietly, painfully, she gathered the tiny shred of Vitae she had secretly recovered.
Then she struck.
Her fingers flashed toward Lord Ossian's lower abdomen with a lightning-fast seal.
The Bone Ancient reacted instantly.
His foot slammed downward.
Crunch.
Lyra screamed.
Her hand was crushed violently against the edge of the chariot.
Pain twisted her beautiful face white.
Lord Ossian laughed viciously.
"So it's you, little whore." His eyes burned. "Trying to ambush me again? I'll deal with you properly soon enough."
But the interruption still disrupted his concentration for a split second.
That moment was enough.
Kael roared.
The Underworld Claw exploded apart.
The entire war chariot jolted violently as if struck by siege artillery. Auryn was thrown completely out of the carriage, barely catching herself by grabbing one of the wheels with one hand.
At the same instant Kael shot forward like thunder.
The Soul-Strike Shield smashed into Lord Ossian's chest.
Cracks exploded through bone.
The Bone Ancient was blasted upward through the air.
Kael pursued immediately, eyes bloodshot behind the mask.
He caught Lord Ossian again and hammered the shield directly into his skull.
The impact sounded like a mountain splitting.
Fractures spread across the top of Lord Ossian's head.
Enraged, the Bone Ancient slashed back and sent Kael crashing into the chariot once more.
Far below, Auryn's grip finally failed.
The First Soror fell from the sky.
Selene saw her first.
"That's Elder Soror Auryn!"
Panic spread instantly.
The women below looked up helplessly as Auryn plummeted downward from hundreds of feet in the air.
None of them could help her.
They were all injured.
All trapped.
Then suddenly—
A figure appeared.
A loose empty sleeve caught Auryn gently in midair.
The women below erupted in shock and joy.
Mira nearly cried out.
"The Sixth Elder-Uncle!"
Varek Smolden did not even pause.
Carrying Auryn with one sleeve, he stepped once through empty air and appeared beside Lord Ossian high above the battlefield.
His other sleeve moved casually.
Too casually.
It slipped straight through the Bone Ancient's defenses and struck his chest.
Lord Ossian's entire body jolted.
A strange force invaded him instantly.
His protective arts barely resisted at all.
Inside his ribcage, the ancient core of power he had refined for thousands of years suddenly destabilized violently.
Fear hit him at once.
A counter.
This man's power directly countered his own.
Lord Ossian immediately retreated backward.
"Daring to harm disciples of the Covenant?" Varek said coldly.
Then he pursued.
Lord Ossian shouted angrily while fleeing.
"Who are you?"
At the same time he desperately circulated his power to stabilize himself.
But the cracks on his skull suddenly spread downward toward one eye socket.
Dark energy leaked uncontrollably from the fractures.
Varek's expression never changed.
"Varek Smolden of Lone-Smoke Isle."
The Bone Ancient's fear deepened instantly.
Even hidden underground in the Bone Warren for years, he had still heard the stories.
The Covenant guardian who exterminated 49 Cavern Kings.
The armless monster whose Banishing Vitae annihilated demonic arts.
And now Lord Ossian was badly wounded already.
Then he saw something even worse.
The masked figure riding the skeletal dragon was charging back toward him again.
His own mount had betrayed him.
The situation had turned disastrous.
A long bitter sigh escaped him.
Live first.
Revenge later.
His fingers formed hidden seals inside his sleeve.
Ash and Smoke.
Varek closed the distance—
Then Lord Ossian scattered into drifting ash before his eyes and vanished completely.
Gone.
Even Varek looked briefly surprised.
But there was no time to pursue.
He descended immediately toward the trapped women below.
Kael saw Lord Ossian escape and nearly exploded with rage.
But there was nothing he could do.
So instead he drove the skeletal dragon downward into the sea of blood-spiders.
The battle became slaughter.
With Kael and Varek attacking together, the blood-spiders collapsed rapidly beneath overwhelming force. Severed limbs and shattered skulls sprayed across the mountainside.
The women of Vane's Summit finally broke free from encirclement.
Somewhere in the chaos, Marshal Bloodblade saw Lord Ossian retreating.
The undead commander immediately fled as well.
Kael barely noticed.
He kept killing.
Every blood-spider he destroyed sent another violent surge rushing into his body.
Heat.
Lightning.
Pressure.
The energy accumulated inside him wildly, shaking his muscles until they spasmed painfully beneath the skeletal armor.
He felt drunk on murder.
The six construct skeletons around the chariot finally began exhausting their stored Aether. One after another they lowered their weapons and folded back down into dormant positions until only their skulls remained visible above the carriage edges.
The Asura Flames weakened too.
The towering dark inferno shrank lower and lower into scattered black flames struggling weakly against extinction before finally vanishing completely.
Yet Kael only felt stronger.
The Soul-Strike Shield crashed like thunder.
The Soul-Binding Chain struck like divine lightning.
Blood-spiders burst apart before him as if made from wet paper.
At that moment he truly became addicted to killing.
Auryn steadied herself and looked toward the battlefield.
The blood-spiders were no longer a serious threat.
Then she remembered Lyra.
Her face changed instantly.
"Sixth Elder-Uncle!" she shouted toward Varek. "Shreve Lyra is still on that chariot with the masked one!"
Varek blinked once.
Then he stepped through the air.
In the next instant he appeared above the war chariot and stared down at Kael.
"State your name, creature," he said coldly.
Kael answered with violence.
The Soul-Binding Chain exploded upward like a colossal bolt of lightning.
Even Varek's eyes sharpened slightly.
His sleeve swept outward to meet it—
And the collision detonated like the wrath of the gods.
The explosion blasted nearby blood-spiders apart in every direction.
The impact numbed Kael from head to toe.
Pain shot through his arms as the Soul-Binding Chain collided again and again with Varek Smolden's terrifying force. Yet the unbearable pressure swelling inside him finally found release. He roared behind the Sevenfold Shroud and lashed the chain wildly through the air.
Lightning and thunder exploded across the battlefield.
In the span of a heartbeat, they exchanged more than a dozen strikes.
Each collision burst like a storm breaking apart the heavens. Trees shattered. Dirt erupted into the air. Blood-spiders nearby burst apart from the shockwaves before they could even scream.
Then at last the two separated.
Varek drifted backward through the air with eerie calm, his sleeves fluttering lazily as though the violence around him meant nothing.
Kael and the entire war chariot were hurled backward like debris from a catapult. The chains linking the chariot to the skeletal dragon stretched taut with shrieking metallic strain.
The difference between them was obvious.
Yet every woman from Vane's Summit stared in stunned disbelief.
Even Varek's eyes narrowed slightly.
His cultivation stood near the peak of the Mortal Realm. Very few beings alive could trade blows with him directly. Raw power alone did not surprise him anymore.
What unsettled him was the creature in front of him.
The masked figure radiated demonic corruption so thick it blackened the air itself, yet buried underneath it flowed something stranger. Parts of the man's power felt righteous. Other parts felt twisted beyond reason. Multiple forces tangled together like a nest of venomous snakes.
What exactly was this thing?
A demon?
A corrupted adept?
Something worse?
Varek's expression hardened.
He dissolved the lingering force around his body and surged forward again.
Kael's blood boiled violently inside him. Something warm ran from his nose. He wiped at it carelessly and found his hand slick with blood.
He did not care.
The battle fever raging through him burned hotter than pain.
His eyes throbbed crimson behind the mask.
When Varek closed in again, Kael drove the skeletal chariot straight at him with a savage roar.
The second clash began.
Faster.
More violent.
This time Varek finally revealed why his name terrified even veteran adepts.
His sleeves snapped through the air.
Each motion unleashed dense streams of Banishing Vitae that tore across the battlefield like invisible dragons. Trees collapsed wherever the force touched. Earth split apart. Branches and leaves disintegrated into dust.
The power existed solely to destroy corruption.
And right now Kael was drowning in it.
The Soul-Binding Chain whipped frantically around him, but after the first rush of momentum he began losing ground rapidly. He relied almost entirely on the divine chain, the Soul-Strike Shield, and the monstrous strength amplified by the Sevenfold Shroud.
Three bursts of violence.
That was all he had.
Once the frenzy slowed, Varek's attacks came endlessly, one after another like an unstoppable river.
Again and again the chain defense shattered apart beneath the elder's sleeves.
Only the massive shield kept Kael from collapsing outright.
Then desperation flashed through his muddled mind.
The skeletal dragon shrieked.
The enormous undead beast dove from above with jaws wide open, fangs large as siege spears descending toward Varek's body.
Varek did not even flinch.
He stepped lightly aside.
In one graceful movement he slipped past the dragon's skull and entered directly beneath its throat. His sleeve swept outward.
Crack.
Crack-crack.
Several massive bones snapped instantly.
The skeletal dragon screamed in agony.
Varek cultivated Banishing Vitae, one of the supreme arts for annihilating demonic forces. The dragon had once been a sacred Deepwater Dragon, but Lord Ossian's dark rites had corrupted it almost completely into an undead creature.
Against Varek, it was naturally suppressed.
Kael felt the dragon's pain as though the broken bones were his own.
The shock snapped some clarity back into his mind.
And suddenly he realized who he was fighting.
Cold sweat burst across his skin beneath the armor.
Sixth Elder-Uncle.
Dear gods...
What the hell was he doing?
If Varek captured him in this state—
Kael's stomach clenched in terror.
He glanced toward the forest below and saw that Isara and the others were no longer in immediate danger.
That was enough.
Without another thought, he yanked the dragon skyward and fled.
"Do not run!" Varek thundered.
He pursued immediately.
Having reached the Aetheric realm long ago, each of his steps crossed enormous distances through the sky itself.
Kael drove the skeletal dragon harder.
Faster.
Faster.
The wounded beast still moved like black lightning across the heavens. Clouds exploded apart behind it as it fled over the vast Dread Mire.
Gradually the distance widened.
Varek finally slowed.
His gaze darkened.
Then he muttered an incantation and flicked his sleeve outward.
White light erupted around him.
A jade cauldron engraved with drifting cloud patterns appeared beneath his feet—the Cloudwing Cauldron, one of his personally refined arcane treasures.
He stepped onto it and shot through the sky in pursuit.
Unfortunately, the delay had cost him.
The demonic dragon had already vanished.
Varek searched the heavens for a long time without result.
At last he halted the Cloudwing Cauldron in midair and began calculating silently with one of the Covenant's forbidden tracking arts, attempting to divine the masked creature's location.
---
The last blood-spider finally died.
The forest floor was carpeted with shattered bones and rotting chunks of spider flesh. The women from Vane's Summit stood among the carnage breathing hard, their nerves only beginning to settle.
Mira Stonwell wiped blood from her cheek and said weakly, "I still can't tell whether the man on that chariot was friend or enemy. Why would he help us?"
Sylva Dreyn shook her head.
"He may not have been helping us specifically. He was fighting the undead army. That much is clear."
Zaeli bit her lip.
"Then why did he take Shreve Lyra away?"
Auryn remained silent.
Her expression was strange.
Mira stared toward the distant sky. "And how in the world did he steal Lord Ossian's skeletal dragon? Those restrictions should have been impossible to break."
Selene spoke slowly.
"The mask he wore... it had seven horns."
Everyone looked toward her.
"It looked exactly like the Sevenfold Shroud."
A heavy silence followed.
Sylva frowned deeply. "Wasn't the Sevenfold Shroud destroyed years ago?"
Her eyes flicked toward Isara.
"Then why is it here now? And in that man's hands?"
Isara did not answer immediately.
Her white brows remained faintly furrowed, deep in thought.
Mira muttered quietly, "Where did a monster like that even come from...?"
Zaeli forced out a shaky laugh.
"At least Sixth Elder-Uncle arrived in time. Otherwise today we... we..."
She stopped abruptly.
Everyone's expressions darkened.
Before they had even reached Aureheim, disaster after disaster had struck them.
Lyra's fate remained uncertain.
Kael had been cast out from the Chapter.
Every one of them carried wounds.
Even Isara looked exhausted beneath her cold composure.
The weight of it all pressed down heavily on the group.
At last Isara turned toward Auryn.
"What happened at the city?"
Auryn hesitated before answering.
"Mirekeep was on the verge of collapse. Then that masked man and the skeletal dragon appeared."
Her voice remained distant, almost disbelieving.
"They destroyed several skeletal giants and slaughtered countless undead soldiers. The battle changed completely."
She paused.
"Before I came here... the undead army was already beginning to rout."
Shock spread through the group.
Mira stared openly. "So he saved the city too?"
She rubbed her forehead helplessly.
"I seriously can't tell whether he's good or evil anymore."
Isara's gaze sharpened slightly.
"How did the two of you end up on his chariot?"
Auryn answered carefully.
"I was injured by the undead and fell from one of the skeletal giants. He caught me before I hit the ground."
A faint flush crossed her face for reasons she refused to examine.
"When I woke up, I was already on the chariot. Shreve Lyra was lying beside me. She looked badly wounded too."
The women exchanged confused looks.
Nothing about the situation made sense.
Auryn looked toward the horizon.
"Whatever else he is... he helped us."
Isara remained silent for several moments.
Finally she said, "Leave that matter aside for now. Your Sixth Elder-Uncle has already gone after Lyra, so she should be safe."
Her eyes turned toward Mirekeep.
"What matters now is returning to aid Rovan Ashford."
---
Kael fled wildly through the sky atop the skeletal dragon.
Behind him, Varek had finally disappeared from sight.
Lyra Farrow's heart tightened with urgency.
Ignoring the agony tearing through her wounded body, she secretly gathered what little Vitae she could.
Only tiny traces answered her call.
Bit by bit she condensed them at her fingertips.
At last she moved.
Her fingers shot forward and struck the point at the base of Kael's skull.
The strike contained almost no power, but Lyra had transformed the energy into lightning-aspected force. Against a vital acupoint, even a tiny amount should have been enough to paralyze him instantly.
Instead Kael merely convulsed violently.
Then he spun around with a furious roar.
"What are you doing?!"
Lyra's face paled.
Her fingers darted lower, stabbing another acupoint in the center of his back.
Kael's vision blurred.
His body swayed.
But he still did not fall.
The skeletal dragon continued racing through the clouds.
Panic flickered through Lyra's eyes.
She gritted her teeth and used the last thread of remaining Vitae.
Her finger struck his lower back.
This time the effect was immediate.
Kael screamed.
Pain exploded through his body so violently that his face twisted beneath the Sevenfold Shroud.
He turned instantly and seized Lyra's wrist with brutal force.
"Ah—!"
Her injuries tore open from the movement.
Pain stabbed through her chest and stomach.
The soft cry escaped her lips before she could stop it.
It was quiet.
Breathy.
Sweet enough to melt through reason.
The sound hit Kael like poison.
Something inside him snapped.
He hurled her backward viciously.
Lyra crashed hard against the rear seat of the war chariot, curling around her wounded abdomen.
Kael barely recognized what he was doing anymore.
The Sevenfold Shroud burned against his face.
Heat flooded his body.
Violence.
Lust.
Madness.
Everything tangled together until he could scarcely think.
Lyra's robes had twisted during the fall. One pale leg slid free beneath the raised hem of her skirt, smooth as cream against the dark bone chariot.
Kael stared at it.
His breathing grew harsher.
The red eyes visible through the mask became increasingly clouded and savage.
Lyra heard the sound.
She looked up.
The gaze staring back at her made her blood run cold.
Instinct screamed danger.
She hurriedly dragged her skirt down and crossed her arms protectively over her chest.
The motion only made things worse.
Her wrists could not fully conceal the heavy curves pressing against her robes. Fear filled her expression. Panic trembled in her eyes.
And the Sevenfold Shroud fed hungrily on exactly those emotions.
Kael's throat released rough animal sounds.
A mysterious force burned through his veins like liquid fire, devouring the last scraps of restraint.
Then he lunged.
Lyra gasped as he slammed her down beneath him.
She struggled immediately, but her strength was nearly gone.
Kael grabbed the front of her robes.
Riiip.
Fabric tore apart.
He ripped away the cloth binding her chest.
Her breasts burst free instantly.
Full.
Heavy.
Pale beyond reason.
They bounced before his eyes with intoxicating softness.
Lyra cried out and tried to cover herself, but Kael pinned both wrists easily.
Then he buried his face between her breasts.
The cold mask scraped brutally across her delicate skin as he breathed against her flesh like a starving beast.
Lyra kicked and fought desperately.
"Stop!"
She twisted beneath him, panting hard.
"You came to save Mirekeep! You saved me too! You can't be evil, so why are you doing this?!"
Kael ignored every word.
His breathing sounded like a beast growling over fresh meat.
He rubbed and shoved himself deeper between the soft valley of her breasts, licking greedily at the warm skin.
A faint fragrance rose from her body.
Sweet.
Soft.
Almost intoxicating.
The sensation drove him deeper into madness.
His hands released her wrists and seized her breasts instead.
He kneaded them roughly.
Hard enough to deform the flesh into endless sinful shapes.
Lyra let out a trembling moan despite herself.
The stiff points atop her breasts hardened beneath the abuse. Even the rosy flesh around them darkened slightly from stimulation.
Another rich scent drifted into the air.
Kael froze for half a second.
Then he inhaled sharply through the mask.
Lyra realized what was happening and hurriedly tried to cover herself again.
Too late.
A burning hot hand slid beneath her skirt.
"No!"
She cried out and reached downward to stop him.
The movement exposed her chest completely.
Kael's mouth closed over one nipple instantly.
Heat flooded through her body.
At the same time his fingers reached the soaked softness between her thighs.
"Bastard!" Lyra trembled violently.
Goosebumps spread across her skin.
She grabbed desperately at the invading hand beneath her skirt, but Kael's strength was monstrous. His fingers continued violating her relentlessly.
Heat rolled from his body in waves.
His hand explored greedily between her legs.
Every inch of her flesh felt lush and maddeningly soft beneath his touch.
Then his fingers found wetness.
A slick sweetness already coated her inner thighs.
Kael groaned like a starving animal.
Lyra's face burned scarlet with humiliation.
"I'll kill you...!"
She bit down hard on the words.
Suddenly her body jerked violently.
Kael had bitten down hard on her nipple.
Right now he had lost all sense of control.
While his hands crushed and fondled her breasts brutally, his mouth sucked and bit without mercy. He paid no attention to whether she could endure it.
What Kael did not know was that Lyra's body possessed hidden sensitivities far beyond ordinary women.
The rough abuse overwhelmed her nerves rapidly.
Pain and pleasure blurred together until half her body went weak.
Soft moans escaped her lips no matter how desperately she tried to suppress them.
Her dark hair spilled loose across the chariot seat.
One side of her face remained hidden beneath the tangled strands.
The other revealed flushed cheeks and trembling red lips wet with uneven breaths.
Kael stared at her.
His throat went dry.
His gaze locked onto her eyes.
Then onto her lips.
Suddenly he tore himself upward.
With savage movements he ripped apart his own armor.
Bone plates shattered across the chariot floor.
His clothes followed immediately after, torn open by sheer force.
Beneath them his body looked terrifying.
Muscles bulged across his chest and arms, swollen by the demonic strength flooding through him. Heat steamed from his skin.
Lyra's eyes widened in panic.
She scrambled backward desperately until she curled into the corner of the chariot, trembling.
All her usual composure and confidence had vanished completely.
Meanwhile the skeletal dragon, no longer receiving proper commands, flew aimlessly through the endless sky.
Far below them stretched the vast black waters of the Dread Mire.