The air in the throne room crackled with the fury of forgotten flames. Kael could feel it in his bones — the weight of his own flame, burning him from within. In front of him stood Vaen, the Blightkeeper, a living embodiment of destruction, each strike a devastating reminder of everything Kael had failed to understand. The Blightkeeper wasn't just a master of the flames. He was its very distortion, its perversion.
If Kael didn't fight differently, he'd burn like everyone else who'd come before him.
Blightkeeper's Judgement
Vaen moved like fire hardened into blade.
Each strike tore sigils off the walls, unmaking the ancient glyphs that powered the throne room. With every clash, he whispered names — old combat verses, forgotten commands, dead dialects of war.
"Flame Verse VII — Binding Fang.""Ash Reversal — Echo Drain."
Kael fought defensively — not because he was weak, but because Vaen fought like the system itself. He didn't just use flame — he bent it backward, corrupted its rhythm, made Kael's style fight against him.
"This is a test," Vaen said."The Flamebearer must rewrite the fire. Not inherit it."
Kael's strikes grew more wild, desperate.
Then…
He remembered what Aeon said in the vision:
"The flame isn't just strength. It's remembrance. Each strike must tell a story."
Kael changed.
He stopped copying.
He created.
Flashback:
In Chapter 3, Kael's master — the old swordsman from the Outskirts — told him:
"True form is born in failure. When you're cornered, don't fight harder. Fight truer."
Kael steadied his stance.
Breathed.
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Sigil: Ember Requiem – Flame Verse XIII (Unwritten)
Form: Flicker of the Forgotten
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He danced into the strike — not brute force, but a ghost of movement. A feint that told a lie.
Vaen reacted — wrong.
Kael vanished from his sight, appearing behind him with a burning palm.
BOOM.
Vaen flew backward, crashing into the base of the fractured throne.
"That style…" he muttered."That wasn't Aeon's."
Kael: "No. It was mine."
Lysara broke free, the mirror shattered by the stray blow.
But from its fragments, a red light bled out — forming a rune that coiled in the air.
Lysara paled. "That's… that's a Realm Key. But it's incomplete."
Vaen crawled toward it.
"That's what they wanted…" he coughed."The Keepers aren't after power. They're rebuilding Aeon's Gate. One fragment at a time."
Kael's blood ran cold.
"They want to cross into the Source."
Far across the realm, in a place between flame and shadow…
A Keeper knelt before a celestial map — its ink still alive, still writhing.
"Vaen failed.""Send the Hollow Prince."
[End Of Chapter 28]
But before Kael could respond, a new voice echoed across the chamber, distant and cold. "Vaen failed," it said, its tone final. "Prepare the Hollow Prince. It's time to send him."
A cold shiver ran down Kael's spine. Somewhere, in the distance, a new threat was preparing to emerge. Someone worse than Vaen. Someone made of stolen memories.
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🜃 Chapter 29: When Echoes Turn Hollow
A new enemy arises. A soul without a past, forged from the memories of others. He is a blank slate, a living paradox — a being with no identity but one stolen from those around him. Kael will face a challenge like no other, as he battles not just a foe of flame but a foe of pure emptiness.