Chapter 77 THE RULE OF SHADOWS
The marble floors of the palace cracked one by one with every step Dorian took. When he reached the Throne Room above, the scene was far different from what he expected. There was no army of Marcus. No guards. Only a heavy, intense smell of incense and pitch-black darkness.
"You have finally come, Dorian Volcan," a voice said. The voice came from every corner of the room simultaneously.
Around the throne sat seven figures wearing silver masks resembling crows. The Shadow Council. But the person sitting right in the center, on the royal throne, made Dorian pause.
The person sitting on the throne was Valeria.
"Kael’s sister..." Dorian said, his voice echoing from the depth of a grave. "So, it was you who sent the assassination squad."
Valeria struck her silver staff against the ground. "Kael’s sister was just a role, Dorian. I am the youngest member of this council. And your beloved father placed me in this palace not as a spy, but as a 'spare part'. If you hadn't put on the mask, that power would have flowed into my veins."
"Why?" Dorian asked. Black flames climbed from his hands toward the steps of the throne.
"Because," Valeria said, standing up, "Your heroic father didn't want to destroy Valerius’s power. He wanted to tame it. He used Serra not to kill Valerius, but as a bridge to transfer his power to this council. But his plan failed. You fell in love, Dorian. You turned a woman who was supposed to be a weapon into a wife."
Dorian laughed. This laugh shook the glass in the room. "Do you think love is a weakness?"
"No," Valeria said, walking toward Dorian. "We know love is a key. You will bring Atlas and Lyra to us with your own hands. Because those black veins inside Serra... they aren't just a poison. They are a tracking device. Right now, in those dark tunnels where they are fleeing, every time Serra’s heart beats, our gates get a little closer to them."
Dorian clenched his mask. "You cannot touch them."
"We don't need to touch them," Valeria said. "They are already there."
Valeria pointed to the massive mirror behind her. In the mirror, images of "Sector Zero" where Serra had taken refuge appeared. But there was a problem. The miners weren't protecting Serra. On the contrary, the miners' eyes were covered in a black mist, just like Valeria’s.
"The people of Sector Zero were never loyal to the palace, Dorian," Valeria said. "They were always disciples of the Shadow Council. Those people you gave 'coal aid' to are executioners waiting to sacrifice your children."
(SECTOR ZERO: THE TRAP)
At the same time, miles underground, Serra looked at the miners surrounding her with the babies in her arms. Kael raised his rifle, but his hands were trembling.
"Make way!" Kael shouted. "I won't let you touch her!"
The old miner smiled with his toothless mouth. "Our King gave us coal, son. But the Council promised us eternal life. Give us the babies, the woman can die."
Serra held Atlas’s hand. Atlas began to cry. The tunnel shook with every sob of the child, but the miners didn't step back.
"Lukas!" Serra said. "Find a way out!"
Lukas threw the map on the ground. "The map is a lie, Serra! These tunnels don't lead us out; they lead to the sacrificial altar right beneath the palace. Marcus guided us here on purpose!"
(THE THRONE ROOM: THE TRUE PRICE)
Watching the image in the mirror, the darkness inside Dorian reached a breaking point. "Let them go, or I will raze this city to the ground!"
"You could," Valeria said calmly. "But if you destroy the city, you destroy them too. You have only one way, Dorian. Use the full power of the mask and surrender your consciousness to us. Your body will be a gate. Valerius’s soul will walk in your body, and in return... we will let Serra and the children live. As slaves, but alive."
Dorian looked at the black flames in his hands. Then at Serra’s desperate face in the mirror.
In this labyrinth built by his own father, every path led to the same dead end. Dorian slowly removed his mask. His face was tired, his eyes teary.
"My father forgot one thing," Dorian said.
"What?" Valeria asked.
"That I am my father's son."
Instead of putting on the mask, Dorian gripped it with both hands and snapped it over his knee.
The room suddenly fell into absolute silence. The Council members jumped to their feet. The moment the mask broke, the black flames in Dorian’s veins erupted outward, but they didn't harm him. Instead, the flames flowed into the mirror at the speed of light, toward where Serra was.
"What have you done?!" Valeria screamed.
"I didn't keep the power for myself," Dorian said, collapsing to the floor. "I sent the power to them. Since I am a gate... I opened that gate over them."
In Sector Zero, the miners surrounding Serra instantly turned to ash. Because the soul Dorian sacrificed had now formed an impenetrable shield around his wife and children.
Dorian smiled as he took his last breath on the cold floor of the throne room. He was no longer a King. He was just a man who destroyed himself for his family.
However, as Dorian’s eyes closed, a hand reached out from inside the mirror.
It was a baby’s hand. Lyra’s hand.
Lyra hadn't just accepted her father's soul; she was pushing it back. The baby was rejecting her father's death.