Chapter 94 up
The dust took a long time to settle.
For several minutes after the Heart shattered, the ruins of Velkaris groaned and shifted like a wounded giant struggling to find stillness. Stone continued to slide into the massive crater where the central plaza had once stood. Broken towers leaned dangerously, their cracked foundations barely holding under the weight of centuries.
Then, slowly, the trembling faded.
Silence spread across the canyon.
Kael coughed as he pushed a slab of fallen stone off his chest and forced himself to sit upright. Gray dust covered everything—his clothes, his hair, even the blade of his sword.
“Well,” he rasped, waving his hand in front of his face. “That was dramatic.”
A few feet away, Corvin struggled to stand, clutching a fractured column for balance. His usually neat robes were torn and blackened by soot, and his glasses had slipped halfway down his nose.
“You call collapsing half an ancient city dramatic?” he replied hoarsely.
Kael glanced toward the massive crater outside the temple.
“I’m choosing optimism.”
The temple roof had partially caved in during the explosion. Sunlight now streamed through jagged gaps in the stone ceiling, illuminating the chamber in pale shafts of gold.
In the center of the room, where the Heart had once floated above the pillar, only broken stone remained.
The pillar itself had split apart, its ancient runes burned dark and lifeless.
Elara stood beside it.
She had not moved since the moment the Heart shattered.
Corvin noticed first.
“Elara?”
She didn’t answer.
Her gaze was fixed on the empty space where the crimson sphere had once burned.
Kael approached carefully.
“You alright?”
After a long moment, she nodded.
“Yes.”
But her voice was distant.
Something inside her still felt… strange.
When the Heart exploded, she had felt its energy surge through her like a tidal wave. Even now, faint traces of warmth lingered beneath her skin.
Like embers buried in ash.
Corvin stepped closer to the shattered pillar, examining the dead runes carved into the stone.
“It’s gone,” he murmured.
Kael raised an eyebrow.
“That was the idea.”
Corvin shook his head slowly.
“You don’t understand. The Heart of Velkaris was older than any kingdom that exists today. The magic that created it…” He trailed off.
“Should not have vanished so easily.”
Kael folded his arms.
“Well, it definitely exploded.”
“Yes,” Corvin said. “But the energy had to go somewhere.”
Elara finally turned away from the pillar.
“We saw where it went.”
She gestured toward the temple entrance.
Outside, the ruins of Velkaris had become unrecognizable.
The central district was gone.
In its place yawned a colossal crater stretching hundreds of yards across, its jagged edges still crumbling into the abyss below.
The explosion had collapsed the cavern beneath the city, burying the Devourer under an unimaginable mass of stone.
Kael walked toward the doorway and looked down into the darkness.
“Looks pretty buried to me.”
Corvin joined him cautiously.
The crater dropped so deep that the bottom vanished into shadow.
Dust drifted lazily through the air.
No movement.
No sound.
Nothing.
For a moment, Kael allowed himself a small smile.
“See?” he said. “Problem solved.”
But Corvin’s expression remained troubled.
“It’s not that simple.”
Kael sighed.
“Why is it never that simple with you?”
Corvin gestured toward the crater.
“Creatures like the Devourer are not bound by the same rules as ordinary life.”
“Meaning?”
“It may not need air. Or light. Or even space to move.”
Kael stared into the abyss again.
“Well that’s unpleasant.”
Elara stepped beside them.
The wind drifting up from the crater was cold.
Too cold.
She felt the faint warmth inside her chest flicker again, responding to something deep beneath the ruins.
“You said the Heart was part of a larger system,” she said quietly.
Corvin nodded.
“Yes.”
“How many others are there?”
He hesitated.
“I don’t know exactly. But the ancient texts spoke of multiple prisons scattered across the world.”
Kael groaned.
“Let me guess.”
Corvin sighed.
“The Heart of Velkaris was only one of them.”
Kael rubbed his face.
“Fantastic.”
They stood in silence for a moment, staring into the massive scar carved into the city.
Velkaris had once been a place of incredible beauty. Even in ruin, the architecture hinted at a civilization of extraordinary knowledge and power.
Now half of it had fallen into darkness.
Kael kicked a loose pebble over the edge of the crater.
It took several seconds before they heard it strike something far below.
“Deep,” he muttered.
Elara turned away.
“We should leave.”
Corvin blinked.
“So soon?”
“This place isn’t safe anymore.”
As if to prove her point, a section of broken wall collapsed somewhere nearby, sending a cascade of rubble into the crater.
Kael nodded.
“Agreed.”
They began making their way through the shattered streets.
The path they had taken earlier had been destroyed during the collapse, forcing them to find a new route through the outer ruins of the city.
Dust still hung in the air, turning the sunlight pale and dim.
For the first time since arriving in Velkaris, birds began circling cautiously above the canyon.
Life was returning.
But something about the silence felt wrong.
Too heavy.
Too watchful.
They had nearly reached the edge of the ruined district when Elara suddenly stopped.
“Wait.”
Kael turned.
“What is it?”
She frowned, scanning the broken ground around them.
“I felt something.”
Corvin stiffened.
“What kind of something?”
Elara walked slowly toward a pile of collapsed stone near the edge of the street.
The faint warmth inside her chest grew stronger.
Something nearby was responding to it.
Kael rested a hand on the hilt of his sword.
“You’re doing that mysterious thing again.”
Elara knelt beside the rubble and began pushing aside loose rocks.
Corvin crouched beside her.
“What are you looking for?”
“I don’t know.”
But she did feel something.
A faint pulse.
Very weak.
But unmistakable.
Her fingers brushed against a fragment of dark stone half buried beneath the debris.
The moment she touched it—
The fragment glowed.
A soft crimson light flickered across its surface.
Corvin gasped.
“That’s—”
“A piece of the Heart,” Elara finished.
The shard was no larger than her palm, but the energy radiating from it was unmistakable.
Even broken, it still held power.
Kael leaned closer.
“That survived the explosion?”
Corvin’s eyes shone with fascination.
“Apparently.”
Elara lifted the fragment carefully.
The warmth in her chest intensified the moment she held it.
And then—
The world changed.
Her vision blurred.
The ruins around her vanished.
Suddenly she stood in a different Velkaris.
The city was whole.
Golden banners fluttered from towering spires. Crowds filled the streets, their voices echoing with life and celebration.
At the center of the city, the temple stood intact, its black stone gleaming under the sun.
And inside it—
The Heart of Velkaris burned brighter than she had ever seen it.
But something was wrong.
The people around the temple were kneeling.
Not in prayer.
In fear.
A deep rumbling shook the ground.
From beneath the city, something massive slammed against unseen barriers.
The Heart flared violently in response.
Chains of crimson energy stretched downward into the depths of the earth.
Holding something back.
A voice spoke behind her.
“You see now.”
Elara turned.
A man stood there wearing armor carved with the same runes she had seen throughout the ruins.
His expression was grave.
“This city was built for one purpose.”
“To hold the Devourer.”
The vision flickered.
Elara saw hundreds of figures standing inside the temple.
All connected to the Heart by glowing threads of energy.
Their faces were pale.
Weak.
Sacrificed.
“The Heart is not merely a prison,” the armored man said.
“It is a living seal.”
The vision shattered.
Elara collapsed back into the present, gasping.
Kael caught her before she hit the ground.
“Hey!”
Corvin knelt beside them immediately.
“What happened?”
Elara clutched the glowing shard tightly.
“I saw them.”
“Saw who?”
“The people of Velkaris.”
Her voice trembled.
“They didn’t just build the Heart.”
She looked down at the fragment in her hand.
“They became it.”
Corvin’s face went pale.
“A sacrifice?”
“Yes.”
Kael frowned.
“That’s… dark.”
Elara slowly stood.
The shard’s crimson light flickered softly in her palm.
“And there’s something else.”
Corvin waited.
“The Devourer wasn’t alone.”
Silence fell.
Kael blinked.
“I’m sorry—what?”
Elara looked toward the distant horizon beyond the canyon.
“The Heart was part of a network.”
Corvin whispered the thought forming in his mind.
“Multiple prisons.”
Elara nodded slowly.
“And if one Heart breaks…”
Kael finished the sentence grimly.
“The others might weaken.”
At that exact moment—
The ground trembled.
Very faint.
But unmistakable.
The three of them slowly turned toward the massive crater behind them.
From somewhere deep beneath the collapsed ruins of Velkaris—
Something shifted.
Very far below.
Still buried.
Still trapped.
But very much alive.