The flare in the sky didn't fade. It howled—a high-pitched, grating sound that twisted the wind as it spread.
Kael stepped back from the collapsed Echo, who now lay gasping in the sand, magic leaking from his cracked skin like steam. His eyes burned orange. Not fire—something stranger. Friction. Heat that peeled things.
Riven cursed under her breath. "You idiot. You just lit a signal tower on the back of your soul."
Kael didn't answer. He pulled the new Echo to his feet. "Can you walk?"
The man wheezed. "I—I think so. Name's Vey."
"Save it."
Riven's eyes narrowed as she scanned the horizon. "We've got maybe two minutes before the Hollow find us. Three if they're drunk. Less if they brought a Shardbound."
"What's a Shard—?"
The ground shook.
From beyond the dunes, a storm of black-robed figures appeared, sprinting across the sand like wolves. Their faces were covered in bone masks, and behind them, a figure hovered—hovered—above the ground, cloak trailing behind her, arms stretched wide as a ripple of distortion followed her like a tide.
The air bent around her.
Riven loaded her rifle. "That's a Shardbound."
Kael's stomach sank.
The battle began with a scream.
One of the Hollow Priests raised a twisted staff. Black fire curled outward in a spiral, aimed straight for Vey.
Kael didn't think—he threw himself forward, arms out, and the markings on his skin ignited. Light flared in a sharp ring around them. The fire hit the shield—and shattered like glass.
Vey collapsed behind him, muttering fragments of spells. Kael turned and helped him up, just as Riven fired—BOOM—a red burst of molten metal slammed into one of the robed figures, blasting them into the dunes in a spray of armor and sand.
Another Priest lunged at her with a hooked blade—Riven ducked low, rolled, then snapped a dagger straight into their throat. Clean. Fast.
Kael turned, the sigils along his spine now glowing like molten cracks.
Three more enemies closed in.
He raised both hands—and unleashed light.
It wasn't just brightness—it cut. A wave of radiant pressure slammed into the charging enemies, flipping them through the air like rag dolls.
They didn't get up.
The Shardbound floated closer, the air rippling violently with each step she didn't take.
Her face was pale, and her eyes glowed like liquid void. She whispered, and a storm of obsidian shards exploded from her sleeves, twisting and spinning midair before launching toward Kael.
He barely dodged. One shard nicked his cheek—and burned like acid.
"Run!" Riven shouted. "We can't win this!"
But Kael didn't run.
Something inside him had snapped—a wire pulled too tight for too long.
His breath steamed. His vision narrowed.
And then—a voice in his mind, soft, echoing like it came from beyond the veil.
She is bound to fragments. You are born of whole fire.
Kael reached toward the sky. The markings on his skin pulsed once—then exploded into full-body radiance. Starlight erupted from his chest, shooting upward in a beam that split the clouds.
The Shardbound paused.
Too late.
Kael slammed both hands into the sand—sending a shockwave of pure force outward in a thirty-foot radius. Sand turned to glass. Hollow Priests flew back, screaming.
The Shardbound hovered, shielding herself with a swirl of shards. But even she was pushed back, hissing as her cloak caught fire.
Riven stared at Kael, stunned. "What the hell are you?"
"I don't know," Kael said through gritted teeth. "But I think I'm done running."
The surviving Hollow retreated, dragging their dead with them. The Shardbound hovered last, her face half-burned, her shards shattered and falling like obsidian snow.
She pointed at Kael with one charred hand.
"You are marked. The Inheritor will see you bleed."
Then she vanished—blinked out of existence with a pulse of spatial rupture.
Silence followed. A graveyard of heat and broken magic.
Vey groaned nearby. Riven knelt to check him, then looked at Kael. Her eyes were unreadable.
"You just took down a Shardbound," she said. "With raw light."
He didn't feel triumphant. He felt terrified.
"They're going to come harder now," Riven added. "You lit a fire too big to hide."
Kael looked down at his hands. They still glowed faintly. His heartbeat sounded like war drums in his ears.
"I need answers," he said.
"Then we go to the Archive," Riven replied. "No more detours."