Tower of Thorns Tower of Fangs Volume 5 Chapter 31

"Well I looked for you in everyone

 I thought I'd search the world in vain 

Now you look at me and the search is done"

 - Just A Smile, Barbie Almabis

 

Chapter 31 The White King Is Born

Ice and snow, frost and endless winter. His heart slowly freezing, his mind the image repeats its self causing him pain and suffering. He wanted to make it all go away, freeze the happy moments and burry the painful feelings in an avalanche of snow. Nico was suffering, No one warned him love would feel so good and addicting, and no one warned him love can be so painful and torturous.  The world held its breath. Not metaphorically. Not poetically. Truly. As though the sky itself had forgotten how to move. As though the wind no longer remembered its purpose. As though every living thing beneath the heavens had paused for a single terrible moment. Waiting. Listening. Watching. Frost spread as the meadow stood frozen in silence. Not winter's silence. Not peace. Not tranquillity. The silence that follows tragedy. The silence left behind when something precious has been broken beyond repair. Moon lay among the flowers. His white robes spread around him like fallen wings. Silver-red blood stained the grass beneath his body. Tiny glowing fairies circled him in frantic spirals. Their usual laughter had vanished. Now they cried. Thousands of tiny voices. Tiny bells cracking beneath sorrow. Tiny stars mourning their moon. The sound filled the meadow. Soft. Heartbreaking. Endless. Nico knelt. He could not move. Could not breathe. Could not think. The world had become distant. Blurred. Muted. As though he were standing underwater. As though reality itself had retreated somewhere far away. His eyes remained fixed on Moon. Only Moon. Nothing else existed. Not Eemil. Not Matias. Not the battle royale. Not the Moon Gods. Not the future. Only him. Only the celestial lying motionless among the flowers. Only the impossible reality that Moon was dying. Because of him. Nico's hands trembled violently. The wooden stake still lay nearby. Simple. Ordinary. A piece of wood. Nothing more. And yet it had accomplished what armies could not. What monsters could not. What gods perhaps could not. It had broken Moon's heart. And Nico's. The realization felt like being skinned alive. Every breath hurt. Every heartbeat hurt. Every memory hurt. Moon's smile. Moon's laughter. Moon's voice. Moon saying his name. Each memory became a blade. One after another. Again. Again. Again. Until Nico thought he might simply collapse beneath the weight of them. Moon stirred weakly. The movement was small. Almost imperceptible. Yet Nico noticed immediately. His entire body jerked forward. Hope.Terrible hope. The cruelest emotion of all. Moon's dark eyes opened slightly. Beautiful eyes. Even now. Even while fading. Even while dying. They found Nico instantly. As they always did. The celestial looked confused. Tired. Heartbroken. Yet somehow there was still kindness in his gaze. Still concern. Still love. The sight nearly killed him. This pain is all consuming Nico.

Moon's lips parted. Silver-red blood touched the corner of his mouth.

"Nico..."

The whisper was barely audible. Yet Nico heard every syllable. The sound shattered something inside him. Because Moon was not angry. Not hateful. Not frightened. He still said Nico's name the same way. The same warmth. The same affection. The same trust. As though nothing had changed. As though betrayal did not exist. As though Nico had not just destroyed everything. A tear slipped down Nico's face. Then another. Then another. Until he could no longer see. His vision blurred beneath grief. The pain in his heart almost unbearable, the pain of hurting Moon is like stabbing himself. Moon was his heart, what has he done. The world dissolved into silver and white. And suddenly he was afraid. Not of death. Not of punishment. Not of consequences. He was afraid of losing Moon. The fear struck him harder than any wound. Harder than any blade. Harder than any nightmare. The thought appeared inside his mind. Simple. Brutal. Absolute.

Moon is going to disappear.

The realization froze his blood. His breathing stopped. His heart stopped. For one impossible second everything stopped. Then something broke. Deep inside him. Far deeper than flesh. Far deeper than bone. Something ancient. Something fundamental. Something that had always existed. Waiting. Sleeping. Watching. The sky darkened. Clouds appeared where none had existed before. The fairies froze. The flowers bent. The wind vanished. Nature recognized what was happening. And recoiled. Nico lowered his head. A single snowflake landed upon his hand. He stared at it. Confused. The meadow was warm. Summer still ruled the world. Yet snow continued falling. One flake. Then two. Then ten. Then hundreds. The air grew colder.The flowers stiffened. Grass whitened. The lake beside the meadow trembled. Then froze.

Ice spread across its surface in intricate silver patterns. Beautiful. Terrible. Alive. Nico looked down at his trembling hands. The skin had become pale. Almost translucent. The veins beneath glowed faintly silver. Frost crawled across his fingers. Across his wrists. Across his arms. The cold wasn't hurting him. It was becoming him. The future White King closed his eyes. And grief answered. The snowstorm exploded. The heavens split open. Winter descended. Not gradually. Not naturally. Violently. As though an entire season had been born screaming. Snow erupted across the landscape. The meadow vanished beneath white. Trees crystallized instantly. Branches became glass. Leaves became ice. The lake shattered beneath expanding frost. Mountains groaned. Rivers froze. Entire forests transformed. Winter raced across the land like a living thing. Like a predator. Like grief given form.

 Nico screamed. The sound echoed across creation. The cry of a broken heart. The cry of a dying soul. The cry of someone losing everything.The world answered. Glaciers erupted from the earth. Towering walls of crystal ice pierced the heavens. Frozen mountains rose where none had existed. Valleys disappeared beneath snow. Forests vanished beneath frost. An entire kingdom emerged. Born from heartbreak. Born from despair. Born from love twisted into sorrow. Everfrost. The first kingdom of winter. The first kingdom of the White King. Nico remained kneeling. Snow buried his shoulders. His blond hair slowly lost its color. Gold faded into silver. Silver faded into white. Each strand transformed beneath moonless skies. Until nothing remained of the boy he once was. Only winter. Only ice. Only grief. When he finally looked up his blue eyes had changed. Paler. Colder. Beautiful. Terrifying. The eyes of a king. The eyes of a god. The eyes of someone who had lost everything. And at the center of the storm Moon remained. Small. Fragile. Dying. The celestial looked impossibly distant now. As though he already belonged to another world. Nico reached toward him. Desperately. Powerlessly. His hand never reached. Because no amount of winter could stop what had already happened. No amount of power could undo betrayal. No amount of grief could restore innocence. The White King had been born. And he would spend centuries learning a terrible truth. Some wounds never heal. Some losses never fade. And some winters never truly end. Above the newborn kingdom of Everfrost snow continued falling. Silent. Endless. Beautiful. Like the tears Nico no longer had the strength to cry.

Everfrost Awakens

The scream did not end. It continued long after Nico's voice had broken. Long after the sound should have faded. Long after the sky itself should have swallowed it. The scream remained. Not in the air. In the world. In the mountains. In the rivers. In the forests. In the bones of the earth itself. Because grief on that scale was no longer merely an emotion. It had become a force of nature. And nature listened. The meadow vanished. Not all at once,  Not with violence. Not with destruction. Something far worse. Something quieter. Something final. The way a dying heartbeat slowly fades into silence. The way summer yields to autumn. The way warmth abandons a room after the fire dies.

Nico's winter and frost was spreading far and wide. The flowers froze first. Thousands of blossoms that had bloomed around Moon's fallen body. Wildflowers of gold and crimson. Bluebells. White lilies. Silver roses. Every petal crystallized. Tiny veins of frost spread through them like silver tears. Their colors remained beautiful. Preserved. Untouched. Perfect. Yet dead. Forever trapped between life and death. A garden imprisoned in ice. The grass followed. Green faded into white.Blades became crystal needles. The wind touched them. And they chimed softly. Like countless tiny bells mourning the end of summer. The lake groaned. A deep sound. Ancient. Painful. The water resisted. For a moment.Just a moment. Then surrendered. Ice spread across its surface. Silver-white. Smooth as polished glass. The freezing accelerated. Outward. Farther. Farther. Farther still.The entire lake became a mirror reflecting a broken sky.

Nico stood at its center. Frost spreading from and through him Motionless. Snow gathered in his hair. His shoulders. His eyelashes. Yet none of it melted. Nothing could melt anymore. His transformation continued. Slowly. Beautifully. Terribly. His blond hair lost its warmth first. Every golden strand faded. Silver spread through it. Then white. Pure white. Not the white of paper. Not the white of clouds. The white of untouched snow beneath moonlight. The white of glaciers older than kingdoms. The white of winter itself. The wind lifted his hair. It flowed around him like frozen silk. Like pale banners mourning a fallen king. His eyes changed next. The brilliant blue remained. Yet something disappeared from them. Something human. Something warm. The blue deepened. Paled. Became colder. Like sunlight trapped beneath ancient ice. Beautiful. Empty. Heartbreaking. His skin became almost translucent. Marble pale. Moonlit.The sort of beauty statues possessed. Perfect. Untouchable. Dead. Even Nico's clothes turning magically and irrationally white 

Eemil watched silently. Even he felt uneasy now. Because Nico no longer looked like a boy. He looked like a concept. An idea. A force. Winter itself had chosen a king.  And it loved him. The snowstorm intensified. The sky darkened. Clouds gathered from every horizon. Drawn toward Nico like worshippers approaching a god. Lightning flashed inside them. Silver. Blue. White. No thunder followed. Only silence.

Then the first mountain froze. Miles away.Far beyond the meadow. Far beyond the lake. A distant peak vanished beneath ice. Forests disappeared. Valleys crystallized. Entire rivers stopped flowing. Animals fled.Birds abandoned nests.Wolves howled.  Bears retreated into caves. Everything alive felt it. The arrival of something ancient. Something inevitable. Winter marched. Not as weather. As a kingdom. The glaciers rose from the earth. Massive walls of ice erupted upward. Thousands of feet high. Towering cathedrals of crystal. Frozen palaces built by grief. The land reshaped itself.Mountains bent. Valleys deepened. Lakes froze solid. Forests became silver-white labyrinths. Snow covered everything. Then covered it again. Then again. Layer upon layer. Like the world desperately trying to bury a memory too painful to remember. Nico remained standing. Watching.Not because he commanded it. Not because he desired it. Because he couldn't stop it. His sorrow had become geography. His heartbreak had become climate. Far away. The first inhabitants would someday call it Everfrost. A beautiful name. A terrible name. Because nothing ended there. Nothing healed there. Nothing moved forward there. Everything remained. Forever. Just like Nico's heart. The irony was cruel. Because Everfrost looked pure. Beautiful. Pristine.

The snow sparkled like diamonds. The glaciers glowed beneath moonlight. Ice cliffs shimmered blue and silver. Frozen forests resembled crystal sculptures crafted by celestial hands. Visitors would someday call it magnificent. A paradise of winter. A kingdom carved from dreams. They would never understand the truth. Everfrost was not built from snow. It was built from regret. Every glacier contained a memory. Every snowfall carried grief. Every frozen river whispered Moon's name. Because Nico could not let go. He replayed everything. Again. And again. And again. Moon laughing beside a campfire. Moon gathering berries. Moon smiling at him. Moon saying:

"I know."

Those two words echoed endlessly. They haunted every frozen valley. Every ice-covered mountain. Every storm. Because Moon had known. Known he was loved. Known Nico's heart belonged to him. Known everything. And still trusted him. The trust hurt more than the betrayal. The forgiveness hurt more than the wound. Because hatred would have been easier. Anger would have been easier. A curse would have been easier. Instead Moon had looked at him with love. Even while dying.Even after the stake. Even after everything. And Nico could never escape that. The snow fell harder. The sky disappeared. The world became white. Pure. Endless Silent. A color often associated with innocence. With purity.With new beginnings. Yet in Everfrost white became the color of mourning.  The color of things frozen before they could grow. The color of a future that would never happen. Because true love had come to Nico. Perhaps only once. Perhaps the only time it ever would. And he destroyed it with his own hands.The cruelest tragedies are rarely accidents. They are choices. A single decision. A single moment. A single mistake. And then a lifetime spent wishing you could return. But winter never goes backward. Ice never unfreezes by regret alone. A shattered heart never returns to what it was. Nico finally lowered himself to his knees. Snow gathered around him immediately. Almost affectionately. Like loyal servants surrounding their king.

His new kingdom stretched endlessly beyond the horizon. Frozen mountains. Frozen forests. Frozen rivers. Frozen skies. A masterpiece. A monument. A warning. The White King looked upon Everfrost. And saw only one thing. An empty throne beside him. A place where Moon should have been. And somewhere deep within the newborn kingdom beneath endless snow the first true lesson of Everfrost was born. Love can warm a heart. Love can save a soul. Love can transform the world. But when love is betrayed when trust is broken when regret arrives too late Love can also freeze forever. And thus Everfrost spread across the north. A kingdom of snow. A kingdom of ice. A kingdom of beauty. A kingdom of sorrow. The kingdom of the White King. Who possessed immortality. Power. Divinity. A throne. An empire.

And would spend centuries discovering that none of those things could replace the one person he truly wanted beside him.

Far in the future a young blond warrior named Toivo would one day walk through those frozen lands. He would meet the White King. He would see the endless snow. He would wonder why winter felt so sad. And he would never realize that every snowflake falling from Everfrost was born from the tears of a boy who once loved Moon too much.

Frost King of the Wastes Chapter 5 The Vault Beneath the City

  

Chapter 5 - The Vault Beneath the City

The heartbeat beneath Veyr was growing louder.

THOOM.

THOOM.

THOOM.

Each pulse trembled through the frozen city like distant thunder beneath the earth. Cracks spread across streets already buried beneath Einar’s ice while entire buildings groaned softly as though the ruins themselves feared what slept below.

Snow continued falling from the poisoned heavens.

But now something else drifted through the storm.

Ash. Black ash rising upward from beneath the city.

Einar stood silently before the ruined cathedral while pale blue frost spiraled around his boots. His glowing eyes remained fixed on the darkness below the shattered structure.

He could feel it calling him. Not with words. With memory.

Tenji landed softly atop a broken marble statue nearby, white robes flowing gently through the freezing wind. Thousands of shadow crows perched silently throughout the cathedral ruins, watching every direction at once.

“The seal weakens,” the Fairy said quietly.

The Death Reaper emerged from the darkness beneath a collapsed archway.

Tonight the Death Reaper had taken a more human shape.

Tall. Broad-shouldered.

Its monstrous proportions reduced slightly beneath layers of writhing black shadow. Crimson eyes glowed faintly beneath the living cloak while long claws scraped frozen stone.

Even restrained it remained terrifying.

Then the ground shook violently. A section of cathedral floor collapsed inward with a deafening roar.

Ancient stone shattered into darkness.

Far below, pale red emergency lights flickered weakly beneath the ruins.

An underground structure.

Einar stepped forward first. Without hesitation. The others followed.

The descent beneath Veyr felt like entering a grave.

Ancient elevator shafts stretched endlessly downward through steel and concrete older than most surviving civilizations. Frost spread across walls as Einar walked while Tenji glided silently beside him without touching the ground.

The Death Reaper moved behind them through living shadows.

The deeper they traveled

the warmer the air became.

Not natural warmth.

Industrial heat.

Machines still alive beneath the dead city.

Eventually the trio reached the bottom level.

And found the facility.

Massive steel corridors extended into darkness beneath Veyr like the veins of some buried giant. Red emergency lights flickered across frozen walls covered in warning symbols and military insignias from the Old World.

Most of the facility had long since collapsed.

But parts remained active.

Ancient terminals still glowed faintly.

Security doors opened and closed by themselves somewhere deep within the complex.

And hidden speakers suddenly crackled to life.

“WARNING.”
“BLACK VEIL CONTAINMENT FAILURE DETECTED.”
“ALL PERSONNEL REPORT TO EVACUATION ZONES.”

The voice echoed endlessly through the corridors.

Cold.

Emotionless.

Dead for centuries.

Tenji’s silver eyes narrowed slightly.

“BLACK VEIL,” he whispered.

Einar continued walking.

Because he already knew the name.

Fragments of memory returned again.

Old kingdoms burning beneath black skies.

Immortal rulers gathering before war councils.

Scientists speaking of gates beneath reality itself.

And something discovered deep underground that should never have been touched.

The trio entered the first laboratory sector.

The walls were lined with shattered containment chambers large enough to hold tanks.

Most were empty.

Some were not. Inside several cracked chambers floated frozen remains of failed experiments suspended within dark liquid.

Human bodies fused with mechanical limbs. Creatures with elongated skulls and exposed silver bone structures. One chamber held something winged.

Another contained a corpse with dozens of glowing eyes embedded beneath translucent skin.

Tenji stared silently at the horrors.

“This place studied dimensional contamination,” he said quietly.

Einar touched one cracked terminal covered in frost.

The ancient monitor flickered weakly to life.

PROJECT BLACK VEIL
DIMENSIONAL GATE EXPERIMENTS
SUBJECT STATUS: UNSTABLE

Another file appeared automatically.

WARDEN PROTOCOL INITIALIZED

The screen suddenly distorted.

Then static consumed everything.

Further inside the facility

the walls began changing.

Black organic veins spread across steel corridors like living roots. Some sections looked almost grown rather than constructed, as though the underground complex itself had become infected by something alive.

Then they found the observation chamber.

A gigantic circular room overlooking a colossal abyss descending far beneath the facility itself.

Thousands of feet down

something enormous moved within darkness.

Only fragments were visible.

Massive chains.

Ancient machinery.

And a gigantic closed structure resembling a sealed mechanical cocoon.

THOOM.

The entire chamber trembled.

Tenji’s shadow crows immediately became restless.

The Death Reaper growled low beneath its cloak.

Einar stepped closer to the observation glass.

And froze.

Because the structure below

was covered in symbols from Crystal Elyria.

Ancient vampire markings.

Impossible.

“How…” Tenji whispered.

Einar’s expression darkened.

“This was not built by humans alone.”

Suddenly every screen inside the chamber activated simultaneously.

Red warning symbols flooded the room.

Sirens screamed throughout the underground facility.

Then the speakers returned.

Louder now.

Distorted.

Almost panicked.

“WARNING.”
“PRIMARY SEAL FAILURE.”
“BLACK VEIL BREACH INEVITABLE.”
“THE WARDEN IS AWAKENING.”

The abyss below moved.

Something gigantic shifted against chains older than nations.

The lights throughout the chamber died instantly.

Darkness swallowed everything.

Then

two enormous blue eyes opened deep below the facility.

Ancient.

Mechanical.

Alive.

Mordecai immediately stepped backward.

For the first time since entering Veyr

the Death Reaper showed something close to fear.

The floor beneath the trio suddenly cracked apart.

A deafening metallic groan echoed through the abyss as the colossal vault structure below slowly began opening.

THOOOOOM.

The entire city trembled.

Snow exploded from rooftops far above Veyr.

And somewhere beneath the earth

something ancient finally awakened.

Frost King of the Waste Chapter 8 - The Reactor Graveyard

  

Chapter 8 - The Reactor Graveyard

The deeper levels beneath Veyr were still alive. Not functioning. Not civilized. Alive in the way corpses sometimes still twitch after death.

The underground facility groaned constantly now as ancient machinery awakened beneath the city. Massive pipes shook behind steel walls while distant sirens echoed endlessly through frozen corridors flooded with flickering red light.

And beneath all of it the heartbeat continued.

THOOM.

THOOM.

THOOM.

Einar walked silently through the descending maintenance tunnels while frost spread behind him like veins of pale crystal across the metal floor.

The air had changed. It no longer smelled only of chemicals and decay.

Now there was heat. Burning industrial heat rising from somewhere far below.

Tenji drifted ahead through darkness without touching the ground, silver eyes calmly scanning the tunnel systems branching endlessly around them. Black shadow crows perched silently on overhead pipes while snow-like ash drifted through the stale underground air.

Mordecai followed behind.

Tonight the Death Reaper had grown larger again. Its monstrous silhouette nearly scraped the ceiling while living shadows crawled constantly around its enormous body. Crimson eyes glowed softly beneath the moving black cloak wrapped around him like living smoke.

Then the tunnel opened. And the trio saw the reactor graveyard.

The underground chamber stretched so far into darkness it resembled another world buried beneath the city.

Gigantic reactors towered across the abyss like rusting cathedrals made of steel and machinery. Some remained frozen solid beneath layers of Einar’s frost while others still pulsed faintly with dying blue energy.

Broken bridges crossed enormous cooling pits disappearing into darkness below.

Thousands of abandoned cables hung from the ceiling like giant spider webs.

And everywhere things moved. Creatures nested throughout the machinery.

Mutants. Dozens perched along reactor walls like insects feeding upon leaking energy cores. Others slithered between giant pipes and shattered maintenance platforms.

But these were not ordinary wasteland creatures.

The reactor had changed them. Some possessed glowing crystalline growths erupting from their flesh. Others had become fused directly into machinery itself, their bodies tangled permanently with cables and steel.

One giant creature slowly opened mechanical eyes from within the side of a reactor tower.

Another crawled upside down across rotating turbine blades.

Tenji stopped moving.

“They’re feeding from the reactor energy.”

Einar studied the enormous chamber silently.

“No,” he answered quietly.

“They’re guarding something.”

As if responding to his words

the reactor graveyard trembled violently.

THOOM.

The heartbeat below the city had grown stronger.

Several creatures immediately screeched toward the darkness beneath the lower reactor levels.

Like worshippers answering a god.

Then floodlights suddenly activated across the chamber.

Blinding white beams cut through darkness from the upper maintenance bridges.

Human voices echoed through loudspeakers.

“ALL UNITS ADVANCE!”

Iron Reign soldiers emerged from elevated platforms surrounding the reactor graveyard in full combat armor. Heavy mechanized troops moved carefully across steel bridges while drones hovered overhead scanning the chamber below.

Commander Kael Draeven stood at the center platform watching the reactor abyss grimly.

“We secure the lower core,” he ordered.

“No matter what’s down there.”

The mutants reacted instantly.

The entire graveyard erupted with movement.

Creatures flooded from machinery nests across every direction at once. Giant biomechanical horrors tore themselves free from reactor walls while smaller mutants swarmed upward through ventilation shafts toward the soldiers.

The assault became chaos immediately.

Gunfire flashed across the reactor chamber while creatures leaped between collapsing bridges and suspended machinery.

One mechanized Iron Reign walker exploded beneath a gigantic mutant fused with turbine blades.

Another squad vanished into darkness beneath the lower maintenance levels.

Kael shouted new orders desperately while the chamber shook violently around them.

Then everything became silent.

Too silent.

The mutants suddenly stopped attacking.

Every creature in the reactor graveyard turned toward the same direction.

Toward Mordecai.

The Death Reaper slowly stepped forward into the center of the chamber.

The living shadows around him expanded outward unnaturally across the metal floor.

The temperature dropped.

Even the mutants hesitated.

Then Mordecai began changing.

His body twisted beneath the cloak as black smoke erupted violently around him. Bones cracked softly while shadows peeled away from his massive form like strips of living darkness.

And then

he split apart.

Two additional Death Reapers emerged from the shadows beside him.

Smaller than the original.

But no less terrifying.

Three pairs of crimson eyes opened simultaneously within the darkness.

The reactor graveyard trembled.

The mutants screamed.

And the Reapers attacked.

The slaughter began instantly.

One Death Reaper lunged upward onto a suspended reactor wall, moving with horrifying speed despite its massive size. Clawed hands ripped directly through steel and flesh alike as creatures were torn from machinery nests and hurled into the abyss below.

The second Reaper shrank into a thinner, almost skeletal form before darting through the battlefield like living shadow. It moved across walls and ceilings unnaturally fast, dragging screaming mutants into darkness beneath expanding black tendrils.

The original Mordecai walked calmly through the center of the reactor graveyard.

Slow.

Silent.

Unstoppable.

His cloak expanded outward behind him into gigantic wings of black smoke stretching across entire platforms. Mutants vanished beneath the shadows as though swallowed by the night itself.

Iron Reign soldiers stopped firing.

Many simply stared.

Because the Death Reapers were not fighting like beasts.

They were hunting.

Methodical.

Cruel.

Ancient.

One towering mutant charged directly toward Mordecai from across a collapsing bridge

The Reaper caught it by the throat one-handed.

Then lifted the giant creature effortlessly into the air.

Crimson eyes glowed brighter.

And the shadows consumed it completely.

Nearby soldiers backed away instinctively.

Commander Kael lowered his weapon slowly.

“What are those things…”

No one answered.

Far above the battlefield, Tenji glided effortlessly between hanging cables while shadow crows circled the reactor chamber in enormous black spirals.

And below them all

Einar stared silently into the deepest section of the graveyard.

Toward a gigantic sealed door buried beneath the reactor core itself.

Ancient symbols glowed faintly across its frozen surface.

Old Elyrian symbols.

The same markings from the vault.

The same forgotten language of vampire kings.

Then the massive door slowly began unlocking from within.

THOOM.

The entire reactor graveyard shook violently.

And deep beneath the city

something enormous moved again.

Frost King of the Wastes Chapter 17 The Falling Star

 "..and the Moon took on a mortal form descended from the heavens to bathe in the fresh waters of Ibalong, As beautiful young man, his face child-like an comely, skin fair as the Moon and eyes darker than midnight, he was so beautiful that the swimming beasts, fishes and the flying monsters for a time being forgot how to swim and fly"

- Bicolano Oral myths 

Chapter 17  The Falling Star

The heavens opened above the wasteland. Not metaphorically. The sky itself split apart. Far above the frozen canyon of angelic ruins, the black storm clouds surrounding the Sky Tomb spiraled violently outward while silver lightning spread across the atmosphere like cracks in glass. Every survivor looked upward. And saw the falling star.

At first it resembled a meteor descending through the storm. A single point of silver fire tearing across the heavens toward Earth. But then it slowed.

Changed direction. Moved intentionally. The object descended soundlessly toward the canyon ruins while enormous rings of pale light rotated around it through the clouds.

Tenji stopped walking immediately.

The Fairy’s silver eyes widened slightly.

“No…”

For the first time since anyone had known him his voice carried genuine dread.

The falling star struck the canyon outside the ruins.

Silence came first. Then the world exploded.

A gigantic shockwave tore across the frozen wasteland hard enough to shatter cliffs and collapse ancient celestial structures buried beneath snow. Iron Reign transports overturned while survivors were thrown violently across the ground.

Even Einar slid backward across frozen stone.

The impact crater glowed with blinding silver light.

And from the center something stood up.

Humanoid. Tall. Beautiful.

Wrong.

The being slowly emerged from the crater surrounded by floating silver fragments and drifting ash. Long white robes moved weightlessly around its body while enormous mechanical halos rotated behind its back like celestial machinery.

Its face appeared almost human. Almost. Pale skin. Silver eyes. Long white hair flowing through the storm.B ut beneath the skin light moved unnaturally. As though the body itself contained stars.

The celestial being lifted its gaze toward the canyon ruins. Toward Tenji.

Then it spoke. Its voice echoed through the sky and directly inside every living mind simultaneously.

“TENJI OF THE SEVENTH THRONE.”

The survivors collapsed to their knees clutching their heads in pain. Blood streamed from several soldiers’ noses instantly.

Even Kael staggered backward from the psychic pressure.

Tenji remained still.

The shadow crows around him vanished completely.

Einar stepped beside him quietly.

“You know it.”

Tenji’s eyes never left the celestial figure below.

“…Yes.”

The silver being began ascending slowly into the air above the crater.

Its halos rotated faster behind its body while symbols of burning light spread across the sky around it.

Then the entity spoke again.

“YOU ABANDONED THE SKY THRONES.”
“YOU BETRAYED THE ASCENSION.”

The storm darkened instantly.Gravity shifted violently across the canyon. Ancient ruins groaned as floating debris lifted into the air around the celestial being like orbiting moons.

Selene stared upward in horror.

“What is that thing…?”

Einar answered softly:

“A hunter.”

The celestial being extended one pale hand toward Tenji.

“RETURN.”

Tenji finally moved.

The Fairy stepped forward calmly onto the edge of the canyon cliffs while white robes drifted through the silver stormlight.

Then he answered quietly:

“No.”

Silence followed.

Then the hunter attacked.

The celestial entity vanished in a burst of silver light.

The canyon exploded apart. Tenji disappeared simultaneously. The two beings collided high above the ruins hard enough to split the clouds apart across the heavens. Shockwaves rolled through the wasteland below while silver energy erupted across the sky.

The boss fight began.

The celestial hunter moved like divine machinery.

Precise. Merciless. Its halos released gigantic blades of compressed light that sliced directly through floating ruins and canyon walls. Entire celestial towers collapsed beneath each strike.

But Tenji moved differently defying logic and gravity. Graceful. Weightless. Alive.

The Fairy glided through open air effortlessly while shadow crows erupted around him in spiraling storms of black feathers. He stepped across falling debris as though gravity itself obeyed him.

The hunter unleashed dozens of silver spears midair. Tenji spun sideways gracefully through them without touching the ground once.

One spear nearly pierced him The Fairy leaned backward impossibly in open sky while the projectile passed inches from his face before annihilating an entire canyon wall behind him.

The hunter appeared directly above him instantly. A glowing blade formed in its hand. Tenji caught the strike barehanded. Silver light exploded across the heavens.

The canyon below cracked apart. The celestial hunter’s expression finally changed slightly. Surprise.

Tenji’s silver eyes glowed brighter. Then black feathers erupted outward. Thousands.

The shadow crows swarmed the hunter violently, colliding against its halos while Tenji darted across the sky at impossible speed.

The two celestial beings moved faster than human sight.

Silver light and black feathers tore across the heavens above the ruins like opposing storms.

One moment they fought upside down beneath floating debris.

The next they crashed through ancient towers suspended in midair.

Every collision bent gravity around them.

Below the battle, survivors watched in terrified awe.

Even Mordecai stared upward motionlessly.

The Death Reaper’s shadows writhed violently around him as though reacting to the celestial energy flooding the canyon.

Then the hunter changed.

Its body unfolded unnaturally.

Mechanical wings of silver bone expanded from its back while additional halos appeared rotating around its head. Its face cracked slightly revealing glowing cosmic light beneath. Not flesh. Not life. A construct.

An ancient celestial weapon wearing human shape. The hunter raised both hands toward Tenji. And the sky opened. Gigantic rings of light appeared across the storm clouds above the canyon.

Then massive pillars of celestial fire descended toward the Fairy. Entire mountains evaporated beneath the attack.

Tenji vanished between the beams gracefully, gliding through collapsing air currents while black crows shielded him from the silver inferno.

But the hunter was driving him backward. Toward the ruins below. Toward the canyon depths.

Toward something hidden beneath the angelic tomb.

Einar noticed immediately.

His eyes narrowed.

“It’s not trying to kill him.”

Then he understood.

The hunter wanted Tenji alive.

The celestial being suddenly seized Tenji midair by the throat.

Silver halos locked around the Fairy’s body instantly like chains.

The storm itself froze.

Then the hunter whispered directly into Tenji’s mind:

“THE ABYSS IS WAKING AGAIN.”
“YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO REMAIN HERE.”

For a brief moment pain crossed Tenji’s face. Real pain. Then his halo returned.

Brighter than before. Massive silver rings erupted behind the Fairy while black shadow crows exploded outward in gigantic spiraling storms around the canyon.

The halos shattered.

The hunter was thrown backward through the sky.

Tenji floated motionless above the ruins now surrounded by both silver celestial light and endless black feathers.

Beautiful.

Terrifying.

And no longer fully hiding what he truly was.

Far above them the Sky Tomb began descending lower toward Earth.

Frost King of the Wastes Chapter 22

 

ARC V  THE SANDS OF BAALANIA

Chapter 22  The Black Desert

The snow ended at the edge of the world. Beyond the frozen sea and the dying western wastelands, the land slowly transformed into scorched stone and black sand beneath a blood-red sky. Ice gave way to ash. Rusted ruins vanished beneath endless dunes.

And the wind changed. Cold northern winds became furnace heat carrying whispers through the desert night.

Baalania. Even the name felt ancient. Cursed.

Einar stood atop a broken ridge overlooking the endless black desert stretching beyond the horizon while heat shimmered across the dunes beneath three pale moons hanging low in the sky.

Far behind them, the New World had already disappeared into distant storms.

Ahead only ash and fire remained.

Tenji drifted silently above the dunes beside him while white robes moved softly through burning desert winds. The Fairy looked deeply uncomfortable here.

The shadow crows circling him had become restless since crossing into Baalanian territory.

Even the sky felt wrong. No stars shone clearly above the desert. Only drifting smoke clouds and crimson moonlight.

Mordecai walked behind them through the dunes like a moving shadow cast by no sun at all. The Death Reaper had grown quieter with every mile south.

As though he remembered this land. And hated it.

The trio traveled alone now.

Kael and the surviving Iron Oath convoy had remained behind in the New World. Humanity needed rebuilding.

But Einar’s path led elsewhere. Toward the buried king sleeping beneath the sands.

Toward Baalania. The desert stretched endlessly for days.

Black dunes rose like frozen waves beneath skies filled with ash storms and distant thunder. Strange ruined towers occasionally emerged from the sands half-swallowed by timeancient kingdoms erased long before the modern world collapsed.

Some ruins still burned faintly at night.

Without fuel. Without reason. And everywhere the whispers followed them.

Soft voices drifting beneath the dunes.

Not carried by wind. Voices beneath the sand itself.

Tenji heard them first.

The Fairy suddenly stopped atop a massive dune while silver eyes narrowed toward the black desert below.

“…Do you hear that?”

Einar nodded once.

The Frost King heard them too.

Ancient prayers.

Endless chanting.

Millions of voices buried beneath the sands across centuries of conquest and sacrifice.

Mordecai’s shadows twisted violently around him. The Death Reaper hated the whispers.

That alone unsettled Einar.

Then the storm arrived. Without warning, the horizon vanished beneath a gigantic wall of black sand spiraling across the desert toward them like a living apocalypse.

Lightning flashed inside the storm.

Red lightning.

The dunes shook beneath the approaching force while distant horns echoed through the sands.

Not machine horns. War horns.

Tenji rose silently into the air.

The Fairy’s robes drifted weightlessly around him while shadow crows scattered into the storm above.

“We are being watched.”

Then shapes emerged within the sandstorm.

Gigantic beasts moving slowly through the dunes.

At first Einar mistook them for mountains.

Then one opened its eyes.

Dreadhorns.

Colossal rhinoceros-like siege beasts covered in obsidian armor and burning ritual scars. Entire fortresses had been built atop their backs from black iron and dark wood while chains and sacred banners whipped violently in the storm winds around them.

Cities walking through the desert.

The first Baalanian war caravans.

Dozens emerged from the storm.

Massive crawling fortresses surrounded by mounted riders cloaked in black cloth and bronze armor glowing faintly with fire sigils.

Ashsteeds galloped across the dunes beneath them silent horses with burning eyes and smoke trailing from their hooves.

The riders themselves looked monstrous beneath the crimson moons.

Towering men with bronze-dark skin hardened by desert warfare, thick sacred beards braided with iron rings, and glowing amber eyes touched by black flame rituals.

Each carried curved blades etched with ancient scripture. Every warrior moved with brutal discipline. And every banner bore the same burning symbol:

The Flame Eye of Baal-Zhur. The rising kingdom of Baalania.

Still small. Still fractured into warring clans and holy dynasties. Yet already terrifying. Someday it would become an empire capable of drowning continents in fire.

But even now the desert trembled beneath its birth. The massive war caravan halted before the trio. Dust and ash spiraled through the silence between them.

Then a rider approached atop a towering Ashsteed.

His bronze armor resembled scorched cathedral metal while black flames flickered softly across sacred carvings covering his gauntlets.

A priest-warrior.

Zhurakhim.

His burning eyes settled first upon Einar.

Then Mordecai.

Then finally Tenji.

The Baalanian did not hide his fascination.

The Fairy’s pale beauty beneath moonlight contrasted sharply against the brutal desert warriors surrounding them.

Whispers spread quietly among the riders.

“Skyborn…”

“A celestial…”

“Beautiful…”

Tenji ignored them completely.

The priest-warrior slowly dismounted from his Ashsteed.

Sand shifted softly beneath heavy armored boots as he approached the trio.

Then he spoke in a deep calm voice.

“Foreigners are forbidden beyond the Black Dunes.”

Behind him, the Dreadhorns exhaled smoke and embers into the night.

Einar remained perfectly still.

“We seek the buried king.”

At those words the desert wind died.

Several riders immediately gripped their weapons tighter.

The priest-warrior’s glowing eyes narrowed.

“…There is no king beneath the sands.”

But Einar saw it. Fear. Very slight. Very well hidden.

The Frost King stepped forward slowly.

“Yes,” he said quietly.

“There is.”

Far beneath the black dunes something ancient stirred in its coffin.

The whispers beneath the sand suddenly grew louder.

And somewhere in the endless desert darkness a gigantic pair of burning eyes opened beneath the earth.