Chapter 46: Pilgrimage to the Forbidden Depths
The journey east was long and perilous, cutting across war-torn lowlands and ancient forests where the wind carried whispers of forgotten battles. Jean rode atop Whitney, whose dire form moved like a shadow across the land, swift and tireless. Beside her, Silvia kept pace, her crimson cloak trailing like blood in the breeze.
Behind them, a detachment of loyal Luther knights rode under a hidden crest—unmarked banners fluttering to avoid drawing the attention of the Iron Empire's scouts or the Magistery's spies.
Jean stared ahead, her thoughts consumed by Celeste's warning.
"You must enter it first…"
What power could be so great that even the gods feared it?
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Three nights into the journey, they arrived at the outskirts of a forgotten village: Orin's Hollow—abandoned since the last Dragon Culling two centuries prior. But lights flickered within, unnatural and pale.
Silvia raised her hand. "Wait."
Jean dismounted silently, Whitney growling low.
They moved in tandem, blades half-drawn.
Inside the ruins, they found a circle of cloaked figures, hands raised over a rune-inscribed stone. At the center floated a shard of crystal glowing with shifting colors—aetherstone, raw and unbound.
Jean stepped forward. "That belongs to the Luther Clan."
The cloaked figures turned.
And in the center stood a familiar face—Ryan Magus.
His smirk was cold. "Jean. I wondered when the Emissary of Light would crawl out from her shrine."
Silvia's aura surged, flame-like.
Ryan raised his hands in mock surrender. "We're not enemies… yet."
Jean's grip tightened on Eclipsion. "You're harvesting aether from forbidden sites. That's a declaration of war."
He took a step toward her, calm and fearless. "Everything is forbidden when you're not the one writing the rules."
His gaze turned toward the east.
"The Vault will open in six days. And when it does, you'll realize that bloodlines and swords are ancient tools—we're moving toward the divine."
Then he vanished in a swirl of blue flame, leaving the stone behind, drained.
Jean knelt, examining the soil.
"They're trying to reconstruct a key," she muttered.
Silvia frowned. "To the Vault?"
Jean nodded. "The Magistery doesn't plan to wait for it to open naturally. They're forcing the gate."
She rose.
"Then we'll get there first."
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Far to the east, in a chamber carved into obsidian, Erin Magus stood before a suspended monolith—the final seal of the Vault.
It pulsed once.
Cracks formed across its surface.
A voice echoed from within.
> "One must open. One must bind. One must burn."
Erin smiled.
"The gods made a mistake giving that girl a second chance."
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