"The Reaper sent another one."
The failed World Raider pulls against the chains extending from his back.
Each movement causes the monastery to shake.
Blue symbols flash across the walls, attempting to force him back into the pit, but the black mist surrounding his body consumes their light.
His purple eye remains fixed on me.
"Tell me," he says. "Did he promise you a second life too?"
I tighten my grip on the scythe.
"Yes."
A broken laugh escapes from behind his mask.
The sound contains several voices at once.
"Of course he did."
Aldric slams the end of his staff against the floor.
Three silver rings appear around the failed Raider's body.
"Do not listen to him."
The rings close.
Blue chains wrap around his arms, neck, and waist.
For a moment, they force him to his knees.
Then the purple eye behind his mask brightens.
Black energy erupts from his body.
The silver rings crack.
The chains break apart.
Aldric stumbles backward.
Blood runs from his nose.
The failed Raider slowly stands again.
"You sealed me beneath this mountain for three centuries," he says. "Did you truly believe those same chains would hold me forever?"
Aldric wipes the blood away.
"You were not conscious for most of those centuries."
"I dreamed."
The failed Raider looks toward the images still floating above the damaged platform.
Burning cities.
People trapped beneath the royal palace.
Dark chains connected to the throne.
"I dreamed of every person whose fear entered my soul."
The Mark in my palm responds to his words.
The purple eye opens wider.
A notification appears.
Compatible Dread source detected.
Warning: Foreign Mark attempting synchronization.
Pain shoots through my arm.
Black lines spread from my palm toward my wrist.
I close my hand, but the eye remains visible beneath my skin.
The failed Raider tilts his head.
"You have only recently awakened."
"How can you tell?"
"Your Mark is still quiet."
His chains drag across the broken platform as he steps toward me.
"It has not begun speaking to you yet."
Elara moves beside me.
"Stay back," I say.
"I'm not leaving you alone with that."
"That is exactly what I told you not to do outside."
"And I ignored you then too."
Silver energy gathers around her hands.
The failed Raider's glowing eye shifts toward her neck.
He freezes.
The chains behind him become still.
"A royal inheritance seal."
Elara covers the mark.
"You know what it is?"
"I know what it became."
His voice lowers.
"That corruption did not exist when I entered this world."
Aldric raises his staff again.
"You will answer nothing."
The failed Raider looks toward him.
"You fear what I might tell them."
"I fear what your presence is doing to the wards."
"No."
He steps forward.
"You fear that I am telling the truth."
Fear Sense reveals a dark chain stretching from Aldric's chest toward the failed Raider.
It is thicker than the chain connecting Aldric to me.
The old seal master has feared this creature for most of his life.
The failed Raider can sense it too.
His black mist flows toward Aldric.
The old man's face becomes pale.
"Enough."
Thousands of symbols ignite across the ceiling.
Blue beams strike the failed Raider from every direction.
He raises one hand.
A dark wall forms around him.
The beams disappear when they touch it.
Not blocked.
Erased.
I recognize the feeling immediately.
The energy resembles my death magic, but it is empty.
It is the same force corrupting Elara's seal.
The same emptiness Aldric sensed behind the Reaper.
The failed Raider lowers his hand.
"You rebuilt the monastery's wards," he says. "But you still do not understand what you imprisoned."
"I understand enough."
"You understand nothing."
He turns toward me again.
"My name was Kael Veyr."
The name means nothing to me.
Mara reacts differently.
Her eyes widen.
"That's impossible."
I glance toward her.
"You know him?"
"Every child in Asteria knows that name."
Kael raises his head slightly.
Mara continues.
"Kael Veyr was the Black Calamity. The histories say he appeared three hundred years ago and destroyed seven cities before Saint Orin defeated him."
"Destroyed?" Kael repeats.
The voices beneath his own begin whispering.
"Is that what they wrote?"
"You killed thousands," Aldric says.
"I killed soldiers."
"You consumed entire cities with your power."
"I consumed their fear."
Black mist spreads around his feet.
"The cities destroyed themselves trying to stop me."
Aldric's grip tightens around his staff.
"You expect us to believe you were innocent?"
Kael looks toward me.
"No World Raider is innocent."
His words enter the room like cold air.
"We accept the bargain. We carry Death into worlds that never asked for us. We turn terror into strength and call it survival."
"That doesn't explain why you're chained beneath a mountain," I say.
Kael's glowing eye narrows.
"Because I learned what happens when a World Raider becomes strong enough."
The Reaper's realm flashes through my thoughts.
The endless darkness.
The skeletal figure beneath the robe.
The presence hidden behind him.
"What happens?" I ask.
Aldric moves between us.
"He is manipulating you."
"Then let him try."
Aldric looks toward me.
"You do not know what he can do."
"I know he has answers."
Kael laughs again.
"He is afraid you will remove the chains."
"I have no reason to free you."
"You will."
"That seems unlikely."
"Not intentionally."
Kael lifts his hand.
The symbols carved into his fingers begin glowing.
The Mark in my palm burns.
Foreign Mark synchronization: 12%
I direct death energy into my arm.
The black lines stop spreading.
Kael watches with interest.
"You still believe the power belongs to you."
"It's inside my body."
"So was the sword in mine."
He gestures toward the broken weapon buried through his chest.
The blade passes completely through his armor and extends from his back.
Dark chains are wrapped around its handle.
"It does not make the sword mine."
Elara looks toward the weapon.
"Who put it there?"
Kael's eye shifts toward Aldric.
"The founder of this monastery."
"Saint Orin?" Mara asks.
"He was not a saint when I met him."
Aldric raises his staff.
"That is enough."
The metal rings floating behind him separate.
Dozens of silver chains shoot toward Kael.
This time, Kael does not block them.
They wrap around his limbs and pull in opposite directions.
Aldric turns toward us.
"Leave the monastery."
Elara steps forward.
"We came here for your help."
"And I will help you if we survive."
The floor shakes again.
The pit beneath Kael widens.
A deep blackness stretches below him.
There is no visible bottom.
The heartbeat beneath the mountain becomes faster.
Kael pulls one arm free.
A silver chain snaps and strikes a bookshelf.
The wood disappears in a burst of blue flame.
"You cannot seal me again without the original order," Kael says.
"I know."
"Then why pretend?"
Aldric's expression becomes grim.
"Because I was hoping you had weakened."
Kael tears another chain apart.
"I have spent three centuries feeding on the fear of everyone who remembered my name."
Mara looks horrified.
"You gained strength from the stories?"
"Fear does not care whether its source is true."
That is the same rule governing my Mark.
Rumors create less Dread than direct fear, but they never truly stop.
Kael has been gathering it for centuries.
My Mark reacts again.
Foreign Mark synchronization: 19%
The pressure inside my chest increases.
I can feel something pulling at the Dread I collected.
Kael is not only connecting to my Mark.
He is attempting to take it.
I open my status.
Dread: 1,147
The number drops.
Dread: 1,139
Eight points vanish.
Then four more.
Kael's black mist becomes thicker.
"He's draining me."
Aldric looks toward my palm.
"You are both connected to the same source."
"How do I stop it?"
"Close your Mark."
"I don't know how."
"Then learn quickly."
Helpful.
Kael pulls another chain from his body.
The monastery shakes as part of the ceiling collapses.
Mara pulls Elara away from the falling stone.
I focus on the eye in my palm.
It remains open.
The more I attempt to force it closed, the wider it becomes.
Kael continues absorbing Dread.
Dread: 1,121
His purple eye grows brighter.
"You cannot resist what you do not understand," he says.
I release Dread Aura.
Dark pressure explodes through the hall.
Candles extinguish.
Books fall from shelves.
The black mist around Kael is pushed backward.
For a moment, the pull on my Mark weakens.
Then Kael begins laughing.
My Dread Aura flows toward him.
He absorbs it.
The damaged sections of his armor begin repairing themselves.
"That was generous."
I cancel the ability.
Kael's voice becomes amused.
"You tried to defeat a World Raider with fear."
"I know that now."
I summon my scythe.
The purple lines along its handle flicker.
Kael examines it.
"A nameless soul weapon."
"It hasn't earned one."
"Neither have you."
I move before he can continue.
My scythe cuts through the black mist surrounding him.
The blade strikes his shoulder.
The impact sends a shock through both of us.
His armor cracks.
Pain tears across my own shoulder.
The scythe is connected to my soul.
Kael's Mark is connected to mine.
Damaging him damages me.
He grabs the blade.
Black energy spreads across the metal.
The scythe begins turning gray.
I dismiss it immediately.
Smoke flows from his hand and reforms in mine.
A crack remains along the blade.
Kael pulls the sword in his chest forward.
The weapon moves less than an inch.
The entire monastery shakes.
Aldric's face becomes pale.
"Do not let him remove that sword."
"What happens if he does?" I ask.
"The sealed space collapses."
"That sounds bad."
"The mountain will disappear."
"That sounds worse."
Kael grips the sword again.
I launch Death Arc.
The curved wave of energy crosses the hall.
He raises his free hand.
The attack splits apart before touching him.
Both halves strike the walls.
Blue symbols decay.
Cracks spread through the sealed space.
Aldric turns toward me.
"Stop damaging the wards!"
"He's standing between them and me."
"Then aim better."
"I'm still learning."
"This is not the time to practice."
Kael tears another chain from his back.
Only three remain.
Aldric slams his staff into the floor.
The central platform begins rotating.
Large circles of silver light appear beneath Kael.
"Princess," Aldric says. "Stand at the northern point."
Elara looks toward the symbols.
"What are you doing?"
"Rebuilding the original sealing formation."
"You said the original order was gone."
"The royal inheritance can replace one part of it."
Her hand moves toward the mark on her neck.
"My seal?"
"Not the binding seal. Your blood."
Elara walks toward the northern edge of the platform.
Mara grabs her arm.
"Your Highness, wait."
"If he escapes, everyone outside this monastery may die."
"You do not know what this ritual will do."
"Neither does Aldric."
The old man looks offended.
"I know most of what it will do."
"That is not reassuring," Elara says.
She still steps onto the symbol.
Silver light rises around her.
The binding seal on her neck awakens.
Golden lines spread across her skin.
She gasps.
Aldric points toward Mara.
"Western point."
"I do not possess royal blood."
"You possess loyalty to the royal bloodline. The ward will accept it."
Mara runs toward the second symbol.
Blue light surrounds her.
Aldric takes the southern point.
The silver rings behind him move into place above the platform.
The final point remains empty.
It is directly in front of Kael.
Aldric looks toward me.
"Eastern point."
"What does it require?"
"Death."
"That seems appropriate."
"You must use your energy to force his Mark into dormancy."
"And if it connects to mine again?"
"It will."
I look at Kael.
Two chains remain attached to his back.
His Dread continues pulling at mine.
Dread: 1,083
"What happens if this fails?" I ask.
Aldric begins forming symbols around his staff.
"He kills us."
"Simple enough."
I step onto the eastern point.
The eye in my palm opens completely.
Purple light connects me to Kael.
For a moment, neither of us moves.
Then his memories enter my mind.
I see a world beneath a red sky.
Armies stand outside a burning city.
Kael stands alone on its walls.
He looks younger.
Human.
His armor is clean, and there is no sword through his chest.
A hooded figure stands behind him.
The Reaper.
"You have done well," the Reaper says.
Kael looks toward the terrified army.
"My Mark is full."
"You are ready for your reward."
"A new life?"
"A greater one."
The Reaper places a skeletal hand against Kael's chest.
The Mark opens.
Something looks through it from the other side.
Not the Reaper.
A vast eye surrounded by darkness.
Kael screams.
The memory changes.
He stands in another world.
Then another.
Each one is different.
A city of glass towers.
A wasteland filled with machines.
An ocean beneath three suns.
Everywhere he goes, the darkness inside his Mark grows.
The Reaper continues sending him onward.
The fear he gathers does not remain his.
It flows somewhere else.
Into the presence behind Death.
The memory shifts again.
Kael confronts the Reaper.
"You lied."
"I gave you life."
"You gave me a chain."
"I gave you purpose."
"What is taking my power?"
The darkness behind the Reaper moves.
Kael reaches for his weapon.
The memory ends in screaming.
I return to the monastery.
My knees nearly collapse.
Kael is staring at me.
"You saw it."
The ritual symbols begin spinning.
Aldric shouts something, but his voice sounds distant.
The connection between Kael and me becomes stronger.
I can feel his anger.
His fear.
His regret.
More importantly, I can tell that the memory was real.
Or at least he believes it was.
"The Reaper used you," I say.
"He uses all of us."
"Why didn't he kill you?"
"He tried."
Kael pulls against the final chains.
"Saint Orin found what remained of me first."
The sealing ritual activates.
Silver, blue, gold, and black energy rise from the four points.
They form a cage around Kael.
He roars.
The voices trapped beneath his own scream with him.
The sound shakes the sealed space.
Aldric raises his staff.
"Shin! Force the Mark closed!"
"I still don't know how."
"You are inside its connection. Find the part of him that fears returning to the Reaper."
Fear Sense changes.
The chains connected to Kael become visible.
Thousands extend away from him.
Toward people across Asteria who still fear the Black Calamity.
But one chain is different.
It travels upward.
Beyond the monastery.
Beyond the world.
Into the darkness between worlds.
Kael fears whatever waits at the other end.
I focus on that fear.
The eye in my palm glows.
Terror Mark applied.
A black symbol appears over Kael's chest.
He freezes.
"No."
The ritual tightens around him.
I activate the Terror Mark.
Kael looks past me.
His purple eye widens.
The black mist surrounding his body disappears.
"What do you see?" I ask.
His voices become quiet.
"The door."
Aldric pushes more energy into the formation.
"What door?"
Kael grips the sword in his chest.
"The one between him and us."
The presence behind the Reaper.
The empty place where worlds once existed.
Kael begins pulling at the sword again.
Not to escape.
To push it deeper.
"Stop!" Aldric shouts.
The blade moves through Kael's chest.
Dark blood pours from beneath his armor.
The remaining chains tighten.
"What are you doing?" Elara asks.
Kael looks toward me.
"Do not let it open your Mark."
The sword moves another inch.
His body begins turning to black mist.
The pit beneath him pulls downward.
Aldric realizes what he is doing.
"He's breaking the connection himself."
Kael's visible hand begins crumbling.
The symbols carved into his fingers fade.
"You wanted to escape," I say.
"I wanted to die."
The voices inside him become weaker.
"I had forgotten the difference."
The ritual forces him toward the pit.
He does not resist.
His purple eye remains fixed on me.
"The Reaper will tell you that I failed because I became weak."
The chains pull him lower.
"He will say I lost myself."
His mask cracks.
Part of his face becomes visible beneath it.
He looks almost human.
Tired eyes.
Gray skin.
A faint smile.
"He will not tell you that I remembered who I was."
The sword disappears beneath the platform.
Kael's hand reaches toward me.
A small shard of purple light leaves his palm.
It enters the Mark in mine.
Pain shoots through my entire body.
A notification appears.
Foreign memory fragment acquired.
Origin: World Raider Kael Veyr
Access restricted.
Kael falls deeper into the pit.
The silver cage closes above him.
Before the darkness covers his face, he speaks one final time.
"He never gives second lives."
The platform seals.
"He only delays death."
The last chain disappears.
The pit closes.
Silence fills the monastery.
The ritual symbols fade.
Elara falls to her knees.
Mara catches her before she hits the stone.
Aldric remains standing for several seconds before his staff slips from his hand.
The floating rings crash to the floor.
I stare at my palm.
The eye of the Mark is closed.
A thin crack now runs through its center.
My status appears without me calling for it.
World Raider
Name: Shin Sasaki
Race: Dreadborn Human
Rank: Dreadborn
Dread: 1,061
Worlds Raided: 1
Soul Weapon: Unnamed Scythe
Warning: External connection detected.
Warning: Mark origin cannot be verified.
New hidden objective discovered: Learn the truth of the World Raiders.
Aldric picks up his staff.
"You believe him."
"I saw his memories."
"You saw what his Mark showed you."
"Is there a difference?"
"There may be."
Elara slowly stands with Mara's help.
"The presence behind the Reaper," she says. "Was it real?"
Aldric looks toward the sealed platform.
"Yes."
"You're certain?"
"It noticed me when I examined Shin's soul."
The room feels colder.
I close my hand over the Mark.
"What exactly is it?"
"I do not know."
"That answer is becoming common."
Aldric walks toward the damaged book containing Elara's seal.
"But I know the corruption inside the royal network comes from the same place."
Elara touches her neck.
"My brothers are connected to it?"
"Perhaps knowingly. Perhaps not."
"Then remove the seal."
Aldric opens the book.
Several damaged pages repair themselves as blue symbols move across the paper.
"The failed Raider's awakening weakened the monastery. Malrec will have felt it."
"How long do we have?" Mara asks.
"Hours, if we are fortunate."
I look toward the entrance.
Fear Sense reveals distant movement outside the sealed space.
Many people.
Some are approaching from the southern trail.
Royal soldiers.
At the center of them is a familiar fear.
Controlled.
Cold.
Directed toward the cracks in Nightfall.
"Malrec is already here."
Aldric closes his eyes.
"He moved faster than expected."
"He usually does."
Elara looks toward the platform where Kael disappeared.
"Can the seal be removed before he reaches us?"
Aldric studies the golden mark around her neck.
"Yes."
Mara releases a relieved breath.
Aldric continues.
"But removing it will alert every royal seal connected to the throne."
Elara's expression hardens.
"My brothers will know."
"They will know you are free."
I summon my scythe.
The crack in its blade remains, but the purple lines shine more brightly than before.
"Then we make sure they're afraid of what happens next."
Aldric looks toward me.
"You just learned that your power may be feeding something capable of destroying worlds."
"I know."
"And you still intend to use it?"
"Until I understand how to replace it."
He studies me for a moment.
Then he nods.
"Perhaps Kael was right."
"About what?"
"You may remember who you are before it is too late."
A deep impact shakes the monastery.
One of the outer wards breaks.
Malrec's voice echoes faintly through the stone.
"Aldric!"
Another impact follows.
Blue symbols disappear from the nearest wall.
Aldric moves toward Elara.
"Place her on the central platform."
Mara helps Elara forward.
I turn toward the entrance.
The Mark in my palm burns again.
This time, the pain does not come from Kael.
A familiar voice whispers from somewhere deep inside it.
Calm.
Patient.
Almost amused.
"Shin."
My body becomes still.
The Reaper's voice continues.
"I believe we need to talk."
END OF CHAPTER 10