Lira Valenti's pulse roared.
The storm tore through Sarn's ruins, sand and lightning choking the air. Sixth-nation runes blazed on shattered stones, their silver light pulsing under a sky split by violet cracks.
Six beasts snarled—scales gleaming like molten iron, claws ripping through rubble.
The deity's shadow loomed, its eyes glowing, voice shaking the earth:
"The Accord binds all."
Kael's ship hovered, its crystal flaring with Lira's stolen runes, his possessed figure a shadow in the storm.
Veyra stood trembling, regret carving her face. Her betrayal had summoned the sixth beast.
"I had to save him," she whispered, her brother's fate her chain.
Mira, barely alive, gripped a broken pillar. Her crimson cloak was soaked, her dark energy flickering as she faced the sixth beast.
"Lira, don't stop," she rasped, her eyes heavy with regret—
A faint, broken:
"I should've saved you..."
Before her dagger struck.
Elias held Lira's hand. His sea-glass eyes were fierce, blood seeping from his wound.
"We end this together," he said, his Veyran pendant glowing—a beacon in the chaos.
---
Lira's chest burned.
Her runes dimmed.
Her parchment was icy.
Her Echowriting flickered under the specter's grip, its voice—her voice—snarling:
"You're mine."
Her body shook. Possession clawed at her mind.
Her muteness was a prison.
Koren, the traitor, gripped his stained blade, his staff broken.
"Kael burned the sixth nation," he said, his treachery raw.
"I hid the artifacts to survive."
Lira's heart sank.
Kael—the enforcer.
Koren—his accomplice.
---
Her runes flared, resolve blazing.
I will break the Accord, she thought, her vow a fire. Even if it kills me.
She scratched a star-circle into the stone.
Nails bloody.
Silver light surged.
The deity's shadow recoiled.
The spectral army faltered.
The specter screamed—its hold weakening.
Lira stood as the storm raged, the ruins quaking.
Elias pulled her close, his breath warm.
"You're everything," he whispered.
His lips met hers—a kiss, fierce and electric.
Her heart pounded.
But Koren's taunt echoed:
"He helped Kael bind you."
Lira froze.
Elias's touch was warm, but his eyes… shadowed.
He aided Kael?
His silence cuts deeper than any blade.
Her doubt lingered, a heartbeat of fear in the storm.
---
Mira's POV
Mira's vision blurred.
Blood dripped.
The sixth beast's claws hovered a breath away.
She had cursed Lira—her twin—with silence, thinking it would save her from the Accord.
Regret burned.
I should've fought for you.
Her dagger trembled.
Her energy faded.
I'll die for you now, she vowed, her heart breaking for the sister she failed.
End Mira's POV
---
Lira's runes pulsed, Mira's collapse heavy in her eyes.
"I should've saved you..." her sister's whisper lingered.
The fifth beast charged.
Lira scratched a jagged star.
Light exploded, shoving it back.
Pain seared her.
The specter clawed deeper.
Her breath was ragged.
"Your voice is ours," it hissed.
Her runes faltered.
---
Koren unearthed a fourth artifact—a rune-carved stone, glowing like her parchment.
"The lost city holds the Accord's fate," he said, blade raised.
Lira touched it.
A vision struck—
Crimson sands.
A sixth-nation city burning.
Kael chaining a Voicekeeper.
"Your blood rewrites the Accord's fate," her echo whispered.
Light surged.
Lira woke, gasping.
Her vow was solid.
I'll rewrite it.
---
Veyra's hands shook.
Regret carved her raw.
"I betrayed you for him," she said.
Her brother's fate—her chain.
Lira's runes shattered a dozen spectral warriors.
The sixth beast roared.
Kael's crystal pulsed.
"Your blood awakens the curse," his voice boomed.
Koren's blade struck the stone.
A seventh beast rose—
Its scales blazing with runes.
A rune-message glowed:
"Toren is near, Voicekeeper."
Lira's heart raced.
Her ally… close?
---
The storm tightened.
The deity's shadow morphed into a full god—its form towering.
"The Accord claims you."
The seventh beast lunged.
Lira's blood pulsed in its claws.
Elias pulled her close.
His kiss—desperate.
But his eyes flickered—
Guilt.
Tied to Kael.
He bound me, the beast whispered.
The ruins quaked.
A world-ending curse awakened.
Lira's blood was the key.