The path to Vael'Torin was cursed.
It wasn't marked on any map. No one spoke its name aloud. The ground leading to it had been swallowed by decades of fog and silence.
Only Riders could find it.
And only one Rider still lived.
Zane rode through the valley like a shadow stitched to fire. Ruin Howl howled beneath him, engine blazing with soul heat. The road cracked and hissed beneath the tires — not from speed, but from memory.
Even the earth remembered the Rider who had died here.
Vael'Torin was once a fortress — carved into the cliffs of the Crescent Ridge, its towers lit with lunar flame, its halls lined with soul-metal and binding sigils.
Now, it was a grave.
Crumbling arches. Broken blades. Skulls left where warriors once stood.
Zane stepped off his bike, boots sinking into ash. Wind howled through shattered spires, carrying a whisper only he could hear.
"Smith..."
His breath caught. Not because he feared ghosts — but because the voice... was his own.
He walked deeper into the ruins.
Symbols glowed on the walls — ancient Rider runes, flickering like dying stars. They pulsed as he passed, recognizing something within him.
He didn't know how he knew where to go.
But his body remembered.
At the heart of the sanctuary stood the Soul forge, a black altar surrounded by rings of fire and spirit steel.
Zane stepped onto it.
The fire did not burn him.
It bowed.
Suddenly, his spine arched. His skin rippled. Claws tore from his hands, and molten gold bled from his eyes. Not rage. Not instinct. This was something deeper — a call from the core of his soul.
His wolf was waking.
But it wasn't just a shift.
It was a fusion.
Ruin Howl roared outside, wheels spinning on its own. The flames wrapped around the Soul forge, spiraling into Zane's back.
His body became heat. His bones became steel. His breath became engine smoke.
In that moment, Zane Kyro did not exist.
Only Black Fang stood there.
Fangs bared. Soul Engine lit. Armor fusing with flesh. A creature not made by the moon...
But born by fire.
"He is not just a Rider," whispered the wind.
"He is the last storm."
Zane opened his eyes. His beast-form reflected in the black stone beneath him.
And somewhere, miles away, in the vampire dominion of Frostgrave, the Tribrid Queen snapped upright — heart pounding. She felt the shift in the supernatural current.
"He's awakened," she whispered."We're too late."