Dawn broke in eerie silence.
Not with birdsong or wind—but with a metallic scent in the air, like iron rust hanging thickly above charred stone.
Long Yan sensed it before the sun even rose.
There was movement in the qi currents.
Something unnatural.
He stood at the mouth of the cave, eyes narrowed as he scanned the ridges beyond the Ashglass Forest. The trees shimmered like frozen fire—brittle, beautiful, and sharp—but the spiritual energy flowing through the land was distorted.
Tainted.
[Alert: Foreign Cult Signature Detected]
Codex Match: Bone Cult of the Hollow Sovereign
Affiliation: Abyssal-aligned, Class 3 Threat Level
Estimated Units: 4 Initiates, 1 Ascended Priest
Intent: Ritual Seizure of Flame-Kin Domain Core
He turned back toward the cave.
"Wake up," he said quietly.
Luo Yanling stirred, blade already at her side as she sat up. "I felt it. Who are they?"
"Cultists. Drawn by the Domain's activation."
She stood, tightening her cloak. "The Bone Cult? I thought they were sealed in the Northern Rotlands."
"They were," Long Yan replied. "But like everything in this realm, seals are just lies waiting for time."
They moved quickly, weaving through obsidian trees and molten-cracked ground. Long Yan's aura was faint but refined, a low thrum of dragon-blood and sovereign will. It bent the forest's silence around him like a shield.
And yet, when they reached the ridge—
They were waiting.
Five figures stood in a semi-circle around a glowing pyre carved from black bone and bloodied stone. The smell of decay was overpowering—death not as an end, but as a ritual.
At the center, a tall priest in crimson bone-wrapped robes raised a curved dagger toward the sky.
Behind him, the Domain Stone—the heart of the Flame-Kin ruins—pulsed erratically.
The ritual had already begun.
The priest's voice cut through the still air like a blade:
"By the name of the Hollow Sovereign, we claim the Ash Flame. Let it burn not for rebirth, but for purge."
The initiates around him began chanting, eyes rolled back, skin etched with abyssal runes.
[System Warning: Domain Core Interference – Flame-Kin Legacy at Risk]
[Optional Objective Triggered: Interrupt Ritual | Kill the Priest]
Reward: Domain Core Fortification | Sovereign Expansion Threshold +3%
Long Yan stepped into view.
"You're desecrating a Sovereign's memory."
The priest didn't stop chanting.
But he opened one pale eye.
"A voice of ash," he rasped. "A soul soaked in ancient blood. I smell the flames of Azerith on you."
"You know his name?" Long Yan's voice stayed level, but his aura began to rise.
"I drank his marrow," the priest whispered, "when his bones were cast to the void."
Luo Yanling inhaled sharply. Long Yan's knuckles cracked.
"You'll have nothing left to bury," he said.
And then the fight began.
The four initiates surged forward first.
They didn't fight like humans—they moved like broken dolls, limbs twisted, joints clicking unnaturally. One launched bone spikes from his ribs. Another split her own face open to release a fog of death mist.
Luo Yanling leapt into them, blade flickering.
She moved like lightning—no wasted motion, no hesitation. Her sword clove through the first cultist's neck before he even finished transforming.
Long Yan targeted the second with a flick of his wrist.
[Skill: Emberstep – Active]
He vanished, reappearing behind the cultist in a burst of flame. A clawed hand, half-draconic, slammed through the initiate's spine. Black ichor hissed into steam.
[Abyssal Energy Neutralized | Core Harvested]
The third tried to chant a binding spell—but Long Yan raised his hand, channeling Sovereign Pulse into a ripple that shattered the cultist's jaw and sent him sprawling.
The fourth cultist rushed at Luo Yanling with a jagged sickle made from spine fragments.
She caught the blade with her shoulder—but instead of falling, she grinned through the blood.
"You worship death," she spat. "Let me show you what it costs."
Her sword went through his chest with a final flash of silver flame.
Only the priest remained.
He stood untouched at the altar, eyes glowing with abyssal heat.
"You're too late," he murmured. "The Domain listens not to bloodline, but to sacrifice. And I have given more than you can imagine."
Then he burst into flame.
But not fire—soulflame.
His own soul ignited, becoming a vessel for something else—older.
A shadow rose behind him, formed from the charred outline of a dragon—a grotesque parody, with hollow eyes and cracked horns.
[System Warning: Hostile Entity Possessed by Abyssal Echo – Class 4 Wraith]
Threat Rating: High
Defensive Barrier Recommended
The shadow lunged.
Long Yan raised his arms, activating Voidbone Pauldrons. The incoming blast of spectral fire slammed into his barrier, ripping it halfway down in a single pulse.
[Stability: 62%]
He grunted—but didn't yield.
Instead, he stepped forward again.
And again.
The shadow roared, casting illusions of dead dragons in his path. The sky split with ghostly flames. The very earth twisted.
But Long Yan did not break.
"You are not a Sovereign," he said coldly.
"You are a parasite."
He raised both hands.
Flames erupted—not from the world, but from within.
[Skill Activated: Sovereign Pulse – Dragonfire Singularity]
A refined form of ancestral fire, bound by calculation and will.
The fire slammed into the echo-shadow and priest both.
It didn't burn.
It unmade.
A moment later, the altar was empty.
Ash floated on the wind.
The Domain Stone pulsed once—slow and thankful.
Then it quieted.
Luo Yanling limped toward him, blood trickling from her shoulder.
"Tell me that's the last of them."
Long Yan shook his head. "It never is."
He walked to the edge of the altar and touched the scorched stone.
[Sovereign Domain Expansion Triggered]
Ashglass Ruins claimed.
Sanctified Sovereign Territory: 1/99
He turned back to her.
"We're not running anymore."
She looked at him, puzzled.
"We're building something?"
"No," he said. "We're taking it all."
Far away, in a sealed temple beneath the Hollow Sovereign's crypt, a hundred bone priests fell to their knees as blood ran from their eyes.
"He has returned," they chanted. "Ash-born, system-bound. The blood of dragons cries again."
Above them, a being of living bones stirred on a throne of teeth.
"The Sovereign rises," it whispered.
"And the abyss remembers."