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1. The Silence Before the Howl
The fields beyond the scorched ridge of Vyrmont Plains had never been this quiet.
Ash floated like snow. Corpses of once-ferocious beasts littered the terrain—hulking wyverns, mutated gorillas, and insectoid monstrosities frozen mid-scream. Their deaths weren't from combat.
They were drained.
> "Something is consuming them," whispered Mira, her fingers trembling as she examined a massive basilisk husk. "Draining their cores. Not eating—absorbing."
Aira stood a few feet away, Solar Wings dimmed but not gone. Her aura still shimmered faintly with golden flame. Even her newly awakened power felt… smothered.
Something had changed.
And it wasn't just the battlefield.
> "Do you feel that?" she asked.
Kaelen nodded grimly. "It's like the world's holding its breath."
---
2. The Signal Flare
From the northern horizon came the flare—a pillar of crimson and black fire that tore through the heavens.
Everyone stopped.
The wind shifted. The clouds reversed.
A voice, not made for mortal ears, echoed through the skies.
> "KNEEL."
Every beast still living in a hundred-mile radius fell flat on the ground.
Even the tamed ones.
> "It's calling them," said Kaelen. "A… command? Like a hive lord, but far beyond that."
> "No," Aira whispered. "It's not commanding. It's claiming. That's a… king."
The words chilled everyone.
Aira's hand clenched.
> "Final Beast Boss."
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3. Flashback: The Ancient Warning
Aira remembered the ruins of the Elder Pyres, where she once saw the mural—the last time she doubted its truth.
A throne of bones. A crown of claws. A beast not born, but forged.
A figure standing amidst apocalypse.
> "The Corrupted King shall rise from the marrow of fallen empires," the runes had read. "And the sky shall bleed."
She thought it myth. Prophecy. Legend.
It was never legend.
It was inevitable.
---
4. Gathering Shadows
In the heart of the dead zone known as Hollow Vale, monsters had gathered—thousands of them, in a perfect ring formation, unmoving.
At the center stood a single, colossal figure.
It towered like a mountain. Ten meters tall, hunched over, its back adorned with fossilized wings. Its skin was a churning mix of obsidian and flesh, glowing with molten veins.
Its face bore a bestial jaw, but eyes that gleamed with terrible intelligence.
From its shoulders hung shredded flags—remnants of fallen nations.
Its presence bent the world.
> The Beast King.
> Name: Karvag'thul, Sovereign of Extinction.
> Class: Corrupted Apex.
> Threat Level: Calamity++
> Status: Awakened.
It opened its mouth and roared.
The sound shattered trees. Cracked mountains.
And leveled an entire scouting outpost five kilometers away.
---
5. Strategic Collapse
Inside the Council war room, panic erupted.
> "We need to evacuate the entire quadrant—Vyrmont, Daskrun, and Emberglen!"
> "How do you evacuate five cities in two days?!"
> "We send our elites! We stall him!"
> "Stall?! Did you not see the size of that thing?!"
Aira stood at the center of the room.
She was silent.
Then: "I'll go to the Vale."
Everyone turned.
> "What? Alone?!"
> "No," she said. "Not to fight. To learn."
She opened her hand and summoned a flicker of solar flame.
> "If we don't understand what corrupted him, we can't stop him. I've seen monsters. I've fought gods. But this thing… he's something else."
Kaelen placed a hand on her shoulder. "You won't go in alone."
She gave a faint smile. "No. But I'll go first."
---
6. Vale of Madness
Hours later, Aira descended into Hollow Vale under cover of night.
The air grew heavier with each step.
The flora was twisted—trees bleeding sap like oil, vines that whispered in dead languages.
> "The corruption is not just biological," she muttered. "It's reality-deep."
At the edge of a ridge, she saw it again.
The Beast King.
And something more.
Floating around him were glyphs, massive burning runes suspended in air—arcane, ancient, and pulsating with dark energy.
> "Someone did this to him…"
She scanned the pattern.
And then her heart stopped.
The runes weren't beastial.
They were human.
---
7. The Catalyst
Suddenly, something moved behind her.
Fast.
She spun, flame bursting forth—only to see a cloaked figure standing calmly in the gloom, arms raised.
> "Don't. I'm here to help," the figure said.
He lowered his hood.
It was Lyrian, the rogue arcanist from the Iron Guild, long presumed dead.
> "You," Aira hissed. "You were the one experimenting with runic soul-binding."
> "Yes," he admitted. "But not by choice. The Council—your precious Council—ordered it."
> "Liar."
> "Believe what you want. But Karvag'thul… he was once human. A guardian of the Vale. Until they tested on him. Until they fed him to the Flame Core."
Aira staggered.
> "They created the Beast King?"
> "They corrupted him. And now… he remembers."
---
8. The Roar That Ended Daylight
Without warning, Karvag'thul turned his massive head.
Toward her.
> "He sees me," she whispered.
He opened his mouth.
And roared.
The night turned white.
Light vanished. Gravity shifted.
The entire cliffside exploded in a single pulse.
Aira summoned her Solar Wings at the last second, shielding her from the full blast—but the concussive force sent her tumbling hundreds of feet away, crashing through trees and rock.
She hit the ground hard, skidding, body bruised.
Above her, the sky was now a spiral of darkness and crimson fire.
---
9. The Vision
Unconscious, she drifted into a vision.
A throne. Karvag'thul seated upon it.
Behind him, legions of corrupted beasts.
Before him, a ruined world.
And in his eyes… sorrow.
> "Help me," he said.
> "Free me," he whispered.
Aira gasped and awoke.
Her body was burned, her ribs cracked—but her mind was clear.
> "He's not just a boss," she breathed.
> "He's a prisoner."
---
10. The Return
Staggering but alive, she returned to the city.
Inside the war room, she faced the Council.
> "I saw it. I saw him. We're not just facing a monster. We're facing our own mistakes."
> "You can't mean—"
> "We made him. Or someone like us did. He's more than corrupted—he's enchained. And unless we break that bond, we're all dead."
> "Then what's the plan?" Kaelen asked.
Aira looked to the map.
Her fingers hovered over three points.
> "We break the anchors.
There are three runes keeping him bound. One in Hollow Vale. One in the Ashen Spire. One deep in the Dread Sea."
> "That's insane."
> "No," Aira said. "It's the only shot we have."
> "And what if breaking the runes frees him completely?" Mira asked.
Aira's flame eyes narrowed.
> "Then we slay a true king. But we do it on our terms."