"The Vale remembers... and now, so will you."
The cavern doors slammed shut behind them. There would be no escape.
The Ashen King's hollow crown gleamed in the torchlight, cracked metal fused to bone. His eyes burned like two crimson coals, fixed as though they had been waiting for him alone.
Rayne tightened her grip on the dagger in her hand. Her fire flickered nervously across cavern walls but the flame seemed smaller here.
"Stay behind me," Kael said, stepping forward.
"Don't flatter yourself," Rayne muttered, though she didn't move past him.
The Ashen King lifted one skeletal hand. The runes carved into the floor blazed crimson and the air grew heavy enough to steal breaths from their lungs
Kael felt the weight and staggered but held Veindrinker ready. The sword vibrated as if straining toward the apparition, the runes along its blade answering the glow beneath their feet.
Rayne's voice was barely a whisper. "It knows your blood."
Kael did not take his eyes off the creature as he replied her through clenched teeth. "Then it knows I won't kneel."
The Ashen King's laughter was like shattering glass.
"You carry the Hollow Queen's Mark. You carry her burden. You will carry her chains."
The rune spread outward forming a circle around Kael's boot. The stone beneath him cracked open bleeding red light upward.
Rayne lunged towards him, hands outstretched. "KAEL MOVE.....!!"
But the ground swallowed him before she reached his side. Kael fell through light.
The stone floor vanished beneath him, replaced by a torrent of red fire that tore through his veins, dragging him into a memory not his own. He hit the ground hard, only it was not stone anymore, it was soil soaked dark with blood.
The battlefield stretched before him. Black banners torn by wind. Armored corpses twisted where they had fallen. Above it all, the same broken crown that gleamed on the Ashen King's skull now rested on the head of a woman cloaked in midnight. Her eyes burned crimson.
"The Hollow Queen," Kael whispered.
She turned as though she heard him across the centuries. Her gaze cut through him, cold and unrelenting, yet threaded with something he could not name.
"Blood of my blood. Why do you fight what is already yours?"
Kael raised Veindrinker, though it shook in his grasp. "I am not your heir. I am not your chain."
The Queen's smile was sharp, cruel. Her next words spoken through anger.
"Every crown is a chain. And every heir is bound."
The battlefield shuddered, corpses rising on broken limbs, eyes igniting with the same crimson fire. They turned toward Kael, reaching for him with clawed hands.
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Far above in the cavern, Rayne slammed her palm against the glowing rune, sparks as she tried to unravel the Ashen King's hold.
"Let him go," she hissed, her voice thick with fury.
The Ashen King's skull tilted towards her.
"He walks the past. If he survives it, he will wear the crown. If he fails... the Vale will take him."
The skeletal giant stepped forward, bone claws scaping stone. Rayne's dagger flared blue fire as she braced herself.
"Then you will have to deal with me first."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Kael swung Veindrinker through the first corpse, the blade drinking its crimson fire. More corpses rose from the blood-soaked earth, claws outstretched, whispers tearing at his mind.
"Kneel to blood... kneel to crown... kneel to chains..."
The Hollow Queen stood at the center of the battlefield, her broken crown glinting red. Her gaze pierced him like a spear.
"Every heir kneels. So will you."
Kael's breath came ragged. His blade grew heavier with each swing, as if the dead pulled on his soul. He staggered, vision blurring, until Veindrinker flared bright in his hands, runes burning against the Queen's call. The sword was not hers.
It was his!!
With a roar, Kael drove Veindrinker through one corpse, then another, each strike fueled by defiance. The battlefield shuddered. The Queen's crimson eyes widened as her legion faltered.
"You dare..."
Kael raised his sword and slashed towards her image. The battlefield split in two, light cracking through the vision like shattered glass.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------In the cavern above, Rayne met the Ashen King's claw with her flaming dagger. Sparks rained across the stone as she twisted, fire erupting from her other hand to drive him back.
He snarled, voice echoing like thunder.
"Witch of Ashen blood... you cannot unmake me."
Rayne gritted her teeth. "Then I will bind you!!"
She carved a circle into the stone with her burning blade. Blue fire surged along the lines, wrapping the Ashen King in chains of flame. He trashed, the cavern shaking, but the fire held long enough to scorch cracks across his skeletal form.
"Kael!" she shouted, though he was still lost to the vision.
The runes flared crimson, answering her fire.
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Kael thrust Veindrinker through the Queen's image.
Rayne's fire tightened around the Ashen King.
Sword and flame struck at once.
The battlefield collapsed. The cavern roared. Crimson light exploded upward, swallowing them in fire and blood.