🔥 Chapter 10 — The Ember Unleashed
Kael hit the ground hard.
Stone bit into his ribs as he rolled across the shattered village square. The Harrowed Knight's strike had been faster than he could follow—faster than anything he'd imagined. Only a last-second burst of Ember fire kept him from being cleaved in half.
The Knight stepped through the settling dust, its enormous blade dragging against the ground with a sound like cracking bone.
Rhyne leapt between them, silver sigils blazing along his sword. "Kael! Stay behind me!"
Kael tried to rise but the world spun. The Ember inside him flickered erratically—panicked, unstable. It pulsed like a wounded heartbeat.
The Harrowed Knight pointed its blade at Kael. "The Bearer is incomplete. The Ember remains unsealed. He is unworthy."
Rhyne spat. "You want him? You go through me."
The Knight vanished.
It reappeared behind Rhyne in an explosion of movement.
Steel clashed—Rhyne barely catching the blow. The impact created a shockwave that threw Kael backward again. Rhyne held his ground, but even Kael could see the strain in his trembling arms.
"Kael!" Rhyne roared. "You must stabilize the Ember! Focus—bind its flow!"
"I—I don't know how!" Kael shouted, panic rising like a tide.
The Knight knocked Rhyne aside with a brutal downward strike, sending him skidding across the ground. Villagers screamed and ducked behind burning rubble.
Kael felt the Ember surging wildly, responding to fear rather than control. Flames licked along his skin.
"Bearer…"
The voice returned—echoing through his mind.
"Let the Ember guide. Do not command it. Become its flame… not its master."
The world slowed.
Kael rose to his feet, breath steadying. The markings along his arm brightened into brilliant azure, flowing like liquid fire. Instead of forcing the power, he opened himself to it.
The Ember roared alive.
Blue fire erupted around him, spiraling upward in a blazing vortex that made even the Harrowed Knight hesitate.
Rhyne, stunned, whispered, "Impossible… he's synchronizing."
Kael stepped forward, eyes glowing.
"I'm not unworthy," he said, voice resonating with Emberfire. "And I'm not running."
The Harrowed Knight lifted its blade in challenge.