I returned to the palace just before nightfall.
The capital looked the same — lanterns glowing, cultivators drifting through the sky, laughter in the noble districts — but everything felt different now. Like a string had been plucked too hard, and the whole city was waiting for the snap.
Seraphina met me in the upper halls, relief flashing across her silver eyes the moment she saw me.
"You're hurt."
"Not enough to matter."
She touched my sleeve anyway, a small, intimate gesture that grounded me more than any formation ever could.
Liara and Mireya joined us, both sharp-eyed.
"Kael?" Liara asked.
"He's been cut loose from his fate," I replied. "He's still alive, but he won't be leading anyone for a while."
Mireya frowned. "That makes him dangerous."
"Yes."
Because desperate men don't play by rules.
We didn't have to wait long.
The alarm formations flared violently just after midnight — not from inside the city this time… but from beyond it.
An emergency transmission crystal activated in the war chamber.
A figure appeared.
Kael.
His hair was disheveled. His cultivation aura unstable. But his eyes… they were burning.
"You took everything from me," he hissed. "So I took something from the world."
Behind him, the projection widened.
A mountain.
Cracked.
Seething with crimson light.
One of the ancient sealed nests.
A dragon tomb.
Seraphina gasped.
"He activated a forbidden array…"
Liara's expression darkened. "That place holds corrupted dragon spirits. If it breaks open—"
"The region will drown in monsters," Mireya finished.
Kael smiled.
"I may be finished… but I'll drag you down with me, Azrael."
The transmission cut.
Silence swallowed the room.
Then Seraphina turned to me.
"You're a dragon."
I nodded.
"That tomb… it calls to you, doesn't it?"
"Yes."
Her fingers tightened around mine. "Then we go together."
"No."
She met my gaze without fear. "You don't face the things that want to devour you alone."
For a moment, the world felt fragile.
Then I smiled.
"Prepare the team."
Kael had just played his last card.
And it was about to burn him.
🐉