+25 Points
The courtyard was breaking apart under the weight of the sorcerer’s shadows. Creatures wed out of the ground, their eyes burning like embers. The Ash Queen’s fire zed, Elias’s wolf roared, and I clung to the bond holding me together, still raw from the fight <i>to </i>reim myself.
But even with the three of us standing shoulder to shoulder, I could feel it–this wasn’t a battle we could win here.
The Ash Queen must have felt it too. Her crown flickered dimly, her dark eyes sharp. She turned toward us, shouting over the roar of the shadows. “We cannot fight him on the surface. His power runs too deep here.”
Elias shed through a lunging beast, sending it crumpling to the broken stone. “Then where?” he growled.
“The heart of the realm.” She said, her voice like steel. “The source of all magic in thisnd. If we reach it, we can use its energy to sever him from this world forever.”
The sorcererughed, his monstrous form towering above us. “You dare seek the heart? You’ll never make it alive.”
I shuddered. The shadows at hismand were endless. He wasn’t bluffing.
Elias bared his teeth, his golden <i>eyes </i>zing. “Then we’ll carve our way through.”
The Ash Queen raised her fire higher, pushing the shadows back just long enough for us to move. “Follow me.” She snapped. “The tunnels below will lead us there.”
We ran.
The ground shook as creatures mmed against the stones, their ws scraping, their howls echoing in the ruined courtyard. The Ash Queen led us to a jagged hole in the earth, the entrance <i>to </i>the tunnels. She leapt down first, her fire lighting the darkness. Elias grabbed my hand, squeezing tight, before pulling me with him into the abyss.
The air below was damp and heavy, filled with the stench of mold and smoke. The tunnels were rough–hewn, twisting veins of rock that cut deep into the earth. The Ash Queen’s mes lit the way, shadows dancing across the walls.
But we weren’t alone.
The first creature came at us almost as soon as our feet hit the ground. It crawled out of the tunnel wall, its body thin and stretched, its ws too long for its frame. Elias lunged forward,
< CHAPTER 128
mming it into the rock and snapping its neck with a vicious twist.
“Keep moving!” the Ash Queen barked. “He’ll throw everything at us down here.”
And she was right.
+25 Points
The tunnels became a gauntlet. Shadows crawled out of every crack, hissing and wing. Some were small, skittering things that swarmed like insects. Others were hulking beasts that barely fit in the tunnels, forcing us to fight in tight, suffocating spaces.
Elias tore through them with savage fury, his ws ripping through shadow flesh. His wolf snarled and snapped, his strength a wall between me and the darkness. The Ash Queen’s fire cut through the gloom, searing anything that came too close.
I summoned light of my own, magic burning at my fingertips, sting back the creatures when they overwhelmed us. But every spell drained me, and the bond in my chest still ached from the sorcerer’s possession.
His voice followed us, whispering through the tunnels. “You cannot reach the heart. Even if you do, it will kill you before it saves you.”
I flinched at the echo, pressing a hand to my temple. His words slithered like before, but weaker this time. I clung harder to Elias’s hand, grounding myself in his warmth.
“Don’t listen to him<i>.</i>” Elias said, his voice rough but steady. “He’s afraid. That’s why he’s trying so hard to stop us.”
The Ash Queen nced back at us, her fire lighting her sharp features. “Elias is right. He knows the heart is his end.”
We pressed on. The tunnels narrowed, then widened into caverns that seemed to stretch forever. Stctites dripped with dark water, and the air grew warmer the deeper we went. The earth itself hummed faintly beneath our feet, a pulse that matched the rhythm of my heart.
The closer we got, the stronger the pull.
But the sorcerer’s resistance grew too.
Halfway through a cavern, the ground shook violently. Shadows erupted from the stone itself, forming a beast twice the size of Elias. Its body was smoke and bone, its maw filled with jagged teeth.
It lunged at us.
Elias shoved me aside, shing at its chest, but his ws passed through like mist. The creature mmed him into the wall, the sound of stone cracking filling the air.
< CHAPTER 128
“Elias!” I screamed, throwing a ball of dragonfire at him.
The Ash Queen hurled fire at it only secondster, mes exploding across its form. It shrieked, staggering back, but didn’t fall.
<b>+25 </b>Points
I forced magic into my veins, my body shaking from the strain. I raised both hands and poured everything I had into a single burst of light. The st ripped through the cavern, searing the shadow beast into nothing but smoke.
Silence followed. My legs buckled, and Elias caught me before I hit the ground. His chest was bleeding where the beast had thrown him, but his eyes burned with determination.
“You’re stronger than you think.” He whispered, brushing his hand against my cheek. “Don’t ever forget that.”
I swallowed hard, trying to steady my breath. “Not without you.”
The Ash Queen’s voice cut through the moment. “We don’t have time. The heart is close.”
We stumbled forward again, deeper into the tunnels. The air grew hotter, the hum in the earth stronger. It was as if the world itself was calling us onward.
But so was the sorcerer.
Hisughter rolled through the tunnels, cold and mocking. “You think you’re winning. You think the heart will save you. But the heart takes as much as it gives. You’ll burn in its fire before you ever wield it.”
I pressed my hands over my ears, but it didn’t block him out. His voice wasn’t in the air—it was inside the earth, inside me.
Elias snarled, his golden eyes glowing faintly in the dark. “Ignore him. We’ll end this, together.
The Ash Queen slowed, her fire dimming to a soft glow. “We’re here.”
The tunnel opened into a vast chamber. The heart of the realm.
It was beautiful–and terrifying.
At the center of the cavern rose a column of light, pulsing with raw power. The earth itself seemed alive, glowing veins running through the stone like rivers of fire. The air hummed, thick with magic so strong it made my skin prickle and my chest ache.
I staggered closer, drawn to it like a moth to me. The bond in my chest red, aching for the power that radiated from the heart.
< CHAPTER 128
But before we could reach it, the shadows closed in.
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Dozens of creatures poured into the chamber, more than we had seen in the tunnels. Their eyes burned red, their ws scraping against the stone. And behind them, towering at the far side of the chamber, stood the sorcerer himself.
His form was darker, sharper, more monstrous than before. His eyes glowed like fire, his grin wide and cruel.
“You made it.” He said, his voice echoing in the chamber. “Now watch as I tear the heart from this realm and im it for myself.”
The creatures surged forward, a wave of shadow and fury.
Elias roared, his wolf exploding to the surface as he leapt into them, ws shing. The Ash Queen unleashed a storm of fire, her mes searing across the cavern. I summoned light, sting shadows back as they tried to swarm me.
But they just kepting.
The sorcerer raised his hands, and the heart itself flickered, its light dimming under his control. The cavern shook violently, stones cracking and falling from the ceiling.
“No!” the Ash Queen shouted. “He’s trying to corrupt it–if he seeds, the realm will fall.” My blood turned to ice. We couldn’t let that happen.
I turned to Elias, who was locked in battle, his ws tearing through another beast. “We have to get to the heart!” I cried.
He shed onest creature aside, his chest heaving, his golden eyes zing with the bond between us. He grabbed my hand, gripping it tight.
“Then we fight our way through.” He said.
The Ash Queen’s mes roared higher, her voice ringing out like steel. “Protect her! If she reaches the heart, she can stop him.” <fn0edf> Checktest chapters at FindN()vel</fn0edf>
The creatures closed in, the sorcerer’sughter echoing through the chamber.
And with the heart pulsing just out of reach, we plunged into the shadows, fighting <i>with </i>everything we had.
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