The embers of Mount Solendar hadn't cooled before Liam felt it—
A tremor through the threads of divinity that wrapped the world.
He stood at the edge of the caldera, the sky overhead scorched red, the clouds recoiling from the mountain's breath. The air was quiet now, reverent, as if the very world were holding its breath.
Behind him, Elenari limped forward, her cloak torn, one arm cradled against her ribs. Garran's axe hung on his shoulder, cracked down the middle from the Third King's final blow. Seraphina was silent, wings dimmed, her holy aura faint but steady.
Liam's aura pulsed gold and crimson, radiant and dangerous.
He had changed—and not just in power.
He felt it in the marrow of his soul.
Rune hovered beside him, silent.
Finally, Liam spoke. "They'll come for us now."
"They already have," Rune said, eyes narrowing. "Someone watches."
The mountain groaned.
Then, from the smoke of the path they had taken up Solendar's black skin, a figure emerged. Wrapped in strips of ashen cloth and bearing a staff taller than himself, the figure strode forward with calm that cut through the tension like a blade.
His eyes were hollow sockets, lit by pale fire. Bones clattered around his waist like charms, and a broken crown of obsidian floated above his hooded head.
"I come bearing prophecy," the stranger said. "I am Mavrak, the Prophet of Ash and Bone."
Liam raised his staff instinctively. "You're with the cult?"
"No," Mavrak said, voice dry as tomb dust. "I am what remains after they pass. I serve no gods. Only fate."
Rune hissed. "He's wrapped in dead faith. Old pacts. Dangerous."
Mavrak knelt. "You bear the Origin Flame. I have walked for one hundred years waiting for its return. The gods of the old pantheon tremble. They send agents. Assassins. Saints. You are the uninvited flame."
Liam's eyes narrowed. "What do you want?"
Mavrak lifted his head. "To give you a warning… and a gift."
He rose and struck his staff against the ground. Dust rose—and from it, formed an ancient scroll, bound in red sinew.
Liam caught it. The language inside danced like living flame.
System Notification:
Ancient Knowledge Acquired
Skill Learned: Ashbound Insight – Grants visions of divine danger and forgotten lore.
Passive Effect: +20% resistance to divine illusions and prophecy-based attacks.
Mavrak continued, "They will not fight you openly, not yet. You've become too loud. Too bright. They will send shadows, clawed words, poisoned oaths. The cult is only the first."
Garran spat. "Let them come. We've fought monsters before."
Mavrak turned to him slowly. "You've not yet fought a fallen star."
Liam's heartbeat quickened. "What does that mean?"
"The gods once cast down their own," Mavrak said, beginning to back away. "Beings too powerful, too wild. Chained in the stars. One… is waking. And the cult sings to it."
He vanished into smoke.
For a long moment, no one spoke.
Then Rune whispered, "The real war is starting."
They descended the mountain, the sky darkening with every step. And when they reached the village of Trivale—what they found twisted Liam's heart with rage.
The town was in ruins.
Houses razed. Bodies burned. A symbol carved into every corpse: a circle pierced by a black spear.
The Cult of the Crimson Thorn had passed through.
Liam knelt beside a child's body, throat cut, hands folded by a desperate mother who never escaped. Elenari's eyes shimmered—not with tears, but quiet fury.
"We were too late," Seraphina whispered.
Garran stepped into the town square, kneeling by something metallic.
He held it up: a piece of a broken mask.
Liam took it.
It was a mask like those the Crimson Thorn wore—but this one had a name etched into the inside.
'Jorah.'
A farmer. One of Liam's earliest followers. His first miracle was for Jorah's daughter.
"System," Liam said coldly. "Do I still have access to Rite of Ascension?"
System Notification:
Access Granted
Rite of Ascension: Convert a follower into an angel or demon using Faith Points
Warning: Subject must be alive and devoted.
"Then give me something else," he growled. "I want their killers. I want to burn their memory into ash."
System Notification:
New Ability Available:
Revenant Mark – Marks a slain follower. When triggered, the system will hunt and curse their killer, revealing their location. Costs: 10,000 Faith Points.
Liam clenched his jaw.
"Do it."
He marked them all.
Twenty-two followers. Twenty-two flares of power.
In the sky, fire erupted into a pattern only gods could see.
Somewhere, the Cult screamed.
That night, as the party made camp by a river near the ruins, Elenari approached Liam.
She stood silently for a while before speaking.
"You can't carry all of it alone."
"I can," he said. "I have to."
"You'll burn."
He looked up at her, gold eyes glowing faintly in the dark.
"If I do… then let the world burn with me."
She knelt down beside him.
"You've changed. You don't even realize how much. But… you're still you, somewhere under that power. Don't let that die."
Liam looked into her silver eyes—and for the first time in a long while, his voice softened.
"I don't want to be a monster."
"You're not."
She reached out, hesitating only a moment before placing a hand on his.
And under the shadow of Solendar's ash, something unfamiliar stirred in Liam's chest.
Not hate.
Not vengeance.
Warmth.
System Notification:
Affection Level Increased: Elenari → Moderate Affection
New Bond Trait: Battle Sympathy – Increases effectiveness when fighting alongside Elenari
Stat Increases (Liam):
Strength: +8
Speed: +5
Endurance: +10
Magic: +18
Control: +12
Charisma: +7
New Ability: Revenant Mark
Divine Tier: IV
Faith Points: 143,200
Followers: 1,303
Angels: 4
Far beyond, in a floating temple of mirrors and flame, a voice whispered in divine fury.
"He awakens the flame. He walks the path of ash."
A shadow fell across the sky.
And one of the Fallen Stars opened its eyes.
End of Chapter 78