Chapter 106: The Storm Within
—What Does the First Want?—
The emergency alert pulsed like a wounded star across Soul Island.
Soulfire lanterns ignited in the skies above the Academy.
Dorms were sealed.
The surrounding city shifted into security phase five—military escort zones only.
Within the administrative tower of the Soul Academy,
the Academic Board,
the Grand Council,
representatives from the Spirit Tribunal,
and several regional heads gathered in a makeshift command hall.
They weren't surprised by the news.
Not entirely.
But what sent the entire building into a grinding halt was who was taken.
Karen Lockwood.
An elite second-year, bonded to Abyssal Energy, quietly observed by more than one faction.
And worse—
Cassandra Ikemba.
Daughter of the direct bloodline. A girl whose blood still shimmered with echoes of the Progenitor.
The name had already reached every satellite outpost:
T`halem.
They'd known he was on the island.
The Spirit Tribunal hadn't said it aloud—but the Veil's activity, the Abyssal shifts, the awakening of Kamharida, all made his presence undeniable.
Still, knowing it and facing the consequences were two different things.
And then—
the storm hit the room.
The doors exploded inward.
Muna Ikemba marched through without invitation, aura pulsing like a collapsed star, her coat singed at the seams from the psychic rage bleeding out from her core.
"Where is she?" she snapped.
No one answered.
They didn't need to.
Marcus Ikemba stood slowly, flanked by three Grand Council members. His expression was unreadable, but there was something taut in the way he looked at his sister.
"We're coordinating extraction protocols. Mirex and the Veil—"
"This isn't Mirex," Muna interrupted. "You all know that."
She slammed both palms onto the obsidian war table, energy cracking beneath her hands.
"T`halem took my daughter."
"The original Dark Soulborne. The one who walked out of the Abyss with power and no master. And you all want to coordinate?"
Her voice sliced through the room.
"You know who he is. He's not just some relic. He's the other side of what Jane never became."
Victoria Reginald of Britain shifted uncomfortably.
Raizen Tsukigami, leaning against the wall with his hands folded, whispered:
"That he took the Ikemba girl himself… means it's personal."
Dean Elandra Vale, head of the Academy board, exhaled slowly.
"They weren't targeted randomly. Karen Lockwood—already tied to darkness. Already whispering back to the Abyss."
"And Cassandra," Muna added coldly, "is N`ythrll's kin."
"We don't know what he wants," said Marcus. "That's what frightens us. He's not burning cities. He's taking… people."
Sylvia Ivanova frowned.
"Students."
A heavy silence settled.
Kamharida entered seconds later, silently. Her face blank, her aura quieted—but something behind her eyes burned like frost over lava.
Elandra turned toward her, voice low.
"Did you sense him?"
Kamharida nodded once.
"Yes. Too late. He was faster."
Muna turned, fists clenched.
"You were there when he was exiled. What does he want with my daughter?"
Kamharida paused.
She didn't answer at first.
When she did, her voice was faint.
"T`halem never desired war."
"Not like Mirex. He wanted… recognition. Affection. What he never got."
"And now?" Marcus asked.
Kamharida looked away.
"Now? Perhaps he wants to build… what he couldn't be a part of."
---
Elsewhere, deep within the shadowed layers of the Veil's hidden fortress,
T`halem sat in silence.
Not speaking.
Not scheming.
Just watching.
Karen was awake, sitting upright on a high blackstone platform, scythe nearby but untouched. Still breathing heavily.
And on the opposite platform, Cassandra sat—calm, cold, but watching him with the same composure her grandmother once held before sealing a continent.
T`halem exhaled softly.
"You don't look afraid."
Cassandra didn't blink.
"I've read of you. But I don't fear things I don't understand."
He chuckled faintly.
"That's a dangerous way to live."
Then he looked at Karen.
"You fought well. You resisted. Almost broke my cloak."
Karen didn't respond.
He rose slowly. The room dimmed with his motion, shadows clinging to him like old memories.
"You both… are interesting."
He turned his back to them.
"I wonder...."
---
Back at Soul Island,
The Grand Council stood at a crossroads.
Muna didn't wait for orders.
She left.
Her daughter was in the Abyss.
And nothing—
not the Veil,
not the Council,
not even the Tribunal—
was going to stop her from getting Cassandra back.
Even if it meant facing the one soul that once rivaled the Progenitor herself.
---