Chapter 64: Echoes That Learned to Walk

  Aeor's gaze locked onto the pale, antler-crowned shape hanging in the air before them, and he invoked Threadgaze.

  Race: Astral Cervant

  Essence Tier: Awakened (E)

  Essence Stability: Stabilized

  Status: Unbound

  Archive Note: It comes from beyond the dark between stars, where even absence has no purchase.

  The whisper faded as quickly as it came.

  The antlered thrust carried real weight, driving Kelrothar backward through the air. His scales tightened under the impact, wings faltering as his hold on flight slipped for a heartbeat.

  The Astral Cervant shifted, posture tightening as it prepared to press the opening.

  Silvarn answered first.

  A beam of fire Essence ripped through the dark, hurled straight toward the antlered form. The Astral Cervant checked its advance, halting mid-motion as the fire passed close enough to scorch the air around it.

  That moment was enough.

  Kelrothar forced his wings steady and surged forward. Kayneth lifted her hands, palms turned outward as golden flame swept across Kelrothar's wings, clinging to them in a thin mantle.

  Seeing Kelrothar commit, Silvarn followed.

  Korren shifted his stance. Alongside his twin flintlocks, he now carried a longer weapon, its barrel stretched and reinforced. Aeor remembered the name the Archives had given it.

  Blackreach Musket.

  Korren braced it with both hands and fired.

  A burst of silver Essence cut through the air. The Astral Cervant twisted, trying to slip aside, but the shot was too fast. It struck true, cracking into its spectral body. Cyan light bled from the impact, fissures spreading where the Essence had torn through.

  Kelrothar was upon the Cervant in an instant.

  He clamped his jaws around its antlers, holding it fast as momentum carried them both forward. Velora followed immediately, hurling spectral daggers that bit into the creature's form. Zoey raised her hands and sent shards of ice screaming into the fractures already forming.

  The Astral Cervant let out a screech of pain, sharp and piercing, the sound cutting through the dark as its form convulsed in their grasp.

  Aeor gathered death Essence into his hand. Violet mist coiled and compressed, shaping itself into the length of a spear, its edges flickering with quiet hunger.

  Before he could throw, Dregor shouted. "To our right!"

  Aeor turned at once.

  A cyan glow flared into existence, far too close. Antlers burst from the light in a sweeping arc, driving straight toward Silvarn's side.

  Dregor shifted.

  Gravity bent around him as he reached out, hands catching the tip of the antlers. The force behind the charge was immense. Even held, the impact carried through, shaking Silvarn hard enough to send a ripple through his wings.

  The jolt tore Aeor free of the saddle. His grip slipped, and he was thrown clear into the dark.

  Violet mist surged from his body as he forced himself upright in the air, arresting the fall. The spear in his hand moved with him as he twisted, redirecting its point toward the Astral Cervant locked against Silvarn.

  Dregor still held the antlers fast.

  Aeor hurled the spear.

  It found purchase.

  Violet flame spilled from the conjured weapon, crawling outward as it bit into the Cervant's form, consuming cyan light where the two Essences met.

  Korren brought his musket up and fired at point-blank range. The shot punched into the Cervant's skull, splintering it in the process.

  Silvarn regained control in the same instant. His body twisted sharply, tail whipping through the air to slam into the Cervant's side.

  Rorick followed, both flintlocks firing as he unleashed a barrage into the creature's exposed frame.

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  The Astral Cervant tried to withdraw, but Dregor held fast until it could no longer withstand the onslaught.

  Cracks spread rapidly along its body, widening with each strike. The cyan glow that sustained it began to fade, leaving only a thin remnant of light clinging to the antlers.

  Those nearest braced for a final attack.

  None came.

  Instead, the antlers gave off a single chime, clear and hollow, the sound echoing outward into the dark.

  Aeor watched the Cervant's body fall away, its broken form tumbling downward until it vanished into the darkness below.

  He turned just in time to see the other Cervant meet the same fate. Its descent was also marked by the same hollow chime that echoed outward.

  For a moment, no one moved.

  The oppressive silence returned, pressing in from all sides.

  Then a cyan glow flared not far from Aeor.

  Another followed. Then another.

  Points of light bloomed in the dark, spreading outward until they formed a loose ring around those still airborne on Silvarn's side. The glows ignited in unison, and antlers burst from the light, driving straight toward them from every direction.

  Silvarn met the charge head-on.

  His claws snapped shut around one set of antlers as he exhaled a stream of flame, but before it could be dealt with, more shapes were upon him.

  Korren and Rorick split their shots, driving them into one as Dregor pushed off from Silvarn, hurling himself through the air toward another.

  Aeor surged forward as well, angling toward one of the oncoming hart-shaped forms.

  In the corner of his vision, he saw Kelrothar racing toward them.

  Then a light at Kelrothar's flank emerged.

  A glow far larger than the others erupted into being beside him, its presence crushing in its immediacy.

  Velora reacted instantly. Essence surged as she raised a massive shield, spectral layers forming in front of them just as the antlers emerged.

  The impact came a heartbeat later.

  The shield shattered.

  Kelrothar dipped hard, wings folding as he tried to dive beneath the incoming charge.

  Too late.

  The antlers slammed into his side with brutal force. The Wyrmkin lurched, his body twisting through the air as time seemed to slow.

  Zoey was torn from her saddle.

  Velora shouted her name, voice ragged as she clung to Kelrothar's harness with both hands, barely managing to hold on.

  For a heartbeat, Zoey's silhouette remained visible against the fading glow above.

  Then the darkness swallowed her whole.

  Aeor's heart stalled.

  He did not think. He moved.

  Violet mist surged from his body as he snapped into a dive, throwing his weight after her. The sounds of the battle above began to dull, the light shrinking into a distant smear as he dropped into the void beneath.

  Cold air tore past him. The dark pressed in from every direction.

  Then he heard it.

  Zoey's scream. It was enough to pull him forward, but not enough to guide him.

  His eyes strained, searching for anything.

  A flicker of icy blue Essence cut through the black to his left, trailing behind her fall.

  Aeor angled toward it immediately.

  He pushed harder, forcing speed, reaching as the blue strands wavered and thinned.

  Then he saw her.

  Zoey's body spun in the air, arms flailing for something that was not there.

  Aeor reached out and caught her.

  The impact jolted through his shoulder as he pulled her against his chest, locking an arm around her before the fall could tear them apart again. Violet mist flared, curling around them as he forced their descent to slow.

  It was not enough.

  The darkness thinned as the ground surged up too fast. In the last breath before impact, his will snapped to the ring.

  Essence poured into it in a single surge. A scaled mantle formed over his frame as they hit.

  Aeor took the impact.

  Stone slammed into his shoulder and side, the force tearing through him as they skidded across the ground. The wrapped lance on his back snapped loose under the strain, clattering away into the dark. He held Zoey tight, refusing to let the momentum tear her free, until it bled away and they finally stopped.

  The roar of torn stone and rushing air ebbed, fading into a stillness that felt too large for the space they occupied.

  For a moment, neither of them spoke as the silence settled between them.

  "Are you alright?" Aeor asked softly.

  Zoey blinked, as if pulled back into herself, then nodded once.

  "Yeah..." she said, breath uneven. "Thanks."

  Something shifted between them.

  Baron's head squeezed out from beneath Zoey's coat, ears flattened, whiskers disheveled and eyes wide as she looked around with offended confusion.

  Only then did Aeor become aware of how close they were. He could feel Zoey's heartbeat against his chest, fast and unsteady. Embarrassment crept in, and he eased back, pushing himself to his feet.

  Zoey did the same a moment later, brushing dirt from her clothes as she steadied herself.

  There, standing in the dark, Aeor's gaze turned to the only source of light: his armor.

  Scaled plates had formed over his frame, layered and uneven, shaped more by will than craft. The contours carried a draconic cast, not ornamental but functional. Violet light bled softly from the seams, his Primeval Essence threading through the form, touched by the weight of Vaelkar's presence.

  Before either of them could speak again, a roar rolled through the dark.

  Kelrothar's voice tore across the sky, vast and urgent, pulling their attention upward at once. They both knew what it meant. The others were still fighting. They should have moved, and yet they did not.

  Instead, they stood there and looked.

  High above, the battle had become a constellation in motion. Hidden by the dark, only faint light seeped through. Motes of cyan drifted and spiraled like fragments of fallen stars, their paths crossing and breaking apart as Wyrmkin and Cervants clashed beyond sight. Bursts of fire flared in sudden blooms, brief and brilliant. Sharp flashes of Essence followed as abilities were loosed into the void. For moments at a time, silhouettes were etched against that distant glow, wings cutting through light before vanishing again.

  It was terrible.

  And it was beautiful.

  Then the bell rang again.

  The sound cut through their surroundings with brutal clarity, its toll low and resonant, wrong in a way Aeor felt in his bones. The beauty above shattered at once. He and Zoey turned toward the source instinctively.

  Deep within the darkness ahead, a glow answered.

  Not cyan.

  This light was sickly green, thin and uneven, as if it struggled to exist. It did not illuminate the space around it so much as stain it. Something about it pressed against Aeor's senses with quiet malice.

  Baron reacted first.

  The dusktail launched herself from Zoey's coat in a blur, vanishing downward before either of them could call out. Aeor and Zoey exchanged a brief glance, surprise flickering between them, but neither spoke. Whatever waited behind that glow demanded their full attention.

  Zoey shifted.

  She brought her skillet up, Essence surging as frost crawled across its surface. The ice did not spread outward at random. It shaped itself, thickening and locking into place until a shield formed around the pan, solid and deliberate. In her other hand, ice gathered again, hardening into a blade.

  Aeor raised an eyebrow, eyes flicking over her stance, the way she set her feet.

  Different, yet controlled.

  Zoey glanced sideways at him.

  "You are not the only one with surprises," she said, her voice steady. "I refuse to be left behind."

  Aeor said nothing.

  But as he turned his gaze back toward the sickly green glow, a small smile crept across his face.

  They waited.

  The glow ahead deepened, spreading through the dark in a thin, uneven pulse.

  Then the darkness parted.

  A figure emerged.

  It was tall, far too tall for anything that wore the shape of a person, its frame rising into the night with a hunched back beneath a heavy cape. Cloth draped over it in layered folds that hid any clear outline. No skin showed. No face. No eyes. Only the suggestion of a head beneath the hood, angled slightly downward as if it listened to something none of them could hear.

  In its grasp hung a bell.

  The metal was swallowed by shadow, but from within it seeped that same sickly green glow, pooling along its rim and bleeding into the air in faint threads.

  Zoey tightened her grip on her ice-forged blade. Aeor did not move. The violet light from his scaled mantle spilled across the ground at their feet.

  The figure's hood tilted, turning toward them.

  When it finally spoke, its voice carried no warmth. Only distance.

  "So the echoes learned how to walk."

  Chapter 65 releases Monday at 6 PM EST.

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