Chapter 96 - The Rift’s Whisper

The ninetieth dawn broke over Kael El's Ashen Empire with a jagged golden edge, the vast dominion thrumming with the weight of betrayal and ambition. The capital's skyline soared—bone steel keeps gleaming under the Golden Colossus, its hundred-meter frame a towering sentinel, core pulsing an erratic violet-gold that cast long shadows across the plaza. Kael stood in the Lord's Estate hall, Stormforged Blade across his lap, shard-pommel humming like a warning bell. EX: Dragonflame Reaver glowed at his hip, Stormhide Armor dented and scorched, Myra's beams from yesterday burning in his grazed arm. His flirty smirk flickered, a cool dominance undercut by a gnawing unease—Myra's shattered truce, her 250,000 reduced to ash, left a bitter taste, and the Colossus's cold pulse stirred something deeper. He flexed EX: Gold Dominion, golden veins threading the stone floor, hotter now, answering the shard's restless song.