The next few days passed in a blur of movement and vigilance.
Kael and Rynn traveled through broken lands, ruined temples, forgotten roads winding like scars across the earth. Everywhere they went, Kael felt the pressure mounting — as if unseen eyes watched from the shadows, as if the world itself knew the blood he carried now.
The Stormheart burned inside him, growing stronger with each passing moment.And still, Kael could feel the relic shard he had claimed from the shattered golem, thrumming in time with the pulse of the blood.
One night, as they made camp at the edge of the Whispering Wastes — a dead desert where even the wind dared not stir — Rynn grew unusually quiet.
Kael noticed it.She was always sharp, always teasing or strategizing. But tonight, she sat apart from the fire, staring into the darkness with a strange look in her eyes.
"You're hiding something," Kael said finally.
Rynn didn't look at him. She spoke in a low voice.
"You know how I said I knew a lot about dragons?"
"Yeah."
"I wasn't lying. But I didn't tell you everything."
Kael crossed the distance between them in two strides, crouching by her side."What is it?"
She turned her gaze on him — and for the first time, Kael saw something ancient behind her eyes.Not fear.Not anger.But grief.
"My bloodline," Rynn whispered. "It's tied to the dragons too. Long ago, my ancestors made a pact — to protect the Dragon Kings' descendants. To guard their legacies. To ensure their blood never fell into the wrong hands."
Kael's breath caught.
"You're... sworn to protect me."
"Not you," she corrected softly. "The blood. But... over time, it stopped being just a duty."
Rynn looked down, her voice breaking slightly."I chose to stand by you. Not because of some ancient oath... but because of you."
Silence stretched between them, filled only by the crackling of the fire.
Kael reached out, gently taking her hand. Lightning crackled softly between their fingers — not painful, but warm.
"I'm glad it's you," he said simply.
And for a moment, the weight of destiny seemed bearable.
—
The peace didn't last.
At dawn, the earth trembled.
Kael woke instantly, drawing Veyrion from the Dimensional Storage in a heartbeat. Rynn was already on her feet, twin daggers gleaming.
From the distant dunes, a figure approached —cloaked in black, mounted on a beast that looked part reptile, part nightmare.
Kael's instincts screamed. This was no ordinary enemy.
As the figure drew closer, the air grew colder, darker.The sun itself seemed to dim.
The rider dismounted with a slow, deliberate grace.
When they spoke, their voice carried unnatural resonance, as if dozens of voices layered together:
"Stormborn. The Council sends its greetings. I am Varik, Champion of the Shattered Throne."
Kael tightened his grip on Veyrion."You're not here to talk."
"No," Varik agreed. "I'm here to claim the Dragon King's blood."
Without warning, the Champion moved.
Faster than Kael thought possible.
Kael triggered Time Dilation instantly, slowing the world to a crawl. Even so, Varik was a blur — striking with a black-bladed spear wreathed in void energy.
Kael parried, sparks showering the ground.
The impact shook him to the bone.
This was a different kind of fight.
Not like the assassins.Not like the golem.
This was a true enemy. A Champion forged in darkness.
Varik struck again, and Kael dodged, using Shadowstep to vanish and reappear behind him. Veyrion lashed out in a precise arc — but Varik's cloak shifted unnaturally, absorbing the blow without harm.
"Your power is raw," Varik said mockingly. "Unshaped. You are unworthy."
Kael snarled, lightning flaring along his body.
He called upon Elemental Affinity: Lightning fully now, letting it surge through his veins, enhancing his speed, his strikes, his very heartbeat.
The duel became a storm.
Blades clashed like thunder.Footsteps cracked the earth.Every swing, every parry, sent shockwaves radiating outward.
But Varik was prepared. Every move Kael made, the Champion matched or countered.
In desperation, Kael opened Dimensional Storage mid-battle, summoning enchanted throwing knives — weapons from a distant battlefield he had once salvaged.
He hurled them with unerring precision.
Varik deflected most, but one nicked his side, spilling dark, smoky blood.
The Champion hissed, his voice momentarily breaking into a hundred whispers.
"You will pay for that."
Varik lifted his spear, summoning a black vortex of energy — a howling void that sucked in light and sound.
Kael realized it in an instant.If he was caught in that, he would be annihilated.
"Rynn, now!" he shouted.
She moved without hesitation, leaping high, landing on the back of Varik's mount and driving both daggers into its neck. The beast screamed and bucked, shattering the Champion's concentration for a crucial second.
Kael seized the opening.
He plunged forward, Veyrion blazing with stormlight —and drove it into Varik's chest.
A blast of energy erupted, throwing Kael backward.
When he scrambled up, he saw Varik kneeling, impaled but laughing.
"You are stronger than I thought," the Champion rasped.
"But this is only the beginning."
With a final sneer, Varik dissolved into black mist — escaping, but not unscathed.
Kael stood panting in the silence that followed.
Rynn limped over to him, blood trickling from a cut at her temple.
"You okay?" she asked breathlessly.
Kael nodded, though his muscles screamed and his Stormheart raged for release.
They had survived.
But barely.
And now they knew —the Council would not stop sending stronger Champions.
Kael knelt and found a strange token where Varik had fallen — a piece of obsidian carved with a single rune: Endbringer.
He tucked it away grimly.
Their journey was far from over.
—
That night, as they camped deeper within the desert's sheltering rocks, Kael examined the Dragon King's blood once more.
The glass bottle pulsed steadily, reacting to his victories, his struggles.It was no longer a dormant relic.
It was alive.
Kael could feel it — the ancient, sleeping dragon within the blood stirring.
And he could hear the voice again, clearer now:
"Rise, my heir. The storm is yours to command. The skies, your kingdom. The seas, your fury."
Kael swore a silent oath, one that needed no witnesses:
He would master the blood.He would become the storm.And he would carve a future where no one could threaten those he loved.
Even if it meant becoming something the world had never seen before.
Even if it meant becoming a Dragon King himself.
Far away, atop a crumbling citadel of stone and bone, the Council's true leader watched through a mirror of shadow.
"The boy awakens," the Hollow Queen murmured.
"Send the others," she commanded.
"And unleash the False Dragon."