The tunnels of Emberdeep echoed with chaos.
Kael sprinted down the main corridor, heart hammering as shouts rang out ahead. Torchlight flickered wildly along the stone walls as rebels dashed past, some bloodied, others rallying to defense points. The ground beneath trembled with distant blasts—someone was breaching the outer barricades.
"How did they find us so fast?" Elara shouted, nocking an arrow as she ran beside him.
"They had help from the inside," Kael growled, mind flashing to the traitor. Someone within had summoned the Sovereign's hounds.
They reached the main hall just as the first wave of attackers stormed through the broken tunnel mouth. Clad in obsidian armor, the enemy surged like a black tide, their eyes glowing with unnatural flame. Shadow-bound soldiers. Twisted remnants of what once were men.
Kael didn't hesitate. Flame burst from his sword as he raised it overhead.
"Defend Emberdeep!"
His voice rang through the cavern, igniting a rallying cry. Rebels charged from all corners—mages, swordsmen, and archers loosing spells and steel. The two forces clashed with a thunderous roar.
Kael met the first enemy head-on, blade flashing. He ducked under a heavy axe and drove his sword through the attacker's chest—only to watch as black fire hissed and coiled around the wound. The man shrieked, dissolving into ash.
"They're not alive," Lysaria yelled, hurling bolts of light from her staff. "They're constructs—bound by the Sovereign's flame."
More poured in, and the battle grew desperate. Mara and Therin fought back to back, cleaving through enemies with precision. Elara sniped from above, her arrows blazing with enchanted fire.
Kael darted toward the eastern flank, where a group of rebels was faltering.
He summoned the flame, channeling it through his body. Heat rippled from him like a wave. With a roar, he slammed his palm to the ground. Fire erupted in a blazing arc, sweeping the shadow warriors off their feet and turning the stone red-hot.
But the shadows kept coming.
A sharp scream cut through the din—Lysaria, thrown to the ground, bleeding from her arm. Kael rushed to her side, lifting her up just as a massive enemy bore down on them.
A silver flash intercepted the blow—Vaelra. Her twin blades danced like lightning as she drove the creature back.
"Get her to the inner chamber!" she ordered. "We'll hold them here."
Kael nodded and dragged Lysaria into a side tunnel, where the air grew cooler, less thick with smoke. She gritted her teeth, clutching her wound.
"I'm fine," she whispered. "But Emberdeep won't hold forever."
Kael knew she was right. This was no simple skirmish—it was a warning. The Sovereign was closing in.
He returned to the fray just in time to see Therin slam a stone pillar down on a group of enemies with a mighty war cry. But the cost was mounting. For every foe they felled, more emerged.
Then a deafening sound cracked through the cavern—like metal tearing through the sky. A monstrous shadow loomed at the tunnel entrance.
A towering figure stepped forward, clad in jagged armor, flame leaking from his eyes.
The rebels froze.
Kael's grip tightened on his sword. "No…"
It was General Varkas, the Sovereign's enforcer. The man who had razed Kael's village.
"Well, well," Varkas sneered. "The little flame still burns."
He raised his axe, large enough to cleave through stone. "Let's snuff it out."
Kael stepped forward, his body trembling, not with fear—but fury.
"You took everything from me. This time, I fight back."
Flames coiled around his limbs, brighter than ever before.
And as Varkas charged, Kael met him head-on.