The ruins lay still, the echoes of Kael's battle fading into silence.
The beast was dead. The Godshard fragment pulsed faintly in Kael's palm, its power humming beneath his skin like a second heartbeat. Shadows still coiled around his arms, reluctant to sleep.
He stood motionless, breath ragged.
"You're losing control again," the voice inside whispered."Let me help..."
Kael shook his head violently. No. Not yet.
He turned toward the vault's exit — but froze.
There was someone standing there.
A figure in black, her cloak fluttering gently in the stale breeze, face half-shadowed beneath a hood. But the silver in her eyes glinted like blades drawn in moonlight.
"You've grown," she said calmly, stepping forward."But not enough to hide from me."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"
"You don't remember me. That's fine. You weren't supposed to."
She stepped into full view now, and Kael finally saw her face — cold, beautiful, unreadable.
He instinctively drew his sword.
"Assassin," he said.
Lyra's lips curled into a ghost of a smile. "Prince."
The word hit him like a stone. No one had called him that in years — not even himself.
"You've been watching me," Kael said.
"Since you took your first breath back," she replied, unsheathing one of her twin daggers."And I was sent to make sure you don't take too many more."
The air tightened between them.
Kael's grip on his blade tightened. Lyra's feet shifted ever so slightly — her weight balanced, her posture lethal.
He took a step forward.
"Are you going to kill me?"
"I don't know," she said. "I was told to. But then again... I don't take orders blindly anymore."
He blinked. That wasn't what he expected. Not from a killer.
"Why hesitate now?"
"Because the last time I was sent to kill you," she said, eyes hardening, "I never got the chance. And now you're not the same boy I almost spared."
Silence stretched.
Finally, Kael lowered his sword, just a little.
"So what do you want?"
"Answers," she replied. "How did you survive? What brought you back? And what in the name of the Ancients is growing inside you?"
Kael stared at her. Something in her voice wasn't just curiosity. It was familiar pain.Like they both carried secrets too heavy to speak.
"The curse," he said quietly. "It never left me. Not even in death."
"Then you're dangerous," she said, stepping closer."And if you can't control it, you'll destroy more than just your enemies."
"I know," Kael said, meeting her gaze. "But maybe destruction is what this world deserves."
Suddenly — a whistling sound.
Both turned as a black arrow slammed into the ground between them, sizzling with dark energy.
"Ambush," Lyra snapped.
Dozens of shadowy figures dropped from the broken ceiling — cloaked mercenaries, sigils of Thorne's private army stitched into their gear.
"He sent hunters," Kael muttered. "He knew I'd find the shard."
"You fight. I kill. Stay out of my way," Lyra said, flipping backward and drawing her second dagger mid-air.
"I wasn't planning to," Kael replied with a grin.
What followed was chaos — beautiful, brutal chaos.
Kael unleashed shadow tendrils that smashed enemies into walls, while Lyra danced between blades like smoke, her daggers flashing silver death.
Back-to-back, they fought — perfectly mismatched, yet perfectly in sync.
One was rage.
One was precision.
Together, they were unstoppable.
When the last mercenary fell, silence returned.
Both stood there — bruised, bloodied, breathing hard.
"We make a good team," Kael said, smirking.
"Don't get used to it," Lyra replied. "I still haven't decided if I like you alive."
"But you didn't kill me," he said, stepping closer."That counts for something."
"Maybe," she said, sheathing her blades. "Or maybe I'm just waiting to see what kind of monster you become."
Kael nodded. "Fair."
She turned to leave.
"You'll see me again," he called out.
She paused at the broken archway.
"I know," she said softly. "I'm counting on it."
Far away... in the dungeons beneath the royal palace
Lord Thorne knelt before a black mirror, blood dripping into the bowl at its base.
From the darkness, a voice emerged — inhuman, cold, ancient.
"The Shadowblood awakens…"
Thorne bowed his head.
"Then it's time," he whispered."Unleash the Hollow King."