Smoke drifted over the ruins of the first Spire.
The scent of scorched corruption clung to Kai's armor. Beneath him, the earth still trembled faintly—like the last breath of something ancient and unwilling to die.
Kai stood at the ridge, looking down at what remained. Black stone shards littered the ground like broken teeth. In the center, where the heart had pulsed, only a crater remained… but the echoes hadn't stopped.
Not truly.
Venri sat nearby, sharpening a replacement stave. Her eyes were distant, hollowed. "I still hear them, you know," she said without looking up. "The voices. The guilt. It's quieter… but it's there."
Kai clenched his fists. The dragons inside stirred again—agitated, unsettled. Especially the resonance dragon. It hadn't gone silent since they'd left the dungeon. It was listening.
A sharp buzz flared in his head.
Then a vision.
Burning skies. Forests twisting into obsidian thorns. People screaming as their cosmic stones shattered, consumed by shadowy vines.
A new spire. Bigger. Deeper.
In the capital of the Aegis Order.
Kai stumbled back, gripping his head.
Venri was by his side instantly. "What did you see?"
He opened his eyes. "The next one. They're not waiting anymore. They're accelerating."
Venri cursed under her breath. "That's a direct assault on the Aegis. If they fall, the rest of the world will follow."
Kai nodded. "Which means we can't get there late."
But even as he said it, he knew. They weren't ready. Not yet
The Obsidian Claw
Elsewhere, deep within the mountain dungeons of the northern wastes, a dark council gathered.
Drevon Kael stood at the center, his body a silhouette against the glowing violet crystals embedded in the walls. The shadows around him pulsed in rhythm to his breath.
One by one, cloaked figures appeared—projections of corrupted cosmic stone users from across the continents. Their stones no longer gleamed with light, but oozed a dark luster. Tainted.
Drevon raised a hand, summoning a small, glowing orb—an image of Kai and Venri escaping the ruined Spire.
"They are adapting," he said flatly. "The resonance dragon has awakened."
One of the cloaked figures snarled. "Shall I kill him?"
Drevon shook his head. "No. Let him grow. He is the key to the Wyrm-Sigil's awakening. Until he becomes the vessel, he must remain alive."
Another voice, colder and older, hissed through the chamber. "And the girl?"
"She is bait," Drevon replied. "Nothing more."
The orb shifted to show a growing map of Spires across the world—each one a bleeding point of corruption. The largest now pulsed at the heart of the Aegis capital.
Drevon turned to the council. "Begin the second phase. Spread the seeds. Feed the Sins."
Interlude: A Warning from the Past
That night, as Kai meditated in the shattered temple nearby, the resonance dragon flared again.
And then he wasn't in the temple anymore.
He stood inside a vision—a white void scattered with stars and whispers.
Before him, a man appeared—tall, cloaked in silver flame, with a Wyrm-Sigil far older and more complex than Kai's etched across his chest. His eyes glowed with golden heat.
"Kai," the man said. "You carry the mark. But you do not yet understand the cost."
"Who are you?" Kai asked.
"I am what you might become… or what you might have already been."
Before Kai could ask more, the stars around them twisted. The white void turned black. The man reached out and grabbed Kai's wrist.
"Drevon seeks to awaken the First Sin. If he succeeds, this universe dies. You must awaken the last dragon. The lost one."
Kai's vision fractured.
Then he was back in the temple, gasping for air.
Venri looked up, startled. "Another vision?"
Kai didn't answer right away. His pulse thundered.
He now knew: Drevon Kael was trying to corrupt the Wyrm-Sigil itself.
Final Scene: The Capital Begins to Fall
Far from the ruined Spire, the capital of the Aegis Order glittered with light.
But beneath the streets, the corruption was already blooming.
A boy—barely twelve—screamed as his cosmic stone shattered in his hands. It didn't break from battle… but from despair. A nearby alley had whispered his worst fears into his ear for days. He hadn't slept. He hadn't eaten. His sadness had fed the roots.
From his tears, a tendril burst from the stone, piercing his chest.
A second Spire cracked open beneath the city.
Its heart had been fed well.