Chapter 58 – The Demon Within
The twelve chains spun slower now.
Hovering above the black altar, Obruhn's prison pulsed with a quiet hunger. Each glowing chain of darkness and light reflected off the cavern walls in broken shards of color, bathing the eight heirs in a kaleidoscope of shadows. The silence was dense, the kind of silence that had weight, presence, breath. It crept into their bones, into their blood, until none of them could remember what sunlight sounded like.
Tom stepped closer, his blade drawn, Palecto glowing with a nervous hum. "This isn't right. Something's loosening..."
The air shifted.
With a crack like distant thunder, one of the twelve chains snapped apart.
No one touched it. No one spoke. But the chain unraveled itself like a snake shedding skin, fading into dust as Obruhn's prison began to pulse faster. The silence shattered with a single word—spoken by no one, yet heard by all.
"Closer."
Lucy flinched, hand going to her dagger. Her glyph shimmered with golden light. Frank held his ground, but his mark surged in response, feeding energy into his limbs, making him feel both powerful and fragile.
Kitty, breathing heavily, looked to Frank. "It's trying to awaken something inside us. I can feel it."
Peter, eyes wide and sweat already forming on his brow, turned his head away from the altar. "That wasn't just a voice. That was inside me. It knew my name before I was born."
Zane, standing at the edge of the circle, clenched his fists. "What do we do if it breaks out? We can't fight it. Not yet."
Marcus adjusted his shield. "Then we make sure it never does."
But Obruhn had already started unraveling more than just the chains. He had begun to whisper to the parts of them buried deepest: the doubts, the fears, the unspoken guilt. As the next chain cracked apart, glowing embers floated upward like fireflies, and the ground trembled with a low, continuous hum.
Then Kitty gasped and dropped to her knees.
"Kitty!" Lucy cried, rushing to her side.
But Kitty wasn't unconscious. Her hands were pressed to her head, wings twitching violently behind her. Golden light burst from her glyph, but it was erratic, uncontrolled, wild.
"He's inside! He's inside me!" Kitty screamed. "He's showing me things that never happened... but feel real!"
Tom ran to her, kneeling. "You have to fight it. He can't hold your mind unless you let him!"
But it was too late.
Kitty's eyes went completely golden, and a wave of light erupted from her chest. The others shielded themselves as the shockwave cracked the altar stones around her.
When it cleared, Kitty floated above the ground. Wings fully unfurled, but now laced with symbols—demonic runes burning into them like scars. Her skin shimmered with golden veins, and her voice echoed twice when she spoke.
"I am the vessel of the Golden Flame."
Peter staggered back. "She's... she's awakened her demon. Fully."
Marcus raised his shield. "No. Not fully. Look at her eyes."
Frank stepped forward, calm but focused. "She's fighting it. It's not Obruhn possessing her. It's her own demon breaking free through the pressure. She was closest to her glyph."
The Kitty that hovered above them looked at her own hands, confused. "I feel everything. All of it. The flame inside. The fear. The guilt. The hope. It's too much."
Tom stood directly beneath her. "You're still you. This is your power. Not Obruhn's. Take it back. Anchor yourself."
The light inside Kitty began to stabilize, no longer flickering. The demonic glyphs on her wings shimmered, then shifted, locking into place. They burned into the shape of a sunburst—the ancient mark of the Demon of Light.
With a breath, she descended. Her feet touched stone, and her wings folded around her like a cloak. The runes remained, but her eyes had returned to their true color.
"It's me," she whispered. "I can control it now."
Frank let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Then you've become the third to awaken."
Tom placed a hand on her shoulder. "And you're still one of us."
Peter glanced toward the coffin, where now three chains had dissolved. Obruhn had been feeding on the awakening, using it to unravel his bonds.
"That can't happen again," Peter said. "Or the next one might not be an ally."
Lucy asked, "How many more of us are close to awakening their demons?"
Frank looked across the group. The pressure in the room had tripled, and his own glyph was pulsing faster with every chain that broke.
"It doesn't matter," he said. "We can't trigger them here. Not in Obruhn's reach. We need to find a way to halt the chain dissolution. Now."
Zane approached the altar cautiously. There, etched beneath the floating coffin, was an old Palecto script, partially burned but still legible.
"This says, 'He who walks with memory walks toward the lock. He who walks with truth must bleed to hold it closed.'"
Marcus frowned. "That's not helpful."
"It might be," Tom said. "Palecto scripts were riddles, but always precise. It means someone who carries a forgotten memory can suppress the seal. Someone who has truth in them... and is willing to bleed for it."
All eyes turned to Frank.
His glyph was glowing almost white now. The memory of the ancient guardian inside him was no longer dormant. It pulsed, like a second heart.
"Then maybe it has to be me," Frank said quietly.
"It'll kill you," Kitty warned.
"Only if I let it," he replied. "But if it buys us time to stop Obruhn's full awakening, it's worth it."
He stepped forward, placed his hand on the altar, and whispered something no one else could hear. A phrase lost in time.
The altar flared. Light surged from it, wrapping around Frank's hand like chains. It didn't hurt him, but it bound his glyph, contained its surge. And for a moment, the remaining nine chains around Obruhn stopped spinning.
The pressure lifted.
The tomb had not closed.
But it had paused.
Frank turned back to the group. His arm was trembling. His glyph dimmer.
"We have time. Maybe a day. Maybe less. But he won't rise today."
Peter stepped up beside him. "Then we use that time. We find a way to end this before he breaks loose."
As they turned to leave the altar chamber, Frank cast one last glance at the coffin suspended in the void.
Obruhn had spoken to them.
Now they would speak back.
And their answer would be war.