Rain hammered the rooftops of Eldervale, washing blood and dust into the glowing canals. The streets still echoed with the clash from the inn, guards shouting, alarms flaring in every district.
Daniel, Mira, and David slipped through a narrow alley, cloaked in shadow. Lightning flickered behind clouds, reflected in their wet eyes.
"This way," Daniel whispered. His senses stretched outward, tracing the flow of essence through the city. He could feel pursuit—five auras, closing fast.
"They don't give up," David muttered. His hand brushed the cobblestones, runes flaring gold. The street rippled like sand, sealing behind them. "That'll slow them."
Mira glanced back. "They'll break through in minutes."
"Then we disappear before they do," Daniel said.
They turned down a flight of stone steps half hidden beneath a collapsed archway. The air grew colder. Moss glimmered faintly blue, lighting a tunnel that slanted deeper into the earth.
"Old drainage channels," David murmured. "They run all the way under the Crimson Hall."
"Perfect," Mira said dryly. "We're heading straight under our enemies."
"Better than being on their doorstep," Daniel replied.
The tunnels twisted like veins through the city's bones. Water dripped steadily, echoing through the dark. The further they went, the stronger the hum of essence became.
Daniel frowned. "Feel that? The ground's… alive."
David crouched, touching the wall. Faint glyphs pulsed beneath the grime—ancient markings older than any city. "These aren't normal runes. They're self-sustaining. Whoever built this place had control beyond ours."
"Ancients?" Mira asked softly.
Before Daniel could answer, a shiver ran through the air. His senses flared. "They found us."
A dozen figures emerged from the shadows—Crimson Hall enforcers, robes soaked from the storm. Their masks glinted red in the torchlight.
"End of the path," their leader hissed. "Hand over the fragment, boy."
Daniel's eyes flashed. "You'll have to take it."
They moved first. Blades of condensed essence tore through the air.
David struck the floor. "Radiant Terra Shift!"
The tunnel erupted in gold. The earth surged upward, forming jagged barriers. Light bent between them, creating a shifting maze. Two assassins stumbled, their strikes deflected by mirror-bright walls.
Mira vanished into smoke, her laughter echoing. "Let's play in the dark, shall we?"
Shadows coiled, dragging three enemies screaming into the black.
Daniel raised his palm. The glyphs on his arm glowed—Storm Veil Array. Lightning arced outward, illuminating the tunnel in searing white.
Every drop of water turned to steam. The assassins recoiled, blinded. Daniel moved like thunder incarnate, each strike precise, every pulse guided by the world's rhythm.
But the tunnel itself began to tremble. The glyphs in the walls awakened, feeding on the unleashed essence.
David shouted, "Daniel! The runes are reacting—stop!"
Too late. The ground split apart, a surge of blinding light erupting from below. The air hummed with a voice older than time.
> "Intruders awaken the Seal. Wielders of the Storm… return."
The assassins froze, terror in their eyes, as streams of pure energy spiraled upward. The glyphs crawled across the walls, forming a vast circular array beneath their feet.
Mira dragged Daniel back. "What did you do?!"
"I… only called lightning."
The Codex within him blazed.
> [Primordial Nexus Detected.] [Essence synchronization — initializing.]
Lightning burst from Daniel's body, colliding with the light from the glyphs. The energies merged, forming a vortex that consumed the tunnel. The assassins tried to flee, but the ground itself swallowed them, sealing over in molten gold.
When the light faded, silence reigned.
They stood in a vast chamber carved from luminous stone. Runes floated like stars across the walls. At the center pulsed a crystal sphere—half shrouded in lightning, half glowing with earth and shadow. The air smelled of rain and age.
Mira stared, breathless. "What… is this place?"
David ran a hand over a nearby wall. "This isn't a ruin. It's a heart. The city was built on top of this."
Daniel stepped closer to the sphere. Every instinct told him to stop—yet it called to him, the same way the Storm Cradle fragment had.
He reached out.
The moment his fingers touched the surface, lightning danced across the chamber. The glyphs aligned, forming vast concentric rings that rotated slowly in the air. Symbols flashed before his eyes—ancient, alive, incomprehensible.
> [Nexus Interface Activated.] [New Sequence Unlocked — Heaven's Pulse Array.]
Daniel gasped as the vision filled his mind—a storm stretching across realms, a figure wreathed in lightning standing upon the bones of worlds.
Then it was gone.
Mira steadied him as he staggered back, eyes wide and glowing faintly blue. "Daniel?"
He exhaled. "I saw… the one who came before me. The first Wielder."
David frowned. "We should leave. This place isn't safe. Those runes could collapse again."
"No," Daniel said quietly. "This place chose to awaken. It's not a trap—it's a warning."
Far above, thunder rumbled through the city. The storm mirrored the pulse of the Nexus.
Mira sheathed her dagger. "Whatever it is, we can't stay. The Hall will notice the surge."
David nodded. "Then we vanish before they do. But, Daniel—next time you touch a glowing death sphere, warn us first."
Daniel managed a tired smile. "Noted."
They turned toward a side passage lit faintly by drifting essence motes. Behind them, the sphere pulsed once more—its lightning threads shifting into new patterns, forming the faint outline of an ancient sigil: a dragon coiled around a bolt of thunder.
As they disappeared into the tunnels, a distant whisper echoed through the stone.
> "The Wielder has returned. The storm remembers its master."