The sky had turned copper by the time the scouts returned.
Kael stood atop the ridge overlooking the valley pass, listening with a stony expression as Ives relayed the details.
"A full Velcras war camp. Three hundred soldiers, maybe more. Their banners bear the same broken sigil. And… they're surrounding another structure. A monolith. Bigger than the last."
Kael's jaw tightened.
That made three now. Three monoliths tied to his house's legacy—and this one was being actively fed.
"How long until they finish whatever ritual they're preparing?" Kael asked.
Ives shook his head. "Hard to say. They've erected containment wards and blood channels. They're funneling magical essence into the ground."
Rin appeared beside him, panting from the climb.
"It's a convergence," she said, holding up a sketched diagram. "The markings match the ones beneath the shrine from yesterday. But here, they've completed the outer ring. If they finish the inner spiral…"
Kael finished the sentence himself.
"Another seal will break."
---
Preparation for War
Camp was mobilized within the hour.
Kael called a council beneath a blackened pine canopy. The Lion's Teeth gathered. Lyra stood at his left, Serentha at his right, and Rin—now considered their chief arcane analyst—unrolled her diagram across a war table.
"They're using bloodlines again," she said, tapping the page. "But not just sacrifices. They've chained local nobles—ones with diluted Vaelthorn ancestry—to amplify the ritual's resonance."
Lyra scowled. "So they're digging through your extended relatives now."
"Barely cousins," Kael muttered. "But enough to awaken the seal."
He leaned forward, tracing a potential strike path with his gloved finger.
"We attack at dusk. The ritual is incomplete. If we cut the bloodline circle and shatter the outer glyphs, the core will destabilize."
Serentha raised an eyebrow. "And the monolith?"
Kael looked toward the horizon, where smoke already curled from the enemy camp.
"I'll handle it."
---
The Battle Begins
They descended in silence, camouflaged by the rising mist and fading sunlight.
Kael's forces split into three flanks—Lion's Teeth at the front, Lyra and Serentha leading pincer assaults. Kael himself rode at the vanguard, blade sheathed, eyes locked on the faint glow of the stone spire rising from the earth like a dagger stabbed into the heart of the forest.
The Velcras camp noticed them too late.
By the time alarms sounded, the first tents were already ablaze and the outer blood wards disrupted.
Kael dismounted as the front line of enemies clashed with his knights, his presence unmistakable even without a battle cry. His black cloak whipped in the wind, silver threads catching the flicker of flame and steel.
"Break the circle!" he roared. "Cut the bindings before they trigger the core!"
---
The Spiral and the Keeper
Rin and a squad of elite mages reached the glyph stones and began disarming the magical lattice. A blinding burst of crimson light erupted from the center as they disabled the fourth rune—followed by a shriek.
A figure emerged from the heart of the monolith.
Not human.
Not anymore.
Twisted and tall, like a tree grown wrong, its limbs bark-covered and bleeding. A crown of thorns jutted from its brow, and its voice was the groan of splintering wood:
> "YOU SEEK TO HALT THE ROOT."
Kael didn't hesitate.
He leapt forward, blade drawn—silver steel clashing against the creature's taloned limbs in a flash of sparks.
But the creature didn't fall.
It absorbed the impact, its body reforming around the blade like it was made of sap and smoke.
Kael's eyes widened.
"This is a binding construct," Serentha shouted, defending Rin as more tree-like monsters sprouted from the earth. "It's tethered to the monolith!"
The earth cracked.
And the monolith pulsed.
---
The Choice
Kael was driven back, breath heaving, uniform scorched by glancing hits. The creature's whispers drilled into his mind.
> "Echo. Thornborn. Rooted son. Unleash us."
The dagger pulsed at his waist.
Lyra stumbled toward him, blood trailing down her arm. "Kael—we can't win like this. That thing is drawing power from the seal itself!"
Kael stared at the monolith.
Then at the dagger.
He didn't know what would happen if he used it. Only that he'd avoided it every time until now. That whispering blade, tied to the Vault. To the figure. To him.
But his men were dying.
The monolith pulsed again, and something opened beneath it—a dark chasm from which roots slithered like veins.
Kael drew the dagger.
"Everyone back," he ordered.
Rin looked up. "Kael, no—!"
But he'd already stepped forward.
And plunged the dagger into the earth.
---
The Bloom of Blood
The effect was immediate.
A ring of crimson light exploded from the impact point, vaporizing the creature instantly and sending tremors across the battlefield.
The monolith cracked—then shattered like glass, each shard burning with red fire.
Roots twisted skyward like skeletal limbs.
And at the center of it all stood Kael.
Eyes burning crimson.
Cloak rippling in a wind that did not exist.
Silence fell.
Velcras soldiers stopped fighting.
Even his own troops froze.
The dagger pulsed in his hand, not red, but now black, as if it had devoured all color.
Kael exhaled.
And the power receded.
The roots withered.
The light faded.
And Kael dropped to one knee, sweat pouring from his brow.
But he was still standing.
---
Aftermath – What They Saw
Later, the commanders gathered outside the ruined battlefield. The monolith was gone. The seal had been destroyed.
But no one forgot what they'd seen.
"He burned like a god," one knight whispered. "Eyes like the blood moon. Like he wasn't just human anymore."
"He is the heir," another muttered. "We saw it. The legends said the Thornblood was more than mortal... now I believe it."
---
Private Tent – A Conversation with Lyra
Kael sat alone.
Until Lyra entered.
She didn't speak at first. Just knelt beside him and quietly began wrapping the burns on his arm.
"I didn't want you to see that," he said after a while.
Lyra tied the bandage tighter than necessary. "Too late."
He looked away. "I didn't lose control."
"You did," she said softly. "But you took it back."
They sat in silence.
Then she added, "Next time, I won't let you be alone."
He met her eyes.
And didn't reply.
---
Final Scene – Distant Eyes
Far away, in a dark chamber lit only by the glow of molten glyphs, the Harbinger stood before a panel of shadowed figures.
"He touched the root," one rasped.
"And did not fall," said another.
"He is not the first," said a third. "But he may be the final."
The Harbinger bowed.
"The bloom begins."
---
End of Chapter 64