Chapter 73: The Sky Bleeds Divine
The heavens trembled.
Scarlet clouds churned over the ruined skyline of Ardenthal as the sky fractured like glass, bleeding divine energy into the world. Each crack in the celestial dome wept liquid starlight that cascaded down like tears of dying gods. The floating shards shimmered with chaotic magic, each one humming with a power that had once belonged to the gods—fragments of divinity torn from their very essence and scattered to the winds.
The air itself had grown thick with residual power, making every breath taste of copper and ozone. Lightning that wasn’t quite lightning danced between the floating debris, purple and gold and colors that had no names, striking the earth with impacts that left glass craters in their wake.
Valerian stood on the highest spire of the broken Temple of the First Flame, his cloak torn and whipping in the supernatural winds, his hands crackling with black and violet aether that responded to his emotions like a living thing. The stone beneath his feet bore the scars of countless battles—gouges from claws, scorch marks from spells, and dark stains that might once have been blood. Below, the capital city burned with fires that would never be extinguished by mortal means.
Entire districts had been reduced to rubble by the clash between Dominion Knights and the Wraithbound, their screams still echoing in the smoke-filled air. The Great Library of Astral Knowledge was nothing but ash and twisted metal. The Plaza of Seven Fountains had become a crater filled with molten stone. And rising in the center of it all, like a wound in reality itself, a monolithic gate of obsidian pulsed like a heartbeat—Umbra’s Eye, the sealed mouth of the End Realm.
Each pulse sent ripples through the fabric of existence, and with every beat, more darkness leaked into their world. Valerian could feel it in his bones, in his soul—the inexorable pull of the void, trying to drag everything into its hungry maw.
Kael landed beside him with a thunderous impact that cracked the ancient stone, his right arm now fully armored in molten gold that seemed to flow like liquid fire across his flesh. Smoke still rose from his fingertips, and the smell of burning metal followed him like a cloud. His eyes were grim, haunted by the sights he’d witnessed in the lower districts.
"Ten city sectors gone," Kael muttered, scanning the battlefield with the practiced eye of a veteran warrior. His voice carried the weight of every life lost, every scream he’d been unable to silence. "We’re running out of time. That gate’s expanding every minute. The corruption is spreading faster than we can contain it."
The golden armor on his arm pulsed with each heartbeat, responding to his emotions. It was a gift and a curse—power beyond measure, but at the cost of his humanity. Already, Valerian could see the strain it was putting on his friend’s body. Veins of gold were starting to show beneath his skin, and his eyes held flecks of the same molten metal.
Valerian didn’t answer immediately. His gaze was locked on the massive serpentine creature writhing in the storm above them—the Sky Wyrm of Vathros, a creature sealed in myth for ten thousand years, now tearing the skies open with claws that could rend reality itself. Its scales gleamed like black mirrors, each one reflecting not the world around it, but glimpses of other realms, other realities where different choices had been made.
The beast’s roar shook the foundations of the city, shattering windows that had somehow survived the initial assault. Its eyes were like twin suns, burning with the accumulated rage of millennia of imprisonment. When it moved, space itself seemed to bend around it, creating distortions that made Valerian’s head ache just to look at them.