Chapter 143: Frostfire trial
The Guardian’s blade came down like a thunderclap, splitting the frozen altar into shards of ice that spun through the blizzard like knives. Cain lunged forward, meeting the strike with his own sword. The impact sent a tremor up his arms, rattling his bones, but he refused to fall. Sparks hissed against the snow.
Lucien was already moving, dagger flashing as he darted past the Guardian’s flank. He struck at the armor, but his blade barely left a scratch before the wraith backhanded him across the plateau. Lucien rolled, teeth gritted, blood running from his lip.
"Strong," the Guardian’s voice boomed, reverberating through the storm. "But strength is not enough. Sacrifice is demanded."
Elias fired an arrow straight into the Guardian’s eye-socket. The shaft lodged deep, glowing against the hollow flame inside. The wraith reeled but did not fall. Instead, it turned its burning gaze on Elias, who stood his ground even as snow whipped around him.
Cain snarled, stepping into the Guardian’s path. "You’ll have to cut through me first."
Ayden staggered forward, his injured arm useless but his other hand glowing faintly with sparks of red energy—the power gifted to him by the seal at Kiralyn. He hurled it at the Guardian. The explosion rocked the mountain, flame and frost colliding in a violent wave. Villagers screamed, clutching one another as the ground quaked beneath their feet.
For a moment, it seemed the Guardian had been subdued. The flames licked at its armor, coating it in molten streaks. But then the wraith’s laughter rolled through the storm, low and terrible.
"You think you are the first to try? You think you are the first children to bleed on these stones?"
The storm thickened, obscuring everything. The villagers could barely see the silhouettes of Cain, Lucien, Elias, Ayden, and Rei as they struggled in the blizzard. Shadows twisted within the snow—faces, hands, entire forms. Ghosts. Hundreds of them, whispering in voices that clawed at the mind.
Rei’s face paled. "The Guardian has called the Fallen. Those who failed before us."