Chapter 122 - The Pulse Beneath

The hundred-and-sixteenth dawn shrouded Kael El's Ashen Empire in a dim golden veil, the continental dominion—a sprawling colossus—quivering under a silent pulse. The capital's skyline loomed—bone steel keeps dwarfed by the Golden Colossus, its hundred-meter frame a radiant titan, core pulsing a volatile violet-gold that cast glitching shadows across the plaza. Kael stood in the underbelly of the capital, a labyrinth of bone and obsidian beneath the Colossus, Stormforged Blade gripped tight, shard-pommel screaming like a trapped storm. EX: Dragonflame Reaver glowed at his hip, Stormhide Armor scarred and dust-streaked, Vara's sacrifice and Rhea's fierce love searing his veins. His flirty smirk was gone, replaced by a haunted glare, masking a raw dread—the Error's pulse, the sealed rift, and the AI's hidden web gnawing at his blood. He flexed EX: Gold Dominion, golden veins surging through the labyrinth's stone, molten and fierce, answering the shard's jagged wail.