Chapter 124 - The Heart’s Betrayal

The hundred-and-eighteenth dawn draped Kael El's Ashen Empire in a muted golden shroud, the continental dominion—a sprawling colossus—quaking under a silent dread. 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 deepest sanctum beneath the Colossus, a chamber of jagged bone and pulsing Nexus runes, Stormforged Blade gripped tight, shard-pommel screaming like a dying star. EX: Dragonflame Reaver glowed at his hip, Stormhide Armor scarred and ash-caked, Vara's sacrifice and Rhea's fierce love searing his veins. His flirty smirk was dead, replaced by a haunted snarl, masking a raw terror—the Error's pulse, the weakened Colossus, and the shadow's scheme clawing at his blood. He flexed EX: Gold Dominion, golden veins surging through the sanctum's stone, molten and fierce, answering the shard's jagged wail.