The silence after the Hollow Crown vanished wasn't peace.
It was the breath before a scream.
Wind howled across the scorched plateau, cold and sharp, as if fleeing something unseen. At the center of it all, Kaen lay motionless, every nerve burning, every breath a struggle. The pendant on his chest—cracked and lifeless. The glow it once held had died.
His vision swam. His ears rang.
And then—
A whisper.
Not like the Matron's. Not like the Hollow Crown's.
Softer. Familiar.
"…Kaen…"
His body twitched. The voice didn't come from around him. It echoed inside.
"…You've woken it…"
"Who…?" he rasped.
No answer. Only flashes behind his eyes—
A towering gate buried deep underground.
A woman with silver hair and eyes like his, standing before it with sword in hand.
She screamed as the gate opened—
Then darkness.
Kaen jolted upright, gasping.
And saw her.
Lira stood a few feet away, clothes torn, face streaked with ash, eyes wide with disbelief. "You're alive," she breathed.
He blinked. "How…?"
"I felt the mountain scream," she said. "Then you vanished from the map."
Kaen tried to move. Pain pinned him down. Lira rushed forward, slipping beneath his arm, helping him sit.
"You shouldn't have come," he muttered.
"What, and let you get possessed by a flaming corpse king alone?" she said, trying to sound brave, though her voice trembled.
He almost laughed. But the Hollow Crown's final words echoed again:
"You are mine by blood."
"Lira…" Kaen said quietly. "There's something under this mountain. I think I opened it. I don't think… I was supposed to."
She glanced around the shattered peak, then looked at him—dead serious. "Then we bury it."
Kaen shook his head. "Too late. It's awake."
A rumble shivered through the stone beneath them. Faint—but growing.
Lira's jaw tightened. "Then we move. Now."
They began the descent, limping side by side as storm clouds gathered overhead. Lightning forked across the sky. And far below, something old exhaled for the first time in centuries.
Kaen stared into the storm, his voice barely a whisper. "I saw her. My mother. Or a memory of her. She was trying to hold it back…"
Lira didn't reply. She just held him steady.
"And now?" she asked.
Kaen's gaze sharpened.
"Now it's my turn."
Lightning struck the peak behind them.
The flame had been lit.
And in the darkness…
The shadows began to stir.
To be continued…