Chapter 38 — The Eleventh Toll

The city below was in chaos—fires spreading, people screaming, soldiers breaking rank as the sky itself began to warp. The tenth toll hadn’t faded when the eleventh struck.

DOOOONG.

This time, the sound did not echo. It consumed.

Kael dropped to his knees, blood pouring from his nose and ears. His vision blurred as the vibration crawled into his skull, rattling his mind like glass about to shatter. Every rune in his blade flared, then dimmed, as though even the Erosion couldn’t withstand the toll.

The abomination twisted, its body convulsing into a new form. Chains rewove themselves into armor, its hundreds of eyes merging into one colossal, lidless glare fixed upon Kael. Its breath was a hurricane, its howl a storm.

And through the cracks in the sky… something else stirred. A second presence. Vast. Patient. Watching.

The silver-eyed girl stood with her arms raised to the heavens, her voice braided with the resonance of the bell.
“The Sovereign awakens. The world will remember what it chose to forget.”

Kael forced himself upright, swaying, his blade dragging sparks across the ruined stone. His chest felt like it might burst, but he bared his teeth.
“If this world forgot me… then I’ll make it remember the hard way.”

He slashed the air, unleashing a crescent of black fire that split through the creature’s chains. The flames roared higher than the tower, swallowing half the beast’s body before sputtering out.

The abomination staggered, but it did not fall.

The girl’s voice cut through the smoke, calm and absolute.
“One toll remains.”

Kael’s blood went cold.
The twelfth.

And as the bell began to stir once more, he realized: if it struck, the rift wouldn’t just release a creature.
It would release a god.