Chapter 88 – A Name in the Dust

Smoke clung to the cavern air, thick with ash and blood. The clash had ended, but silence was no victory.

Broken helms lay scattered. The Covenant’s chants were gone, replaced by ragged breaths. The Inquisitors had retreated, dragging their wounded—yet they left eyes behind, burning with promises of return.

Kael stood in the center, shadows still curling from his skin. They whispered in voices not his own, low and hungry.

Aria staggered to him, blood streaking her cheek. “You… you controlled it.”

But Kael’s eyes were distant. The sanctum’s glyphs still pulsed, brighter now, responding not to the Covenant nor the Inquisitors—but to him.

The leader of the Covenant bowed, his voice reverent. “You are the one we waited for. The Exiled Flame. The erased heir.”

Kael’s breath hitched. The words dug at something buried deep.

And then the light swallowed him.

The cavern faded. He stood in an endless void, the ground beneath him shifting like shattered glass. Fragments floated in the dark—each a glimpse of another life.

—A boy standing with a sword not yet stained.
—A name shouted in triumph on a battlefield.
—A crown shattering to dust.
—And a blade piercing his own chest.

“Why…?” His voice trembled, breaking against the emptiness.

The fragments cracked, voices overlapping—some reverent, some cursing, some weeping.

A whisper rose above the rest, chilling and familiar:

“The hero who shouldn’t exist…”

Kael fell to his knees as the visions splintered, cutting him with shards of memory he couldn’t fully hold.

And when he opened his eyes, the sanctum was gone. He was back in the cavern, Aria clutching his arm, fear in her eyes.

But the word still echoed in his skull.

Exiled Flame.

And he knew now—it was not just a title. It was the beginning of a truth that could burn the world.