The silence that followed was unbearable.
Eris lay motionless on a bed in Atlantia's healing chambers. The room glowed with soft magic, but even the strongest healers couldn't hide the worry on their faces.
Crimson refused to leave her side.
Hours had passed, yet her eyes remained closed.
"Wake up," he whispered, gripping her hand. "Please."
A faint pulse of light flickered beneath
Eris's skin before fading again.
Across the castle, rage echoed through the throne room.
Ankasas slammed his fist against the obsidian table, cracking it down the center.
"Find them!" he roared.
The commanders scattered instantly.
Haphaestus stood near the shattered window, staring into the storm outside. His hammer rested against his shoulder, glowing with molten heat.
"Roman isn't running," he said quietly.
Ankasas turned.
"He's preparing."
The realization settled over the room like a curse.
Roman had Isabelle.
The Vivere Crystal.
And now a portion of Eris's stolen power.
If he completed the ritual, the Khragixx would awaken.
....
Darkness.
Endless darkness.
Eris opened her eyes and found herself standing in a void.
There was no sky.
No ground.
No stars.
Only darkness stretching endlessly in every direction.
"Hello?" she called.
Her voice echoed back at her.
Nothing answered.
Fear crawled up her spine as she began walking. She didn't know where she was or how she had gotten there. The last thing she remembered was Roman's dark power wrapping around her, draining her magic away until everything went black.
"Eris..."
The whisper drifted through the void.
She spun around.
No one was there.
"Eris..."
This time dozens of voices whispered her name.
Men.
Women.
Children.
Thousands of voices.
Suddenly a flash of light exploded before her eyes.
Eris stumbled backward.
The darkness vanished.
She was no longer alone.
She stood on a battlefield.
The sky burned red.
Mountains had been shattered.
Entire forests were engulfed in black flames.
Dragons filled the air, breathing fire upon a monstrous creature that towered over everything.
Khragixx.
Even seeing it made her heart stop.
Its body seemed made of shadows and nightmares, constantly shifting and changing shape. Hundreds of crimson eyes opened across its body while giant claws tore through armies as if they were nothing.
Gods battled beside dragons.
Humans fought beside faes.
Yet they were losing.
Eris watched as entire cities crumbled beneath Khragixx's rage.
Then another flash.
The battlefield disappeared.
Now she stood inside an enormous circle of glowing runes.
Thousands of faes surrounded her.
Light faes.
Dark faes.
Young.
Old.
Nobles.
Commoners.
All standing together.
At the center stood a man dressed in black armor.
The Dark Fae King.
His silver eyes were calm despite the darkness gathering around him.
Across from him stood the rulers of the Light Fae.
The gods themselves watched from above.
"He volunteers," one of the gods said solemnly.
The crowd erupted into cries of protest.
But the king merely smiled.
"If not me, then who?"
Silence followed.
The king stepped forward.
Khragixx roared.
Darkness exploded from the creature as the king forced himself into its mind, becoming its vessel.
Eris gasped.
She could feel it.
The corruption.
The agony.
The endless darkness trying to consume him.
Black veins spread across his skin.
His eyes darkened.
Yet he held on.
Long enough.
Just long enough.
"Now!" he shouted.
Thousands of faes raised their hands.
Their life essence poured from their bodies as streams of silver and violet light.
One by one they fell.
Thousands sacrificed.
Thousands gone.
Their souls merged together.
The gods unleashed their divine power.
A dragon king offered his blood.
A human king offered his own.
The ritual circle blazed brighter than the sun.
Then came the crystal.
Eris watched in horror as the collected life essence compressed into a single object.
A massive black crystal pulsing with crimson light.
Vivere.
The prison.
The sacrifice.
The tomb.
The king looked at it one last time.
Then he smiled.
And stepped willingly into the darkness.
The crystal sealed shut.
Khragixx's scream echoed across the world.
Then silence.
The memory shattered.
Eris fell back into the void.
Breathing heavily.
Tears streamed down her face.
But the visions weren't finished.
Another flash appeared.
This one felt different.
Newer.
More dangerous.
And as the image formed, Eris saw a familiar face standing before the Vivere Crystal.
Roman.
The memory had not ended.
It was showing her the future.
...
Far away, beyond the borders of the known realms, Roman emerged from a portal atop a mountain of black stone.
Isabelle struggled against the chains binding her wrists.
"You're insane," she spat.
Roman laughed.
"Perhaps."
He dragged her toward an ancient temple buried within the mountain.
Dark runes ignited as they approached.
The Vivere Crystal floated at the center of the chamber, suspended above a pool of swirling darkness.
The Vivere Crystal floated silently above its ancient stone pedestal.
It was enormous, nearly the size of a grown man, suspended in the air by forces no one fully understood. Its shape resembled a jagged shard of obsidian crystal, but unlike any natural stone, it seemed alive.
At first glance, it appeared black.
Not ordinary black, but a darkness so deep it looked as though it swallowed light itself.
Yet beneath that darkness, rivers of crimson energy pulsed through the crystal like veins carrying blood. Every pulse released a faint heartbeat that echoed throughout the chamber.
Thousands of tiny lights flickered inside its depths.
Souls.
The life essence of the thousands of light and dark faes sacrificed during the ritual.
Sometimes the lights drifted peacefully through the crystal's darkness. Other times they screamed silently against the crystal walls, as if trapped between life and death.
Dark mist constantly leaked from the crystal's surface, curling through the air like living shadows before dissolving into nothingness.
Ancient runes carved by the gods circled the crystal in glowing rings of silver and gold. The runes were the only thing preventing the darkness within from escaping.
Anyone who stood too close could feel it.
The whispers.
Soft voices crawling into the mind.
Promises of power.
Promises of revenge.
Promises of everything one desired.
The crystal tempted every soul that approached it.
And at its very center, hidden beneath layers of darkness and imprisoned souls, a pair of enormous crimson eyes occasionally opened.
Its crimson light illuminated Roman's face.
For the first time, Isabelle noticed something horrifying.
The darkness was consuming him.
Black veins crawled across his neck and jaw.
His eyes flickered between blue and pitch black.
"The crystal is killing you," Isabelle said.
Roman's smile faltered.
Only for a moment.
"That's why I need you."
The runes brightened.
The temple trembled.
A deep growl echoed from beneath the earth.
Not human.
Not fae.
Something ancient.
Something hungry.
Roman looked down into the darkness and smiled.
"The Khragixx is waking."
Back in Atlantia, Eris suddenly gasped.
Her eyes flew open.
Silver light exploded through the healing chamber.
Crimson jumped to his feet.
"Eris!"
She sat upright, breathing hard.
For several seconds she simply stared ahead.
Terrified.
"Eris?" Crimson repeated.
Her voice came out as a whisper.
"We're too late."
The room went still.
She looked directly at Haphaestus, who had rushed inside.
"I saw him."
"Saw who?" Haphaestus asked.
Eris swallowed.
"The Khragixx."
A tremor shook the entire castle.
Then another.
And another.
Somewhere in the distance, a horn began to sound.
The ancient warning horn of Atlantia.
The one that had not been heard for a thousand years.
The monster had awakened.