Chapter 431:Angel anomaly

Chapter 431: 431:Angel anomaly

The following hours changed the entire world’s understanding of the crisis. Messages went to Draco, Seragus, the Human rulers, beastmen, dwarves, and the wood Elves.

Every kingdom received the same warning.

The corruption wasn’t natural.

The Blood Ocean wasn’t simply contaminated.

The disappearing villages weren’t random.

An ancient cult had spent years, perhaps centuries, weakening the remnants of the World Tree seal.

Illegal enhancement potions had been part of it.

Missing people had been part of it.

Death Cores had been part of it.

The Protector had been part of it.

Klaith had been part of it.

Perhaps even political conflicts that once seemed ordinary had been encouraged because instability made the cult easier to hide.

Atheline stood before the enormous map late that night. For years, his life had seemed divided into separate problems... but they weren’t.

Atheline drew a line across the map, then another, and another. Every line eventually returned to the same point.

The Cataclysm.

Lilith stood beside him.

"He planned this for a long time."

"Klaith?"

"The cult."

Atheline nodded.

"Maybe longer than Klaith has been alive."

Lilith looked toward the map.

"And my brother?"

That remained the uncomfortable piece. Klaith’s obsession with resurrecting Lilith’s brother.

Atheline thought carefully.

"He may genuinely believe it."

Lilith looked at him.

"What?"

"The cult doesn’t need every member to want Fire’s resurrection."

Atheline pointed toward the potion reports.

"Some wanted strength."

Then the political conspiracies.

"Some wanted power."

Then the records connected to the Protector.

"Klaith wants your brother."

Atheline’s expression hardened.

"What if they’re promised whatever they desire?"

Lilith became quiet.

"Resurrection."

"Maybe." Atheline didn’t want to state more without proof. "But an incomplete god with Death Authority fragments and access to whatever exists beyond the seal could promise almost anything."

Lilith’s eyes became cold.

"And once the seal opens?"

Atheline looked at the ancient portrait of the Sovereign of Fire.

"I doubt their promises matter anymore."

A tremor passed through the palace. It was small, almost unnoticeable but both of them felt it.

They looked toward each other.

Another tremor.

The communication formation activated violently.

Zelpher appeared in the doorway.

"Your Majesties."

Atheline already disliked his expression.

"What?"

"The World Tree."

Atheline’s stomach dropped.

"A crack has appeared."

Silence.

"Where?"

"Across the trunk."

Lilith immediately moved toward the teleportation chamber.

Atheline followed.

Zelpher continued behind them.

"The High Elves say black light is coming from inside."

Atheline stopped for half a second.

Black light.

Divine power forced through mortal reality filled with corruption. Another tremor traveled beneath their feet.

Atheline’s Laws reacted, then the fragment inside him answered. Far away, something answered back with pressure. It was ancient, burning and hungry.

Atheline looked toward the direction of the High Elven Kingdom. For the first time, he didn’t merely sense corruption, he sensed the thing behind it.

The Sovereign of Fire had never died.

Now the chains were breaking.

And every crisis Atheline had fought since arriving in this world had been loosening them one link at a time.

.

.

.

Cassian Renault had changed considerably since the last time Klaith saw him.

That was to be expected.

The young man who once moved through the Dark Elven capital beneath the shadow of his father’s position was gone.

His clothing was practical now, dark and reinforced in several places where repeated combat had torn through the original material, while a sword rested against his waist and dried blood stained one sleeve from a fight he’d finished less than an hour earlier.

More importantly, his Aether had changed.

Klaith noticed it immediately.

SSS, and not newly advanced either.

Cassian had already stabilized himself within the rank and was continuing upward at an alarming speed.

Klaith stood among the ruins of an abandoned settlement and watched him approach from the broken road.

Around them, the world was dying.

The village had been evacuated weeks ago after corruption appeared in the surrounding forest. Several houses remained standing, although black veins had begun spreading through their foundations, and the plants growing between the stones had turned gray.

Cassian stopped several meters away, his hand remaining near his sword.

"You chose an interesting place to request a conversation."

Klaith smiled.

"I assumed somewhere public would be inconvenient."

"Considering half the continent is looking for you, I’d say inconvenient is an understatement."

Cassian didn’t relax.

He knew the wanted notices, everyone did.

Klaith had once been one of the most trusted historians within the Dark Elven Kingdom. Now his face appeared at border stations, teleportation hubs and military posts throughout the continent.

Wanted for treason.

Suspected connection to the Protector.

Extremely dangerous.

Do not approach alone.

Cassian had ignored that final instruction.

Klaith expected nothing less.

"You came anyway."

"You said you had information concerning my father."

The faint amusement disappeared from Klaith’s face.

"I do."

Cassian stared at him.

"Then speak."

Klaith examined him instead.

The Death Core was stronger, much stronger than when it had been entrusted to him. Even hidden within Cassian’s body, Klaith could feel it.

Every death occurring across the world was feeding it, not all deaths; that would have been impossible. But enough to keep it going.

The corruption had spread through the continents, and with it came increasingly concentrated Death Aether. Battles produced corpses. Villages disappeared. Corrupted creatures died by the thousands. Soldiers died fighting them. Civilians were slaughtered.

Death accumulated... And the core drank.

Cassian had probably mistaken the resulting growth for his own increasing talent, perhaps partially it was.

The core couldn’t turn a useless vessel into something powerful. That was why Klaith had chosen carefully.

But Cassian had no idea what was truly inside him.

Klaith smiled faintly.

"You’ve reached SSS."

Cassian’s eyes narrowed.

"Did you call me here to congratulate me?"

"No." Klaith looked toward his chest. "I called you because you’ve progressed too quickly."

Cassian instinctively followed his gaze.

"What does my rank have to do with my father?"

"Everything, unfortunately."

Cassian’s hand closed around his sword.

"Klaith."

"Your father was useful."

The temperature seemed to drop.

Cassian slowly drew his sword.

"Choose your next words carefully."

Klaith showed no fear.

"He was ambitious. Frightened of becoming irrelevant. Desperate to preserve what little influence remained to him."

Cassian’s expression hardened.

"Don’t speak about him as if you knew him."

"But I did."

"You knew him as a councillor."

"I knew him far better than that."

Klaith took one step forward.

Cassian immediately raised his sword.

"Stay there."

Klaith stopped.

For a moment neither moved, then Klaith spoke.

"Your father knew about the enhancement potions."

Cassian froze, only slightly.

Klaith continued.

"He helped distribute them."

"That’s a lie."

"No."

"He was accused of things he didn’t do."

"He did many of them."

Cassian’s jaw tightened.

Klaith almost pitied him.

"Your father believed he was helping create stronger Dark Elves. He believed the kingdom had become weak under Lilith’s reign and that the old royal bloodline needed to return."

Cassian’s expression changed.

"How do you know that?"

"Because I told him."

Silence filled the air.

Cassian’s grip tightened.

"What?"

"I gave him the first contacts." Klaith’s voice remained calm. "I gave him access to the formula. I showed him how easily desperate nobles could be convinced that strength justified a little risk."