Ascendant Beasts : The Voidcrest Prophecy

# **The Fractured Alliance**

The glacial valley trembled under the weight of a dozen new fissures, their jagged mouths spewing tendrils of shadow. Thalia stood at the temple's crumbling entrance, her violet eyes scanning the chaos. Beside her, Vyrthax growled low, his starry fur bristling at the stench of decay.

Lira approached, her void-rotted eye twitching. "The cult's remnants are regrouping. They'll strike soon."

"Let them," Thalia said coldly, though her grip tightened on her brother's relic shard. "We have bigger problems."

Across the valley, the Elite's airship smoldered, its hull cracked open like an egg. From its wreckage emerged a new figure—Commander Jarek, Lysandra's former lieutenant, his armor scorched but his voice commanding. "Stand down, Veilwalker. Hand over the corrupted, and we'll spare your lives."

Thalia's laugh was sharp. "You're in no position to bargain."

Jarek's gaze flicked to Zane, who knelt in the snow, shadows writhing under his skin. "That thing is a liability. The Heart will consume him—and you."

*Let them argue,* the Heart whispered in Zane's mind. *They'll tear each other apart. All the easier for us.*

Zane clenched his fists. "Shut up."

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### **The Coup's Aftermath**

Inside the airship's wreckage, Lysandra Voss paced like a caged animal. Her once-impeccable uniform was torn, her face streaked with ash. "Jarek's a fool. He thinks he can control what's coming."

Her remaining loyalist, a young technician named Eli, adjusted the cracked Covenant shard in its containment unit. "The fissures are multiplying exponentially. If we don't stabilize them—"

"We're dead. I know." Lysandra's hand hovered over her sidearm. "But Jarek won't listen. Not until the Devourer's claws are at his throat."

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### **The Mindscape War**

That night, Thalia found Zane in the temple's depths, his eyes flickering between amber and void-black. "Let me help you," she said, her Veilwalker senses probing the shadows.

"You can't." His voice was strained. "The Heart's too strong."

She gripped his hand, violet light flaring. "Then we fight it *together*."

The world dissolved.

They stood in a twisted replica of Grimhollow's mineshafts, the walls pulsing with black veins. At its center loomed the Heart—a serpentine mass of shadows wearing Zane's face.

*"Welcome, Thalia,"* it purred. *"Come to watch him die?"*

Zane's shadow-blade materialized. "This ends now."

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### **The Hollow Truce**

Dawn brought no respite. Jarek's forces clashed with cultists at the valley's edge, their skirmish echoing through the fissures. Thalia intercepted them, her thorns pinning a cultist to the ice. "Stop! The Devourer feeds on your violence!"

Lira emerged from the fray, her dagger bloodied. "She's right. Fight among yourselves, and we all lose."

Jarek sneered. "And trust *you*?"

A fissure split the ground between them, vomiting forth a swarm of skeletal wolves. The truce was forged in blood as Elite and cultist alike turned their blades on the Devourer's minions.

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### **The Heart's Gambit**

Back in the mindscape, Zane faltered. The Heart's shadows coiled around him, leaching his strength.

*"You're weak,"* it hissed. *"You always were."*

Thalia's relic shard blazed in her hand. "Remember who you are! The boy who shared bread with me in the mines. The one who *chooses* to fight!"

Zane roared, driving his blade into the Heart's chest. The shadows screamed, retreating—but not before leaving a jagged crack in his psyche.

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### **The Cost of Unity**

Reality snapped back. Zane collapsed, blood trickling from his nose. Thalia steadied him, her own vision blurring. "Did we… win?"

"For now," she whispered.

Outside, the alliance held—barely. Jarek's forces and cultists stood shoulder-to-shoulder, their truce fragile as glass.

Vyrthax limped to Thalia's side. **"The fissure below the temple—it's the anchor. Close it, and the others may follow."**

Lira nodded. "But it'll take everything we have."

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### **The Sacrifice**

They gathered at the fissure's edge, its maw exhaling frost and static. Thalia raised the relic shard, its light merging with Zane's fading shadows. Lira chanted an old cultist hymn, her voice raw. Jarek's soldiers aimed their weapons—not at allies, but at the abyss.

"Now!" Thalia plunged the shard into the fissure.

Light erupted. The fissure screamed, collapsing inward. One by one, the others flickered out—but the temple trembled, its ancient foundations crumbling.

"Run!" Zane dragged Thalia back as the roof caved.

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### **Cliffhanger: The Heart's Revenge**

In the rubble, Zane's veins turned black again. The Heart's laughter echoed.

*"You think you've won? I am the pact. I am the end.*"

Above, the sky darkened. The largest fissure yet tore open—and from it descended a crown of teeth, hovering over the valley.

The Devourer's crown.

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