Ascendant Beasts : The Voidcrest Prophecy

### The Fractured Dawn

Zane woke to the scent of burning sage and the low hum of ancient magic. His body felt hollow, as if someone had carved out his ribs and replaced them with glass. Amber sunlight filtered through the Chamber of Echoes, illuminating Thalia's silhouette as she sharpened her thorn dagger. Vyrthax slept curled at her feet, his starry fur dulled.

"You're alive," she said flatly, not looking up. "For now."

Zane touched his chest, half-expecting shadows to coil around his fingers. Nothing. "The Heart…?"

"Gone. Trapped in the Covenant Stone." She nodded to the altar, where the Primal Core pulsed faintly. "But the Keeper says it's still connected to you. Like a leash."

The Grand Marshal leaned against the chamber wall, cleaning his spear with a cloth. "A leash the Devourer will yank the moment it senses weakness."

Vyrthax's ear twitched. "The wolf smells rot. The cult is near."

---

### The Cult's Vanguard

They fled the sanctuary at dusk, the Covenant Stone cradled in Thalia's pack. The Frostspire Peaks had turned treacherous—glaciers cracked underfoot, and the air thinned to a knife's edge.

The ambush came at the Serpent's Pass.

Figures cloaked in voidspun silk descended from the cliffs, their faces hidden behind masks of polished bone. At their helm stood a woman with a serpent tattoo coiled around her throat—Lira, Thalia's childhood friend, presumed dead in the mines.

"Hello, little thorn," Lira purred, her voice dripping venom. "Did you really think your brother died for a *map*?"

Thalia froze. "You… you were there."

Lira's laugh echoed. "I slit his throat myself. His blood opened the first fissure. And soon, the Devourer will reward its faithful."

The cultists attacked.

---

### Zane's Silence

Zane fought defensively, his movements sluggish. Without the Heart's power, he was just a miner's son again—weak, mortal. A cultist's blade grazed his arm, and he stumbled, pain flaring.

The Grand Marshal fought with brutal precision, his spear impaling two cultists in a single thrust. "Pathetic zealots!"

But Lira was a tempest. Her daggers blurred, parrying Thalia's thorns with ease. "You're too late," she hissed. "The Eclipse is here. The Devourer will swallow your precious Pact and spit out its bones."

Thalia's relic glowed, reacting to Lira's mask. She lunged, slicing the strap. The bone mask clattered, revealing Lira's face—half-consumed by void rot, her left eye a hollow pit.

"What did they do to you?" Thalia whispered.

"*Gave me purpose*," Lira spat, retreating into the mist.

---

### The Hollow Refuge

Exhausted, the group sheltered in a glacial cave. Zane slumped against the ice, breath fogging. "I'm useless like this."

Thalia tossed him a dagger. "Then learn to be useful without magic."

The Grand Marshal snorted. "Sentiment won't stop the Devourer."

"But this might," the Keeper intoned, materializing beside the Covenant Stone. "The Stone's light can sever the cult's bond to the Devourer… if you reach the Eclipse's heart."

"How?" Thalia asked.

"A Veilwalker must carry it. Your brother's blood runs in your veins. You can cross the fissure—but only once."

The Grand Marshal's gaze sharpened. "And if she fails?"

"The world dies screaming."

---

### The Pact's Price

That night, Zane found Thalia sharpening her dagger again. "You don't have to do this," he said.

"Yes, I do." She didn't look up. "My brother died for that relic. Lira betrayed him. I won't let either be wasted."

Zane hesitated. "What if the Stone takes you too?"

Her smile was brittle. "Then you'll have to drag me back. Like I did for you."

Vyrthax nosed between them, his starry eyes reflecting the Covenant Stone's glow. **"The wolf will guard your path. But the cult's poison runs deep. Trust nothing in the fissure."**

---

### The Eclipse's Maw

At dawn, they stood at the fissure's edge. The Devourer's tendrils churned below, a storm of teeth and static.

Thalia strapped the Covenant Stone to her chest. It seared her skin, but she didn't flinch. "If I don't come back…"

"You will," Zane said, though he didn't believe it.

The Grand Marshal gripped his spear. "Go. We'll hold the cult."

As Thalia stepped into the abyss, Lira's laughter echoed. The cultists surged forward—but Vyrthax's howl froze them mid-step.

"Run, little thorn,"the wolf growled. "The pack endures."

---

### The Veilwalker's Gambit

Thalia fell through a kaleidoscope of nightmares.

The fissure was alive—a living archive of the Devourer's victims. She saw her brother's final moments, heard his choked warning: *"The cult's leader is—"* before Lira's blade silenced him. She saw Zane's mother coughing blood in the mines, the Heart's first whispers to the Voidcrest bloodline.

And she saw *herself*, reflected in the Devourer's eye—a flicker of light in an ocean of hunger.

The Covenant Stone blazed, its light carving a path to the Eclipse's core: a pulsing, cancerous orb veined with stolen starlight.

"For my brother," Thalia whispered. "For Zane."

She plunged the Stone into the orb.

---

### The Shattered Veil

Light exploded.

Thalia screamed as the fissure collapsed around her, the Devourer's shriek tearing reality itself. When the darkness cleared, she knelt in the snow, the Covenant Stone shattered in her hands. Above, the sky was whole—but streaked with jagged scars, like poorly healed wounds.

Zane reached her first. "Thalia… your eyes."

She touched her face. Her reflection in the ice showed irises glowing faintly violet—the Veilwalker's mark.

Lira emerged from the mist, her cultists gone. "Clever girl. But the Devourer is infinite. You've only angered it."

The Grand Marshal stepped forward, spear raised—but froze as the ground trembled.

Beyond the peaks, the horizon rippled.

Something ancient, something ravenous, began to rise.

---

End of Chapter 9