Chapter 16 – The Wolves of Dustfall
The winds over the high ridges of Dustfall never stopped howling.
They were ancient things—cold, cruel, as if the mountains themselves whispered curses through time.
Somewhere deep within those mountains, in a city carved into bone-colored stone, they stirred.
The Wolves of Dustfall.
Not men. Not fully.
Each cloaked in obsidian and silver, their masks shaped like snarling beasts. Eyes like polished voids.
They sat at a circular table of petrified ash, silent as their leader read aloud the page that wasn't supposed to exist.
> "The boy touched the Codex," the leader growled. "The world shifted in his wake. This cannot be allowed."
They moved in unison—five shadows, five deaths already written.
The hunt began.
---
Meanwhile, in the Waking Vale...
Kael stood at the edge of a meadow, watching the sun rise for the first time in what felt like eternity.
The trees weren't bent. The air wasn't heavy. It was… peaceful.
Roan stretched nearby, laughing as she tried to balance on one foot.
The Architect sat cross-legged, sketching something into a glowing journal. Her mind still operated in languages Kael couldn't even hear.
But Kael—
He felt something wrong.
The kind of wrong you couldn't explain with words. A change in the script of the wind.
> "Someone's coming," he said quietly.
Roan stopped mid-stretch.
> "More monsters?"
Kael shook his head. "No. Not monsters. Assassins."
---
Enter the Wolves
That night, Kael dreamt of snow.
Only it wasn't snow.
It was ash.
And in it, he saw them—moving like wolves through trees, not making a sound, not even breathing.
One whispered a name.
> "Kael... the Rewriter."
He woke before dawn.
Not in a bed.
On the ground.
Pinned.
A blade already at his throat.
> "You tampered with the Codex," said a cold voice behind a mask of bone. "Now your existence must be nullified."
Kael barely saw the strike—but his instinct kicked in.
He rolled, grabbed a stone, infused it with Abyssal ink, and slammed it into the assassin's chest.
Boom.
A flash of black flame erupted.
Roan screamed from behind him, engaging two more.
The Architect vanished—just disappeared, reappearing in a thousand mirrors at once.
But the Wolves were not easy to kill.
They adapted. Every slash taught them something. Every spell they saw, they copied.
Kael barely blocked a second blade when a voice whispered in his ear:
> "You can't write over the original script, boy."
---
Break the Pen
Kael bled.
For the first time since gaining the Codex mark, he bled hard.
They'd cut through his passive shield.
> "Roan!" he shouted, back-to-back with her. "I need ten seconds!"
She nodded, ducked, and went full berserker—slamming her dagger into the mask of one Wolf and breaking it.
The Architect returned midair, flinging fragmented symbols like bullets.
Kael placed his hand on the ground.
And whispered:
> "Access granted: Dustfall Entry. Rewrite condition—unstable terrain, open sky, falling knives."
The earth collapsed beneath them.
The entire glade shattered into floating platforms, like a puzzle mid-solved.
Now everyone was falling.
Except Kael.
He stood on a platform that shouldn't be there.
His aura burned.
Not blue. Not black.
But silver—like starlight.
The Wolves hissed.
> "He's writing without ink."
Kael raised his spear and pointed.
> "Tell your masters—this world has a new narrator."
And then—
He ended it.
---
The Aftermath
Three of the five Wolves escaped.
Two did not.
Kael collapsed once the silver light faded, breathing raggedly.
Roan held him. "That… was insane."
The Architect finally spoke.
> "Kael. You're evolving beyond the Codex."
He blinked. "What does that mean?"
She looked toward the horizon.
> "It means… you're no longer just changing the story."
> "You're starting to create new ones."
Kael's hand trembled.
> "And that makes me what, exactly?"
She met his eyes.
> "A threat to every god, every guild, every truth this world has ever known."
---
End of Chapter 16
Next: Chapter 17 – The Archive of the First Flame
Kael and his allies travel to a ruined archive said to contain the oldest memories of the world. But what they find are echoes of a forgotten war—and a clue that Kael's rewriting may not be the first.