The resonance of the reclaimed hymn had not yet faded when the first tremor struck.
In the far north, beyond the peaks of Icecrown Reach, where the world's breath turns to frost and silence reigns, the sky tore open again. But this time, nothing fell.
Something rose.
Omen at Dawn
At the Throne Spire, Kael awoke to a vision not sent by SAGE, nor dreamt in rest, but drawn in light. The Echo Spiral above had shifted—its center darkening, one of its six stars blinking out.
Arkaia stood beside him, staring upward. "They're warning us. One of the Echo Beacons has gone dark."
Lira and Elandriel joined them moments later.
"Reports from Myrskar," said Lira. "A city beneath the ice vanished overnight. Not attacked. Erased."
SAGE displayed a map. A void had appeared where once stood Aurvhaal, a bastion of crystal logic. No bodies. No rubble. Just silence.
Kael stared at the center of the spiral. "The Skygrave doesn't fall. It consumes."
Council of Descent
The Skyborne Oath reconvened. The urgency was different this time. Not strategy. Survival.
"It is no longer a question of if the Skygrave awakens," Kael said, voice low, "but how much of us it will remember when it does."
Elandriel laid an echo map across the council table. "We believe it resides beneath the Frosthold Basin, in a buried aeonfold—older than divine war. It was never part of our world."
Mareth, shadow at the edge of the chamber, spoke for the first time: "I've seen it in my sleep. A cathedral made of forgotten names."
Preparations began.
[Mission Initiated: Descent into Skygrave | Objective: Locate Heart Node | Status: World Threat - Maximum]
Team selected:
Kael, as Resonant Commander
Arkaia, Harmonic Anchor
Evea, Frostlight Mage
Mareth, Wraith Sentinel
New addition: Riven, a reformed Flameforged Golem who once served the Ashen Compact
Into the Frosthold
The journey north was not quiet. Storms without wind tore through skyships. Fold rifts shimmered and bent. And beneath the snow, watchers waited.
They reached the basin on the third day. Below the ice: a gate of voidglass, humming like a pulse.
Arkaia approached. Her song opened the seal.
And the ice cracked for miles.
The Descent
The Skygrave was not a place. It was a memory formed into mass.
Walls wept starlight. Ceilings rotated like music boxes. The deeper they went, the more reality flickered.
Kael's sword dimmed. Magic warped. Language failed.
SAGE activated emergency encoding. [Reality Anchor: 17% Integrity – Recommend retreat.]
"No," Kael growled. "We finish this."
They reached the Heart Node chamber after seven hours. Floating in the void: a massive eye, shut, chained by verses instead of iron.
It opened.
[Entity: Skygrave Core – Name: Ophion the Bound Symphony | Type: Multiversal Singularity | Status: Waking]
Its voice entered them.
"Why do you sing in my silence?"
Arkaia stepped forward. "Because silence forgot it was once a song."
Ophion screamed.
Battle Against the Symphony
Reality bent. Kael and his team fought across shifting layers of history—battling constructs made of memory, fighting echoes of themselves.
Riven shattered twice, reforging his frame in mid-battle. Mareth bled shadows that screamed names he had never spoken.
Arkaia sang louder. Kael reached the core.
[Final Move: Resonant Binding + Harmonic Anchor + Frostlight Spike]
Together, they pierced Ophion's center.
It shattered.
Escape
The Skygrave collapsed. But not into ruin. Into choice.
The fragments hovered, offering paths. Not orders.
Kael chose the path of rewriting.
And Arkaia chose to remember.
They emerged as the basin reformed into forest. No longer grave. But genesis.
Aftermath
Back in Aurethiel, the stars realigned.
The lost star blinked back into place.
[Status: Skygrave Dormant | Risk Level: Minimal | World Alignment: Stabilizing]
Kael stood on the spire with Arkaia. "This was just one verse."
She nodded. "But now, we know how to write the rest."