Ace

Episode7The War Begins

The first light descended upon the Golden Plains.

A woman named Amara lifted a spear from the burial mound of her ancestors. Its shaft was carved from sunwood, and its point burned with a golden flame.

The second appeared in the northern mountains. A giant stepped from a stone fortress, armor forming over his body as if the mountain itself had chosen to stand.

The third found a blind swordsman in a monastery without windows. He opened his eyes, though he had never possessed sight, and turned his face toward the east.

The fourth struck a storm mage on an island surrounded by boiling seas. Lightning entered her hands and remained there.

The fifth awakened in the palace of a frightened prince. He lifted a shield made from dragon bone and heard an ancient voice speak from within it.

The sixth found a girl in a forest where shadows moved independently of their owners.

She looked down as her own shadow rose to its feet.

Across the Seven Kingdoms, forgotten blood began to remember itself.

In the nameless city, Kael and Seraphine watched the six lights burn through the clouds.

“They are coming,” Kael said.

“If they come,” Seraphine replied, “they may not come as allies.”

Before Kael could answer, the ground split beneath them.

Vorakhan rose from the darkness.

It was wounded, but the wound only made it more terrible. White fire burned across its crystal ribs. Its enormous body stretched from one end of the ruined city to the other.

“You cannot kill me,” it said.

The words shook stones from the towers.

Kael stood despite the pain in his arm. “Maybe not.”

The six lights began moving toward the city. In the distance, armies gathered beneath them—soldiers, refugees, hunters, and people who had survived the first night of black fire.

Seraphine smiled for the first time since Kael had met her.

“The six have returned.”

Vorakhan opened its jaws.

The darkness inside them contained stars that had never existed in Kael’s sky.

“I will devour your kingdoms,” the demon said. “I will erase your fathers, your children, your songs, and your names.”

Kael raised the ancient sword.

Its blade shone white on one side and red on the other.

His eyes began to glow.

“Maybe,” he said. “But before you do, you will remember being afraid.”

The demon stepped backward.

It was only one step.

But every person who witnessed it understood what had happened.

For the first time in ten thousand years, the Demon Devourer had retreated.

Then the six lights struck the earth.

The impact shook the kingdoms. Mountains cracked. Rivers changed direction. The sky turned black beneath the wings of gathering demons.

Kael saw the six warriors approaching through the ash: the woman with the golden spear, the giant in stone armor, the blind swordsman, the storm mage, the dragon-bone prince, and the mysterious girl whose shadow walked beside her.

Behind them marched an army drawn from every surviving kingdom.

Ahead of them waited Vorakhan.

The demon roared, and the sound became thunder.

Kael stepped forward.

The ancient sword answered in his hand.

Somewhere inside his blood, something answered too.

Not yet, he told it.

Not today.

The war for the world had begun.