Story 995: The Echoes Beneath the Roots

The battle outside the Gravebound Citadel left a crater in the night. Smoke curled around broken bodies, undead limbs twitched in the dirt, and silence returned too quickly. The Forsaken Girl stood at the center of it all, the Book smoldering in her hands. One page had been torn out—voluntarily.

“I changed the script,” she whispered. “But something changed back.”

The earth groaned.

Draven Cross limped forward, bloodied but alive. “Where’s Mira?”

“She followed the roots,” Zara answered, gesturing toward a fissure in the earth. A black hole had opened near the battlefield, tendrils of deathroot curling from it like veins. “She said there’s something buried beneath the Citadel—something older than even the Rotting King.”

Without hesitation, Draven jumped in. Elias Grimm followed with a flask of protective mist. Zara hesitated—but the howl from below left no time to think.