Srijan_Pandey_8761

In the Golden Dragon Nation, your destiny is decided at sixteen by a single injection. For dirt-poor miner ** Zane Voidcrest**, the annual Awakening Day is his only chance to escape a life buried in coal and despair. But when the serum unlocks a forbidden bond with a primordial beast—a shadow-wolf with the voice of a forgotten god—Kael becomes a fugitive. Branded a “corrupted” threat by the Elite, hunted by jealous rivals like the pyrokinetic aristocrat **Zane Ashgrave**, and haunted by his wolf’s insatiable hunger for chaos, Kael must master his power before the Nation’s enemies strike.  

Monsters claw at the borders. Rebellions simmer in the slums. And the Primal Beasts, long thought extinct, are waking. To survive, Kael will forge alliances with outcast mages, rebel factions, and creatures of myth. But as he uncovers the dark truth behind the Elite’s “benevolent” rule, he realizes the real war isn’t between humans and monsters—it’s between those who chain the world… and those who dare to break it.

Ascendant Beasts : The Voidcrest Prophecy

### **The Black Sun**

The Devourer's core loomed on the horizon, a pulsating black sun veined with violet light. Its gravitational pull warped the air, bending trees and stone into grotesque arches. Zane knelt beside Thalia's motionless form, her violet blood seeping into the fractured earth. The relic shard in his hand—now a dull, cracked husk—felt heavier than the sky.

Vyrthax nudged Thalia's shoulder, his starry fur dimming. **"The Veilwalker's breath fades. The wolf cannot hear her song."**

"She's not gone," Zane growled, shadows coiling around his fists. The Heart's voice purred in his mind, smoother now, almost comforting.

*Let me heal her. A drop of my power, and she lives.*

"At what cost?" Zane muttered.

*The same as always,* the Heart replied. *A piece of you.*

### **The Hive's Lament**

Lysandra staggered toward them, her uniform torn, sunsteel rifle slung over her shoulder. "The Elite remnants are regrouping. Jarek's dead. Whatever's left of us… we're yours." Her gaze flicked to the black sun. "What is that thing?"

"A hive," Lira said, emerging from the rubble. Her void-rotted eye twitched as she stared at the core. "The Devourer isn't one creature. It's a prison. The Primals your Betrayer ancestor slaughtered—their rage, their pain—it's all in there."

Thalia's hand twitched, her voice a whisper in Zane's mind. *Free them.*

### **The Stag's Demand**

The Primal stag materialized in a burst of auroras, its antlers dripping starlight. **"The Veilwalker's life is tethered to the hive. To save her, you must shatter the core."**

"How?" Zane demanded.

**"The Heart's power… and hers. Merged. Again."**

Lira stepped forward. "You're asking him to kill her."

**"I am asking him to choose,"** the stag said coldly. **"The First Pact was born of union. It will die of sacrifice."**

---### **The Fractured Alliance**

The Elite remnants gathered—a ragged mix of soldiers and cultists, their weapons aimed at the horizon. Lysandra addressed them, her voice stripped of its arrogance. "That thing isn't just our enemy. It's our creation. Our redemption lies in destroying it."

A murmur of agreement. Lira raised her dagger. "Then we storm the hive."

"Storm it?" A soldier scoffed. "It's devouring the world!"

"No," Zane said, shadows swirling around him. "We let it devour *us*."

### **The Descent**

They marched toward the black sun, reality fracturing with each step. Trees melted into spectral mist, the ground liquefying into a mirror-like surface reflecting the Devourer's countless eyes. Thalia stirred in Zane's arms, her breath shallow.

"Stay with me," he murmured.

Her violet eyes flickered open. "You… can't… trust it."

The Heart's laugh echoed. *She's right. But you'll have to.*

### **The Heart's Price**

At the hive's threshold, the air thrummed with the Primals' collective scream. Zane laid Thalia on the obsidian ground, the relic shard between them.

"Do it," she whispered.

He gripped her hand, shadows and light merging. The relic ignited, piercing the hive's core.

The world exploded.

### **Cliffhanger: The Void's Whisper**

Inside the hive, Zane stood amidst a storm of tormented Primals—their forms twisted, their voices a chorus of betrayal. Thalia's essence flickered beside him, her body left lifeless in the physical realm.

The Heart's power surged, its voice now the Devourer's. *"You cannot free them. They are me. And I am you."*

Thalia's spectral hand tightened around his. *Break the chain.*

As Zane raised the relic, the core contracted—then *split*, birthing a figure cloaked in void and starlight.

The Betrayer. Reborn.

Chapter 21: Crown of the Void