Chapter 13:The Sovereign's Maw
The Heartforge's awakening was not a sound, but a *silence*a-vacuum that swallowed the world whole.
Leonis staggered back, his shadow-arm writhing like a dying serpent, the fissures in his skin leaking both darkness and flame. The original Celia stood before them, reborn from the forge's collapse, her body a grotesque fusion of shadowglass and moonlight. Her eyes were voids, her smile a razor.
*"You were never meant to win,"* she murmured, her voice layered with the Sovereign's hunger.*"Only to deliver him the key."*
Celia4is*Celiacollapsed beside him, her moonmark split open, silver light bleeding into the fleshy ground. The shards remnants glittered in her palm, its power spent, its purpose fulfilled. Fenrir snarled, his golden eyes reflecting the horror unfolding. Thoren's fingers trembled over the shattered runes, his lips moving in silent calculations.
The Heartforge *breathed*.
Its tendrils lashed out, not to attack, but to *weave*threads of liquid shadow knitting the cavern walls into a living prison. The obsidian shards pulsed, their glow synchronizing with the originals heartbeat,
*"Run,"* Celia gasped again, but Leonis didnt move.
He couldnt.
The Sovereign's voice slithered through the chamber, not from the original's lips, but from the *walls themselves*:
***Leonisb Shadow Blade.***
It knew his name.
It *remembered* him,
**The Pact Unmade**
Thoren's voice cut through the dread. *"The forge isnt just aliveit's a*conduit*. The Sovereign's consciousness is fused with the game's code, but it needs a *body* to cross over.'* His gaze flicked to the original Celia.*"Hers.'*
Fenrir's claws unsheathed. *"Then we tear her apart before it's done."*
*"No."* Leonis's shadow-arm spasmed, the pain sharpening his focus.
*"The forge is the lock. The shard was the key. But *we*' He looked at Celia, at the dying light in her scar. *'are the *thief*."*
A notification seared across his vision:
*Survive the Heartforge's assimilation. Rewards: "Voidrend"a- temporary fusion of shadow and flame capable of severing the Sovereign's connection.*
The original Celia laughed, her voice splintering into a chorus. *"You think you can *steal* from a god?"*
Leonis bared his teeth. *"I'm an anomaly. *Thats what I do.*"*
The plan was madness,
Thoren would hack the forge's dying runes, exploiting the instability caused by the shard's destruction. Fenrir would hold the original at bay, his wolf-prince's fury buying seconds. And Leonis?
He would *dive into the maw*.
Celia's fingers closed around his wrist. *"Youll die."*
*"Only if Im slow."* He pressed his forehead to hers, the heat of her moonmark searing his skin.
*"Remember what you told me? *Were the flaw in their design.*"+
Her breath hitched. Then, with a shudder, she nodded.
midair, her shadowglass blade screeching against his claws. Thoren's hands Fenrir lunged first, a golden blur of fangs and fury. The original met him flew over the runes, his whispers frantic, the forge's pulse stuttering in response.
Leonis didnt wait.
He *Voidstepped*.
For three seconds, he was *nothing*aghost in the forge's veins, a spark in its shadow. He saw the Sovereign's truth: not a monster, but a *man*, the Syndicate's CEO, his consciousness woven into the game's core like a parasite.
The Heartforge was his heart, the original Celia his hands.
And Leonis?
He was the *knife*.
His shadow-arm *screamed* as he rematerializedinside the forge's core. the fissure gaping before him like a throat. The heat was unbearable, the pressure crushingbut he *reached*, his fingers brushing the pulsing nexus of the Sovereign's will.
*"Got you,"* he whispered.
Then he *ripped*.
The backlash was catastrophic.
Leonis's body *unmade* itselfshadow and flame tearing apart, his flesh dissolving at the edges. The forge *howled*, its tendrils thrashing, the original Celias form flickering like a dying hologram.
But in that chaos, he *saw* it:
A throne of shattered code.
A man, hollow-eyed and grinning, his fingers twitching like a puppeteer's.
And behind him-
*Rows of' glass pods. Hundreds of them. Each holding a silver-haired woman.*
The Sovereign's army.
The *real* Celias.
Leoniss breath caught. "'Youre not just controlling her. Youre *replacing* her.'*
The CEOs laughter was a static screech.
*"Why make one perfect weapon when you can make *infinity*?"*
Then the vision shattered.
--
Leonis was thrown backward, his body slamming into the cavern wall. The forge's light guttered, its pulse erratic, the original Celia collapsing to her kneesher form *fraying*, the Sovereign's grip slipping.
*"Leonis!* Celia's voice.
He couldnt answer. His arms were *gone*not severed, but *unmade*, the bloodlines destabilized beyond repair. The system's warnings flashed crimson:
**[Bloodline Instability:99%]**
*Catastrophic failure imminent.*
Fenrir staggered to his side, his fur matted with shadowglass. *"Did it work?"*
Leonis coughed blood, his vision swimming. *"No. But *she* did."*
The original Celia was *changing*.
Her void eyes flickeredfirst crimson, then silver, then *human*. Her fingers trembled as she raised them, staring as if they werent her own.
*"What... am I?"* she whispered.
And in that moment, Leonis *understood*.
The original wasnt just a vessel.
She was a *prison*.
The Sovereign had *trapped* her, too.
---
The cavern trembled, the forges death throes shaking the world. Thoren hauled Leonis up, his voice raw. *"We have to go*now*!"*
Celia hesitated, her gaze locked on her originals faltering form. *'She's...*fighting* it."*
Leonis's breath was ragged. *"Then let her.'*
As they fled, the last thing he saw was the original Celia *smiling*not with cruelty, but with something like *relief*before the Heartforge's collapse swallowed her whole.
The Sovereign's scream followed them into the dark:
*"THIS ISNT OVER!'*
But for the first time, Leonis believed it might be.
---
*The Heartforge is destroyed. The original Celia is gone. But the Sovereign remainsand his throne awaits.*
As the tunnel collapsed behind them, Leonis's ruined arms hung limp, his body broken.
But his eyes?
They burned.
--_