Ash and Steel

The bells rang at dawn.

Not the usual soft morning chimes used to mark daybreak in Odessyus — these were deep, slow, and full of warning. The Horn of the Gates had been sounded. That hadn't happened in nearly a decade.

The Seven were already awake.

They had all dreamed again.

The same black chains. The same cracked mask. The whisper in the dark.

Now it wasn't just a warning.

It was a call to war.

---

Neolin stood in the Grand Hall, maps scattered before him, glyphs glowing in motion as the paths of corrupted energy were tracked across the continent.

"This morning," he began, "a command post in the outlying village of Dothren was overrun. Only one survivor escaped. He spoke of a figure in red bone armor, covered in blood, dragging the bodies of soldiers and marking the walls with their names."

Peter swallowed hard. "Was it… Kazakare?"

"No," Neolin said grimly. "It was his first general. One of the old corrupted. A remnant he's reawakened. Name unknown — we call him Ashbringer."

Tom clenched his fists. "So this is it."

Neolin nodded. "This is your first real deployment. You're to intercept Ashbringer before he reaches the next settlement — Tolmar Ridge."

Frank spoke. "How long do we have?"

"Five hours, maybe less," said Neolin. "He's moving through the fire zone. The ridge is mostly civilians — they won't stand a chance."

Lucy looked over the map. "We'll have to meet him near the Claw Valley bend. It's the narrowest passage before Tolmar."

Neolin agreed. "You'll go in pairs. Frank and Lucy, you take left ridge. Tom and Jack, hold the middle. Susan and Peter, sweep from the right. Kitty will stay above for aerial scan. Watch for glyph traps. This isn't a duel — it's a test of survival."

---

The sky grew darker as they moved.

By the time the group arrived near Claw Valley, the clouds had turned reddish-purple. The land here was old and cracked — dried out from ancient battles that had burned through its roots. No birds flew above it. No trees grew on its edge. The wind was dry. The kind that carried dust and silence.

Frank knelt at the bend, fingers pressed to the stone.

"He's close."

Kitty floated down from her sky scan. "I saw movement half a mile out. He's dragging something… maybe someone."

Peter's jaw clenched. "We have to stop him now."

Neolin's voice echoed faintly from their communication glyphs: "Only engage when he's fully visible. Don't rush. Remember your formation."

But they never got the chance.

Because Ashbringer saw them first.

---

He stepped into view without warning.

Seven feet tall. His body was wrapped in cracked red armor, like it had been forged from bone and fire. Instead of a helmet, he wore a half-mask of scorched metal — revealing only blackened teeth and hollow eye sockets behind a slit of shadow.

Across his shoulders hung a cloak made of torn soldier flags.

He didn't speak.

He simply raised his right hand.

And flames poured from the ground.

---

"Scatter!" Frank yelled.

The group broke into motion. Lucy blinked forward, pulling Kitty with her. Jack vanished into shadow. Susan raised a diamond wall, blocking the first blast as Peter rolled beneath her shield. Tom jumped through fire with a twist of wind around him, his hand already blazing.

Ashbringer launched forward — too fast for his size.

He struck Susan's shield with a two-handed hammer made of molten metal.

The entire formation cracked.

Peter retaliated, swinging with a blade of dusk energy — but Ashbringer caught it barehanded. The blade shattered. He flung Peter aside like a rag doll, slamming him into the stone wall.

"Peter!" Lucy shouted.

Kitty dove from the air, launching a golden pulse toward Ashbringer's back. It hit — but he barely moved. He turned and raised a sigil-marked hand.

Wind distorted. Reality bent.

Kitty froze mid-air.

Lucy screamed, summoning the Glyph of Aeon to force a time pause — but it only slowed the effect, didn't stop it.

Frank rushed in and tackled Kitty mid-freeze, breaking the spell just as Ashbringer raised his hammer again.

Tom roared and launched forward with flame spirals surrounding his arms.

"Now!" he shouted.

He struck Ashbringer's shoulder — and the blow actually knocked him back a few steps. Ashbringer slid across the dust, eyes glowing red as he turned toward Tom.

"You…" the voice rasped, layered and wrong. "Fire-born. Betrayer's kin."

Tom narrowed his eyes. "You don't scare me."

Ashbringer snarled and slammed the ground — glyphs erupted across the field, sending shards of bone and flame upward.

Jack burst from the shadows behind him and landed a slice across his back.

Frank followed with a precision sigil, and Lucy froze a time window for two seconds.

Susan and Kitty fired at once — wind-light and diamond shards.

Ashbringer finally staggered.

For a moment… he knelt.

---

But then…

He laughed.

It wasn't loud. It wasn't wild.

It was low. Hollow.

Broken.

And his body began to rebuild — flames re-forging his armor, bones cracking back into place. The sigils on his chest glowed brighter.

"This was only my trial," he whispered.

Then he slammed both hands into the ground — and vanished in a surge of molten smoke, leaving nothing but burn marks.

The valley went still.

---

The group gathered, battered, bruised, and panting.

Peter limped up with Susan supporting him. "He left…?"

"No," Frank said. "He's testing us. That wasn't a real fight. That was his way of saying, 'I see you.'"

Lucy looked shaken. "And if that was just a general…"

Tom sat on the edge of a rock, shoulders rising and falling with slow breaths.

Jack said quietly, "Kazakare's going to be worse."

No one argued.

---

Hours later, back at Odessyus, Neolin listened carefully as they reported everything. His face was hard to read.

He placed his hand on Peter's shoulder, then looked at Frank.

"You survived. You worked together. But next time… you won't be chasing a ghost. You'll be standing face to face with the king of ash."

Frank nodded. "We'll be ready."

But in his mind, he could still see the way Ashbringer laughed.

And he knew the war had only just begun.