CHAPTER 1528: STORY 1528: TRIAL BY ASH

The ruins shuddered with the approach of the spawn. Their cries slithered through the night, a chorus of hunger and fury echoing against the hollow bones of the dead city.

The scarred woman barked orders, her voice cutting through the fear. “Positions! Shields up! Spears forward! If they reach the child, we are finished.”

Kael bristled. Not the child, he thought bitterly. All of us. But he held his tongue. Their anger wasn’t his enemy—not yet.

Elara crouched low, whispering to the Ashborn Child. Its glow pulsed faintly, flickering with her words. The tremors in the ground faltered, as though soothed by her voice. But the cries of the spawn grew nearer, louder, a tide ready to break.

From the shadows of the ruins, they came—blackened forms crawling from fissures and shattered streets. Their limbs twisted, their eyes burning like coals. Dozens, then hundreds, their claws scraping against stone as they surged forward.

Kael seized a broken sword from one of the survivors’ caches. The blade was jagged, uneven, but steel nonetheless. He planted himself at the front line beside the scarred woman.

“They’ll test us quick,” she muttered. “Pray your pet has teeth.”

The spawn struck. The first wave crashed against shields and spears, claws tearing at wood and iron. Kael met the nearest with a roar, his blade cleaving through its skull. Black smoke poured out, the stench of rot and fire filling the air.

Then, the child whimpered. Its glow surged brighter, spilling across the battlefield like a pale dawn. The nearest spawn froze mid-lunge, their bodies trembling violently before collapsing into ash.

The survivors faltered, awe and fear mingling in their eyes.

Elara’s fire wove around the child, amplifying the glow. “It works,” she gasped. “It breaks their bond to him!”

The scarred woman’s spear struck true, impaling a spawn whose body had already begun to unravel. She gave a savage grin. “Then we fight with your curse at our side!”

But the Unborn was cunning. The next wave of spawn hesitated at the glow, circling wide, shrieking louder. They attacked from the flanks, climbing the ruins, dropping down like shadows with claws aimed for Elara and the child.

Kael spun, cutting one from the air. Another nearly reached Elara, only to erupt in flame as her weakened fire surged. The child cried out, its glow lancing like a beacon, and the spawn nearest to it crumbled.

Still, more came. Always more.

The survivors fought with desperation, each kill feeding their ragged hope. For every spawn that fell to steel, three more were undone by the child’s light. Yet Kael saw the cost. The child weakened with every pulse, its glow dimming, its fragile body trembling harder in Elara’s arms.

Finally, silence fell. The last spawn screeched as it dissolved into smoke. The survivors staggered, bloodied but alive. The scarred woman lowered her spear, her face unreadable.

Kael’s chest heaved as he looked at Elara. She cradled the child, its light now barely more than a flicker.

The scarred woman spoke at last. “Weapon or curse, it saved us tonight. But if it dies before the war is done...” She let the words hang heavy in the ash-filled air.

Kael looked to the horizon where the earth still pulsed with the titan’s heartbeat. He knew the truth she hadn’t dared to voice.

If the child was a key, it was breaking in their hands.