Chapter 1544: Story 1544: The Chained Colossus

The monster’s roar shook the battlefield, a sound so deep it rattled ribs and made teeth grind in skulls. Its body, a grotesque fusion of molten stone and writhing chains, loomed over the survivors like a living fragment of the Gate itself. Each of its steps sent tremors through the ground, fissures splitting outward, spilling smoke and flame into the ash-laden air.

Kael led the charge, his jagged blade flashing as he hacked at a chain-bound limb. The strike left a searing scar, sparks scattering, but the creature did not falter. Instead, the wound glowed, molten veins coursing brighter, as though feeding on his defiance.

“Again!” Kael bellowed, forcing his battered body into motion. He struck with everything he had—not just steel, but will. His followers mirrored him, striking in rhythm, every blow a cry against the abyss.

On the other side, the scarred woman fought like a tempest. Her spear, cracked and scorched, drove through joints of stone and sinew. Her warriors screamed beside her, their blades flashing like shards of light in the haze. For once, they moved with Kael’s band, their hatred redirected into one common enemy.

The spawn pressed at the edges, shrieking, circling, but not rushing in. They seemed almost reverent, as though the colossus was their herald. They hungered, but they waited—for what, none could guess.

Elara fell to her knees, the child clutched tight to her chest. His ember-glow flickered in time with the monster’s movements, as though bound to it by some invisible thread. Every roar of the beast made the boy convulse, his cries piercing. “Father… closer… closer…”

She wept, shaking her head. “No… no, I won’t let him…” Flames burst from her trembling hands, but they faltered, thin sparks against the massive creature’s presence.

Kael carved another strike and looked back, his chest burning with more than exertion. The boy’s cries sliced deeper than any blade. He knew the truth they all feared: the creature was not just another spawn. It was a sentinel, born of the Gate’s fury, chained to the boy’s very breath.

The scarred woman saw it too. She ripped her spear from the colossus’ chest, ichor spraying, and shouted to Kael across the chaos: “If the boy is its tether, then cut him free—one way or another!”

Kael’s heart clenched. Around him, steel rang and screams rose. His followers fought on, but they were breaking. Every moment cost more lives. Every heartbeat made the chains above blaze hotter, their fury shaking the ash-filled sky.

The colossus reared back, its maw splitting wide. Fire gathered deep within, a furnace-light that promised to scour them all.

And then the impossible happened.

The child’s glow flared white-hot. His cry split the air, not in words, but in a sound that silenced even the spawn. The colossus staggered, its molten chest cracking, the chains wrapped around its limbs straining as though in pain.

The Gate thundered in answer. Its fury rolled across the battlefield like a storm. The chains above did not merely tremble now—they screamed.

Unity had wounded the beast. But in that wound, the Gate itself awoke.