Episode 56: The Serpent in the Sewers

The night after the Tribunal burned colder than the day before.

The city of Elaria slept uneasily. The nobles hid behind their gilded gates, the common folk were behind barred doors, and soldiers paced frostbitten walls. They all shared the same question: Who could be trusted?

Beneath them, unseen and unheard, the sewers breathed.

---

Reina Ashthorne knelt on the edge of a grated archway, her emerald eyes glinting like a predator's in the dark. The air was heavy with the scent of damp stone and stagnant water, but she ignored it. Her focus was sharp, her muscles poised for action.

In her hand, a dagger spun silently, catching slivers of moonlight.

She had followed the knight from the Tribunal court. His movements were precise, rehearsed—but not loyal. He had slipped out of the barracks and into the underways, moving with the assurance of someone familiar with these paths.

Now, Reina watched him disappear into the depths of the city.

"Too neat," she whispered. "Too clean. You're hiding more than your face."

Her scarf fluttered as she dropped into the darkness after him.

---

Meanwhile, in the frost-lit gardens of the palace, Kuro stood surrounded by shadows. They were not passive, mindless shades, but active, shifting beings. His eyes glowed emberlight as he moved his hands in subtle gestures, commanding them.

"Formation Delta," he ordered.

The shadows rippled, splitting into six units, each moving in unison like wolves circling prey. Their edges sharpened, claws elongated, their forms changed to match his intent.

Akira watched with crossed arms. "They're learning faster. Almost too fast."

Kuro kept his gaze fixed on his army. "They're not just weapons. They're memory. Every echo, every fragment we've broken—these shadows hold what's left. That makes them dangerous and invaluable."

He extended his hand, and one shade stepped forward, its voice faint, distorted but clear. "Command acknowledged."

Akira raised his brows. "They can talk now?"

Kuro nodded. "Not all. But some are becoming more."

The embers around him flared faintly. "The Monarch doesn't just command shadows. He awakens them."

---

Inside the palace, Elira's steps echoed across the crystal-tiled hallways. Her heart raced with every turn, not from fear, but from anger.

She halted before a massive door, its frame carved with serpents of silver and sapphire. The Queen's chamber.

The guards tensed as she approached, uncertain.

Elira's voice cut through the air. "Move."

They hesitated only a moment before stepping aside. The doors creaked open, revealing the queen within.

She sat by a tall window, dressed in silken robes rather than royal regalia, her hair like molten silver, and her eyes piercing like frost. A goblet of crimson wine glinted in her hand.

"Elira." Her voice was smooth and filled with authority. "You should not be here."

Elira stepped inside, frostfire shimmering at her fingertips. "And yet here I am. Tell me, Mother—how much of this trial was yours?"

The queen remained unfazed. She sipped her wine slowly, her gaze unwavering. "Do you think I could sway the Tribunal? Or do you think the Tribunal sways me?"

Elira's nails dug into her palm. "You let them try to break him."

The queen's lips curved slightly, but it was more calculation than warmth. "If he had broken, he was not worth your defiance. If he survived, then perhaps he is."

Elira's chest heaved, anger battling with hurt. "You would gamble my future and your kingdom on whether he survived your test?"

The queen stood, the air around her growing cold. "I gamble nothing. I measure. A throne is not given, Elira. It is proven. And if you cannot bear to see your chosen tested, perhaps it is not the throne you want, but only the man."

The words cut deep. Elira's frostfire flared, her violet eyes burning. But before she could respond, the air outside shifted—shadows stirred, as if carrying whispers of movement below the city.

Kuro.

Her fury still simmered, but she turned sharply, her voice steely. "This isn't over."

The queen's voice followed her as she left, low and cold. "No, my daughter. It is only beginning."

---

Deep below, Reina stalked the knight through a maze of tunnels.

The sewers of Elaria were older than the kingdom itself, carved from black stone that dripped with moisture. Faint runic glyphs lined the walls, long-forgotten wards meant to keep something in or out.

The knight moved quickly, but Reina was quicker. She stayed two steps behind, her Shadow Step flickering her form between corners, her daggers whispering in silence.

Finally, the knight reached a broken chamber, where stone had collapsed into a pit. He knelt, pressing his hand against the cracked wall.

The wall shivered.

Lines of crimson light flared, runes igniting. The knight muttered an incantation, his voice low and guttural—not Tribunal oath, but something older, fouler.

Reina's eyes narrowed.

The wall split open, revealing a passage that breathed mist darker than night.

The knight bowed his head. "For the Serpent. For the Seal."

Reina tightened her grip on her dagger. She whispered under her breath, "So you're the rat."

But before she could move, the mist inside shifted. Eyes glowed faintly—dozens, maybe hundreds. Whispers rose, the same whispers Kuro had faced in Norvahel.

Blood remembers what stone cannot.

The knight stepped inside. Reina cursed under her breath and followed, disappearing into the black.

---

At the same time, Kuro sensed it.

His emberlight flared suddenly, shadows recoiling. The bond between Seals rippled through him like a scream across eternity.

"Elira," he said sharply, his voice carrying through the courtyard. "Something's moving. The Seal—it's stirring."

She appeared at his side almost instantly, her eyes still turbulent from the clash with her mother. "Where?"

Kuro's gaze shifted downward, to the ground below. His voice was grim. "The sewers."

Akira drew his blade, the steel humming faintly. "Reina."

Kuro nodded. "She's already there."

The shadows around him coiled, dozens rising like wolves answering a call. His voice was firm. "Then so are we."

---

In the sewers, Reina pressed herself against a pillar, daggers at the ready. The knight had reached an underground altar, carved from bones and black stone. Chains of rusted iron hung from the ceiling, some still bearing fragments of armor, as though prisoners had been left to rot.

The knight knelt before the altar, chanting. The whispers thickened, pressing into Reina's skull.

From the altar, a shard pulsed faintly. Crimson. Alive.

A Seal fragment.

Reina's breath caught. "Damn it…"

But before she could move, the knight's body convulsed. His armor cracked, shadows bursting through the seams, transforming him into something no longer human. His face dissolved into a mask of black ichor, his voice a chorus of whispers.

"Blood remembers…"

The chamber shook. Shadows poured from the walls, crawling and writhing—dozens of wraiths spilling into the altar chamber.

Reina's daggers flared with shadowsteel. "Guess I won't be bored tonight."

---

Above, Kuro and the others entered the sewers. The stench of blood and rot hit them instantly. His emberlight burned brighter, casting long shadows down the tunnels.

The whispers clawed at their ears. Elira flinched but steadied, frostfire spiraling into her hands. Akira's katana gleamed as he set his stance.

Kuro's voice was steady and commanding. "Shadows—fan out. Hunt. Nothing leaves these tunnels alive."

The army obeyed, flowing forward into the darkness.

Kuro's emberlight eyes narrowed. He could feel it—the Seal's pull, resonating deep below. With it came a familiarity he could not place. A battlefield. Screams. Smoke not of Noveria, but of Earth.

His fists tightened. Why do the Seals remember what I should have forgotten?

The shadows around him moved, as if whispering the same question.

---

Reina fought with the ferocity of a blazing storm. Her daggers flashed, slicing through wraith after wraith, shadows bursting into mist. She ducked beneath a chain, vaulted over a broken stone, each movement sharp, lethal, and precise.

But there were too many. For every one she cut down, three more rose.

The knight-turned-wraith loomed above them all, his body twisting, his voice splitting into dozens. "The Seal feeds, the Serpent waits…"

Then the shadows parted, and the Monarch arrived.

Kuro's emberlight flooded the chamber, his army surging in waves. Elira's frostfire sliced through the swarm, freezing shadows into brittle glass. Akira's steel sang, cleaving through the corrupted.

Reina smirked, blood staining her cheek. "Took you long enough."

Kuro's emberblade ignited. His voice boomed. "Break the Seal!"

The battle for the Serpent's altar began.

---

[System Update: Hidden Seal Fragment Detected – Third Awakening Near]

[Warning: Identity Distortion Increasing]

The whispers grew louder. The battlefield blurred.

And in the haze, Kuro heard not the voices of Noveria—but Earth.

---

[To Be Continued...]

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