🔁 Recap of Chapter 68: The Crown Below After descending into the cursed vault beneath Halveron, Kai and his companions uncovered more than they bargained for—an ancient throne chamber sealed by time, blood, and betrayal. They fought their way through collapsing ruins, possessed echoes, and the remnants of a long-dead king’s madness. But what lingered deepest wasn’t the danger—it was the pull. The moment Kai laid eyes on the obsidian crown resting in that ethereal pool of flame, something awakened in him. Not power... but memory. Or perhaps prophecy. Yuri tried to intervene, sensing the relic’s corruptive energy, but it was too late. The crown didn’t need to be worn to leave its mark—it simply needed Kai to see it. The visions came fast: a throne built on ash, comrades turning swords on one another, Lyra weeping with a blade in her chest... and Kai standing over it all, crowned and hollow. They escaped just as the chamber crumbled, but not untouched. Astra’s magic pulsed erratically. Velis looked shaken for the first time. Lyra wouldn’t speak to Kai. And Kai—Kai heard voices that weren’t his own. Chapter 68 closed on a haunting note: a monstrous howl echoing from the mountains behind them. Not animal. Not human. Something ancient had awakened when the crown stirred—and now it hunts. 🔥 Chapter 69: The Fire We Carry The trail away from Halveron’s vault was steep, winding through frost-touched pine forests that muffled every sound but their breaths. Even the birds stayed silent—as if the land itself feared what the group had unleashed. Kai walked at the front, his boots crunching over half-frozen dirt, his eyes distant. Each step felt heavier than the last, as though something beneath the ground tugged at his soul. The crown’s vision hadn’t faded. If anything, it had sharpened. Every glance toward his companions now brought with it flashes of the future he feared: Lyra collapsing with blood on her lips, Astra screaming beneath a red moon, Velis holding a dagger behind his back. You’ve seen it. You know how this ends, the voice in his head whispered. It didn’t sound like his own. Behind him, the group trailed in tense silence. Lyra refused to look at him. She hadn’t spoken since they exited the vault. Her posture was rigid, her hand never far from her blade. The way she watched Kai from the corner of her eye—cautious, calculating—broke something in him. Astra, however, stayed close. Her violet eyes flickered with residual arcane energy, the vault’s chaotic magic still burning in her veins. She occasionally muttered to herself in Elvish, deciphering lingering runes Kai could no longer see. "I don’t like how the forest feels," she said finally, voice low. "It’s not just magic anymore. Something’s following us." Velis, who’d been oddly quiet, nodded. "Two somethings. I spotted tracks. Not beast, not man. Twin-footed... but light. Like they don’t touch the earth fully." Yuri drew her spear. "Shades?" "Possibly," Velis said. "Or worse—Watchers." Kai slowed his pace. "We need shelter. Fast." But the forest had no safe haven. They stumbled upon a ruined outpost before dusk—half-sunken in earth, choked by ivy. Its stone walls were scorched black, the air still thick with ancient heat. "What happened here?" Astra whispered. "Fire mages," Yuri said. "A war long forgotten. But the flames never truly leave." As they entered the ruins, Kai felt it—a resonance. Not like the crown. This was older. Hungrier. Something in the stones recognized him. He broke away from the group, drawn to a shattered altar beneath the outpost’s chapel. On it rested a burned scroll. As he brushed ash from the parchment, a sigil revealed itself—identical to the one seared into his shoulder in the vision. Suddenly, the altar flared with golden fire. "Get back!" Astra yelled, but Kai couldn’t move. The flame surged, swallowing the scroll—and then pouring into him. Not just heat. Memories. Screams. A woman with eyes like his, wreathed in flames, casting herself into war. A blade forged of dragonbone. A pact made under starlight. Kai staggered back, gasping. His skin burned—but not from pain. From purpose. "I... I know this magic," he breathed. "It’s mine." Velis narrowed his eyes. "You’re changing." "No," Kai whispered. "I’m remembering." From the trees outside came a rustle. Then a whisper. Then dozens more. They weren’t alone. The fire hadn’t just awakened something within Kai—it had signaled something else. The rustling grew louder. Not wind. Not animals. Whispered breaths—chanting in a tongue Kai didn’t recognize, yet his bones understood. Velis raised his blades. "We’re being surrounded." Yuri was already in front of Lyra, spear spinning into a defensive stance. "If they were going to strike, they’d have done it already. They’re waiting." "For what?" Astra asked. Kai took one step forward, still feeling the fire branded into his chest, glowing faintly beneath his tunic. "They’re waiting... for me." A shape emerged from the mist between the trees. Tall. Cloaked in ash-gray robes, its face hidden beneath a porcelain mask cracked down the middle. And then another. And another. A ring of twelve, evenly spaced, surrounding the outpost in a perfect circle. "They’re Watchers," Velis muttered, stepping beside Kai. "One of the lost Orders. They shouldn’t exist anymore." "And yet..." Lyra’s voice was bitter. "Everything that shouldn’t exist seems to be drawn to him." Kai didn’t respond. The fire in his chest pulsed again. The masked figure directly ahead stepped forward. "Bearer of the Crown of Endings," it said in a voice both male and female, layered like two echoes out of sync. "You’ve disturbed the Flame of Judgment. The pact calls. The blood awakens. You walk into your legacy unprepared." "I didn’t ask for any of this," Kai replied. "No child of fire ever does." "What do you want from me?" The Watcher raised a skeletal hand and pointed to the ruined altar. "To finish what the first flamebearer began. Bind the weapon. Rewrite the oath. Or the realms will fall again, as they did in the Forgotten Collapse." Astra whispered, "They’re speaking in prophecy." Kai stepped forward. "And if I refuse?" The twelve Watchers bowed in unison, a chilling display of reverence. "Then we will burn you now," they said in one voice. "And the world with you." Lyra moved to stand beside Kai. "Then I guess he’s not refusing." Kai glanced at her, surprised—but her gaze was steady. Not warm, but loyal. Or maybe determined not to lose what little they had left. "Fine," he said. "What do I have to do?" The lead Watcher extended a blade—not to attack, but to offer. It was obsidian and glass, curved and burning faintly from within. "Cut the tether between who you were... and who you must become. Let go of the past. The crown won’t bend for someone still shackled to their former self." Lyra touched his arm. "You can." He thought of his old village. His mother’s laugh. His brother’s betrayal. The blood that never washed off his hands. Could he really sever the person who had endured all that? "No," he whispered. "I won’t let go of who I was. Because that boy survived. And he earned this fire." Then slowly... bowed. "So be it, Flamebearer." The blade turned to light in Kai’s hand. It didn’t burn. It thrummed with memory. A second later, the Watchers vanished—one by one, into trails of smoke—until the forest was silent again. Kai looked at the blade, then to the others. "We keep moving. We find the next mark." "And the next prophecy," Astra added grimly. Velis cracked a tired grin. "You just made enemies of ancient fire ghosts. I’m impressed." "Don’t be," Kai muttered. "I think that was the easy part." Above them, the moon bled red into the clouds. 🔮 Preview: The Chains That Bind Us With the relic’s heat still coursing through their veins and trust unraveling between them, Kai and the others are forced into an uneasy alliance with a former enemy who knows too much—and says too little. But while the team argues over their next move, shadows stir in the east. Velis will be tested. Astra will cross a line she can’t return from. And Kai? He’ll discover that carrying fire doesn’t just burn others... it consumes the one who holds it. The real war hasn’t started yet—but the chains are tightening. And someone’s about to snap. ⚔️ Burned bridges. Buried secrets. Blood in the fire. 📚 Add this book to your library—because every Chapter you miss is a dagger you didn’t see coming. 💬 Drop your wildest theories: Will Kai become the monster the crown whispers about? Who’s truly loyal... and who’s just waiting to strike? 🔺 Vote with Power Stones if you crave more chaos, betrayal, and seductive danger. The more you vote, the more this world spirals. 🔥 Let’s ignite the realm together. One lie. One kiss. One flame at a time. "Flames rise, secrets fall—loyalty is just another illusion."