Library
Search
Home / Mystery/Thriller / CHAINS OF ETERNITY / Chapter 12 – The Coliseum’s Maw

Share

Chapter 12 – The Coliseum’s Maw

Author: E_nuel
last update Last Updated: 2025-08-26 20:47:26

🌑 Chains of Eternity

The wind was dead. The desert around the coliseum lay unnaturally still, as if the world itself was holding its breath. The sand that had whipped at them all day now rested, heavy and unmoving, leaving the air thick with a silence that was louder than any storm.

Kael stood at the edge of the crumbling black stones, his chains whispering like restless serpents beneath his skin. His hunger had grown sharper in the stillness, gnawing at him, filling his head with a low thrum that made it difficult to think. His breath came slow, controlled, but the veins at his temples pulsed with effort.

Behind him, the others formed a loose circle, each wearing their own brand of dread.

Brann paced, his broad shoulders tight, jaw clenched. His hand never strayed far from the handle of his weapon. He kept glancing at Kael when he thought no one noticed.

Liora leaned against a broken pillar, pale as ash. Sweat clung to her brow despite the cold stillness of the air. Her breath rattl
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Locked Chapter
Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Latest chapter

  • CHAINS OF ETERNITY    Chapter 38 – The Shadow’s Favor

    🌑 Chains of EternityThe labyrinth narrowed into a corridor of uneven stone, the walls rippling like frozen waves. The ceiling dipped low enough that Brann had to stoop, and every step echoed with unnatural clarity.Kael led with his blade drawn, every nerve taut. The silence here was different from before. Not watchful—expectant. Like the labyrinth was waiting for something.Or someone.They pressed on for what felt like hours. No monsters stalked them. No traps snapped from the walls. Only the silence, so heavy it threatened to crush their thoughts.Finally, Brann broke it.“I’ll be damned,” he muttered, resting the haft of his axe on his shoulder. “It’s almost easy now. Been too long since I swung this thing. Almost feels wrong to say it, but maybe our luck turned.”Seris’s gaze cut across the line to Eryndor, who walked just behind Kael. Her voice was sharp as glass. “Luck doesn’t make stone bend. It doesn’t quiet beasts. And it doesn’t mark a man with runes he refuses to explain

  • CHAINS OF ETERNITY    Chapter 37 – The Weight of Silence

    🌑 Chains of EternityThe air thickened the deeper they went. No roars. No skittering claws. Not even the distant grinding of stone.Kael hated it. Monsters could be fought, traps could be endured—but silence meant the labyrinth was watching.And it was watching through Eryndor.Brann was the first to speak what none wanted to. “Strange, isn’t it? How we haven’t run into anything since he showed up again.” He jabbed a thumb at Eryndor, grinning. “I like it. Means fewer teeth snapping at my neck.”Seris’s reply was a dagger. “Or it means the teeth are waiting for his command.”Eryndor gave no reaction. His gaze remained fixed ahead, shoulders set as though he bore a weight invisible to the rest of them. The faint rune beneath his sleeve glimmered when the shadows shifted, then dulled as if ashamed.Kael said nothing. But he felt it too. The wrongness.They reached a corridor where the floor had collapsed, leaving a pit of shifting darkness. The gap stretched too wide for any ordinary l

  • CHAINS OF ETERNITY    Chapter 36 – Whispers in the Stone

    🌑 Chains of EternityThe labyrinth twisted into silence. Gone were the constant distant roars, the echo of unseen beasts, even the drip of water. Here, the stone itself seemed to breathe, slow and patient, as though listening.Kael felt it first. A hum beneath his boots, faint but steady, like the murmur of a buried heartbeat. He froze.“What is it?” Seris whispered, bow taut in her hands.Before Kael could answer, the walls pulsed with light. Thin cracks traced themselves through the black stone, glowing faintly with runes that shimmered like veins of fire. The air thickened, pressing down on their lungs.Liora gasped and clutched her staff, its crystal resonating softly. “It’s… responding to something. Not me. Not us.”All eyes turned slowly.To Eryndor.He stood motionless, his face unreadable. But Kael’s gaze caught the truth: the faint burn through his sleeve, the hidden rune at his wrist glowing brighter in response to the labyrinth’s call.Brann squinted, oblivious to the dang

  • CHAINS OF ETERNITY    Chapter 35 – The Burden of Silence

    🌑 Chains of EternityThe path narrowed until the walls brushed their shoulders. The air grew heavier, pressing down like a weight, thick with the faint tang of blood and damp stone. Every breath felt stolen, every step too loud.Kael led the way, sword in hand, Seris just behind him with her bow. Brann trudged near the middle, his broad shoulders scraping the stone, while Liora kept her staff lifted, her dim light pushing back the dark.Eryndor brought up the rear. He made no sound, no complaint, no muttered curse like Brann, no hushed prayers like Liora. His silence was different. It was… listening.Kael felt it.They came upon the first sign of slaughter.The corridor opened into a shallow chamber, and the floor was slick with ichor. Monsters lay scattered, their bodies split open, their forms already dissolving back into shadow and mist. The wounds were surgical—joints severed, throats opened, spines broken. Not the chaotic hacking of desperation, but the clean precision of a pract

  • CHAINS OF ETERNITY    Chapter 34 – Whispers in the Walls

    🌑 Chains of EternityThey camped in the crook of a narrow alcove, the air heavy with the scent of damp stone and old blood. The labyrinth allowed no real rest, but exhaustion gave them no choice. Brann collapsed onto his cloak with a grunt, Seris sat with her bow across her lap like a drawn blade, and Liora’s light dimmed to a faint glow as she slumped beside Kael.Eryndor lingered at the edge of the firelight. His posture was loose, his expression unreadable, but Kael noticed the way his eyes followed the shadows, tracking them like a predator. It unsettled him more than the silence of the maze.Eventually, even Eryndor lay down. His breathing deepened, slowed. For a time, the only sounds were Brann’s snores and the distant drip of unseen water.Then came the whispers.Kael sat up instantly, his hand moving to the hilt of his sword. At first, he thought it was the labyrinth itself speaking again. But no—it came from Eryndor.The man murmured in his sleep, words spilling out in a low

  • CHAINS OF ETERNITY    Chapter 33 – Fractured Footsteps (Contd)

    🌑 Chains of EternityThe corridor they followed pressed in like the throat of some slumbering beast, damp air clinging to their skin. Every drip of water from the unseen ceiling echoed too loudly, too sharp. Brann trudged forward with stubborn force, shoulders hunched as though daring the dark to test him again.Kael’s mind wasn’t on the corridor. It was on the man walking a few steps behind him.Eryndor’s gait was steady, not the stagger of someone recently freed from chains. He walked like a man who belonged here, each stride deliberate, each breath measured. Too measured.Kael kept glancing back, catching details the others ignored. The slight tremor in Eryndor’s left hand. The way his jaw clenched when the walls shifted with faint groans. And the eyes—those faint glimmers of unnatural light that vanished as quickly as they appeared.Liora tried again to bridge the silence, her voice fragile against the suffocating air. “When we thought you were gone… Brann said if anyone could cl

More Chapters

You may also like

Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status