Semua Bab The Healer's Bond : Bab 221 - Bab 230

The Hollowlands didn’t welcome travelers.It devoured them.The very air felt like an accusation—heavy with rot, grief, and something else far worse. Magic didn’t flow here. It lurked, thick and unmoving, like oil on water. The moment Emma stepped through the first barrier stone, the world shifted—quietly but unmistakably.She tasted it.Ash.Loss.Decay.Long moved ahead, eyes glowing faintly as her dragon soul warred against the strange pressure around them. Even she, a creature of fire and rebirth, looked unsettled here. Steve walked beside Emma with his hand tight around the hilt of his blade, his body coiled with readiness. Marcus and three other warriors followed behind, their eyes scanning every inch of twisted terrain.“We’re being watched,” Marcus said.“We’ve been watched since we crossed the threshold,” Long replied, voice clipped. “The Hollowlands see everything.”Emma remained quiet.Because she felt it too.This place—it didn’t just resist life. It remembered it. She swo

Meanwhile… Far from Sterling CreekBeneath the ruins of the Grimkeeper’s fortress, in a place untouched by flame or memory, something stirred.The Hollowlands were collapsing, yes—but not dying.Magic never truly died.It changed.In the void left behind, in the echo of the Grimkeeper’s last scream, a seed had been planted.A black root curled from the cracked mirror shards scattered in the dust.It pulsed once.Then again.From the core of that broken prison, a voice neither male nor female whispered into the silence:“Balance is broken.”Ashes swirled.“Flame has awakened. Now… the frost must rise.”From that seed, eyes opened.Blue and burning cold.The new force did not inherit the Grimkeeper’s malice.It was something else.Not shadow, not fire—stillness. Silence. Order.Where Grimkeeper had offered temptation, this one would offer peace.The kind you only find in a tomb.---Back in Sterling CreekThe wind had changed.Emma could feel it on her skin as she stepped out of the war

The first blow struck like a winter storm breaking through glass.The corridor lit with flashes of fire and frost, steel and skin, scream and silence.Emma swung her Emberblade in a wide arc, the edge slicing through the nearest frost-cloaked soldier’s mask. The heat was instant—the creature didn’t bleed, it evaporated, turning to vapor with a hiss.Steve’s blade slammed down into another attacker’s shoulder, driving it to the ground. “They’re not wolves,” he snarled. “They’re not anything natural.”“They’re constructs,” Sarah yelled, ducking behind a control panel. “Living vessels—part ice, part programmable muscle. Runed golems.”“Then let’s break them!” Long roared, now half-dragon, her limbs smoldering with emberlight as she barreled into a trio of enemies, crushing one beneath her talons and blasting another with fire.But more came.And more.From the walls. From the vents. From above.Each moved with eerie silence and precise coordination, like they were being guided—not by in

The skies above Sterling Creek had never looked more golden.As Long's dragon wings carried them down across the southern ridge, the sun pierced through the high clouds in brilliant beams, washing the cliffs and towers of the settlement in warmth. From a distance, it looked like a kingdom at peace.But Emma felt none of it.She clutched the thick wrap tighter around Sarah’s shoulders as the dragon glided lower. Steve rode behind her, one arm around her waist, sword strapped to his back, his eyes narrowed and vigilant. None of them spoke during the descent.They had survived the Frostline Range.But they had not come back alone.---The ArrivalThe crowd gathered at the landing square before the dragon even touched ground.Marcus stood at the front, flanked by Elder Weaver and several of the remaining wardens. His relief was visible—but it was layered beneath something else.Worry.Long landed with a heavy beat of her wings. The air stirred with heat and ash, melting the snow that had

Outside the Walls Later that afternoon, Emma stood beside Sarah in the outer courtyard, watching engineers and volunteers stack barrels of fire-dust, line the roads with Emberstone fragments, and etch protective glyphs across doors and archways. Sarah looked thinner, but her eyes were sharp again. “The virus,” she said, “is reacting to climate triggers. If we can spike the ambient heat before the Legion arrives, we can delay their advance.” Emma frowned. “Sterling Creek doesn’t have enough Ember to heat the entire valley.” Sarah gave a crooked smile. “Not yet.” Emma looked sideways. “What are you planning?” Sarah reached into her coat and pulled out a wrapped bundle of notes—pages filled with formulas, diagrams, blood sigils, and fragments of lost Alliance tech. “This,” Sarah said, “is a prototype. Something from the early Cryo Wars. It’s called a Solar Core. Designed to draw light into a single burst of radiant energy. One ignition... and the surrounding area burns for hours.