Semua Bab Sacrifice Of The Heart: Bab 131 - Bab 140

The battlefield smoldered beneath a bruised sky, and Elara stood at its center like a wound that refused to close.The ashes of the broken Crown Pact still swirled around her, clinging to her skin like guilt and prophecy. Behind her, the ruins of the tower whispered with the ghosts of every woman who’d died believing obedience would save them. Around her, the silence of the fallen crackled with unsaid names and broken oaths.But ahead—A storm was gathering.Vesper, both versions of him, circled one another like twin storms, tension stretched tight between them. One—the man she bled beside. The other—the one who’d watched her become sovereign and smiled like it had always been his design.“What are you?” Kael’s voice broke through the tension, blade still drawn, eyes darting between the two Vespers.The newcomer tilted his head, amused. “Not a ghost. Not an illusion. Just… unburdened by time.”“You’re supposed to be dead,” Vesper said, low and cold. “I buried you in the Ruined Vale wi

The capital no longer slept.Word of the throne’s fall had spread like wildfire, carried on lips too stunned to remain silent. Loyalists had fled. The old guard were either in chains or dead. And the common people—those who had lived under the shadow of that cursed bloodline—stood at the gates of the citadel, watching, waiting.Elara stood on the highest balcony, the one where her mother had once paraded the bodies of dissenters.Now, she stood not in royal garb, but wrapped in a battle-worn cloak, her hair loose, face streaked with ash.“They expect a speech,” Vesper said behind her, arms crossed.“They expect a queen,” she murmured.“You are one.”“No,” she said, eyes scanning the crowd. “I’m something older now.”Below, murmurs turned to cheers as Kael appeared beside her, armor glinting, the sigil of the fractured moon across his shoulder. The people remembered him too. Not as a prince. But as the man who’d nearly died for them.He leaned close. “Say something before Vesper does a

The morning light filtered softly through the towering oaks as Elara, Kael, and Vesper set out toward the gathering place of the northern clans. The air was crisp but charged, as if the land itself held its breath, waiting for what would come.Elara’s mind churned with the guardian’s warning. The darkness lingering beyond the war was no mere metaphor — it was a tangible threat, lurking where eyes couldn’t see. She had to steel herself, not just for the political battles ahead, but for the unseen forces still bent on chaos.As they reached the ancient stone circle—where the clans had convened for centuries—leaders of the north awaited, cloaked in furs and grim expressions. The tension was palpable. This was more than a meeting; it was a test.Kael stepped forward first, his voice calm but resolute. “We come not as conquerors, but as kin seeking to rebuild what was broken.”A grizzled chief with piercing eyes studied them before nodding slowly. “Words are wind, but actions… actions can

The air thickened as the final creature emerged — the smallest of them, child-sized, with wings of smoke that curled and unfurled like they breathed with the world’s rhythm. Its presence, though slight in stature, shifted something ancient in the ground beneath their feet.Mira fell to one knee. “They’re not just watching,” she murmured. “They’re… remembering.”Kael’s grip on his blade eased, not out of comfort, but reverence. “What are they?”Elara stepped forward. “The Forgotten.” Her voice barely carried, yet it reached every ear. “They are what remains when power becomes memory. When gods fall, and their echoes find shelter in the bones of the world.”The first creature raised its head. Still faceless, yet its focus was unmistakable — centered on Elara.A voice — not spoken, but planted inside their minds like an old seed awakening — pulsed through them.“We remember you, Daughter of Ash. We remember the pact broken. The blood unspilled. Why have you called us again?”Elara’s eyes

The air was thick with tension, as if the world itself held its breath. The battle within the Crownless Citadel raged, but outside, the skies stirred with ancient power. Stars once thought extinguished flickered back to life, their cold light spilling down through the shattered roof like the fingers of forgotten gods awakening from slumber.Elara stood amidst the chaos, her body glowing with the fading remnants of the binding magic she had unleashed. Every breath was a struggle; every heartbeat a defiant drumbeat against the relentless tide of shadow.Kael’s blade clashed fiercely against one of Elkorath’s Legion, sparks flying with each strike. Vesper’s wards shimmered around the circle of fighters, a fragile shield between them and oblivion. Mira, her hands raised to the heavens, whispered the old songs—songs of protection, sacrifice, and renewal.But Elara’s eyes were fixed upward, to the constellations reigniting above.“The stars… they remember us,” she whispered, voice raw. “The