Knight's Sacred Burden
Kael retorted.
The final surge hit. Kael vanished beneath a mountain of black, crystalline energy. The light reached a blinding, impossible intensity, washing out the darkness of the subterranean cavern.
Then, the world shattered.
Above them, the palace floor groaned, buckled, and disintegrated. The weight of the kingdom, the weight of the history, the weight of the sins of the council—it all plummeted into the abyss. Julian leaped, his fingers catching the edge of a hanging chain, his body swinging as the world beneath him fell away. He clawed his way into the sewer tunnels, scrambling through the darkness, his breath coming in ragged, painful gasps.