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Chapter 43: The Last Lock

ผู้เขียน: Anala
last update ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2025-03-12 18:55:32

The second tether was lost, but the fight wasn’t over.

I still felt the Guardian, coiled deep inside my bones, waiting. She wasn’t screaming anymore. She wasn’t pressing up against me.

She was watching.

I didn’t know what was worse.

Behind us lay the wreckage of the catacombs, the shattered altar. A residue of magic in the air was almost audible, as if it hummed through the walls, shivering in my ribs. The heaviness of what we had done — what we were about to do — bore down on me.

Only one tether remained.

And it was in the center of the Council’s stronghold.

No more hidden ruins. No more lost catacombs.

This was their domain. Their seat of power.

And we were just about to burn it to the ground.

Maxwell hadn’t said anything since I awoke.

Not really.

Not in the way that mattered.

He was watching me as if he thought I might explode at any moment, his eyes keen, guarded. Like you were waiting for the moment I wasn’t me anymore.

It was killing me.

At the edge of the city, we had stopped
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  • The Blood Bound Legacy   Chapter 44: The Breaking Point

    My eyes locked on the final tether, the black stone pulsing in the center of the room like a second heart.It was waiting for me.It knew me.It had been constructed to contain her—the Guardian buried in my bones, seducing my mind, punching my ribs like she was just waiting for the right moment to burst out.“This is the moment, little Guardian.I clenched my jaw. No. This is my moment.The others were waiting. Watching.Maxwell was nearest, hand hovering near his blade as if he were bracing for something to go wrong. Jameson fidgeted, fingering his dagger’s hilt. Soraya showed no reaction, magic thrumming around her in the air.Nobody spoke.Because they were waiting for me.To see whether I’d break the tether—Or if it would be me who broke.I choked and looked over at Soraya. “What will happen next if we destroy this?She hesitated. That wasn’t a good sign.Maxwell’s jaw tightened. “We don’t know.”I pressed a quick breath between my teeth. “That’s not an answer.”Jameson laughed h

    ปรับปรุงล่าสุด : 2025-03-12
  • The Blood Bound Legacy   Chapter 45: The Aftermath

    The world wasn’t the same. It should have been. The city still stood. The sky hadn’t fallen. The Council’s bastion hadn’t dissolved into grit. And yet — all of it felt different. Lighter. Heavier. Both at the same time.I had no idea how long I stood there, encircled in Maxwell’s arms, and I’m sure I shook from fatigue. The tether was gone. The Guardian was gone. So why did I still sense her shadow?Jameson exhaled a long, thin breath, shattering the silence. “Alright. So. Not to burst the bubble, but… now what?”No one answered. Because none of us knew. All we had focused on for weeks was this — the breaking the tethers, stopping whatever was buried inside of me from consuming me whole. Now it was done. But the world hadn’t ended. And we were still standing.Soraya rubbed her temples and breathed slowly. “We need to get out of here before the Council realizes what just went on.”Jameson scoffed. “Oh, I’m pretty sure they know already.” He waved at the cracked stone, at the fading imp

    ปรับปรุงล่าสุด : 2025-03-12
  • The Blood Bound Legacy   Chapter 46: The Echoes We Cannot Run From

    We didn’t stop running. Not as the tunnel behind us shook. Not when the walls creaked as though they were living. Not when the voice—that thing’s voice—kept whispering in my head, winding around my ribs like smoke.Maxwell’s hand on my wrist was iron, pulling me forward, refusing to let me slip back into whatever nightmare we’d just woken up from.” Soraya’s magic crackled at my back, sealing the tunnel as best she could, but it didn’t help. We weren’t simply fleeing a place.We all were running from something ancient.Something I had only just let go of.Jameson cursed quietly, thrusting the exit door open as we fell into the frigid night air. It had begun to rain, lightly but fiercely, the smell of wet stone surging into my lungs as I gasped for air. My chest hurt, whatever had tried to grapple on me still wrenching and clawing against my ribs.I doubled over, hands on my knees, willing myself to breathe.Maxwell was by my side in a second, his hand hovering near my back but not touc

    ปรับปรุงล่าสุด : 2025-03-13
  • The Blood Bound Legacy   Chapter  47: The Runs of the Past

    The highway in front of us wound through the faded edges of the city, where the buildings had dwindled, one disappearing and the next appearing in short order, before giving in to thick forest and long abandoned property. Beneath centuries of history, behind centuries of distance, the ruins lay a little beyond the treeline, buried a little like a wound the world was unwilling to test.No one spoke as we walked. Not at first. There was too much festering, unvoiced pressure between us, too many unuttered thoughts.For once, Jameson wasn’t making jokes. His knife darted in and out of finger gaps, his idea of latent energy. Soraya kept looking up at the sky, her magic dancing in the air as if waiting for something to follow us. Maxwell … he was quiet, looking at me every few minutes, searching my expression for something.I knew what he was searching for.Signs that I was slipping.That someone who had spoken to me in the Council’s ruins was still whispering in my head.And the truth? It

    ปรับปรุงล่าสุด : 2025-03-13
  • The Blood Bound Legacy   Chapter 48: The Call from Below

    Soraya whispered, “You didn’t just say that to me.”Jameson gripped his blade tightly. “We need to leave.”But I couldn’t move.Because the voice wasn’t coming from near us.It was coming from below us.And then, when the last of the ruins fell into place, the center of the stone floor split open and revealed the entrance to something deeper.Something waiting.Maxwell pulled me back just as another tremor rocked the earth, dislodging dust and debris to tumble around us.I glanced at him, voice scarcely more than a whisper. “They buried something here.”His expression was grim. “And now you woke it up.”The ruins pulsed once more, thick with expectation of magic.The doorway was open.And whatever lurked inside knew my name.The air around us felt taut, pregnant with the ancient and expectant. The whispering had ceased to be, replaced with a silence that was even louder. I swallowed hard, my heart racing as I looked at the yawning portal in the middle of the wreckage.Maxwell continue

    ปรับปรุงล่าสุด : 2025-03-13
  • The Blood Bound Legacy   Chapter 49: Beneath the Ruins

    The descent was slow. With each foot we took into the ruins, it was as though we were entering a past that had been expecting us. The air was thick, pressing against my skin, saturated with more than time. It was expectant.Maxwell took the lead, drawn blade, wary steps. Jameson came next, muttering under his breath about how this was the worst idea we’d ever had — which, given our track record, was really saying something. Soraya walked with me, tracing her fingers over the stone walls, feeling the wear of ages past in the sigils carved into the passageway.I walked in the center, my heart slamming with a something I would not name.I wasn’t scared.I was waiting.So was whatever was down here.Jameson exhaled sharply. “Remind me again why we’re heading into a cursed underground tomb?”Soraya sighed. “Because if we don’t, Lena will continue to have visions, we’ll continue to fumble blindly, and eventually, something worse will come knocking.”Jameson scoffed. “Is it worse than whatev

    ปรับปรุงล่าสุด : 2025-03-13
  • The Blood Bound Legacy   Chapter 50: Stone holds the truth buried beneath

    The chamber was still, but the air thrummed with the resonance of something old, something observed. The woman—if she could be called that—did not move, the cracks of golden light coursing through her body like fibers of power beneath the surface.Her black eyes pierced mine, waiting, expectant."Shall I tell you the truth?"Maxwell’s grip on my wrist was like iron. “Lena. Don’t.”I barely heard him. It reverberated in my ribs, my thoughts percolating between fear and understanding.Because whatever she was, whatever this was, I already knew the truth long before she even said it.She wasn’t just a relic.She wasn’t just a Guardian.She was the first.And she had been waiting for me.I put my arm around Soraya, whose voice was tight. “Lena, we don’t know who she is.”Jameson scoffed. “She just woke up from a stone prison. I’ll bet we know what she is — bad news.”The woman sitting on the throne tilted her head slightly as if amused. “You traveled all this way, risked so much, to pursu

    ปรับปรุงล่าสุด : 2025-03-14
  • The Blood Bound Legacy    Chapter 51: The Decision I Did Not Make

    The ruins were crumbling. A tremor of magic pulsed through the chamber, breaking like an earthquake that had lain in wait for centuries along the stone. The air was thick with dust that clogged my lungs, but I barely registered it. My blood was thunder in my ears, my skin quivering with something I couldn’t name.The woman — the First — remained still, safeguarded from the turmoil about her. Her void-black eyes were fixed on me. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t running.Because she already knew what was going to happen.And she knew it would be me who had to decide.Jameson coughed, waving the dense air out of the way. “All right, I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I vote we run.”Soraya’s magic sizzled, keeping the buckling ceiling at bay. “Agreed! Whatever you’re going to do, Lena, do it fast.”Maxwell reached for my arm and pulled me to him. His grip was tight, urgent. “Lena. We’re leaving.”I didn’t move.Because the second I did, it meant that something was over.The First

    ปรับปรุงล่าสุด : 2025-03-14

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  • The Blood Bound Legacy   Chapter 145: The Word Burned

    The word LIAR still smoldered on the earth.Not from magic, but from intention. The burn was too crude, too human. There was no sigil or mystical flair to hide behind. No illusion. Just a raw accusation, left like a scar on sacred ground.Someone hadn’t just defaced the stone—they’d made a statement. And they’d made it here, at the heart of everything we were trying to build.I stood over it for a long time. Too long. I could feel the others watching me—Barin, Maxwell, Elara, even some of the apprentices who had come to help reinforce the foundation wards. They waited for a command, a reaction, anything to show them what I would do now.I didn’t give it to them.Not yet.Because inside me, there was a storm I couldn't afford to unleash—not until I knew where the crack had started.Maxwell stepped closer, voice low. “You think it’s someone inside?”I didn’t look at him. “If it were an outsider, the outer wards would have flared.”He swore under his breath. “Then we’ve been infiltrated.

  • The Blood Bound Legacy   Chapter 144: A Covenant of Fire

    “You called me reckless,” I continued. “You sent dreams and threats and doppelgängers to test my integrity. And I passed. Not by your standards—but by surviving, intact, through the kind of grief most of you would’ve buried. I faced my worst self and didn’t break.”A pause.“Can any of you say the same?”Silence.Then Elias spoke again, quieter. “And what do you propose, then? A Council of one?”“No,” I said. “A new covenant. Shared authority. A seat at the table for those you’ve excluded. A place where power isn’t feared—but shaped, taught, and trusted.”He didn’t move. “You’re asking us to rewrite centuries.”“I’m telling you,” I said, “they’re already rewriting themselves. You can participate—or you can be left behind.”The room held its breath.Then Elias smiled.It was small. But real.“You’ve grown,” he said. “Far more than we expected.”“I’m just getting started.”The chamber stayed silent for a moment after I spoke those words, but it wasn’t the silence of resistance—it was th

  • The Blood Bound Legacy   Chapter 143: The Right to Rise

    We didn’t wait for permission.By the next morning, the word was already spreading—not as a rumor, but as a declaration. The sanctuary would rise.No more retreating. No more hiding our power behind broken seals and inherited shame. We would build a space tethered to the ley lines, reinforced with intention, rooted in the truth of who we were becoming. And more than that, anyone with power, hunted or not, would be welcome. Not just Guardians. Not just wolves.Everyone.The response was immediate.Some sent their support—ancient names I barely recognized, offering blood, stone, and spell to help raise the walls. Others sent silence. The kind that carried the weight of a thousand threats.But it was the Council that answered first.I had barely finished marking the boundary runes when a crow landed on the stone in front of me. No scroll, no flare of magic. Just a voice—projected, cold and clear—from the bird’s beak."Lena Weber. The Council calls you to stand before the Elders within th

  • The Blood Bound Legacy   Chapter 142: The Sanctuary We Shape

    The circle dimmed. The night resumed its breath.Maxwell appeared at the edge of the trees, his eyes wild with concern. He didn’t speak. Just waited.“I’m okay,” I said, voice hoarse.He walked up to me slowly. “You don’t look okay.”“No,” I said, leaning into his chest. “But I know what I’m doing now.”He held me for a long moment. Then asked, “And what’s that?”I looked toward the stars, toward the seal humming faintly in my chest.“I’m going to stop surviving,” I said. “And start building.”Maxwell didn't speak right away. He studied me like he was seeing something different—something unfamiliar but necessary. The kind of change you don't celebrate with cheers, but with silence, because you know it’s real.“Building what?” he asked finally.I let the question hang in the air for a moment. “Something that doesn’t depend on fear. On reaction. On waiting for the next attack. Something rooted in intention. In choice. We keep surviving crisis after crisis, and we forget to imagine what

  • The Blood Bound Legacy    Chapter 141: The Path Not Promised

    She stood there—older, wiser, with a weight in her gaze that I hadn’t yet earned but could already feel settling in my bones. She didn’t move like someone who wanted to be revered. She moved like someone who had been forged—bent, shaped, nearly broken—and survived because no one else knew how to carry what she carried.The silence between us stretched longer than it should have, but she didn’t rush me. That was something else I recognized in her—patience. Not passive, but deliberate. A discipline I hadn’t yet mastered.“I didn’t think I’d ever meet you,” I finally said.She gave a small smile. “You don’t. Not in the way you’re thinking. I’m not a memory or a ghost. I’m not even truly real. Just an echo from one potential. One of millions.”“And yet,” I said, stepping toward her, “you’re here.”“Because the seal responded,” she said. “It recognized your convergence. The self that faced grief, the self that faced guilt, the self that faced truth. And now it offers a glimpse of what’s wa

  • The Blood Bound Legacy   Chapter 140: The Pulse Beyond

    The nights had been still lately—too still. Even after the encounter with my doppelgänger, even after the fire and the whispered threats in ash, the silence that followed felt wrong. It wasn’t peace. It was the pause before an avalanche, the long breath held before a scream.And then the seal pulsed.Not like before—not a flare of warning or fear. This was different. It was deep, rhythmic, almost like a heartbeat. It throbbed through my chest, echoed in my bones, and I knew—whatever had awakened within me during the merge with my other self, it had reached the other side.Something had seen it.Something had responded.The pulse spread through the ley lines like a ripple, invisible to most, but I could feel its journey. It traveled through roots and rock, through the thin air above mountaintops, through the marrow of the oldest bones buried beneath our feet. And everywhere it went, it left doors ajar.By morning, the world had changed.The first signs came quietly—messages from nearby

  • The Blood Bound Legacy    Chapter 139: The Conversation Within

    I stood alone in the center of the circle we had carved days ago, the ley lines still raw from recent shifts. The ash from the eastern watchtower had long since scattered into the wind, but its message still pulsed behind my eyes. You will break. Or you will become.Tonight, I wasn’t going to run from that. Tonight, I would invite it in.I had told the others to stay back—something I knew Maxwell hated. He’d argued for hours. Not with words, but with silence, pacing, the set of his jaw, the way he stood near the doorway like he could stop a god with his bare hands if it came to that. But in the end, he let me go. Because he knew I had to.The fire crackled low. The ley stones hummed beneath my bare feet.And I called her.Not with words. With intent. With the shape of my memories, my regrets, the pieces of myself I had never forgiven.She came like a ripple. A subtle distortion in the air, like heat rising off pavement. Then she was there. Not a projection. Not a monster.Just… me.“I

  • The Blood Bound Legacy   Chapter 138: The Self Divided

    We stood in the wake of that light, hearts pounding, silence clinging to the air like fog. The figure that had worn my face—my perfect mirror—was gone, but its presence lingered. Not just as memory. Not just as a threat. As residue. The ley lines around us had twisted, not fractured but reformed. Like the very pattern of reality had shifted to accommodate that presence.No one spoke for a while. Even Maxwell, always the first to break tense silences, had nothing. Maybe because there were no words big enough to contain what we’d seen.Finally, Nima said quietly, “It didn’t disappear. It just… stepped back.”I looked at her, not answering. Because she was right. That version of me hadn’t been defeated or banished. It had retreated. Like it had learned something. Like it was waiting.Barin exhaled hard, pacing. “That thing—— whatever it was—— it wasn’t just a projection. It carried intention. It believed what it said.”“And it felt,” Maxwell added, his voice low and rough. “That’s what s

  • The Blood Bound Legacy   Chapter 137: The Breach Between

    I didn’t speak on the walk back.Maxwell didn’t press, though I knew the silence was hard for him. Every footstep felt like I was dragging pieces of myself behind me—things I thought I had laid to rest long ago. But Clara’s face stayed with me, not like a ghost, but like a mirror I couldn’t look away from.I should’ve saved her. And the seal knew it.When we reached the edge of the circle, Elara and Barin were already waiting. Nima stood between them, worry creased deep into her young face.“What happened?” Elara asked.“She saw someone she lost,” Maxwell answered for me, his tone clipped.“Someone she couldn’t save,” I added, lifting my eyes. “They’re not just testing my strength. They’re measuring my regrets. How deeply I carry them. How much they shape me.”Barin crossed his arms. “You think that’s the point of these tests?”“No,” I said. “I think that’s the data. They’re collecting impressions—who we are when we’re alone with our worst truths.”“And if they don’t like what they se

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