The lava hissed beneath Kael's feet as he faced the third wave of Flameborn. Sweat soaked his tattered tunic, and his lungs burned with every breath. But his focus had sharpened. He had begun to move with instinct rather than hesitation, dodging flame whips and retaliating with rune-infused strikes.
Thalen circled the edge of the arena, watching silently. Kael could feel the man's scrutiny like heat on his back.
Earn it, Kael repeated in his mind. Control it. Don't let the curse win.
He pivoted as a massive Flameborn twice the size of the others emerged from a molten chasm. This one bore armor formed of cooled volcanic glass and wielded a great hammer made of hardened obsidian.
The final test.
Kael gripped the spear and steadied his breathing. He called upon the runes, not with rage, but with purpose. A dark flame lit in his eyes controlled, focused.
The creature roared, swinging its hammer in a wide arc. Kael ducked, rolled, and leapt forward, striking at the creature's legs. The obsidian armor cracked but didn't shatter.
Again and again he struck, and with each blow, his curse flared brighter.
Until finally, the spear shattered.
Kael fell to one knee.
The Flameborn raised its hammer for the final blow but Kael lifted his hand, and from his palm erupted a dark lance formed purely of cursed flame.
With a scream, he drove it upward, piercing through the Flameborn's core.
The beast exploded in a storm of fire and ash.
Then silence.
Kael collapsed.
---
When he awoke, he lay on a cold slab of stone in the chamber of stars. Thalen stood nearby, arms folded.
"You survived," Thalen said simply.
"I earned it," Kael croaked.
Thalen stepped aside. The monolith now stood whole once more. Vel'tarion shimmered within it not in rejection, but in invitation.
Kael stood, bruised and bloodied, and approached the blade.
This time, when his hand closed around the hilt, the runes on his arms flared in harmony. The monolith cracked and crumbled, and Vel'tarion lifted into the air, surrounding him in a cyclone of light and darkness.
The weapon chose him.
The curse within him fused with the blade. Not in resistance, but in union.
He had earned the Blade of Thorns.
---
Elsewhere: The Frosted Borderlands
Serenya knelt by the remains of a shattered temple, her daggers dripping with black ichor. The creatures had been scouts sent by the Order of Hollow Flame.
"They're moving faster than I thought," she whispered.
Her crystal orb pulsed with light. Within it, she saw Kael wielding the Blade of Thorns. Her expression darkened.
"It's begun… and he's accepted it."
A cloaked figure approached from behind a man with no shadow.
"You shouldn't be interfering," he said. "The Order will come for you."
Serenya smirked. "They can try. But I trained the current High Blademaster myself."
"You know what Kael is," the figure hissed. "He's not just a prince. He's the last vessel."
"I know," Serenya said, eyes narrowing. "And that's why I'll reach him before they do."
She turned and vanished into mist, leaving only the whisper of starlight in her wake.
---
Back in Dravenmoor
Kael stood at the mouth of the cavern once more, Vel'tarion strapped to his back. The sky had changed.
The Black Star pulsed brighter than ever before.
Thalen handed Kael a scroll. "Your next destination is the Shattered Spire. There's someone there who will help unlock the blade's second phase. But be warned the Hollow Flame hunts you now."
Kael accepted the scroll with a nod. "I'll be ready."
"You'd better be," Thalen said. "The last one who failed that trial burned from the inside out."
Kael didn't flinch.
"I'm not here to fail."
With that, he turned and walked into the dusk, his path lit by runes and cursed fire.
And far above, in the heavens, something ancient began to stir.