Chapter 85: Legendary Hero The Starbow

Kael’s eyebrow rose as he finished reading the altar’s full description.

A hundred thousand Source Energy, spent in a single activation. A level 5 territory generated only ten thousand a day, every source accounted for, which meant even hoarding every last point for ten straight days would barely cover one summon.

And a level 5 city could only ever host two heroes at once, full stop.He checked the management panel anyway, and the number waiting there made the math moot.

A hundred and twenty-seven thousand Source Energy, already banked. More than enough for one activation, right now, with room to spare.

No reason to wait. He pressed his palm to the altar’s rim and triggered it without hesitation.

The quiet stone woke at once.

A low hum rolled up through the soles of his boots, building until the whole plaza trembled with it.

The twisted runes along the altar’s surface flared from a dim, patient blue to a searing white, one after another, racing each other toward the center.

Radiant energy poured through the pattern and gathered, thickening, climbing, until it burst upward as a single column of pure seven-colored light.

It speared the sky and bent into a brilliant arc overhead, washing the pyramid and the plaza in slow-turning color.

Across the city, the Starborn stopped. Hammers hung in the air. Voices dropped, then rose again as murmurs of excited anticipation rippled through every street of Ebonreach.

At the heart of the light, a shape began to form. Hazy at first, a silhouette half-drawn, it sharpened slowly as the energy funneled inward and the glare drew down to a single point.

When it finally cleared, a Starborn Archer stood where the light had been.

She was tall and striking, carrying herself with the effortless poise that marked every Starborn Kael had seen so far.

Silver hair fell past her shoulders, catching the last of the glow. Her eyes held something like captured starlight, and between her brows a glowing rune pulsed softly, matching every other member of her race.

She wore fitted silver leather armor, clean and practical, built for an archer’s full range of motion rather than for show. A sleek longbow rode slung across one shoulder.

The moment her feet touched stone, she dropped to one knee and bowed her head.

"This servant, Lyra, greets her lord."A clean chime sounded in Kael’s ears.

[Notification: Starborn Altar activated. Legendary hero summoned Lyra, the Starbow."]

"A Legendary, first try." Satisfaction spread across Kael’s face.

Hero rarity off that altar fluctuated randomly between Silver and Legendary, weighted heavily toward the low end.

By any reasonable estimate, the odds of pulling the top tier sat somewhere below one in ten thousand.

The Ring of Infinite Fortune, doing exactly what it says on the label. Absolutely unbeatable when it comes to odds like these.

Curious now, he pulled up her full profile.

[LYRA, THE STARBOW]

Race: Starborn

Bloodline Tier: Legendary

Level: 50

Constitution ★★★★★★★★★

Strength ★★★★★★★★★★★★

Agility ★★★★★★★★★★★★

Spirit ★★★★★★★★★

Skills: Starshot (B), Starfall Barrage (B), Meteor Volley (A), Starpiercer (A), Starbreaker (S), Celestial Surge (S)

Born from the union of Starstone essence and the raw power of the Astral Heavens, every Starborn hero is a natural-born archer, capable of channeling that same celestial force directly into their arrows, strong enough at its peak to shatter stars outright.

Forty-two stars total, a genuinely impressive spread for a Legendary-tier unit on its own. What caught Kael’s attention harder was the skill list underneath.

Two full S-rank skills.

Even Thunder Roc and Wraithlord, before his own evolution investment reshaped them, had carried exactly one apiece.

Walking in with two already native to her kit put Lyra firmly among the strongest Legendary heroes he’d ever come across, start to finish.

And I’ve been short a real fifth companion for days now.A Starborn archer, summoned directly from a city he controlled outright, solved that gap cleanly.

No awkward overlap with anything already in his roster. Nothing but pure upside.

Her level sat eleven full points above his own, with stats to match.

Bonded properly, she’d open up solo clears across almost anything below level 55 without much resistance. His own leveling pace stood to accelerate hard once she joined the rotation.

One problem stood in the way. His companion roster already sat full.Claiming her meant releasing someone first.

He opened a chat window and fired off a short message to Alexis.Kael: Meet me at these coordinates. Twenty minutes.

Alexis was deep in a grinding session with a few of her own people when the message landed.

The glow of the chat window sat small against the chaos of the fight, and something in her chest tightened the instant she read it.

She had a fairly good guess what this was about.The past several days bonded to Kael had been, strictly by the numbers, the best run of her career.

A flat fifty percent boost to every stat, experience requirements cut in half across the board.

Her climb up the rankings had been nothing short of explosive, second place on the server now firmly within reach.Reading his message, she found she didn’t want to let that go.

She made some excuse to her people and peeled away from the fight, the noise of it fading behind her as she followed the coordinates out to an empty stretch of ground.

Wind moved through the grass. She stood alone in it and waited, watching the sky.

A few minutes later, wingbeats cut through the air overhead, heavy and rhythmic.

Thunder Roc came down out of the clouds, wreathed now in gold rather than blue, its landing flattening the grass in a wide ring around her. Kael slid off its back before the great wings had finished folding.

She’d started shaping a smile to greet him with when something else caught her eye.

A second figure dismounted the same companion a beat behind him. A tall, striking Starborn woman with silver hair and silver eyes, longbow slung across her back.

She stepped down without a sound and fell into step close behind Kael like she belonged there.

Alexis’s gaze sharpened without her quite meaning it to. Some instinctive, unwelcome comparison was already running before she could stop it.

Whoever this archer was, she carried herself with an effortless, otherworldly elegance that was genuinely hard to look away from. The light seemed to prefer her.

Something cold settled low in Alexis’s stomach, an unease she couldn’t immediately name.

Kael, entirely oblivious to the shift in her expression, offered a short greeting. Then, without much ceremony, he raised one hand and severed the bond between them.