Chapter 2641: Story 2642: The King Before Kings

The Blood Gate exploded.

Crimson fire swallowed the chamber, sending Kael, Lena, and Elias flying backward. Stone shattered around them. Ancient crowns fell from the red sky.

Then silence came.

Kael opened his eyes and found himself standing on a crimson plain.

Only red mist stretched toward infinity.

Lena appeared beside him. Elias emerged through the mist.

“Where are we?” Elias asked.

Kael looked ahead.

“I don’t know.”

A deep heartbeat answered.

BOOM.

The ground moved beneath their feet.

BOOM.

Thousands of ancient voices whispered together.

“THE CHILDREN HAVE RETURNED.”

Lena raised her hand.

The dead did not rise.

For the first time, her command failed.

“They aren’t listening,” she whispered.

Kael tightened his grip.

“Maybe there are no dead here.”

A shadow moved through the mist.

Something enormous was approaching.

Two crimson eyes appeared first.

Then a crown.

Not bone.

Not stone.

It seemed to be made from darkness between stars.

A giant emerged.

Ancient armor covered its scarred body. Long black hair fell across its shoulders. It carried a massive sword, and its other hand bore Kael’s blood symbol.

Elias stared.

“That’s him.”

Kael’s blood burned inside him.

“The King Before Kings.”

The giant stopped.

It watched them.

Then it lowered its sword.

“My children.”

The words struck Kael.

“You abandoned us.”

The King looked at him.

“I never abandoned you.”

“You let our father become your prisoner.”

“I did not make your father my prisoner.”

Lena stepped forward.

“Then who did?”

The King looked into the darkness.

“The one who lives beneath death.”

The crimson plain cracked.

A massive eye opened beneath the ground.

Elias recoiled.

“That thing followed us.”

“No,” the King said.

His voice turned cold.

“It was already here.”

Black tendrils erupted from the cracks, racing toward the siblings.

Kael swung his sword, striking a tendril, but darkness wrapped around his weapon.

His blood ignited.

A crimson explosion shattered it.

Lena raised both hands.

“Rise!”

Nothing happened.

Again she shouted.

“Rise!”

The King watched.

“Your command cannot reach this place.”

“Why?”

“These creatures do not belong to death.”

Elias lifted his weapon.

“Then what are they?”

The King looked into the enormous eye.

“They are what existed before death had a name.”

The darkness surged.

Kael stood beside Lena.

Elias joined him.

Three blood symbols appeared in the air.

K-26.

K-27.

K-28.

The King’s eyes widened.

“Your blood has awakened.”

Kael raised his sword.

“Tell us how to stop this.”

The King looked at his children.

“You cannot stop it.”

“You must remember it.”

The crimson world vanished.

Kael saw a memory older than the kingdom.

A child stood alone before endless darkness.

The child was him.

Behind him stood something ancient, smiling, waiting since the beginning.

Then the voice whispered:

“Welcome home, my son.”

Kael opened his eyes.

The King Before Kings was gone.

Lena and Elias were gone.

Only darkness remained.

And from within it came one final whisper.

“Now remember who you were before you became Kael Draven.”