Chapter 2653: Story 2654: The Vessel of Darkness

The upside-down city collapsed around them.

Stone towers broke free from the ceiling and plunged into the endless abyss below. Crimson lightning flashed through the darkness as Kael grabbed Lena and pulled her away from falling ruins.

“Move!” Isabella shouted.

Everyone ran.

But the fifth child remained standing beside the broken cradle.

He did not fear the destruction.

He simply watched the darkness behind him.

Azael raised his white blade.

“Come with us.”

The child looked at him.

“I cannot.”

“Why?”

“Because it already knows where I am.”

A deep heartbeat echoed through the city.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

Every pulse made the black veins on the walls expand.

Elias suddenly dropped to one knee.

His golden veins burned brighter.

“It is inside my blood.”

Kael turned toward him.

“What?”

Elias clenched his fists.

“I can hear it.”

The fifth child slowly approached him.

“It remembers you.”

Elias looked up.

“I have never seen you.”

“You have.”

The child touched Elias’s chest.

A golden flash exploded between them.

Elias screamed.

Kael saw another vision.

Five children stood inside a circle of ancient fire.

Kael.

Azael.

Lena.

Elias.

And the nameless fifth child.

But there was something else.

A sixth shadow stood behind them.

It was thin and impossibly tall.

Its arms stretched across the entire crimson sky.

Kael heard a voice.

Not from the shadow.

From inside himself.

“Five were born.”

The voice whispered.

“Only four were allowed to awaken.”

Kael opened his eyes.

The fifth child was staring directly at him.

“The darkness did not steal me because I was weak.”

“Then why?” Kael asked.

“Because I was the first one it feared.”

Azael stepped forward.

“Before Kael?”

The child nodded.

“Before Azrael.”

Silence filled the ruins.

Even the Nameless King stopped roaring.

Seraphine looked terrified.

“No...”

Kael turned toward her.

“What do you know?”

She slowly raised her staff.

“The first darkness did not begin with the Nameless King.”

Her voice trembled.

“It existed before him.”

The ground split open.

A gigantic black hand emerged from beneath the collapsing city.

Its fingers wrapped around ancient towers and crushed them effortlessly.

The fifth child looked toward it.

“It has found me.”

Kael raised his crimson blade.

“Then it will find all of us.”

The hand suddenly stopped.

A voice thundered through the abyss.

“AZRAEL.”

Kael felt his blood freeze.

The fifth child stepped behind him.

The voice continued.

“You were never the one I wanted.”

Kael tightened his grip.

“Then who?”

The darkness answered.

“The fifth.”

Azael moved beside Kael.

Lena’s silver eyes ignited.

Elias stood despite the pain.

The four siblings formed a line.

Behind them, the fifth child smiled sadly.

Then the enormous black hand opened.

A single crimson eye appeared in its palm.

And the eye looked directly at Kael.

“Now,” whispered the darkness, “remember why you were born.”

The ancient city vanished beneath them.

And somewhere beyond the abyss, something ancient began laughing, knowing the hunt had finally begun.