Chapter 2761: Story 2762: The Fall of the First Mother

Ronan threw himself toward the fissure, but Lyra caught his wrist before the collapsing ground swallowed him.

“Let me go!” he roared.

Below them, darkness twisted like a living ocean. Their mother’s pale face appeared for one terrible instant, her red eyes searching for her sons.

“Mother!” Ronan screamed.

She reached toward him.

Then black chains wrapped around her arms and dragged her into the abyss.

The fissure slammed shut.

Silence consumed the chamber.

Ronan fell to his knees. The darkness beneath his skin vanished, leaving him trembling and breathless. For the first time since entering the ancient kingdom, he felt powerless.

The child stood where their mother had disappeared. His small body shook, and tears rolled down his cheeks.

“I didn’t mean to,” he whispered.

The ancient Father emerged from the shattered gate, his six eyes burning brighter than before.

“Liar,” he said. “You wanted her to suffer. Now you have learned what love costs.”

The boy stared at his hands.

“Bring her back.”

“I cannot.”

“You are my father!”

“And you are my heart. Yet even I cannot reverse what the First Mother has awakened.”

Cael struggled upright, blood running from his forehead.

“What did you do to her?”

The Father looked toward the sealed fissure.

“She was never merely your mother. She was the final lock upon the thing beneath creation.”

A deep vibration shook the chamber.

Kael’s face drained of color.

“The First Mother was holding something prisoner?”

“Not something,” the Father replied. “Someone.”

Aren raised his silver chains, forming a barrier around Darian and Lyra. Elias stepped forward, black energy gathering around his fingers.

“Then tell us what lies below,” Elias demanded.

The Father’s six eyes turned toward him.

“Your oldest ancestor’s first mistake.”

The floor split again, but this time no darkness emerged. Instead, a pale golden light rose through the cracks, illuminating carvings that had remained hidden for ages.

Five figures were etched into the stone.

Four wore crowns.

The fifth stood without a face.

Beneath them, a sentence appeared in an ancient language. Cael read it slowly, his voice breaking.

“When the Mother falls, the Firstborn shall awaken. When the Firstborn awakens, all creation shall kneel.”

Ronan rose unsteadily.

“Who is the Firstborn?”

The Father did not answer.

Instead, the child approached Ronan, his red eyes filled with terror.

“I remember now,” he whispered. “There was someone before us. Someone Mother told me never to remember.”

The chamber doors burst open.

Beyond them stretched a corridor that had not existed before. At its end stood a towering throne carved from white bone, surrounded by statues of kneeling kings.

A figure sat upon it.

He looked exactly like Ronan.

But his hair was silver, his eyes were golden, and a crown of living bone circled his head.

The stranger slowly lifted his face.

“Four sons,” he said. “One forgotten heart. And the woman who betrayed me.”

Ronan’s breath stopped.

The stranger smiled.

“Welcome home, little brothers.”

Behind him, their mother opened her eyes.

And screamed, “RUN!”