Chapter 2763: Story 2764: The Blood That Remembered

Ronan felt no pain.

The Firstborn’s hand had entered his chest, yet no blood spilled. Instead, golden light poured between the stranger’s fingers, illuminating the corridor like a second sunrise.

Ronan gasped.

Something inside him awakened.

Lyra screamed his name and fired an arrow. It struck the Firstborn’s shoulder, but the shaft dissolved before touching flesh.

“Get away from him!” she shouted.

The Firstborn ignored her.

“Look at me, little brother. Remember what Mother took from us.”

Ronan’s knees buckled.

The corridor disappeared.

He stood inside a burning nursery. Five cradles surrounded a black stone altar. A silver crown rested beside the oldest cradle, while a woman knelt before a child whose eyes shone like molten gold.

The Firstborn.

He was younger than Ronan had imagined, no more than a frightened boy.

Their mother stood over him, holding a blade made from her own blood.

“Please,” the child begged. “I can change. I promise.”

She pressed the blade against his forehead.

“I know.”

Then she whispered a name Ronan could not hear.

The child screamed as golden light poured from his body. His crown shattered. His memories broke into thousands of burning fragments, and his mother carried them toward the other cradles.

Ronan understood.

She had not merely erased the Firstborn.

She had divided what he was and hidden pieces of him inside his brothers.

One piece entered the child who would become Elias. Another flowed into Aren. A third disappeared into Darian.

The final fragment entered a newborn with long dark hair.

Ronan.

The nursery vanished.

He returned to the corridor, choking as the Firstborn withdrew his hand. A glowing golden mark now burned over Ronan’s heart.

“You were never the chosen heir,” the Firstborn whispered. “You were my prison.”

Ronan staggered backward.

The ancient Father roared, releasing six beams of fire toward the Firstborn. The stranger raised his hand, and the flames froze in midair.

“Still protecting your little experiment?” he asked.

The Father’s expression twisted with fury.

“I was protecting creation!”

“You were protecting your throne.”

With a flick of his wrist, the Firstborn hurled the frozen flames back. The Father crashed against the corridor wall, cracking the ancient stone.

Elias struggled upright, staring at Ronan.

“What did he do to you?”

Ronan touched the glowing mark.

“I remember something.”

His brothers gathered around him.

“He was inside all of us,” Ronan continued. “Mother divided him among her children.”

Darian’s violet flames flickered.

“Then what happens if those pieces return to him?”

The Firstborn smiled.

“Then I become whole.”

Their mother pulled desperately against her chains.

“Ronan, listen to me! You must never let him take the last piece!”

Ronan looked down at his chest.

The golden mark began to pulse.

A second voice whispered from within him.

Not the ancient Father’s.

Not the forgotten child’s.

His own voice, younger and terrified.

“Brother, please don’t let her close the door again.”

Ronan froze.

The Firstborn extended his hand.

“Come home.”

Behind Ronan, every crown in the corridor began to melt.

And Lyra saw golden eyes opening beneath his own.