Book I: The Mark of the First Hunt
Chapter Twenty-Six — The Night the Hunters Rebelled
Redfall did not wake up to sunrise.
It woke to screams.
Not from beasts.
From hunters.
The Registry's enforcement squads hit the underground shelters just before dawn—armored units with suppression runes glowing on their shields, their orders stamped with the emergency seal of Magistrate Seln herself.
"By authority of the Hunter Registry—"
They never finished the sentence.
A dozen outlaw hunters poured out of the collapsed sewer entrance like a storm, blades flashing, spells igniting, desperation turning into fury.
The rebellion had begun.
I — The First Line is Drawn
Kael felt it from across the city—the shift in tension, the sharp spike of violence like a knife in the air.
"They found one of the cells," Elyra whispered.
Nyx was already moving. "Which one?"
Elyra closed her eyes, blood trickling faintly from her nose as she reached outward. "West quarter. Refuge tunnel."
Borin grabbed his hammer. "That's full of civilians."
Kael's jaw tightened. "Then we move."
They didn't ride. Riding was too visible.
They ran.
II — Hunters vs Hunters
The tunnel entrance was a battlefield when they arrived.
Registry shields glowed blue in the half-light. Outlaw hunters were pinned behind overturned carts and broken stone, trading bolts of magic and steel.
A Registry captain shouted, "You're all under arrest for treason!"
A young outlaw screamed back, "We're saving lives!"
Kael stepped into the open.
The Mark flared.
"Stop," he said.
The air pressed outward from him.
Weapons trembled.
Shields cracked.
Hunters on both sides froze, feeling the boundary tighten.
"This ends now," Kael said.
The Registry captain's face twisted. "Seize him!"
No one moved.
Nyx slipped behind the captain and knocked him unconscious.
Borin charged, breaking through the shield line like a living battering ram.
Elyra whispered a word that cost her something she could never get back, and the air wrapped around the Registry troops, pinning them in place.
Within minutes, the fight was over.
The refugees were safe.
But the world had crossed a line.
III — Renn Unleashes Hell
Far away, Renn Varn felt it.
The rebellion.
He smiled.
"Good," he whispered. "Let them burn each other."
He turned to a massive sealed gate carved into the ruins of a once-great cathedral.
Behind it, something enormous moved.
Something old.
"Wake up," Renn murmured.
The gate cracked.
And something that had never been meant to walk the world stirred.
IV — Fear in the Grey Hunt
That night, as outlaw hunters flooded Redfall, Nyx sat alone on a rooftop watching Kael direct evacuations with calm knowing.
He was… radiant.
Not glowing.
Commanding.
And it scared her.
Elyra joined her quietly. "You feel it too."
Nyx nodded. "He's becoming something else."
Elyra's voice trembled. "Every time he uses the Seal, he steps farther from us."
Nyx clenched her fists. "I won't lose him."
Below, Kael turned, sensing her gaze.
Their eyes met.
For a moment, he was just Kael again.
And Nyx breathed.
V — The Beast Worse Than Beasts
The next day, Renn's new horror arrived.
A city fell in minutes.
Not to beasts.
To a thing.
Reports came in through screaming messengers:
"It walks like a mountain!"
"It doesn't stop!"
"It's not alive—it's a breach given form!"
Elyra read the messages, horror filling her eyes.
"Renn has unleashed a god-fragment."
Kael closed his eyes.
"The war has escalated."
And the night, for the first time, seemed to agree.
Book I: The Mark of the First Hunt
Chapter Twenty-Seven — When Gods Bleed
The capital of Lyradon had never known fear.
It was a city built on certainty—white towers of rune-etched marble, floating bridges suspended by ancient magic, skyships docking against spires like birds against cliffs. It was the seat of kings, of the Hunter Registry, of the belief that the Beast Continent was distant and contained.
On the morning it fell, the bells rang for nothing.
No invasion.
No warning.
Just a tremor.
At first it was mistaken for a minor quake. The people of Lyradon were used to deep-magic shifts beneath the earth. The old seals groaned sometimes.
Then the sky cracked.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
A line of black spread from horizon to horizon like a blade dragged across glass. Light warped around it. Birds fell from the air.
And from that wound in the heavens…
…something came through.
I — The God-Fragment
It did not descend.
It unfolded.
A vast, impossible shape of living stone and shadow, dozens of limbs dragging itself into reality as if the sky were a door too small to hold it. Runes older than language burned across its surface, glowing and cracking like dying stars.
The ancient wards of Lyradon screamed.
And failed.
When it touched the ground, half the outer district collapsed into dust.
The screams began then.
Thousands.
The god-fragment turned a single vast eye toward the city.
And stepped forward.
II — The Grey Hunt Arrives
Kael felt it from three cities away.
The Seal surged like a heart attack in his chest, driving him to one knee as visions flooded his mind—Lyradon in ruins, the god-fragment tearing reality open with every movement.
Nyx grabbed him. "Kael!"
"Capital," he gasped. "We have to—now."
They didn't debate.
They rode through the night, outlaw hunters joining them in waves as word spread of the catastrophe.
By dawn, Lyradon was a burning horizon.
Borin stared at the devastation. "That's not a beast."
Elyra's voice was hollow. "It's a wound."
Kael dismounted, Mark blazing.
"Then we close it."
III — Battle with a God
The god-fragment saw Kael the moment he stepped into the city.
Not with eyes.
With recognition.
It turned.
The air collapsed inward, flinging soldiers and beasts alike aside.
Kael stood firm.
Nyx and Borin flanked him. Elyra began chanting, blood already running from her nose.
The outlaw hunters behind them hesitated.
Kael raised his bow.
"This thing isn't alive," he said. "It's a door given flesh."
The god-fragment roared.
They charged.
IV — Renn Watches
From a distant spire torn free of gravity, Renn Varn observed the battle through shimmering rifts.
"Beautiful," he whispered.
Cressa stood behind him, shaking. "You're killing everything."
Renn smiled. "No. I'm teaching the world who decides."
V — When Gods Bleed
Kael loosed.
The arrow struck the god-fragment's chest.
And for the first time in centuries…
A god bled.
The black ichor spilled across the marble streets of Lyradon.
And the world realized something terrifying:
The divine was no longer untouchable.