Book I: The Mark of the First Hunt
Chapter Thirty — The World Divides
The sky over Lyradon never cleared.
Smoke from burning districts mixed with the dark clouds still clinging to the sealed god-fragment, turning daylight into a dull grey twilight that never quite brightened. The capital no longer looked like the heart of the world — it looked like a wound that refused to close.
And from that wound, politics bled.
I — Two Visions of Salvation
The Council Chamber of Lyradon was shattered, half its roof collapsed, but it was still the place where the world tried to decide what it was.
Representatives from twelve kingdoms sat at a long, broken table. Soldiers stood at every doorway. Hunter Registry banners hung torn and smoke-stained, but still present.
And at the center of every whispered conversation sat one name.
Kael Thorn.
"He is too dangerous to be left unregulated," said Lord Varin of the Western Coalition. "A man who can wound gods can shatter nations."
A woman in crimson robes slammed her hand on the table. "He saved this city!"
"Today," Varin snapped. "What about tomorrow?"
Magistrate Seln watched silently from her seat, eyes sharp and calculating.
"If Kael falls," said a southern delegate, "the Seal falls. If the Seal falls, beasts flood the world. We need him."
"We need to control him," Varin replied.
The room erupted in argument.
Outside, Kael waited.
II — The Grey Hunt Fractures
Nyx paced.
"They're deciding whether to cage you again."
Kael leaned against a cracked pillar, pale but steady. "I expected it."
Borin clenched his fists. "After everything you did?"
"They're afraid," Elyra whispered. "Fear makes people want chains."
Cressa stood quietly at the edge of the group, haunted. "Renn used that fear. He still is."
Nyx's eyes flashed. "And now the world is copying him."
Kael closed his eyes. "Two factions."
Elyra nodded. "Those who want to use the Seal. And those who want to destroy it."
Borin muttered, "No one wants to protect the man inside it."
III — Renn's Army
Far beyond Lyradon, Renn Varn stood before a sea of beasts.
Mid-rank horrors knelt. High-rank nightmares prowled. Some wore chains of shadow around their throats — not binding them, but marking them.
Renn lifted his corrupted blade.
"Go," he whispered.
The beasts surged.
Cities fell.
Panic spread.
And everywhere, people cried for Kael Thorn.
IV — The Choice Before the Seal
A messenger arrived, breathless.
"They want to see you."
Kael straightened.
Nyx grabbed his arm. "If they try to take you—"
"I know," Kael said softly.
He stepped toward the chamber where the world waited to decide his fate.
Behind him, the Grey Hunt followed.
Because no matter what the world chose…
They had already chosen him.
The Council Chamber smelled of ash, sweat, and fear.
It had once smelled like incense and polished marble—like power pretending it was clean. Now every breath carried the taste of burned districts and bodies not yet counted. Guards lined the walls with tired eyes and trembling hands. Nobles sat in cracked chairs and tried to look dignified while the world collapsed around them.
Kael Thorn entered without ceremony.
The Mark under his skin pulsed faintly, not flaring—just present, like a second heartbeat the room couldn't ignore. Conversations died as if a blade had been drawn across the air.
Nyx walked at his left shoulder, gaze sharp and dangerous. Borin followed close behind, broad as a door, daring anyone to test him. Elyra moved like a shadow, staff in hand, face pale. Cressa remained a step back, uncertain if she belonged here at all.
Magistrate Seln stood.
Her voice was calm—too calm for a world on fire.
"Kael Thorn," she said. "The Council convenes under emergency authority. You have been identified as an Anchor of the Seal, herein classified as a Tier-One Strategic Entity."
Nyx muttered, "Entity."
Kael didn't blink. "Say what you want."
Seln's gaze sharpened slightly. "Very well. The Council has reached a verdict."
A murmur rippled through the chamber. Some faces held relief. Others held hunger.
Lord Varin of the Western Coalition leaned forward, hands clasped. "Kael Thorn, for the sake of stability, we cannot allow an unregulated Seal to act independently."
A woman in crimson robes snapped, "He's not a weapon!"
Varin didn't look at her. "He is now. Whether you like it or not."
Kael's jaw tightened. "Your verdict."
Seln lifted a parchment stamped with twelve seals, the wax still warm.
"Effective immediately," she read, "Kael Thorn is placed under joint custody of the Hunter Registry and the Coalition Council. He will be housed in Lyradon under permanent supervision. He will be deployed only by Council authorization."
Nyx's laugh was short and sharp. "Absolutely not."
Borin stepped forward. "You're trying to cage him. Again."
Seln's eyes flicked to Borin. "This is not punishment. This is strategy."
Elyra's voice trembled. "Strategy that kills him."
Seln didn't deny it. "Strategy that saves millions."
Kael stared at the parchment.
For a moment the room held its breath, waiting to see if he would accept the collar they'd forged for him.
He looked up.
"No," he said.
The word wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
Varin's face tightened. "This isn't negotiable."
Kael took a step forward. The Mark warmed, not threatening but firm—like a boundary tightening.
"Everything is negotiable," Kael said quietly. "Especially when the world is dying."
Seln's voice cooled. "Refusal will be treated as insurrection."
Nyx stepped closer to Kael, blades half-drawn. "Try it."
Borin cracked his knuckles. "Go on. Treat me."
A dozen guards shifted uneasily.
Elyra lifted her staff slightly. The air thickened just enough for everyone to feel it.
The room became a battlefield without a single strike thrown.
Seln's gaze stayed on Kael. "You don't understand. If you move freely, you become a symbol beyond our control. People will rally to you. Kingdoms will fracture. Wars will begin."
Kael's expression didn't change. "Wars have already begun."
Varin slammed his palm on the table. "You are not above nations!"
Kael's voice remained calm, but it carried steel. "I'm not above them. I'm beneath them. Holding the ground they stand on."
Silence.
Then a different delegate spoke—older, softer, trembling with exhaustion.
"If not custody… then what?" the man asked. "What do you propose, Seal?"
Kael didn't like the title.
But he answered anyway.
"I propose you stop trying to own salvation," he said. "And start building it."
Nyx nodded. "He's not your property."
Borin growled, "He's not your leash."
Seln's jaw tightened. "Fine words. But the beasts don't care."
Kael met her eyes. "Renn does."
At the mention of the name, several nobles flinched as if he'd said a curse aloud.
Cressa stepped forward suddenly, voice raw. "He's controlling them. He's staging attacks. He's building a myth."
A murmur rose.
Varin frowned. "You're Renn's hunter."
"Was," Cressa snapped. "Until he became a monster."
Seln's gaze sharpened. "You have proof?"
Cressa's hands shook. "I have blood on my armor and dead cities behind my eyes. I have Halvek's scar. I have Joryn's screams."
The chamber fell quiet.
Nyx's voice was cold. "They don't want proof. They want permission to keep being cowards."
Varin's face reddened. "Watch your mouth."
Nyx smiled. "Or you'll what? Call the guards? They can't even hold a street against a mid-rank beast."
Several guards bristled.
Kael raised a hand slightly. Nyx stopped.
He looked at Seln again. "You want control because you're afraid the world will rally around me."
Seln's eyes narrowed. "It will."
Kael nodded once. "Then give them something better to rally around."
Varin scoffed. "And what would that be? Another committee?"
Kael's gaze swept the room. "A plan that isn't built on chains."
Seln's voice went dangerously quiet. "You are refusing lawful authority."
Kael held her stare. "Law doesn't outvote extinction."
For a moment, it seemed Seln might order his arrest anyway.
Then a horn blared outside the chamber.
A long, urgent call.
Then another.
A runner burst in, breathless, eyes wide with terror.
"Beasts!" he cried. "They're inside the east gate—hundreds—no, thousands!"
The chamber erupted.
"What?"
"How?"
"Impossible!"
Seln's posture snapped rigid. "Who opened the gate?"
The runner shook his head violently. "It opened itself! Something tore it—like… like the air split and they poured through!"
Elyra's face drained. "A breach—inside the walls."
Kael's Mark pulsed once, hard.
Nyx swore. "Renn."
Borin grabbed his hammer. "He's doing this here. Now."
Kael turned toward the door.
Seln's voice cut through the chaos. "Kael Thorn—remain here! You are under—"
Kael didn't stop walking.
Nyx followed instantly.
Borin did too.
Elyra hesitated only a heartbeat, then moved.
Cressa ran after them, as if afraid if she didn't, she'd become part of the problem again.
Seln's guards stepped forward.
Kael's Mark flared just enough to make them freeze.
Not pain.
Not force.
A feeling like standing at the edge of a cliff and realizing the ground will not move for you.
They let him pass.
Outside, Lyradon's streets were chaos again.
People fled in waves. Soldiers shouted orders. Fire crackled. The bound god-fragment loomed at the city's center like a sleeping mountain, its runes flickering in distress.
And then Kael saw them.
Beasts—hundreds, then thousands—pouring through a shimmering seam near the east gate. Mid-rank creatures, scaled and horned and starving, surging into the capital like a flood.
But something else was there too.
A figure standing on a rooftop beyond the seam.
A man in torn cloak, eyes like molten amber.
Renn Varn.
He raised a hand.
The beasts paused.
Then charged again—directed, purposeful, aimed straight at the Council districts.
Nyx snarled. "He wants the leaders dead."
Kael's voice was ice. "He wants the world leaderless."
Borin growled. "So he can be the hero again."
Elyra whispered, "Or the king."
Kael lifted his bow.
Across the battlefield, Renn smiled.
A message carried on the wind—not words, but intent.
TAKE YOUR CHAINS, SEAL.
OR WATCH THEM DIE.
Kael's Mark burned.
Nyx grabbed his arm. "Kael, don't—"
Kael didn't look at her. "We stop the beasts first."
Nyx swallowed, eyes shining with fury and fear. "And then him."
Kael nodded once.
They charged into the flood.
Behind them, Seln stood on the steps of the Council Chamber, watching Kael run toward the catastrophe.
Her face held no triumph now.
Only the dawning realization of what she had tried to control—
And what she had almost lost.
---
Renn's Brutal Public Move
As the Grey Hunt fought, Renn did not hide.
He stepped into the open, standing atop the east gate rubble where everyone could see him—soldiers, civilians, nobles, hunters.
He lifted his corrupted sword high.
The beasts stopped, like an army awaiting command.
Renn's voice boomed across the ruined street.
"I AM THE HUNTER WHO ANSWERS WHEN YOUR 'HERO' REFUSES!"
He turned his gaze toward the Council district.
"WATCH ME SAVE YOU."
Then he drove his sword into the stone.
The breach widened.
More beasts poured through.
And the crowd finally understood.
He wasn't saving them.
He was staging the end of the world like theatre.
A hero made of catastrophe.
Kael saw it—and so did thousands of others.
And in that moment, Renn's mask began to crack.