Book I: The Mark of the First Hunt
Chapter Thirty-Two — The Line in the Streets
Lyradon did not fall.
It screamed.
The east gate was already gone—shattered stone and twisted steel scattered across the boulevard like bones. Beasts poured through the breach in a living river: scaled quadrupeds, winged nightmares, towering horned titans, their eyes glowing with Renn's influence.
And above them all stood Renn Varn.
Coat torn. Skin veined with shadow. Teeth just a little too sharp.
A king of monsters.
Kael Thorn stood in the street below him.
A man holding the world together.
I — When Legends Collide
Renn spread his arms wide.
"Come, Seal," he called. "Let's show them what gods look like when they bleed."
Kael didn't answer.
He raised his bow.
Nyx took position beside him, blades flashing. Borin slammed his hammer against the ground, sending a shockwave through the front line of beasts. Elyra whispered ancient words, bleeding power into the air until the street shimmered with protective wards.
"Evacuate!" Kael shouted to the soldiers behind them. "Move everyone south!"
A captain stared at him. "You're in charge now?"
Kael met his gaze. "Unless you want Renn to be."
The captain didn't hesitate. "You heard him! Move!"
Renn laughed.
"See?" he called. "They already chose."
He snapped his fingers.
The beasts charged.
II — The Clash
Kael loosed.
The arrow struck a charging mid-rank beast and detonated in a burst of seal-light, vaporizing it instantly. Another fell. Then another.
Nyx flew into the swarm like a living blade, carving through claws and bone, moving too fast for anything to track. Borin waded in beside her, hammer rising and falling like thunder, shattering skulls and sending monsters flying.
Elyra stood behind them, arms shaking as she held the air itself in place, slowing the horde just enough for Kael's shots to matter.
Renn jumped.
He landed in front of Kael with a shockwave that shattered every window on the street.
"Still hiding behind arrows?" Renn sneered.
Kael dropped the bow.
"Not today."
They collided.
III — Seal vs Breach
Renn's fist smashed into Kael's ribs, sending him skidding across the stone. Kael rolled, came up, and slammed Renn with a blast of seal-energy that hurled him through a ruined carriage.
Renn rose laughing, blood running from his mouth.
"That tickled!"
He lunged again, claws flashing. Kael blocked with his forearm, the Mark blazing as Renn's strike scraped against the seal itself.
"You feel it, don't you?" Renn hissed. "The world cracking around you."
Kael shoved him back. "I feel you trying to tear it open."
Renn grinned. "Good."
They clashed again—fist against blade, light against shadow, each impact sending shockwaves through the street.
Nyx shouted, "Kael, left!"
A beast leapt for him.
Kael spun and blasted it apart.
Renn took the opening and drove his knee into Kael's gut, lifting him off the ground and slamming him through a shopfront.
Glass exploded.
Renn followed.
"Stay down!" Renn roared.
Kael coughed blood.
"No."
He stood.
The Mark flared brighter.
The ground beneath them cracked.
Renn paused, eyes widening just a fraction.
"Oh… you're finally using it."
Kael's voice was low. "I'm finally done holding back."
IV — The World Watches
From the steps of the Council Hall, nobles and soldiers stared in stunned silence as Kael and Renn fought like living disasters.
"They're not human," someone whispered.
Seln clenched her fists. "No."
"They're history."
V — The Turning Point
Renn drove his blade into Kael's shoulder.
Kael screamed.
Nyx screamed louder.
"KAEL!"
Borin charged Renn from behind, slamming him with a blow that sent him crashing into a fountain.
Renn staggered to his feet, bleeding, laughing.
"Teamwork," he mocked. "How sweet."
Nyx was on him in an instant, blades slicing across his chest. Renn roared and backhanded her across the street, sending her skidding.
Kael tore the sword from his shoulder and hurled a blast of pure seal-force that drove Renn to his knees.
"End it," Kael said.
Renn looked up, bloodied and smiling.
"Do it. See what happens when you kill me."
Kael hesitated.
Renn laughed.
"There it is. That's why you'll lose."
The beasts roared again.
The breach widened.
Elyra screamed, "Kael! You can't hold it forever!"
Kael's Mark burned like a star.
Renn rose, wounds already beginning to close.
"This city," Renn said softly, "will remember me."
Kael met his gaze.
"So will the world."
They charged each other one last time—
And the street exploded in light and shadow
Renn Varn did not win because he was stronger.
He won because he was willing to let the world die.
The last clash in Lyradon tore a canyon through the capital's heart. Stone, magic, and bodies were flung into the air as Kael and Renn collided in a storm of light and shadow so intense it could be seen from three provinces away. The god-fragment trembled. The Seal screamed. Reality itself warped.
And in the end—
Renn stepped out of the explosion.
Kael did not.
Nyx dragged Kael's broken body from the rubble while Borin held off waves of beasts with blood streaming down his face. Elyra collapsed, unconscious, her magic burned dry. Cressa wept as she fought.
They escaped Lyradon through a sewer tunnel as the capital was consumed by fire and monster-howls.
Behind them, Renn stood on the shattered steps of the Council Hall, raising his corrupted blade as beasts flooded the streets.
"THE OLD WORLD IS OVER!" he roared.
The sky answered.
The Year of Ash
The collapse was not slow.
It was instant.
Cities fell in days. Some in hours. Kingdoms that had existed for a thousand years vanished in a week. Roads became hunting grounds. Oceans filled with leviathans. The Beast Continent was no longer separate.
It was everywhere.
Renn did not rule the world.
He unleashed it.
Humanity retreated into the cracks of existence—underground vaults, sealed arcologies, buried cities, forgotten fortresses. Less than twenty percent of civilization survived.
The rest became food.
Hunters were no longer regulated.
They were all that stood between extinction and memory.
The Grey Hunt Broken
For months, Kael did not wake.
Nyx refused to leave his side, stitching his wounds herself when magic could not. Borin became their shield. Elyra lost entire weeks of memory just keeping Kael alive. Cressa hunted alone, gathering food and killing beasts with grim silence.
They hid in the ruins of an old mountain citadel buried beneath a dead city.
Above them, the world burned.
Renn, the Monster King
Renn was seen everywhere.
Sometimes leading hordes.
Sometimes alone.
Always laughing.
Cities that resisted were erased. Kingdoms that knelt were allowed to exist as feeding grounds.
To the beasts, Renn was something new.
A predator who commanded predators.
One Year Later
The world was no longer dying.
It was dead.
But something stirred in the ruins.
Deep in the mountain citadel, Kael Thorn stood again.
He was thinner.
Harder.
His Mark no longer glowed gently—it burned like a star barely contained.
Nyx stood beside him, scars across her arms, blades now forged from beast crystal. Borin's hammer crackled with elemental force. Elyra's eyes glimmered with ancient magic. Cressa wore armor made from the bones of monsters.
Kael drew his bow.
It shimmered.
Then reshaped.
Steel flowed from light, forming a blade in his hand.
"A seal adapts," he said quietly.
He loosed an arrow.
It ignited into a storm of fire, ice, and lightning before tearing through the mountain wall and obliterating a distant beast in a flash of power.
Nyx grinned. "Now that's new."
Kael turned toward the ruined world beyond the citadel.
"Renn changed everything," he said. "So we change it back."
Above them, the beasts howled.
And for the first time in a year…
They sounded afraid.
The mountain citadel was quiet.
Not peaceful — just… still.
Beyond the cracked stone walls, the world howled. Beasts prowled ruined streets. Wind carried ash across a sky that had not been blue in a year. But here, in this small chamber lit by a single flickering crystal, there was only Kael and Nyx.
Kael stood near the broken window, staring out at the wasteland. His new bow—half light, half steel—rested against the wall beside him. Every time he looked at it, he saw the future: endless war, endless blood, endless sacrifice.
Nyx watched him for a long time before speaking.
"You're going to disappear again."
Kael glanced back. "What?"
"That look." She stepped closer. "It's the same one you had before Lyradon. Before you almost died."
Kael exhaled slowly. "The world is gone, Nyx. I don't get the luxury of not thinking about it."
She stopped in front of him.
"You don't get the luxury of thinking you're alone in it either."
Silence stretched between them.
Kael's voice was quiet. "I nearly destroyed myself holding the Seal. I nearly lost all of you. If I go too far—"
Nyx grabbed the front of his coat and pulled him toward her.
"If you go too far," she said fiercely, "we go with you."
Kael's breath caught.
"I watched you bleed in Lyradon," she whispered. "I watched you die and come back and still keep standing. And do you know what terrified me most?"
He shook his head.
"That you were ready to do it again without saying goodbye."
Her eyes glistened, but she didn't look away.
"I don't care if the world calls you a hero, a monster, or a damn god. To me you're just… Kael. The idiot who tries to carry everything alone."
Kael swallowed. "Nyx—"
"I love you," she said.
The words landed like a shockwave.
"I've loved you since before this was a war. Before the Seal, before Renn, before everything fell apart. I loved the way you look at people like they're worth saving. I love the way you never give up, even when you should."
Her voice softened.
"And I love you so much it hurts to watch you think you have to face this world by yourself."
Kael stared at her, something in his chest breaking and healing all at once.
"I don't deserve you," he whispered.
Nyx snorted weakly. "Good. Because you have me anyway."
She rested her forehead against his.
"If you become a monster to save this world, then I'll be right there beside you, reminding you who you are. And if you fall…"
Her hands tightened in his coat.
"…I fall with you."
Kael closed his eyes.
For the first time since the world had ended, he felt something stronger than the Seal.
He lifted a hand and cupped her cheek.
"I don't know how long I have," he said softly. "I don't know what this power will turn me into."
Nyx smiled through tears. "I don't care what you become. I just care that I get to love you while you're still here."
Kael leaned forward and pressed his forehead to hers.
"Then don't let me go."
Nyx's voice was barely a whisper.
"Never."