Ashes Of The First Tyrant
Chapter 37: The sound of stone breaking

Chapter 37: The sound of stone breaking

The sound came first a low, grinding rumble like a world being turned on its side. Beneath Thalen’s boots, the stone trembled. Not the tremor of an earthquake or some distant collapse. This sound had rhythm. A pulse. It was breathing.

The heart of the mountain had awakened.

Torchlight flickered against jagged black walls as dust filtered down from the crevices above. Thalen stood at the center of the sanctum, where the three paths of the Fusion Trial had converged. Behind him, Fenric leaned heavily against his spear, his chest heaving from the trial’s last test. Lyssa crouched beside a cracked pillar, her blade sheathed, eyes narrowed at the sculpture before them.

It had once been a statue no, a monument. A giant carved figure of an armored warrior kneeling, arms outstretched as if offering something unseen to the mountain itself. Cracks webbed across the figure’s face and chest. With each heartbeat, they deepened.

Lyssa took a step back. "It’s waking up."

"No," Thalen said quietly. "It’s testing us."

A sudden burst of pressure rippled from the statue, a shockwave of raw aura that flared against the walls. Thalen’s torch extinguished instantly. Darkness surged like a living tide.

Then light.

The monument split open with a groan that sounded like steel being torn apart. Inside, bathed in crimson aura, stood a figure of bone and metal. Not a corpse, nor a machine something between. Its limbs were forged of ancient alloy, joints filled with sinew that glistened as if freshly born. A single sigil blazed on its chest: the symbol of duality two blades crossing above a crown of flame.

"The Warden," Fenric breathed. "They said he wasn’t real."

"He’s very real," Lyssa whispered. "And we’re in his domain."

The Warden raised his massive hand, and the stone beneath Thalen’s feet exploded upward.

Thalen moved on instinct, rolling aside as a pillar of rock shattered where he’d stood. His Blade Aura ignited, a ribbon of pale blue light streaming from his shoulders to his fingers. He landed in a crouch, drew his sword, and met the next strike.

Steel clashed.

The Warden’s massive blade came down like a guillotine. Thalen’s own sword smaller, faster met it mid-arc. The ground cracked. The air snapped. The impact forced Thalen to one knee, but he didn’t break.

He wouldn’t break.

Beside him, Fenric let out a battle cry and lunged, his spear glowing with golden energy. He struck the Warden’s side only for the shaft to splinter against a hidden shield of aura. The Warden didn’t flinch. With his off-hand, he backhanded Fenric across the chamber. The sound of bone breaking echoed.

Lyssa didn’t hesitate. She surged forward with uncanny grace, disappearing and reappearing mid-step a technique of Blink Aura, her birthright. Her blade found a gap in the Warden’s shoulder, slicing deep. Sparks flew. The Warden roared not in pain, but recognition.

Thalen’s Tyrant Spirit pulsed in his chest.

"Now!" Lyssa shouted. "While it’s focused!"

He answered her call.

He moved with all the speed the Blade Aura granted him, every muscle honed through years of training. His sword was a silver arc in the dark. He struck low, sweeping beneath the Warden’s guard. His blade connected this time biting into whatever ancient flesh powered the creature.

The Warden staggered.

But then... it changed.

With a pulse of aura so dense it bent the air, the Warden’s body shifted. A second pair of arms unfolded from its back, each holding jagged weapons crackling with energy. Its eye singular and burning like a sun locked onto Thalen.

"You carry the Tyrant Spirit," it said. Its voice was neither male nor female, but something that echoed across time. "You carry it too soon."

And then, it unleashed its full wrath.

Thalen was blasted backwards, his aura shielding him barely holding against the force. His back struck the stone wall, hard enough to crack it. He dropped to one knee, blood in his mouth.

But he wasn’t finished.

He remembered Raikor’s words: "The Tyrant Spirit is not a second weapon. It’s your second soul."

He centered himself, took one breath, then stood.

The Warden charged. Twin blades swept in a devastating cross-slash. Thalen ducked beneath them, his Blade Aura flaring into overdrive. His sword moved like lightning, a dozen slashes forming a circle of silver light.

Each strike carved away more of the Warden’s armor. Each strike was a cry of defiance.

He began to feel it not just the rhythm of his blade, but something deeper. A harmony. The Blade Aura and the Tyrant Spirit no longer pulling against each other, but coiling together. His aura was becoming something new.

His sword glowed brighter. The pressure around him deepened. Even the Warden paused for a moment, analyzing the change.

Then Thalen vanished and reappeared above the Warden.

"Fall."

His sword came down like a comet.

The blade struck the Warden’s sigil, and for the first time since awakening, the ancient guardian screamed.

A cascade of red energy exploded outward, consuming them both.

When the light faded, Thalen lay on his back, coughing against the dust. His sword was buried beside him, half-sunk into the stone.

The Warden no longer stood.

Its body was broken, the sigil on its chest dimmed to ash. One by one, the extra limbs vanished into nothingness. What remained was only a shell.

From within its chest, something pulsed. A shard crimson and jagged, humming with dormant power. Thalen crawled toward it, every movement a trial, every breath like swallowing fire.

He reached for the shard.

It rose into the air before he could touch it, hovering just above his palm. Then, slowly, it dissolved into glowing particles and entered his chest.

A rush of power hit him not overwhelming, not uncontrolled. But measured. Intentional.

The Warden’s final gift.

Lyssa limped over, her arm slashed and bloodied. "What... what did it give you?"

Thalen stood slowly. The pain hadn’t vanished, but the fatigue was gone. His aura felt heavier now. Denser. But also quieter. Unified.

"I think it showed me the first step," Thalen said. "To wield both spirits... not side by side, but as one."

Fenric groaned from the far side of the chamber. "That... was insanity."

"You’re welcome," Thalen muttered.

Above them, the walls began to glow faintly ancient symbols lighting one by one. The trial was over. They had passed.

As they made their way back toward the surface, each step was heavier, not with exhaustion, but knowledge. The world was far wider than they thought. And the trials of the Tyrant were only beginning.

But something in Thalen had changed forever.

Not just power. Not just resolve.

But fusion.

And far away, in a throne room carved from moonstone and silence, a cloaked figure opened his eyes.

"The child has awakened the first root," the figure whispered. "Let the next piece fall into place."