KRRRRNK—… KRRRRNK—
The cage swayed like a pendulum, suspended above the black sea.
Time had unraveled. Minutes or hours—Leo no longer knew. The only measure left was the slow, deliberate groan of the chain and the distant, thunderous rumble of the creature dragging them across the sky.
Eighteen remained.
Five had already paid the toll.
Those still alive clung to iron bars or to one another, faces bleached pale whenever crimson lightning pulsed through the clouds. They had learned the rhythm now—learned to brace when the floor rattled, learned when to scream and when silence might buy another breath.
At the cage's center, Aurelia Vale knelt with Leo, cassia Holt, Aulus, and three others who had slipped into the circle without words.
A wiry youth with quick, clever fingers—Lyr—worked a sliver of stolen metal against the bars, grinding it into a crude pick.
A silent giant—Gravem—knelt like a statue, his massive hands steadying the cage whenever it lurched.
And Thalassa, a middle-aged woman with a soldier's eyes, scars ghosting her knuckles—someone who had once worn a uniform in the waking world.
They spoke in breath and gesture.
Aurelia traced shapes on the blood-slick floor with her fingertip: the cage, the chain rising from its roof, the single master link thirty meters above—where harness and main line fused into one.
"That link is the heart," she mouthed. "Cut it, and everything dies with it."
Lyr nodded, eyes fever-bright.
Leo flexed his fingers. The iron ring on his hand pulsed faintly. He forced the Shadow Shard to remain dormant.
Not yet.
Cassia leaned in, voice barely sound. "When it drops, the sea's deep. We hit hard. Some won't make the swim."
"We make sure they do," Aurelia answered, voice flint-hard. "Or we die trying."
Aulus glanced up the chain, jaw tight. "Thirty meters. Straight up. Storm winds. Moving links."
Leo met Aurelia's eyes.
They both knew.
"I climb," he said quietly.
The circle stilled.
"You?" Cassia hissed. "You're not the biggest."
"I'm the lightest," Leo replied. "And I have help."
A single thread of shadow slipped from his sleeve—thin as smoke—looped once around a bar, then vanished.
Eyes widened.
No questions came.
Aurelia nodded once. "Next toll. When the floor drops, the cage swings hardest. That's our chaos. Leo climbs then. Lyr and I keep attention down here."
"There are no guards," Thalassa murmured.
Aurelia's smile was knife-thin. "Exactly."
Lightning cracked closer. The storm thickened, heavy and predatory.
Leo rose, stretching muscles gone stiff from fear and iron. He moved to the cage roof where the chain was bolted in place—four massive rivets, ancient and tired. Above, the chain vanished into darkness, each link taller than a man.
He pressed his palm to the metal.
The shadows inside him answered—tasting rust, tasting age, tasting weakness.
The master link pulsed somewhere above.
A rumble rolled down the chain.
The voice returned, bored and vast.
"Second toll."
RATTLE—RATTLE—
Panic rippled through the cage. Bodies scrambled away from the doomed section. A mother clutched her teenage son; the retching boy sobbed openly now.
CLACK—
The floor vanished.
Three fell.
Their screams were torn apart by wind before they could finish.
The cage snapped sideways in a violent arc, iron screaming. For a heartbeat it hung nearly horizontal—bodies slamming into bars, blood spraying.
"Now," Aurelia hissed.
Leo moved.
He leapt, caught the roof bars, and pulled himself up in one smooth motion.
The shadows burst outward—not visible tendrils, but a sudden lightness, a theft of weight. The Child of Shadows flaw tugged at him, whispering obedience to the greater dark above.
He crushed the urge.
Hand over hand, he climbed.
The wind struck like a living thing, trying to peel him free. Warm rain—thick, metallic—lashed his face. The chain was slick with centuries of salt and blood.
Below, the cage swung wildly. Cassia—and Aulus shouted, feigning panic, masking every sound Leo made.
Ten meters.
Fifteen.
Each wingbeat above sent vibrations through the chain. The creature's attention was forward—toward the distant crimson glow bleeding through the horizon.
The Crimson palace.
Twenty meters.
Lightning split the sky.
For a single frozen heartbeat, Leo saw it.
The master link.
A ring of iron blacker than night, thicker than his torso, runes crawling across its surface like living parasites. It pulsed—slow, powerful—binding flesh, chain, and cage into one system.
Twenty-five meters.
The sky darkened.
A vast shadow swallowed the storm light.
The milky eye rolled downward.
Watching.
Leo pressed himself flat against the chain, heart silent.
The eye blinked.
Once.
Then turned away.
Satisfied.
Leo exhaled.
Thirty meters.
He reached the master link.
Up close, it was terrible and beautiful—power thrumming through it, hooks of rusted iron buried deep into scaled flesh where the creature's harness fused with bone.
Leo drew the Shadow Shard.
The ring melted, flowed, reformed into a blade of midnight. It hummed eagerly, recognizing an ancient binding begging to be severed.
He raised it.
Hesitated—not from fear, but from weight.
Eighteen lives below.
Betting everything on him.
On a slave who had never known freedom.
Leo smiled grimly.
"Then let's fix that."
He struck.
SHRRRRK—!
The blade bit deep. Runes flared, screaming without sound. Black ichor sprayed—hot, stinking of storms and old hatred.
The master link cracked.
Once.
Twice.
The third strike shattered it.
The sky broke.
KRAAA—THOOOM—
The chain snapped.
The cage fell.
Wind became a hurricane. Gravity reclaimed its due. Slaves screamed as iron and flesh plunged together.
Above, the creature shrieked—lightning fractured, clouds boiled, wings battered the storm in blind fury.
Leo clung to the broken chain as it whipped downward, shadows wrapping him tight.
Then—
He let go.
Fell.
Twisted.
Controlled the spin.
The black sea rushed up, foam like bared teeth.
The cage hit first.
BOOOOOOM—!
Water exploded outward in perfect rings. Iron crumpled. Bars bent—but held.
Leo struck seconds later.
Cold.
Dark.
Pressure crushed his lungs.
Shadows drove him upward like living fins.
He broke the surface gasping.
The cage floated half-sunken, bodies moving inside—some stunned, some already climbing free.
On the tilted roof stood Aurelion Vale.
Broken spear raised.
Silver eyes burning.
She saw him.
Grinned like a wolf.
Below them, the sea stirred.
Something vast circled.
But Leo felt it then—
The iron collar at his throat went cold.
Loose.
CRACK.
It split.
Slid away.
Vanished into the depths.
Free.
For now.
The rebellion had succeeded.
The real fight had only just begun.