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"The entire kingdom came to the arena expecting blood. / Chapter 15 / 20

Chapter 15 - The Trap at the Sulfur Vaults

Leo turned instantly, bringing Sunfall up to parry a lightning-fast strike of obsidian steel.

Standing on the rocky ledge behind them was a tall figure clad in flowing black robes over dark dragon-scale armor. His face was hidden behind a polished iron mask carved in the shape of a screaming demon. In his right hand, he held a long, double-edged broadsword that radiated a sickening, crimson-black smoke—Nightfall, the dark twin of the royal blade.

"Grandmaster Malakor," Leo spat, pushing back against the heavy crimson blade.

"Your father was weak, Caelen," Malakor purred, his voice sounding like grinding stones behind the iron mask. "He believed peace could be bought with treaties and mercy. But true power is forged in blood and shadow!"

Dozens of elite shadow-cultists erupted from the rocks around them, surrounding Leo’s forty scouts. A desperate, chaotic fight broke out on the narrow mountain ledge.

Malakor attacked Leo with frightening speed, his crimson blade carving dark arcs through the sulfurous air. Every time Sunfall and Nightfall collided, a shockwave of gold and red magic shattered the surrounding volcanic rocks.

"You bear the light of an extinct era!" Malakor roared, sweeping his dark blade downward in a deadly vertical stroke. "When I kill you and drain the royal blood from your veins, Nightfall will consume the light of this entire continent!"

Leo parried the strike, but the dark energy pulsating from Malakor’s weapon seeped through his gauntlets, numbing his hands with intense cold. Leo stumbled backward toward the edge of a steep cliff overlooking the bubbling magma pits of the furnace below.

"Caelen!" Lyra screamed, trying to cut her way through three cultists to reach him.

"Stay back!" Leo yelled to his team. He looked down at the sheer drop into the sulfurous subterranean depths below, then looked at Malakor charging toward him with his blade raised high.

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Leo didn't try to dodge. Instead, he sheared off the rocky edge beneath his own boots with a sweeping strike of Sunfall.

The mountain ledge collapsed. Leo and Malakor both fell into the dark, smoke-filled abyss of the lower furnace channels below.

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Chapter 16 - Into the Inferno
Chapter 17 - The Melting of the Citadel
Chapter 18 - The Gathering of the Five Kings
Chapter 19 - The Trial of the Fallen
Chapter 20 - The Legend of the Sword

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