The flames of Radiantus had barely cooled.
Smoke still curled through the streets, carrying the scent of holy oil and burnt parchment. The grand cathedrals were little more than ruins, their once-proud bells now twisted wreckage in the ash.
Oscar stood at the peak of the shattered spire overlooking the desecrated capital, the wind pulling at his cloak of shadows. His abyssal wings curled slightly behind him, pulsing with power and hunger. The city had fallen. The Light had been silenced.
But the silence…
Was not comforting.
It was heavy. Pregnant with something unseen. Unspoken.
Even the abyss, which had howled and screamed with victory only hours earlier, now trembled beneath the weight of a presence it could not name.
Selene appeared beside him in a flash of red mist. Her expression was unreadable, but her glowing crimson eyes flicked toward the northern horizon.
"You feel it too," she said quietly.
Oscar nodded once.
"A ripple. Something ancient… awakening."
---
Whispers from the Deep North
Far beyond the crumbled borders of the Holy Kingdom, across frozen wastelands and forgotten ruins, the Obsidian Vault cracked open for the first time in millennia.
Inside, bound beneath seals etched by forgotten gods, an ancient being opened a single eye.
It was not Light.
It was not Abyss.
It was older.
Older than the heavens, older than the world.
It was Primordial.
And it stirred.
---
A New Threat
Oscar descended the ruins of the cathedral, his every step cracking stone beneath his boots.
Darius met him in the throne room of the fallen palace, where shattered relics and torn tapestries painted a grim canvas of their triumph.
"My lord," Darius said, bowing. "The last of the resistance has been wiped out. The priests are broken. The city… is ours."
Oscar said nothing. His gaze was distant.
Selene leaned against a broken pillar, arms crossed. "There's something coming," she said. "Something not of this world."
"A threat to the abyss?" Darius asked, skeptical.
"No," Oscar murmured. "A threat to everything."
---
The Oracle's Warning
From the depths of the abyssal citadel, the Oracle writhed in her blackened pool, eyes glowing with silver fire.
Oscar stood before her, alone.
"What is it?" he demanded.
The Oracle's voice was layered, like a thousand whispers echoing through a cavern.
"A seal has broken. The Primordial One… returns."
Oscar narrowed his eyes. "What does it want?"
The Oracle's smile was like a crack in reality.
"It doesn't want."
"It is."
---
A Decision of Shadows
Later, in the darkened council chamber, Oscar addressed his closest generals—Darius, Selene, Aldric, and a dozen other abyssal lords who had risen in the wake of conquest.
"A force awakens in the far north," Oscar said, his voice low but clear. "Older than the gods. Stronger than Light or Shadow. It will not differentiate between the abyss… or the kingdoms we've crushed."
Darius grunted. "Then we destroy it like we destroyed them."
Selene raised a brow. "You assume we can."
Aldric, his once-holy blade now twisted by the abyss, spoke calmly. "If this thing is beyond Light and Abyss… then we may need more than power. We may need allies."
Oscar's gaze locked on Aldric.
"The kingdoms we've destroyed?" he asked. "You suggest we… rebuild them?"
"No," Aldric replied. "I suggest we unite them. Or what's left of them."
---
The Frozen Titan Awakens
The northern winds howled like dying gods.
Beyond the Black Spine Mountains, across the Wastes of Eira, and deep within the Frostveil Expanse, ancient ice cracked with a sound like shattering stars. Towering glaciers trembled as something massive stirred beneath them—something buried for eons, entombed not by nature, but by the will of creation itself.
The Titan was waking.
And with it, the world trembled.
---
A Vision from the Void
Oscar stood in silent meditation atop the Abyssal Throne, his eyes closed, his abyssal core pulsing slowly like the heartbeat of a god. The darkness around him shimmered unnaturally—distorted by a presence not his own.
Then—
It came.
A flash of blinding white. A world of frost and silence. And in the center… a single eye, glowing with sapphire fire, larger than any fortress, staring directly into his soul.
Oscar opened his eyes with a gasp, breath misting in the cold air despite the heat of the abyssal forge burning beneath the citadel.
Selene was already by his side. "You saw it too," she whispered.
"The Titan," Oscar murmured. "It's not just waking. It's reaching out."
---
Across the Cracked World
All across the continent, the signs appeared.
—The sky over the Eastern Dunes shimmered with ice despite the blistering sun.
—The jungle trees of Kharath withered, frostbitten overnight.
—In the ruined temples of the fallen Light Kingdom, statues of gods bled cold mist from their eyes.
People panicked. Rumors spread. Survivors of the Holy Kingdom fell to their knees, believing the end was near.
It wasn't the abyss they feared anymore.
It was something worse.
---
The Titan's Name
Aboard a skyship hovering above the Abyssal Rift, Oscar met with the Oracle again. Her skin cracked like porcelain, her eyes weeping shadows.
"You must name it," she hissed. "To know is to have power."
Oscar's voice was steady. "Then speak."
"The Titan of Frost and Void," she whispered. "The World-Ender."
"Ithrandar."
The name echoed across the abyss, and every creature, every corrupted soul, paused… as if their very essence recognized the weight of it.
---
The Abyss Prepares
Within the heart of the citadel, Oscar summoned his war council.
"A being of ice and void is awakening," he said, the room lit only by the glow of his core. "It is not alive in the way we understand. It does not conquer. It erases."
Darius clenched his gauntleted fists. "Then we slay it."
"Not so simple," Selene countered. "This is not a creature of magic or flesh. It is older than both. It can only be bound… or delayed."
Aldric stepped forward. "If it cannot be slain… then we need something more."
Oscar nodded slowly.
"The abyss must evolve."
---
Beneath the Abyssal Forge
Oscar descended into the deepest levels of the citadel—a place none dared enter.
There, at the heart of the world, the Voidheart Crucible pulsed with raw, unshaped power.
It was here that he would forge something new—not a weapon of shadow, not a spell of corruption—but a fusion. Abyss and divine, flesh and frost, ancient and new.
A weapon worthy of facing a Primordial Titan.
And for that…
He would need more than power.
He would need sacrifice.
---
The Pact of Forgotten Flames
The winds howled through the Valley of Ash, a place long forgotten by even the gods.
Once, it had been a cradle of fire—home to the Flamebound, a race forged in the heart of the world's molten core. But centuries ago, their civilization fell to ruin, devoured by their own unchecked rage and the betrayal of those they once called allies.
Now, only scorched earth and broken statues remained.
And yet, the fire had never fully died.
---
The Journey to Ashwake
Oscar stood at the edge of the valley, his abyssal aura pulsing darkly against the winds. Behind him, Selene and Aldric followed, cloaked in shadow. Darius stayed behind to fortify the Abyssal Citadel—preparing for Ithrandar's inevitable march.
Before them lay the remnants of the Ashwake Throne, a towering ruin carved from obsidian and bone.
Oscar's voice was grim. "If the Flamebound still live… they will not welcome us."
Selene smirked. "We're used to being unwelcome."
They stepped forward.
---
The Flamebound Test
As they approached the throne, the very air shimmered—heat clashing violently with the cold winds of Ithrandar's approaching influence.
From the ash rose figures—hulking, charred beings wreathed in eternal flame. Their eyes burned like coals, and their skin cracked with molten light.
"You tread upon cursed ground, abyssal king," the largest of them growled. "Why have you come?"
Oscar stood tall. "The Frost Titan stirs. If it awakens fully, it will end everything—flame, shadow, and light alike. I seek a pact."
Laughter rumbled through the valley.
"Abyss seeks flame? We remember your kind, abyss-born. You forget—we once burned your shadows away."
Oscar's aura flared, shadows writhing around him like serpents.
"I don't ask for alliance out of weakness," he said coldly. "I offer survival."
The ground trembled.
Then the Flamebound warrior slammed his greatsword into the ground. "Prove your worth. Face the Trial of Embers. Survive—and we speak. Die—and we scatter your ashes to the wind."
Oscar's smile was grim.
"Very well."
---
The Trial of Embers
The Trial was brutal.
Flames that burned not just flesh, but memory. Creatures forged of pure fire and agony. Illusions of past sins, risen to torment the soul.
Oscar endured.
He faced twisted visions of himself—before the abyss. Weak. Human. Powerless.
He faced Selene's death. Aldric's betrayal. The abyss shattering.
But he endured.
His abyssal core absorbed the flame, tempered it, reshaped it. Shadow merged with fire, darkness swirling with molten light.
When the trial ended, he emerged cloaked in black flame—his power a fusion of cold abyss and eternal fire.
The Flamebound chieftain knelt.
"Then the pact is forged."
---
Forging the Ember Core
With the pact sealed in ancient blood and ash, Oscar returned to the Abyssal Citadel with a gift: the Ember Core, a living heart of primordial flame.
It would serve as the foundation for a new weapon—one capable of wounding even a Titan of Ice and Void.
The Voidheart Crucible accepted it.
And something new began to form.
Not a sword. Not armor.
A seed.
A living, burning fragment of abyssal power, wrapped in fire, waiting to awaken.
---
Ithrandar Draws Near
Far to the north, ice consumed mountains.
Villages vanished beneath eternal storms.
The sky split as a colossal figure emerged—vaster than any mountain, cloaked in frost and silence. Ithrandar had risen, its gaze stretching across the world.
Oscar stood atop his citadel, flames and shadow swirling around him.
He stared northward.
"This is only the beginning."
---
End of Chapter 23.
Oscar secures a pact with the ancient Flamebound, surviving the brutal Trial of Embers and forging a new weapon—the Ember Core. But even as the abyss evolves, Ithrandar rises, casting its shadow across the world.