NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 20: Chapter 20: The Road to Heartgrave
The fire was quiet now.
The sixth portal behind them remained cracked and unstable, but silent. The team had escaped the Howling Spires, broken, scarred, and changed.
Kaien sat by the dying embers of a flame he hadn't started.
Yuki approached him, her frost-cloak trailing behind. "You're blaming yourself."
Kaien didn't look at her. "Six portals. Six scars. And now the seventh awaits. I'm the thread connecting them all."
She sat beside him.
"You're not the only one unraveling."
Saejin's Awakening
Inside a sealed rune tent, Saejin stirred. His hands were bound in lightsteel cuffs. His aura was faint, but still tainted by the Hollow Flame.
Lira stood guard.
When his eyes opened, she didn't speak.
He finally whispered, "You should've let me die."
Lira knelt, her tone unreadable. "You betrayed us twice. Lied about who you were. But I saw the moment your blade trembled."
Saejin turned his head. "And?"
She stood.
"And I need to know… was there ever a version of you that wanted to stay with us?"
Silence.
Then, barely audible: "Yes."
The Heptasoul Core's Revelation
As dawn broke, the Heptasoul Core glowed again—each circle lit, save one: the Void Flame.
A voice emerged—older than any they'd heard before.
"You seek Heartgrave. The Seventh Flame sleeps not under earth or sky, but within a soul."
The Core projected a memory—of Kael Drakthorne, the First Flamebearer.
In a vast cavern, he stood before a colossal crystalline egg, black and gold veins pulsing inside. Above it, chained by celestial runes, was a dragon the size of a city.
Its eyes were closed. Its wings were not burned, but never born.
"This is the Void Dragon, neither good nor evil… but balance unbound. It was meant to dream forever."
The memory shifted—Kael, older, whispering:
"One day, a Flamebearer will echo too loudly. That echo will awaken it."
"That echo… is you, Kaien."
Heartgrave Cavern: The Forbidden Threshold
The party arrived at the cliffside entrance of Heartgrave Cavern, hidden behind a mist-wrapped waterfall that fell endlessly into a void. The rocks glowed with whispering runes, echoing past sounds.
Baran muttered, "This place doesn't belong to our world."
Yuki drew closer to Kaien.
"You don't have to do this alone."
"I do," he replied softly, "but I don't have to go in alone."
Together, they stepped through.
Inside the Final Realm
The inside of Heartgrave wasn't like the previous portals. It was not a battlefield. It was a memory maze.
Each room showed a different version of their pasts.
Lira saw the moment she abandoned her younger sister to save the sacred scrolls.
Akari saw her mother's death at the Sea Inferna altar—while she hid.
Baran saw his father screaming as he was chained to the volcano.
Each had to face their ghosts to pass.
And Kaien… saw himself.
But not as he was—as he could be.
Kaien vs. the Void Within
In the heart of the cavern, Kaien faced his shadow: a version of him fully merged with the Void Dragon—golden eyes, dark flame coiling like wings, voice rich with calm doom.
"You seek to seal me? You are me."
Kaien's spear faltered.
The shadow smiled. "You fought so hard to contain your pain, your fire, your legacy. Why not embrace it? The world fears you. Let them worship instead."
Kaien fell to one knee.
Then he remembered: Yuki's cold touch. Lira's soft light. Baran's proud fists. Akari's blazing sword.
He stood.
"Flames don't choose destruction. We choose where they burn."
He raised his spear—now shining with all six elemental cores within the Heptasoul.
Flamebond Spear – Sixth Form: Unity Ignition.
The shadow screamed.
Kaien pierced it—and the Void roared.
The Final Egg Awakens
In the deepest chamber of Heartgrave, the egg pulsed.
It cracked.
But didn't hatch.
Instead, seven fragments rose—each from a sealed portal.
Lira gasped. "Each seal… was never meant to imprison. They were keys."
The Void Dragon opened one golden eye.
And spoke.
"Who dares rewrite my dream?"
Kaien stepped forward.
"I don't want to be your vessel. But I'll be your warden."