NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 11: Path of Embers The First Root – Ashen Will
Narration – Belenus
The Hollow Earth breathed beneath my claws.
It was not just a place…
It was a being.
Alive.
Awake.
And now—watching me.
The gravity twisted with ancient rhythms. The inverted sky above pulsed with drifting auroras and broken moons—some crumbling in slow orbit, others veined with bioluminescent cities swallowed by time. Stars blinked in strange patterns… like eyes. Like warnings.
My claws scraped warm stone. I stood at the gates of something primordial—not crafted by titans or gods, but rooted into the marrow of creation.
This was no battlefield.
This was a dungeon.
A sacred crucible.
One I had to conquer if I was ever to sit upon the Throne of Ash—the seat from which the chosen would anchor reality itself and lead Hollow Earth's defense in the war to come.
But that seat demanded more than power.
It demanded proof of purpose.
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Narration – Third Person
Beneath the canopy of the Titan-Forges, N'ythra the Reflector observed from her silver spire, her coils woven into the sky like mirrored constellations. Bar'ghul the Time-Fanged watched silently beside her, half-dragon, half-devourer. Both guardians of the Root Dungeons. Neither would intervene.
This was Belenus' trial alone.
And he had chosen his path.
The Path of Flame.
---
Dungeon Manifestation: The First Root – Wrath
The world rippled around him.
Stone peeled away. The floor crumbled into embers. Gravity inverted, then reformed—pulling him deeper into a sealed dimension within Hollow Earth. He landed in a ring of jagged basalt.
Volcanoes loomed in the sky like falling stars trapped mid-scream.
The skies bled flame.
Ash fell upward.
And from the heart of a dark mountain, a gate opened.
Not mechanical.
Organic.
A circular orifice breathing molten light, bound by runes pulsing with hunger. Chains of meteor-forged ore dragged across its surface, as if barely containing what lay inside.
Then… the chains snapped.
And he emerged.
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Boss Encounter: Sol'Karun – The Ember Tyrant
He was a giant of forgotten wars.
Sol'Karun, once General of the First Flame, now its cursed executioner.
His molten flesh oozed between interlocking plates of obsidian armor. His eyes were twin furnaces. Ash clouds spiraled from his breath. Meteorite shards jutted from his spine like broken wings.
He did not speak.
He roared.
It shattered the dungeon's sky.
And then—he charged.
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Narration – Belenus
He was relentless.
His claws raked magma through the air.
I countered with a beam—pure solar fury—but he didn't dodge.
He absorbed it.
He fed on it.
His chains glowed brighter. His rage deepened.
I dodged left. His tail caught me mid-air. The blow slammed me into a molten cliff face that erupted into searing shards.
Every strike I landed, he returned with force and fire.
But this wasn't just a test of strength.
This was a trial of control.
Because the more I raged, the more he grew.
He was forged by fury.
Fueled by hate.
Just like I once was.
---
Revelation – The Ashen Flame
My claws dropped.
I knelt.
And for the first time… I didn't fight the fire.
I accepted it.
Not as anger. Not as destruction.
But as resolve.
My chest lit from within.
Crimson turned to silver-white.
The fire didn't lash out—it focused. Not a storm. Not a flare.
But a torch.
A will that would not be bent.
I rose.
And let it burn.
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Phase Change – Victory
Sol'Karun halted, his steps faltering.
He stared—molten eyes wide with recognition.
He nodded.
And then—he bowed.
The dungeon trembled.
Chains shattered around his molten frame. His body dissolved into a swirl of ash and memory. From that inferno rose a sigil—twisting, branded in flame:
The First Root—Wrath Forged Into Will.
It seared into my soul.
And the Elders' voices followed, vibrating through every plate and bone:
> "First Root kindled."
"Two remain."
"The Ashen King begins to rise."
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Narration – Belenus
I stood.
Heavier than before.
But not with burden.
With purpose.
The Hollow Earth accepted me as more than a protector.
It had begun to mold me into its champion.
Its sword.
Its fire.
---
Elsewhere – The Rift of Devouring Stars
Far above, through the rift that still crackled in the sky like a festering wound, something moved. A presence cloaked in starlight drained of color. Not a being of chaos—but of entropy.
A godless thing.
Ny'Orrak — The Hollow Star.
No form. Just absence.
A hunger not just of flesh or light, but of concept.
Its tendrils wrapped around timelines and unwrote them.
And now… it had noticed Belenus.
---
Scene – Kaela's Watch
In a crystalline chamber within the Ley Spine, Kaela stood in quiet vigil, feeling the echo of Belenus' first Root awakening. Her spines glowed softly—resonating in harmony with the dungeon's shift.
> Kaela (softly): "He's changing… but he's still him."
She closed her eyes.
> Kaela: "And when he returns, he'll need more than power."
> Kaela: "He'll need someone who remembers who he is."
She looked toward the horizon—where the second dungeon, the Labyrinth of Silence, awaited.
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Final Note – Internal HUD
> [ROOT OF WRATH – COMPLETE]
Trial Rating: S+
Status Update: Soul-Stabilized | Flame-Calibrated
Dungeon Progression: 1 / 3
Next Root Location: The Echo Labyrinth
Estimated Threat: Reality Inversion | Time Parasitism Detected