The cursed blade still trembled in Ayomide's hands as he emerged from the shrine, his breath misting in the cold night air. The stars above had shifted their formation now twisted into a spiral, as though even the heavens had taken notice of his decision.
But something was wrong.
The ruins were silent.
Too silent.
"Tayo?""Reaper?""Orunfelu?!"
His voice echoed off the broken stones, unanswered.
Ash floated through the air like snow.
Ayomide gripped the hilt of the Blade of Burdens tighter. The warmth of the golden flame had cooled, the light dimming, as if reacting to a presence he could not yet see.
Then he saw the message.
A single word, scorched into the stone with dark magic:
"RUN."
He turned to the sky and froze.
The moon had turned red, its light pouring over the ruins like a flood of blood. The very earth beneath him shuddered as an unnatural howl echoed from the southern ridge.
He wasn't alone anymore.
Ayomide crouched low and moved silently through the crumbled walls, every footstep careful. His training with the Reaper echoed in his mind.
"In the silence between breaths, that is where you'll find the edge between life and death."
He reached the stone altar where they had made camp only to find blood smeared across the rocks.
Not just one person's.
Three.
But no bodies.
Only... shadows.
Dark silhouettes lingered on the stone like burnt impressions shapes of people mid-motion, frozen in charcoal ash.
His heart thudded.
Something had taken them.
He heard it before he saw it a rhythmic hum, like an ancient chant. The very air trembled with power.
From the edge of the ruins stepped a man or something close to one. Dressed in fine robes that moved like silk in water, his face hidden behind a golden mask shaped like a laughing skull. A scepter pulsed in his left hand, glowing red.
Ayomide felt the curse in his blood stir.
The masked man raised a hand. "So... you finally wield the Blade of Burdens."
"Who are you?" Ayomide asked, readying himself.
"I am the Remnant of Kasim. I am his last breath, his buried hunger, his vengeance reborn. And I have come... for you."
He waved the scepter.
All around them, bones cracked out of the earth skeletons wrapped in spectral armor, bearing spears and jagged swords. Bone Riders. But worse. These ones shimmered with a crimson hue fused with blood magic.
Ayomide backed up slowly.
"You won't win."
"I don't need to," the man said. "I only need to corrupt you. Let you taste rage. Let the curse do its work."
He smiled beneath the mask. "And perhaps… show you what became of your precious Reaper."
A Portal to Despair
He slammed the scepter into the ground.
Reality split open like glass.
A swirling portal showed Ayomide an image the Reaper, chained in an obsidian cage, blood dripping from her mouth. Her violet eyes locked with his.
"Ayomide," she whispered through the portal. "Don't come after me. It's a trap he needs you to break the seal"
The portal vanished.
Ayomide snarled and charged.
The first Bone Rider lunged and met the burning edge of the Blade of Burdens. The sword sang as it cut through spectral armor, sending sparks of golden flame scattering.
Two more came.
He ducked, slashed, rolled.
The blade pulsed with each strike, not just feeding on his strength but amplifying it. It was like the sword knew what he needed before he moved.
But for each Bone Rider he felled, two more rose.
He wouldn't survive this.
Not unless
"I need to change the game," he muttered.
He remembered the scroll Orunfelu had tucked into his satchel before the battle. With a quick flick, he unrolled it runic glyphs danced across it like fireflies.
"This spell… calls forth the Flamekeeper of the Fallen Line."
He didn't know what that meant.
But he was out of options.
He slammed the scroll to the ground and shouted the final incantation.
The earth cracked.
And from beneath it rose a figure cloaked in fire, armored in molten bronze, face hidden behind a helm made of burning leaves.
"I heard your call," the being said, voice like an inferno. "Whose blood must boil?"
Ayomide pointed at the masked sorcerer.
The Flamekeeper raised his hand and unleashed a torrent of fire that swept the battlefield. Bone Riders screamed as they melted, their screams fading into ash.
The masked man blocked the flames with his scepter, shielding himself barely.
He growled. "This changes nothing. The seal will be broken. You will fall."
And with that, he vanished in a swirl of red smoke.
The Journey Continues
The ruins smoldered. The fire faded. Silence returned.
The Flamekeeper nodded. "You walk a dangerous path, cursed one. But you carry hope as well as wrath. Be wise in which you choose."
Ayomide bowed. "Thank you."
The guardian vanished into sparks.
Tayo's voice groaned from behind a fallen pillar.
"Is it over yet?"
Ayomide rushed to him, helping him up.
Tayo looked dazed but alive.
"I saw them take her," he whispered. "The Reaper. And Orunfelu. They were singing… chanting something in a language I didn't understand."
"We're getting them back," Ayomide said. "Whatever it takes."
The Map of Lost Stars
As dawn began to rise, Tayo pulled something from his pocket a map, glowing faintly.
"I stole this off one of those skeleton freaks," he said. "Looks like a star chart."
Ayomide examined it.
The stars formed a sigil the shape of the Eye of Nok, the old celestial temple hidden in the mountains north of Odanjo. A place said to hold truths older than gods.
"If the Reaper and Orunfel are there," Ayomide murmured, "then we go. And we end this."
Tayo groaned. "Just once, I'd love if we visited a bakery instead of a death temple."
Ayomide smiled.
Then looked at the cursed sword.
Its golden glow had dimmed.
The next phase would test more than his strength.
It would test his soul.