The dawn above the Universität der Ewigen Flamme was an inferno of color—amber and molten gold streaked across a sky torn by storms of residual mana. The Crucible Trials had ended, but the world had shifted irrevocably.
Maximilian Kriegswald stood at the Pinnacle of Wyrms, where ancient statues of ash dragons loomed above him like guardians of a forgotten age. The Cradle of Thrones was approaching—and with it, the reckoning of Houses, guilds, and secret Orders alike.
Yet Maximilian's thoughts were elsewhere.
Training Grounds: Hall of Resonant Blades
Before the coming storm, there was training.
Under the grand vaults of the Hall of Resonant Blades, he faced Alwin Stahlgrau and Lirael von Eismond, his closest companions—yet also his fiercest rivals. Runes sparked along the obsidian floor, and the air sang with the tension of imminent conflict.
"Focus!" barked Instructor Velmira, a scarred duelist who had once bested dragons in single combat. "You are no longer Initiates—your blood has been tempered. Prove it!"
Maximilian adjusted his stance, his soul weapon—Zeitbrecher—gleaming in its longblade form.
Alwin hefted his stormforged hammer, the weapon radiating kinetic pulses. Lirael, cold as the midwinter moon, summoned a veil of ice petals around herself.
The clash was immediate.
Chrono-Step: Shifted Vector!Sturmwandler Aspect: Accelerated Impact!Eisrosenkranz: Absolute Bloom!
Blades met hammer met crystallized frost. The hall shook with each collision, runes flashing violet to absorb the shockwaves. Maximilian wove through the battle, reading movements two heartbeats ahead—his gift of temporal anchoring now instinctive.
But Alwin had evolved too. Each swing of his hammer distorted gravitational fields, tugging at Maximilian's momentum. Lirael's frost blossoms detonated in silence, freezing space itself, warping paths of advance.
They were no longer merely peers.
They were forces in their own right.
Lore Drop: The Oathbound Houses
In the Era of Ash, as the first kingdoms fell to the Dungeon Plague, the strongest survivors forged Oaths before the Eternal Flame itself, binding their bloodlines to Laws beyond mortal interference. These became the Oathbound Houses—clans of power, tradition, and inevitable decline.
Haus Pyrolith — Blood of Ember Sovereigns
Haus Wyrmbinder — Blood of the Ash Wyrms
Haus Eismond — Blood of the Frozen Scepter
Haus Stahlgrau — Blood of Broken Anvils
Haus Vulcanos — Blood of the Living Forge
The coming Cradle would determine the next Lords of Flame—and the next Wars of Succession.
Political Intrigue: Assembly of the Ashen Seats
While Maximilian trained, power shifted behind closed doors.
In the highest chamber of the university—the Infernal Rotunda—delegates of the Five Houses convened.
Grand Marshal Grauwind, iron-eyed and merciless, pressed for Maximilian's forced integration into Haus Pyrolith under 'emergency wartime necessity.'
Warden Isolde Wyrmbinder, crowned in dragonbone regalia, demanded Maximilian be offered the ancient Wyrmbinder Pact.
Lord Eismond, cold and shrouded in arctic mist, spoke of neutrality—yet his offers to Maximilian's backers had tripled overnight.
And from the shadows, Vulcanos agents moved like silent embers, offering apprenticeships in secret Soul-Forge sanctuaries.
Each wanted Maximilian.
Each feared what he might become if left untethered.
Item Profile: Zeitbrecher – Form Unlock
Name: Zeitbrecher – Phase 3 Unsealed
Type: Soul Weapon (Temporal-Resonance Class)
Base Form: Longblade/Chakram
Unlocked Form: Chrono-Crest Spear
Unique Trait: "Paradox Veil" — For 5 seconds after activation, negate the next instance of causality breach (e.g., deathblow, critical injury).
Forged in the heart of a dying star and bound to Maximilian's Star Soul Class. Its deeper transformations remain dormant, awaiting the right Catalyst Event.
Character Interlude: Lirael von Eismond
Later that night, beneath the frozen oaks of the North Garden, Maximilian found Lirael alone, gazing at the skeletal boughs under a starless sky.
"You never asked me why I fight," she said, voice brittle as glass.
"You would not have answered," Maximilian replied.
She smiled faintly. "No... but tonight, I will."
Her family—the von Eismonds—had long been bound to Stiller Frost, a dormant primal dungeon buried beneath the polar seas. Recently, it had begun to awaken—its denizens breaching into the world above.
"I must ascend," she whispered, "or I will lose my people."
Maximilian nodded once. In that moment, their rivalry softened—if only slightly—into kinship forged by inevitability.
The Next Trial: Cradle of Thrones
At the heart of the university, the Cradle of Thrones began to hum with ancient power.
This would not be a duel. Not a classroom trial. Not even a conventional dungeon raid.
This would be a war for inheritance.
Only those recognized by ancient relics—such as Throne Keys—could participate.
Only one could ascend to rule the Flame Parliament.
And somewhere in the obsidian deep, a chained god began to stir, sensing Maximilian's approach.
End of Chapter 26: Eid des Aschekönigs – Oath of the Ashen King