Free Web NovelChapter 30: Entering the Ashen King’s Domain
The machine was old.
That was the first thing Holden noticed about it. it didn’t look like the usual equipment the academy used. It was heavy and dark, covered in symbols that didn’t match anything in the current textbooks. The instructors handled it carefully, like something they had been trained to use but not necessarily to understand.
One of them pressed both hands flat against the central panel.
KRRRRM.
CRACK.
The spatial rift ripped open like a giant hole in the air. It was massive. Wider than the pillars, taller than the arch. There was no light inside it, only a swirling blackness turning in on itself like a storm.
A cold wind pushed outward from the opening and moved through the gathered students like a warning.
Renna grabbed the strap of her bow with both hands. "Yep," she said quietly. "That’s a portal to a death zone. That’s exactly what that looks like."
"The rift is stable," Emric said, squinting at it. "You can tell by the rotation speed. Unstable rifts have an uneven spiral. That one is consistent. Structurally safe."
"The inside part is still a death zone, Emric."
"The structural integrity of the door and the danger of the room it leads to are separate concerns," he said reasonably. freewёbnoνel.com
Lyra looked at Holden.
He was already watching the line of students moving toward the rift, reading the pacing of the instructors waving teams through.
"We go in the second wave," he said.
Lyra nodded. "Agreed. Let the first teams draw any immediate resistance."
The first group stepped through the rift and disappeared.
Then the second wave began to form up. Students gathered in small groups, checking their equipment and taking out their fog filters. The noise in the yard changed, becoming more serious and quiet as everyone focused. That was when Draven showed up.
His squad came through the crowd. They all wore special Rank 2 gear that was made to fit them perfectly. Each piece was meant to be noticed. It was the kind of equipment that wasn’t just good for fighting, it was meant to show everyone how rich they were.
Draven walked at the front, unhurried. He wore a coat with his family crest stitched in silver thread on the collar. All is gear looked brand new.
He spotted Holden’s team and slowed to a stop.
His eyes moved across the four of them, deliberately.
"Voss," he said. "I wasn’t sure you would turn up."
Holden said nothing.
Draven smiled.
"Brave choice," he continued. "I mean that genuinely. It takes a certain type of person to walk into a Rank 2 ruin with cheap fog filters and a team that, no offense, reads more like a social experiment than a combat unit." He glanced at Renna’s bow, then at Emric’s shield with the small dent near the rim. "There are students in my squad with gears worth more than your combined stipends for the whole year. I just think it’s worth acknowledging."
Emric gripped the handle of his shield a little tighter. Renna stopped looking at the portal and looked at Draven instead. She looked like she was trying very hard to keep her mouth shut and not say something rude.
Draven took one slow step closer.
"Here’s what I love about these ruins," he said, his voice dropping to something more private. "No monitoring formations inside. No instructor patrols. No cameras, no records, no witnesses. Just the fog and beasts and a lot of open space." He tilted his head slightly. "It’s dangerous in there, Voss. People get separated and lose their way in the deep parts. The fog gets them before anyone can help." He waited a moment, making sure his words sounded scary.
"When you scream, no one hears it. That’s just the nature of the place. So tragic, really."
He stayed silent, making sure they had time to think about what he just said.
Holden didn’t speak.
Not because he had nothing to say. Because he was running through the numbers.
Maeve was sealed behind the Aegis Array, completely safe. He had one thousand and fifty Kill Points sitting in his system like fuel in a tank.
Also a 1,000x multiplier running at full capacity behind a mask that looked like a mediocre first-year.
A Rank 3 elixir already processed and its power soaking deep into his bones.
And a Gold Chest mission inside those ruins that Draven, with all his expensive gear and his eight-man squad, didn’t know existed and wasn’t equipped to interfere with.
Draven was describing a threat.
He was describing a situation where Holden had no power, no backup, and no way out.
Holden thought about the Wyvern, cooling in the Verdant Expanse at this exact moment, in two pieces.
He looked at Draven as if he already knew how the fight would end.
"See you in the fog," was all Holden said. His voice didn’t have any emotion in it.
The smile slowly died on Draven’s face, pulling back from the edges until there was nothing left. He stared at Holden, his gaze shifting as he reconsidered the situation. He looked like someone who had made a perfect plan, only to watch the very first step fail.
He held Holden’s gaze for exactly one second too long.
Then he stepped aside.
Holden turned to his team.
"Filters on," he said. "We move."
Renna exhaled a breath she had been holding for a while. "Right. Yes. Absolutely." She pulled her fog filter from her jacket and clipped it in place. "Fog filter. Yes. Good. Moving."
Emric had his on before she finished the sentence. He fell into position without being asked, his shield already shifted to his left arm.
Lyra said nothing. She fell in beside Holden, her spear across her back, her eyes focused.
The rift pulsed once. The cold wind came through again.
Holden walked toward it.
The darkness at the center swirled slowly.
He stepped through the portal.
The world behind him disappeared.
