The square exploded in stone, snow, and darkness.
A massive claw burst from the frozen ground, scattering soldiers and shattered earth in every direction. Then came another, followed by a monstrous body forcing its way upward from the grave below the village. It was enormous—larger even than the Ember Wyrm—its form wrapped in layers of black flesh and bone-like armor, with long limbs ending in hooked talons.
Its head rose last.
Featureless.
Blind.
And yet all who saw it felt its gaze.
Several Black Banner soldiers screamed as the creature opened a vertical maw along the center of its chest, revealing rows of pale teeth turning inward like a spiral. A wave of cold rolled from it, killing every flame in the ruined square.
"The Hollow Devourer," the Keeper breathed.
The Crownblade spun her shattered spear into guard position. "It should not be here."
The creature answered with a sound beyond language—a deep, mind-breaking vibration that cracked windows, split stone, and sent blood trickling from the ears of men who stood too near.
Then it attacked.
Its claw smashed through a line of soldiers, hurling them aside like broken dolls. Another limb struck the chapel wall, collapsing half the building in a storm of splintered wood and frozen stone. The children cried out from beneath the floor.
Kael moved instantly.
With a roar, he leapt onto the monster's forelimb and drove his sword down into the black flesh between its armored plates. Blue fire erupted from the wound, and the Devourer convulsed, throwing him across the square.
He hit the snow hard and rolled to his feet just as the Crownblade launched herself forward. Her spear struck like a bolt of midnight lightning, piercing the creature's side and chaining black energy through its body. For a heartbeat, the beast froze.
"Now!" she shouted.
Kael understood.
He ran straight toward the monster, fire gathering around his blade, the mark on his hand burning brighter with every step. The Seal of Cinders flared. The iron box at his side trembled violently, as though reacting to the thing before him.
The Devourer turned its chest-maw toward him and unleashed a scream of freezing void.
Ice spread across the ground in an instant.
Kael pushed through it.
The Crownblade held the beast in place with every ounce of her strength, black lightning tearing from her spear in wild arcs. The soldiers who still lived joined the assault, driving spears and arrows into the creature to little effect—but enough to slow it.
Kael leapt.
Time seemed to stop.
He rose above the snow, above the broken square, above the staring faces of allies and enemies alike. Then he brought the sword down with both hands and plunged it directly into the spiraling maw in the creature's chest.
Blue fire exploded outward.
The Devourer let out a sound so terrible the village itself seemed to recoil. Cracks of light spread through its body from the inside, racing along bone and flesh.
The Crownblade ripped her spear free and drove it into the creature's throat.
Black lightning answered blue flame.
Together, the two powers tore the monster apart.
It collapsed backward into the crater from which it had risen, breaking apart in waves of ash, frost, and screaming shadow. The ground shook for several seconds more, then went still.
Silence followed.
Snow drifted gently into the smoking crater.
Kael stood at the edge, breathing hard, his sword dim now, his body shaking from the effort. Beside him, the Crownblade pulled her shattered spear from the earth and looked into the darkness below.
"This is wrong," she said.
The Keeper approached carefully. "What do you mean?"
She did not look at him.
"These creatures were once bound to the lower dark. For one to rise here, so far from the gate…" Her voice hardened. "Someone is breaking the old laws."
Kael turned toward her. "Who?"
For the first time, uncertainty entered her golden eyes.
"I do not know."
Then the iron box in Kael's hand began to open by itself.
A thin line of blue light spilled into the snow.
And from within came the whisper of a voice that had been dead for centuries.
'Do not trust the Crownblade.'