Chapter 4
1728words
The corrupted essence of the Ascension Bastion lingered in the air. Zik's Kaja crystal device had a cracked outer shell, its energy curve pulsing weakly like the heartbeat of a dying creature.
"The ore resonance strength is down to 12%." Zik tapped the device with his wrench, metal fragments splattering to the ground. "One more use and it's scrap—unless we can find a purer Kaja Vein."
Kael pressed his bleeding shoulder. Sunwell energy congealed into a golden film over the wound, yet failed to stop the ink-like corruption spreading toward his heart.
"That void energy that corrupted the Kyrian... it's flowing with my blood." He tore open his collar, revealing spider web-like purple markings across his collarbone. "It's burrowing like a living thing."
Valery's sin stone suddenly floated up, projecting a hologram of Revendreth: broken castle clusters stood on crimson mountains, anima conduits wrapped around spires like withered vines, with only the dome of the Hall of Atonement still retaining a faint glow. "Denathrius's remaining forces still control the southern mining district, and they have anima reserves," she said with hesitation. Fragments of memories of her betrayal of Revendreth flickered along the edges of the sin stone. "But they would never cooperate easily—especially with a redeemer like me."
Liora opened her mentor's notebook. The annotation "The sin stones of Revendreth hold the key to reversal" stood out clearly in the lamplight.
"We have no choice." She pointed to a flickering energy node in the hologram. "The 'Mirror of Memories' in the Hall of Atonement can activate the complete records within the sin stone, perhaps revealing the truth about the Jailer's experiments."
Zik suddenly jumped up as new detection results popped up on the device screen. "The rift in Tirisfal Glades has expanded threefold! Alliance and Horde forces are already engaged in combat there—they're treating the corrupted undead as each other's conspiracy!" He slammed the control panel. "If we wait any longer, both Azeroth and the Shadowlands will perish together!"
Half an hour later, the four of them stood in the teleportation circle again.
This time Zik bound the remaining Kaja ore fragments to Valery's sin stone. Shadow energy flowed along the mineral veins, tracing the coordinates of Revendreth at the center of the magical array.
"This portal can only be maintained for three minutes." Zik clutched his wrench tightly. "Run as soon as you land, don't worry about pursuers behind you!"
The pain of spatial tearing was even worse than last time. Liora felt countless cold fingers pulling at her soul, her ears filled with the wails of the Venthyr—the agonized moans of anima depletion.
When she fell to the ground, the first thing she smelled was rust mixed with rotting roses. Looking up, she saw dozens of Venthyr knights wielding long whips surrounding her, their armor still bearing Denathrius's insignia.
"Redeemer Valery, you dare to bring outsiders here." The lead knight flicked his jewel-encrusted whip, its shadow energy grazing the ground and leaving a sizzling mark. "Have you forgotten how you once knelt before the Emperor begging for mercy?"
Valery raised her sinstone, its fragments bursting with blinding light. "Revendreth is nearly finished! Anima is depleting, the soul blight is spreading, and clinging to old grudges will only lead to mutual destruction!" She pointed to the purple markings on Kael's collarbone. "This is Void corruption—identical to the energy the Jailer once used to control you all!"
The commotion of the knights was interrupted by a deep cough.
A Venthyr wearing tattered purple robes emerged from the castle's shadows. His left eye was a pulsating anima gem, and he leaned on a staff inscribed with sinful runes. "I am Marcus, manager of the southern mining district."
His gaze swept over Zik's device. When he saw the Kaja ore, his pupils contracted sharply. "Can this thing locate the nodes where anima is leaking?"
The deal was reached faster than expected. Marcus needed the team to repair the anima conduits contaminated by void energy—those conduits connected to the last reserve tanks. If completely damaged, all Venthyr in Revendreth would fall into madness. Meanwhile, the team needed to activate the Sin Stone using the Mirror of Memories, in exchange for pure Kaja ore.
When everyone stepped into the Hall of Atonement, Liora gasped.
Thousands of sin tablets hung from the dome, each flickering with different memory fragments: some showed the evil deeds of the Venthyr plundering anima, while others revealed the struggles of the redeemed seeking salvation. The Memory Mirror at the center was a ten-meter-diameter black crystal, its surface flowing with liquid shadow energy.
"Stand before the mirror and touch its surface with the sin tablet," Marcus's voice carried a warning. "Memories will rebound upon their bearer, especially someone like you who carries the Jailer's sins."
Valery took a deep breath and pressed the sin stele against the mirror surface. In an instant, the black crystal burst forth with blinding light. Countless fragments of memories flooded into her consciousness like a tide—she saw the Jailer standing before a crack in the Unbound Space, holding a piece of Kaja ore, using his dominating power to twist the flow of souls; she saw him mixing soul fragments with void energy and injecting them into a specially crafted sin stele, with runes identical to those on the fragment in her hand; finally, she saw the Jailer, before his failure, seal the core data of the "Soul-Void Conversion Medium" within seven Harvester medals.
"It's the medals..." Valery staggered backward, the sin stele slipping from her hand. "The Harvesters of Shadow aren't just collecting medal fragments to complete the ritual, they're after the conversion medium formula!"
Liora quickly recorded the runes flashing in the mirror. "The mentor's notes mentioned a 'medium'—a substance that could stabilize the conversion of souls into void energy. The Jailer couldn't perfect it back then, and now the Harvesters of Shadow want to complete it!"
Just then, the dome of the hall suddenly shattered.
Seven dark figures swooped down like bats, clad in black armor, with fragments of medals on their chests emitting a crimson glow—they were the Harvesters of Shadow.
The leader removed his helmet, revealing a face corrupted by shadow—it was Leo, Marcus's former deputy who had betrayed him years ago.
"Thank you for helping us find clues to the medium." Leo's whip coiled around the sin stele on the ground. "Valery, we will complete what you couldn't help the Jailer finish back then."
Kael shot an arrow at Leo's wrist. The Sunwell energy collided with the shadow energy, exploding into gold and black sparks in the air.
"You want the sin stele? You'll have to get through me first!" His shoulder suddenly burst with pain as the purple markings spread from his collarbone to his neck. His vision began to blur.
"Kael, don't use the Sunwell energy!" Liora shouted while summoning ice spikes. She watched in horror as Leo's medal fragment emitted a pulse, instantly transforming the ice spikes into void tentacles. "They can absorb and transform energy!"
Zik threw out his modified smoke bombs. Purple smoke mixed with Kaja ore powder temporarily blocked the Harvesters' vision.
"Marcus! Activate the anima defense formation now!" He pulled Valery behind a stone pillar, only to discover that her sin stele was resonating with the medal fragment. "This thing is being drawn to it!"
Marcus immediately began chanting a spell, causing the sin stones around the hall to light up simultaneously, forming a shadow barrier. But Leo merely sneered as seven medal fragments rose into the air, forming a circular magical array. "Just another of Denathrius's old tricks." A black beam shot out from the array, easily piercing through the barrier.
In the chaos, Kael felt the energies of the Sunwell and the Void corruption within him suddenly reach a strange equilibrium. The purple markings no longer spread, but instead began to emit golden light.
He drew his bow to full tension, arrows wrapped in both light and shadow energies. "Let's see if I can convert your energy!"
When the arrow struck Leo's medal, the two energies violently collided, creating a shockwave that sent everyone flying.
Seizing the opportunity, Valery grabbed the sin stone from the ground. She discovered the Mirror of Memories had been covered by Void energy, its surface revealing the Harvesters of Shadow's next target: the Soul Anchor in the Ruins of Andorhal.
"We need to leave now!" Marcus's staff broke into two pieces, the anima gem dimming. "The defensive array won't hold much longer!"
He tossed a bag of pure Kaja crystals to Zik. "These should be enough to fix your device—remember, only the Redeemer's Sin Stele can counter the power of the medallion!"
The four of them escaped through the portal just as it closed.
When they tumbled into the secret chamber in Dalaran, Kael suddenly fell to his knees and coughed up black blood. As the blood droplets fell onto the Kaja crystals, they began to emit an intertwined golden and purple glow.
Liora picked up the crystal and discovered that the same Titan runes from her mentor's notes had appeared on its surface.
"It's Kael's blood," her eyes flashed with insight. "The balance between the Sunwell's energy and the Void's corruption can activate the true power of the Kaja crystals!"
Valery stroked the newly added runes on the sin monument, her voice filled with determination. "The Harvesters of Shadow are going to Andorhal to initiate the ritual. We must find the Soul Anchor before they do."
She looked at Kael. "But first, we need to figure out what exactly is happening inside your body."
Zik had already begun repairing the device, the pure Kaja crystal causing the screen to light up again.
When he pulled up the map of Andorhal, he suddenly froze—the map showed that the Kaja Vein concentration there was a hundred times that of Kezan, and at the center of the vein was the Soul Anchor left from the Titan era.
"It seems this path of atonement has only just begun." Liora closed her notebook. The Titan runes on the cover illuminated simultaneously with the sin monument and the crystal. The three beams of light intertwined into a spiral, pointing eastward across Azeroth—in the direction of Andorhal.
