The sun had nearly drowned behind the desert's jagged horizon, its final rays painting the dunes in shades of deep amber and violent gold. The sand shimmered like a sea of molten glass, heat rising in smooth waves that warped the air—but it was not the beauty of the sunset that caught Kaiser’s attention.

  Behind the tallest of the sand pillars, high above where no path should lead and no roads ever climbed, thin beams of white light pierced upward like celestial javelins hurled by unseen gods. They shot into the sky with unnatural precision, clean and soundless, leaving no smoke, no dust, only an eerie stillness in their wake. Kaiser’s crimson eyes followed them for a moment, unmoving, but he said nothing. The desert had strange ways of birthing impossible things.

  And besides, something far more urgent demanded their attention now.

  They had arrived at the edge of a cave just minutes ago—Regulus, as usual, choosing convenience over decorum and teleporting the entire group without warning. The wind was stronger out here, slapping against their cloaks and hair, tugging at their clothes like impatient fingers. The group staggered slightly as they appeared, sand grinding under boots, the metallic body of Varisis behind them humming in idle breath. It took only a few seconds before all eyes fell on Regulus.

  And it didn’t take them long to realize that something was wrong.

  He stood at the front, arms crossed, posture as solid and noble as ever, yet there was a stiffness to him, a stillness that wasn’t theatrical, but uncertain. Even the way he stared at the mouth of the cave betrayed something Kaiser had never seen on the manbefore. Not awe. Not fear. But consideration.

  And that was because the cave itself broke every natural rule.

  Carved into the side of the sand-choked mountain like a wound in the world, its entrance was at least ten meters from end to end, and tall enough to fit a small fortress gate. And yet, despite the open sky above and the last gasps of sunlight that bathed the dunes in fire, not a single beam of light crossed the threshold. The darkness inside was total, impenetrable, a perfect void that swallowed the world whole at its edge.

  No light touched it. No reflections danced on its walls. The sun, blazing and low behind them, did not exist within the cave.

  “Is… that normal?” Ivan asked, his voice higher than he probably meant it to be. He didn’t look away, but his feet shuffled in place, subtle, like his body wanted to back up while his mind still scrambled for explanations.

  Elsie had one arm wrapped around herself, biting her thumb as her wide green eyes darted from the entrance to Regulus and back again. “Caves don’t do that,” she said. “That’s not how light works, but that thing’s somehow eating light for dinner.”

  Mia stepped closer to her brother, her expression less dramatic but no less tense. “It feels wrong,” she murmured, her voice softer now, thoughtful. “Like... like the rules of the world don’t apply past that line.”

  But Kaiser remained silent, as did Regulus.

  They stood shoulder to shoulder, though neither acknowledged the other. Kaiser's arms were folded, one hand unconsciously tapping against his elbow with rhythmic thought. His eyes didn’t blink. He was studying the cave’s entrance like it was a puzzle he didn’t yet have all the pieces for, the way he once stared at battlefields just before the killing started.

  And Regulus… he looked like a man who had come to a place that remembered him by name.

  Then Kaiser stepped forward, his boots whispering against the sand as if even the desert didn’t want to disturb the moment. His eyes stayed locked on the mouth of the cave, that unholy place where light went to die, where reason bent and even the sun dared not tread. Each step was deliberate, controlled, the gait of a man not seeking danger but daring it to come meet him halfway.

  Behind him, Aria’s voice cracked through the air like a whip. “Stay back.” Not as a command, but a plea. She looked past him, eyes flickering between his advancing form and Regulus, as if silently urging the armored knight to step in, to say something, anything, to pull Kaiser away from the edge of something they could all feel was wrong. But Regulus didn’t move. Not a muscle. His eyes were still fixed on the cave, and his silence was answer enough.

  Kaiser stopped just shy of the darkness, a breath’s distance from where the light simply… ended. “This,” he said quietly, his voice low and sharp, the edge of memory bleeding into it, “Reminds me of that kingsguard’s power. The one in the North. I think his name was Maw.”

  The name dropped like a guillotine. Aria let out a scream, not exactly of pain or panic, but of something much more primal. Her legs braced as if instinct alone told her to flee, but her body wouldn’t move, rooted in place by the echo of that name.

  But everyone else was still. Mia blinked, but her mouth didn’t open. Ivan shifted slightly but said nothing. Elsie tilted her head with a furrowed brow, clearly confused, but not alarmed. Out of everyone present, only Aria had reacted.

  Regulus finally spoke, his voice low and heavy. “Every kingsguard has an assigned region. Their approximate locations are tracked through an intricate system of observational contracts and sensory stations. Maw... is the guardian of the far North. There is no chance he is here.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Mia, ever the one to follow logic even when emotion threatened to overtake her, slowly stepped forward and added, “Then the kingsguard of this region would be Mace the Falling Rock. But—” she hesitated, brows drawing in, “—he doesn’t have the power to do this. He’s strong, but this… this is something else.”

  Then something flickered across Regulus’s visor—something none of them had ever seen before. Pure Fear.

  His gauntleted hand raised almost automatically, like an instinct drilled into him from years of muscle memory. He held it up before him, and with a soft hum, a glowing panel of transparent light materialized from the metal of his armor, shifting into existence like a sheet of ice emerging from thin air. Symbols danced across it, forming rotating shapes and shifting text like a language the air itself had to translate just to show it.

  Ivan’s jaw dropped. “Is that—That’s an Albus! That’s a real Albus!”

  Kaiser turned, eye twitching faintly. “A what?”

  Regulus, eyes sharpened with something cold and calculating, tapped his fingers across the floating symbols with machine-like precision, navigating quickly through layers of strange glyphs and displays until he selected an icon: a yellow rose encased in a shifting triangle of gold.

  The screen exploded into a realistic map of their surroundings, and a red dot pulsed where they stood. But that wasn’t what made Kaiser fall silent.

  There were two more dots inside the cave. One glowed yellow, and the other one glowed blue.

  Kaiser’s brows lowered. “What do the colors mean?” But Regulus didn’t answer right away. His mouth pressed into a hard line, the muscles in his jaw tensing beneath his helm.

  “There should be five of them,” he muttered, mostly to himself, but loud enough for everyone to hear. “They’re not even near the entrance. Not even close.”

  Regulus finally looked up, the usual humor gone from his voice. “Stay here. All of you. I’ll return soon.”

  Kaiser stepped forward, voice level but firm, cutting through the tension like a knife. “If she’s inside, and if this cave is what it looks like, we’re not waiting.”

  Regulus turned, metal plates groaning softly. “If something was strong enough to overwhelm Lady Celestine’s team, it would kill you. All of you. Don’t mistake her title for ceremony.”

  Kaiser’s eyes stayed forward, but his voice cut through the air, steady and cool. “Elsie,” he said, finally turning his gaze to her, “You’re not tied to any of this. You joined us halfway through, chasing your own goals. We’re close to the capital now… If you want out, this is your chance. You don’t owe us anything.”

  “No way!” Elsie snapped, and she almost launched herself out of her seat again if not for the pull of gravity from the still-humming Jericho engine. “Elsie would throw herself into a volcano if it meant seeing Celestine with her own two eyes!”

  Then she practically hissed at him. “And we’re all strangers here. Even Regulus said so. Elsie isn’t asking to be carried, quite the opposite, she’ll show you she’s worth bringing.”

  Kaiser raised a brow, crossing his arms with a faint grin. “You? And how exactly do you plan to prove that?”

  Before anyone could blink, Elsie moved. In one fluid, terrifyingly fast motion, she reached out, seized Mia’s wrist, and dragged a single sharpened green claw across her forearm.

  Mia yelped, eyes going wide as a thin ribbon of crimson bloomed on her skin. Ivan shouted, already surging from his crouch in pure rage, but before he could lunge, Elsies fangs had already began to sink into the wound.

  And just as fast as the wound had appeared, it vanished. No scar. No blood. Not even a memory of pain. Just smooth, untouched skin.

  “Elsie can heal,” she said sweetly, releasing Mia’s wrist as if nothing had happened. She tucked a strand of green hair behind one pointed ear, her tone light and almost smug. “Faster than any potion. Stronger than most abilities. Elsie doesn’t like to brag… but she’s very hard to replace.”

  Kaiser’s gaze lingered on Regulus for a moment after Elsie finished, searching his face, trying to gauge whether the man behind the steel believed in Elise. After a moment of thought, Regulus gave a single nod and spoke—not as a commander barking orders, but as a soldier who had seen too many variables to pretend certainty.

  “Honestly... Any help will be welcome,” Regulus said, his voice stripped of its usual grandeur. “But make no mistake… there’s a good chance you won’t be walking out.”

  Elsie, who had been half-hovering behind the group, suddenly sprang forward, placing herself boldly next to Kaiser at the very edge of the dark threshold. She gave him a quick sideways smirk, her fangs glinting with mischief more than menace.

  “Don’t worry, dark lord,” she said brightly, resting her clawed hand against her chest like she was swearing an oath. “Elsie will show Kaiser how a true hero fights.”

  Kaiser didn’t return the smirk. His eyes flicked over her, evaluating, but he said nothing to her in return. Instead, he turned his head slightly, calling out just loud enough for the others to hear.

  “Aria. Mia. Ivan.”

  They perked up, standing a bit straighter, each wearing a different expression—Aria, tense but hiding it with forced bravado; Mia, unreadable, her mouth set in a focused line; Ivan, trying not to look as excited as he felt.

  “Stay close to me,” Kaiser said, his voice sharper now, more clipped. “This is not a spar. This is not training. This is not a moment to prove anything.”

  He glanced over his shoulder at the cave again, as if expecting it to move, as if it might grow teeth and swallow them whole. The shadows beyond the threshold writhed with unnatural stillness, and his voice came sharp, clean, carved with iron certainty.

  “Do not run in. Do not engage unless I tell you. Look. Listen. Learn. If something moves, you stay still until I say otherwise.”

  Aria opened her mouth—maybe to argue, maybe to promise she could handle herself—but Kaiser’s gaze cut to her like a drawn blade. It wasn’t harsh, but it was immovable. Unshakable. And for once, her fire didn’t flare in defiance. Instead, she gave a small, solemn nod, her hands fidgeting only slightly in her lap as she clutched the hilt of her blade.

  Ivan inhaled through his nose, slapped both cheeks with open palms, and gave a thumbs up that was trying very hard to look confident. Whether he was trying to reassure Kaiser or himself wasn’t entirely clear, but the grin that followed twitched with nerves, betraying the war behind his bravado.

  Regulus stepped up last, the slow crunch of his armored boots kicking up fine clouds of sand that swirled in the fading sunlight. He didn’t speak, but the air around him shifted—like even he wasn’t certain what waited inside, and that uncertainty, coming from him, was enough to make the silence stretch thin.

  “I’ll go first,” he said, his voice now quieter, more personal, like it was meant only for those following him.

  He stepped toward the mouth of the mountain’s dark wound. “If it’s safe... I’ll call you in.” And with that, the cave swallowed his footsteps, one by one.

  ?? Bonus Chapter – 10 Ratings Milestone! ??