Chapter 140 - The Code’s Weight

The southern ruin's vault loomed under a canopy of crystal, its walls alive with faint, pulsing runes that cast an eerie blue glow across the stone floor. Kael El stood before a massive crystal slab, its surface etched with intricate patterns—the First Code, Vren had called it, the blueprint of a world before the Error. Stormforged Blade rested against the slab, shard-pommel humming softly, like a heartbeat trapped in glass. EX: Dragonflame Reaver lay sheathed at his hip, Stormhide Armor scratched and heavy, Lyra's bold spirit and Rhea's gentle love anchoring his racing heart. His flirty smirk was gone, replaced by a tense frown, masking a churning doubt—Vren's red shard, the Code's cryptic truth, and the burden of what it meant for the valley weighing on his soul. He brushed EX: Gold Dominion, golden veins threading faintly through the vault, molten but unsteady, echoing the shard's strained pulse.