The Thorne of Destiny-Chapter 147: Good 2

The road from Stonehold was cloaked in silence.

Not by natural stillness, but by choice. The Mistshroud disciples marched in disciplined formation, carts laden with supplies, wounded resting atop wards of stabilization, and guards rotating on perimeter watch. Above them, low clouds boiled as if unsure whether to storm or weep.

Adrian sat atop the lead cart, cloak drawn around him, the soul-ring from the fallen Wraith resting in his palm. He’d spent the night unraveling its defenses. Every layer peeled back revealed deeper rot—maps marked with Dust Order sigils, transmission records, lists of bounties. But what chilled him wasn’t the evidence of pursuit.

It was the names.

Names he recognized.

Disciples from Mistshroud, long thought lost in the siege.

One of them had reported Aurelia’s vision to the Empire.

A traitor.

Adrian closed the ring and let it vanish into his sleeve.

They’d left Stonehold at dawn, under the agreement that Adrian’s presence could no longer remain hidden. The City Lord had given him safe passage—not out of generosity, but fear. There was a cost to harboring someone hunted by the Dust Order.

Even now, Adrian could feel the weight of that cost.

Behind him, Bella approached on horseback. Storm padded silently at her side, ears twitching at every shadow.

"You haven’t said a word since we crossed the river," she noted.

"There’s too much to say," Adrian murmured.

Bella handed him a sealed scroll, bearing the imperial wax sigil.

"This arrived this morning. Intercepted from a courier just outside Stonehold. Olivia decoded it. Thought you should see it first."

Adrian broke the seal.

His eyes scanned the parchment. The contents were brief. Chilling.

"The heir of the Mistshroud Sect has reawakened the Bound Star. Stonehold failed. Deploy the Soulforged. Prepare the Obsidian Gate. The remnants move toward the Shroudspire Basin. Do not let them reach it."

Bella was watching his face. "Soulforged?"

"They’re not just assassins. They’re constructs—bodies built around remnants of failed Nascent Souls. Not dead. Not alive. Just... hollow."

She swore under her breath. "We’ll need to accelerate our movements."

"We can’t go straight to the basin," Adrian said. "They’ll expect it."

"Then we draw them somewhere else."

He nodded slowly.

"There’s a ghost town near the Emberfell divide. Used to be a Mistshroud outpost before the curses ate the land. It still has leyline channels and mirror paths buried underneath. If we can reawaken them... we can slip past the Dust Order’s net."

Bella smirked. "You sure you didn’t study strategy in a past life?"

"I’m starting to think I might’ve lived one."

—

Camp – Nightfall

Reya moved between tents, distributing rations. Olivia sat by the fire, refining talismans with glowing fingers, her breath slow and focused. Laen was teaching the younger disciples how to collapse a formation in three steps rather than five. Time was short. They all knew it.

Adrian stood near the perimeter, where the wards shimmered faintly across a ring of lanterns. His thoughts were heavy.

The Bound Star pulsed in his chest, a steady heartbeat echoing against the quiet night.

He didn’t know what waited at Shroudspire. Only that Aurelia had died trying to reach it—and whatever she had hidden there, the Dust Order wanted buried.

"You okay?"

He turned. Reya stood behind him, holding two bowls of broth.

"I saved yours," she said, offering it. "Not much flavor, but it’s warm."

He accepted it with a nod of thanks, sipping slowly.

"You’ve changed," she said quietly.

He raised a brow.

"When we met, you were calm. Polite. Strong, but... quiet. Now, I see it in your eyes. Rage. You’re not just protecting us anymore. You’re hunting them."

"I was never just calm," Adrian said. "I was just... asleep. Now I’m not."

A pause.

"Do you think we’ll survive what’s coming?" she asked.

He met her gaze. "No. Not all of us."

She nodded once. "Good. I’d rather face the truth than die to a lie."

She walked away.

Adrian looked up at the moon, its pale light casting silver across the camp.

The night held its breath.

Tomorrow, they would turn toward Emberfell.

Tomorrow, the Soulforged would follow.

And somewhere beyond the horizon, the Obsidian Gate waited—sealed by betrayal, guarded by silence.

But the Bound Star no longer flickered.

It blazed.

And Adrian was done hiding.

Elsewhere – Soulforged Breeding Vaults

Rows of iron sarcophagi lined the walls—each humming with runes, each containing a single presence. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

In the center of the chamber, a pale woman with jet-black eyes stood before a massive formation circle. She wore no mask, no crest—only an imperial officer’s robe etched with Dust Order marks.

"Wraith Team: Lost. Phase One: Compromised."

She turned to the bound spirit hovering above the sigil, its form flickering—once a Mistshroud elder, now reduced to a chained fragment.

"Your heir remembers," she whispered.

The spirit struggled, howling in voiceless anguish.

She smiled.

"Then we will remind him what forgetting costs."

A lever was pulled.

The vault doors opened.

The Soulforged stepped forward.

And the war began.

The Emberfell Divide was a scar across the land.

Long ago, it had been a nexus of Mistshroud power—a valley rich with leylines, warded shrines, and natural formations shaped by elemental qi. Now, it was little more than ash-choked ravines, cursed winds, and ruins wrapped in silence.

Adrian led the way, Storm padding at his side, golden eyes alert. Behind him, Bella scouted the flanks with a trio of silent Mistshroud elites, while Olivia and Elder Laen directed the main column. The caravan of disciples, wounded, and supplies moved carefully through the cracked terrain.

"We’re getting close," Adrian said, crouching beside a broken stone pillar, half-buried in soot. He brushed off the markings. Mistshroud script, faint but familiar.

Laen knelt beside him. "One of the old relay beacons. If we reawaken it, we can link to the deeper formations under Emberfell."

Adrian nodded. "Do it."

As Laen began to trace sigils in the dust, Olivia stepped forward, holding her hands over the beacon.

"I’ll need a moment. The leylines are twisted here."

The ground shuddered faintly as she poured spiritual energy into the earth. Veins of pale blue light rippled outward. Cracks in the ash revealed dormant runes, awakening after years of slumber.

"It’s working," she whispered.

For a moment, hope stirred.

Then the wind shifted.

And the sky screamed.

A soul pressure descended—cold, suffocating, ancient.

Adrian stood, eyes narrowed. "They’re here."

Storm growled, silver fur bristling. Bella unsheathed her twin sabers.

From the far side of the ravine, a sound like tearing cloth echoed, and four shadows stepped through—a portal of sickly green light snapping shut behind them.

Soulforged.

Adrian recognized them instantly. They didn’t move like living cultivators. Their bodies were too precise. Too quiet. They wore masks of bone and obsidian, each bearing a different mark—Death, Hunger, Silence, and Chains.

The first one moved.

And the battle began.

—

The Soulforged known as Hunger vanished, reappearing behind the Mistshroud front line with a sword of bone. He cut through two guards before Bella intercepted him with a blinding arc of poison qi. Her sabers hissed as they met his blade.

"You’re not even alive," she spat. "No blood to poison. That’s no fun."

Death raised its arm, and the ground beneath Olivia cracked. Spectral arms burst from the soil, trying to drag her down. Laen countered with a burst of wind, severing the grasping limbs.

"They’re targeting the formation casters!" Laen shouted.

Adrian was already moving. The Soulforged marked Chains was the leader—its aura cold and precise, spiritual threads wrapping around its limbs like puppet strings. It raised a hand toward Adrian, and dark soul chains shot through the air, aiming for his core.

Adrian vanished in a flicker of Bound Star light and reappeared mid-air above Chains. His blade came down like a falling star.

The impact cracked the earth, sending tremors through the ravine.

Chains caught the blow with its bracers, and their qi clashed—Bound Star radiance against corrupted soulforce. A shockwave burst out, flinging dust and debris in all directions.

"You know who I am," Adrian said coldly. "You came for me. So here I am."

The Soulforged tilted its head. A rasping voice echoed from behind the mask.

"Target confirmed: Adrian Thorne. Mistshroud Heir. Bound Star Host. Priority Omega."

Adrian’s aura flared.

"Then come claim your prize."

—

Chaos reigned below.

Silence moved like shadow, slipping between Mistshroud lines and slashing talismans from Olivia’s grasp. The girl snarled and slammed her palm into the earth, releasing a ward pulse that exploded outward.

Hunger locked blades with Bella again, but this time her poisons were different—slow, binding, clinging. She grinned as his movements began to lag.

"I don’t need blood to kill you. I just need time."

Laen joined her, forming sigil strikes from wind and light. The two fought side by side, weaving around each other like a storm.

But Chains was still holding Adrian at bay.

The Soulforged’s chains danced around it, each one imbued with sealing arts stolen from fallen sects. One strike clipped Adrian’s shoulder, sending a pulse of numbness through his arm.