The Forbidden Beasts shattered against the Heartland walls.
Flesh monstrosities howled.
Acid sprays melted battlements.
The sky itself seemed to bleed.
But Kaelen Drayce stood unmoving atop the central tower.
Sovereignblade Astryn gleamed in his grasp.
The cracked-crown sigil on his chest pulsed brighter and brighter —
matching the thundering beat of the Nexus Core far beneath the earth.
He could feel it.
The Sovereign Heart Strike stirring inside him —
an ancient power demanding a price.
And Kaelen was ready to pay it.
All of it.
[System Notification]
[Sovereign Heart Strike - Activation Requirements Met.]
[Warning: Severe Soulforce Drain Imminent.]
[Proceed?]
Kaelen breathed in.
The weight of the world pressed down.
He saw the Pathbreakers fighting below,
bloodied but unbowed.
He thought of his family, far away.
He thought of the dreams they all carried.
He smiled.
"Proceed."
The Awakening
Silver light erupted from Kaelen's body.
The very stones of the Heartland Citadel responded,
echoing his will through ancient Sovereign channels.
The Forbidden Beasts paused, sensing something wrong —
something greater than them.
Kaelen raised Sovereignblade Astryn high.
"I carry not a crown," he roared,
"but a world's broken hopes."
"I do not kneel."
"I rise."
He thrust the blade into the Heartstone at the fortress' core.
The Sovereign Heart Strike activated.