THE GENERAL'S DISGRACED HEIR

The obsidian throne room stretched before David like the inside of a grand mausoleum. Black crystal chandeliers swayed soundlessly overhead, their dim twilight casting more shadows than illumination.

As they moved deeper into the chamber, David felt [Nightveil Embrace] grow restless against his skin, the living darkness rippling with what felt almost like... recognition.

Vespera moved slightly ahead of him, her stance shifting from fearful to predatory. The temperature around them plummeted as she gathered her power, frost patterns spreading across the obsidian floor with each step.

Winter's gaze fixed on David's armor, something ancient stirring in those childlike eyes. "How fascinating. To think a fragment of his flesh would find its way here."@@novelbin@@

The Titans moved first.

David's [Celestial Wheel] activated instantly, the mystic eye technique transforming his vision. Mana patterns blazed across his sight like constellations, revealing the flow of power through each construct.

But something else caught his attention—the way Winter's darkness seemed to reach for his armour, like kindred recognizing kindred. Stay updated through My Virtual Library Empire

The first titan's blade came down in a perfect arc. Before it could connect, a wall of midnight-blue ice erupted from the ground, Vespera's magic altering its trajectory. David seized the opportunity, [Heaven Whispering Palm] guiding his strike through the crystalline barrier and into the titan's exposed knee joint.

As he moved, [Nightveil Embrace] felt heavier than usual, each shadow it cast resonating with the darkness that filled the chamber. The armour's response to his movements seemed delayed, as if distracted by some distant memory.

"My lord!" Vespera called out, her hands weaving complex patterns. "Something's wrong with the armour!"

Three more titans converged, their weapons moving in perfect synchronization. Vespera's sheets of black ice created crucial openings, but when David attempted to shadow-step through them, [Nightveil Embrace] shuddered.

The living darkness clung to him like a second skin, but it felt torn—pulled between its loyalty to him and something older, something primal.

"You feel it, don't you?" Winter's smile held no warmth. "The way it yearns for what was lost. What was taken." He rose from his throne, each step sending ripples through the shadows. "What I helped take."

The assault came from everywhere at once. David dodged and parried, each movement hampered by his armour's growing uncertainty. Vespera's ice magic created momentary safe zones, but the shadows were responding more to Winter's presence than David's commands.

"This power," Winter's voice carried ancient knowledge and something darker—satisfaction. "I remember when it was first forged. When the Noctis Sovereign made his pact with the primordial void."

His childlike fingers traced patterns in the air, and David felt [Nightveil Embrace] shudder violently. "Did you think I merely stood witness? No... I helped guide his transformation. Helped shape what he would become. And then—" Winter's smile turned cruel, "—I helped ensure his fall."

The armour trembled against David's skin as ancient memories flooded his consciousness: the moment of betrayal, when the pact with the void was twisted, when Winter's interference turned a divine transformation into something darker.

He saw fragments of the Noctis Sovereign's flesh being torn away, becoming the living armour that now protected him.

"Every shadow bears my mark," Winter continued, his power beginning to unravel the armor's essence. "Even those born of betrayal. Even those carved from a god's own flesh."

Vespera's ice magic swirled around David protectively, but the armour was responding more to Winter's pull than his own will. Each tendril of darkness seemed drawn toward the child-god before them, remembering the hand that had helped forge its nature.

That's when it happened. As the Nightveil Embrace pulsed with ancient memories, a searing surge activated David's true essence as the Chronomancer of the Tapestry. In that electrifying moment, the very threads of time unravelled before his eyes—revealing not only the armour's tormented past but an endless web of futures branching out from that bitter moment of betrayal.

A wave of agony crashed over him as forbidden knowledge scorched his mind. Blood trickled from his nose, a grim testament to the mortal cost of such insight. With a cry of raw, pained defiance, David shouted, "No! I will not let this darkness define us!" His voice, thick with anguish and determination, shattered the silence of the unfolding cosmic revelation.

In that agonizing instant, he witnessed the horrifying transformation of the Noctis Sovereign, the subtle yet cruel manipulation of the void pact by Winter, and the chilling metamorphosis where living flesh surrendered to living shadow.

Yet, amid the torment, a singular, defiant vision emerged—a glimpse of paths where betrayal might be undone, where the very nature of the Nightveil Embrace could be reshaped into something pure and redemptive.

The clash of agony and revelation left David trembling, every fiber of his being screaming with pain and resolve, as the tapestry of destiny wove itself into the fabric of his fate.

"Oh?" Winter's expression shifted from satisfaction to genuine surprise. "You see them now, don't you? The threads that bind all things?" His smile turned cautious. "How curious. Perhaps I should have been more thorough in my betrayal."

David could barely stand. The pain was overwhelming, but beneath it, he felt something stirring—an understanding just beginning to take shape. [Nightveil Embrace] responded to this new awareness, its loyalty strengthening as it sensed a possibility for redemption.

His response was to spit blood onto the obsidian floor. "Your betrayal," he managed through gritted teeth, "will be your undoing."

The armour steadied against his skin, choosing its new master over its ancient betrayer.

The real battle was only beginning.

Suddenly, [Nightveil Embrace] erupted into black flames across David's skin, each tendril of darkness burning with defiance against its former master. The living armour's response was immediate and visceral—no longer torn between loyalties but blazing with purpose.

David exploded forward, breaking the sound barrier with a thunderous crack that shattered the obsidian floor beneath him. [Nightveil Embrace] responded to his killing intent, extending its power through [Wraithblade] to manifest an obsidian longsword of pure darkness.

But Winter's childlike hand caught the blade with casual ease. Fractures appeared along the sword's dark surface, spreading like a web of silver lightning through the concentrated shadow.

"How disappointing." Winter's voice carried no emotion as he lifted his other hand, a single finger pointing at David's chest. A sphere of darkness, no larger than a marble, materialized at his fingertip. "Still just a human."

The blast came without warning—a beam of concentrated void that struck David with the force of a collapsing star, sending him rocketing toward the ceiling.

"DAVID!"

Vespera's desperate cry echoed through the chamber as his body disappeared into the darkness above.