Echoes of Death Gods
For twenty years, Elara was known as the Shining Blade, the most devout Paladin in the Kingdom and the unyielding shield of the Holy Order. She was a symbol of....
For twenty years, Elara was known as the Shining Blade, the most devout Paladin in the Kingdom and the unyielding shield of the Holy Order. She was a symbol of righteousness, a warrior who swore to protect the innocent and purge the darkness. But that woman died the night her only daughter, Liana, was slaughtered in her own bed. Now, only the mother remains—and she has replaced her prayers with a plan so blasphemous it could shatter the very foundations of the world. In a shocking act of betrayal, Elara infiltrates the impregnable Iron Citadel not to kill the man responsible for her daughter’s death, but to save him. Kael, a cocky, lowborn assassin, sits in his cell awaiting execution, believing his life is over. When Elara breaks his chains, he thinks he has been granted a miraculous second chance. He is wrong. Elara hasn't come to offer forgiveness; she has come to claim her materials. She reveals a terrifying truth: Kael’s cursed bloodline is the only catalyst capable of fueling the Rite of the Second Breath, a forbidden necromantic ritual that can drag a soul back from the afterlife. Now, bound together by hatred and necessity, the fallen knight and the terrified killer must flee the capital and venture into the Ash Sea—a vast, nightmare wasteland where the colossal corpses of ancient gods lie half-buried in the dust. It is a place where the wind doesn't blow, but whispers. These are the "Echoes": residual fragments of divine magic that drive travelers to madness, twisting reality and warping flesh. Hunted by the Grandmaster of the Order and his army of zealots, Elara must protect Kael at all costs, treating him not as a human being, but as a walking vessel of ingredients. Yet, as they delve deeper into the graveyard of the gods, Elara finds herself forced to use the very dark magic she once swore to destroy. With every spell cast, her soul darkens, and the line between saving her daughter and becoming a monster begins to blur. In the shadow of dead gods, Elara must ask herself the ultimate question: How much of the world is she willing to burn to hear her daughter’s voice one last time? And if she succeeds, will the child she brings back be the one she lost, or something far worse? Alive or fresh. That is the only choice Kael has left.