The carriages rumbled softly across the blackened plains, their rune-lit wheels whispering against stone and ash. Outside, the twin moons of Ghenna hung low in the sky, one crimson, one pale silver, casting an otherworldly glow over the jagged landscape.

The world around them had completely blurred into streaks of silver and crimson as the Demon South unfolded before them.

Within the first carriage, silence lingered. Only the creak of wood and the faint hum of magic filled the air. Morgana sat by the window, eyes tracing the streaks of violet lightning that danced along the horizon.

"Can't believe we're heading to the Umbral Spire," Miranda murmured, arms crossed, "The First Betrayer's throne. Sounds fun."

Lucian snorted softly, "Fun isn't the word I'd use."

Elara looked up from the book she was reading and leaned back in her seat, watching the spectral beasts pull them through the darkness, "Whatever waits there," she said quietly, "we'll face it the same way we faced everything else, together."

Everyone nodded, and looked out the window as the journey continued. The road wound between plains of shadowed glass and forests of stone trees, their branches whispering with phantom winds.

Rivers of molten mana snaked through the cracks of the land, illuminating the horizon in a faint, eerie glow. The land itself felt alive, as though watching their passage with unseen eyes.

Lilian, who had snuck into their carriage and found herself sitting next to Albedo, stared out the carriage window, chin resting on her palm, "This place feels… wrong," she murmured.

"Wrong?" Morgana tilted her head, the glow of her eyes faintly reflected in the window glass, "It's beautiful in its own way."

Kayle gave a quiet hum, "Beautiful like a blade. You can admire it, but it still cuts."

Lucian smirked faintly, leaning back in his seat. "I'll take glass plains over living gardens of agony any day."

"I think everyone would take that after what happened," Miranda said and the group laughed.

Meanwhile, Albedo said nothing. His eyes were half-lidded, but not with rest. His mind was elsewhere, still half in the Garden, half in the echo of Malkorath's name. The First Betrayer.

He'd read about the Umbral Spire once. A single tower that pierced the world, born from the bones of a dead god. Or so the Demonic texts claimed. A place where light bent wrong, where sound fell silent, and where truth and lies wore the same face.

Even the air outside the carriage seemed to grow colder as they neared it.

Hours passed. The plains of broken earth gave way to jagged cliffs that plunged into endless chasms of dark mist.

The longer the group's journey was, the more isolated the environment became, and soon, there was no signs of life anywhere around them.

The journey continued for a couple hours and eventually, the horizon cracked open, and they saw it.

The Umbral Spire.

It rose from the very heart of the Demon South, a colossal tower carved from obsidian that seemed to drink the light from the world around it. Clouds spiraled around its upper half like chains of smoke, and lightning, crimson and violet, licked across its surface.

It was not built, it had grown, some said. The first demons had shaped it from the wound left behind when the Abyss tore through reality.

From afar, it seemed smooth and straight. But as the carriages approached, the illusion faded. its surface was layered in carvings that shifted and moved, ancient runes crawling like living veins.

No one spoke. Even the bravest among them felt the quiet weight of it.

Ysvara, seated in the front carriage, finally broke the silence. Her voice was soft but carried easily through the still air, projected through the soul-bonded link she shared with the escorting carriages.

"The Umbral Spire was not always a monument of shadow. Once, it was the heart of creation in the South, an important anchor in the Demon Realm, and when the Abyss first touched Pandora, this was the precise location it pierced the deepest,"

Her tone wove the world itself into her story. The land seemed to respond, pulsing faintly with her words.

"It was Malkorath who was chosen to guard this wound, a King born with the blessing of the Demon Goddess, but temptation whispers where equilibrium stands, and he listened."

Fade frowned, "He really betrayed everyone, even with the trust of a God?"

Ysvara's eyes glimmered faintly, the reflection of the Spire burning like twin embers in them, "He betrayed himself first. The Abyss offered him power enough to reshape the world, to erase the line between Demon and God. He sat upon that Throne, one carved from the void itself, and in doing so, shattered the balance he swore to protect."

Kayle's voice was quiet. "The First Betrayer."

Ysvara nodded. "His betrayal did not end his life. No, he lived long enough to watch his empire rot from within, his people torn apart by the echoes of his ambition. The Umbral Spire became his prison. He was bound to his Throne for eternity, until his soul burned to ash and became one with it."

Morgana gave a low whistle. "So the Throne is cursed."

"Cursed," Ysvara said softly, "and sacred. Every Demon King since has walked its halls to remember what happens when even the ones at the top of the hierarchy forget humility. The Demon Goddess never blessed another King again, and the Demon Kingdom had stagnated for a long time,"

"This is why the Demons have a very tense relationship with other races even today, relative to others. No-one will ever forget what he did," Ysvara said.

The carriages slowed as they neared the colossal gates at the base of the Spire. Each door was a thousand feet tall, shaped from black steel veined with red crystal. They shimmered faintly in the moonlight like molten glass.

The spectral beasts halted, their ghostly eyes glowing with obedience. The gates creaked open, not from any visible force, but from the will of the Spire itself.

When they entered, the interior swallowed sound.

The halls stretched endlessly, walls formed of shifting shadows and silver script. Candles burned with blue fire, casting spectral reflections along the obsidian floor.

Every step echoed faintly, too faintly, as if the air itself absorbed sound.

"Stay close," Ysvara said as they stepped deeper, "The Spire has a way of listening."

"Everywhere we go seems to have special abilities huh," Zeus said, summoning his Battle Axe just in case as the group walked forward.

Their footsteps guided by narrow streams of red light that ran like veins beneath their feet. Murals stretched across the walls, depicting the rise and fall of countless Demon Kings, each image etched in gold and shadow, the figures moving faintly as if alive.

Lilian brushed a hand across one of the carvings, "They move…"

Ysvara's gaze lingered on it, "They are memories given form. The Spire remembers every ruler, every oath, every failure and every success,"

As they ascended a grand staircase spiraling into darkness, the air grew heavy. Albedo felt a pulse through his chest, as though the Spire itself recognized him. A faint whisper slithered across his mind, a voice older than reason:

'Do you seek redemption or ruin, child of twilight?'

He blinked, and it was gone.

Ysvara's eyes flicked toward him briefly, knowing, but silent.

The staircase ended in a massive chamber. The ceiling stretched beyond sight, supported by pillars carved into the forms of chained titans. At the center stood the Throne.

The Obsidian Throne of the First Betrayer.

It was enormous, fashioned from a single piece of black crystal that radiated an aura of emptiness so vast it pulled at the edges of their souls. The space around it warped faintly, like heat haze over fire.

Shadows gathered around its base, forming vague humanoid shapes, echoes of those who had once sworn loyalty and perished for it.

Even the air refused to move near it.

Fade's voice trembled. "It feels… alive."

"It is," Ysvara murmured. "It has never stopped hungering. The Throne remembers its master. It remembers his dreams… and his regrets."

Lilian folded her arms. "And we're just going to stand here and, what, admire it?"

Ysvara smiled faintly. "No. The point of this Monument is for everyone to listen."

The moment she said it, the chamber dimmed. The candles flickered out, and the shadows thickened until they became mist. Then came a whisper, soft, male, ancient.

"Power… is mercy inverted. I sought to save, and became destruction."

The voice crawled through their minds like silk through water.

Lucian's jaw tightened. Morgana shivered. Even Kayle's light dimmed faintly, as though the Throne's presence threatened to devour illumination itself.

Ysvara closed her eyes, letting the vision unfold. The mist began to shift, forming the image of a tall, armored figure seated upon the Throne—a crown of broken horns upon his head, his eyes glowing hollow white.

Malkorath.

"The moment he accepted the Abyss," Ysvara said softly, "the Spire split in two, the upper halls bathed in darkness, the lower in false light. To this day, the Throne sits at the meeting point of both. The place where light and shadow are one."

As she spoke, the image of Malkorath turned its head slowly toward Albedo.

For the briefest instant, Albedo felt something inside him resonate. Not in fear, but in recognition. The same kind of recognition the dead feel for their reflection in water.

Then, the vision shattered.

The light returned. The Spire fell silent once more.

Ysvara stood still for a long moment, then turned to the group. "Remember what you felt here. The power of Malkorath's mistake, and the cost of his ambition. Every monument you will visit after this carries a story like his, a story written in blood, shadow, and divine memory."

Her eyes lingered on Albedo once more, softer now. "And some stories," she murmured, "are not yet finished being written."

The group stood in silence, the weight of history pressing against their hearts.

Far above, lightning rolled through the heavens, striking the peak of the Umbral Spire. The thunder followed a heartbeat later, shaking the floor beneath their feet.

The Throne pulsed once, just once, and then fell still again.

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