Volume 1: Bonez Of Celestial Flame

PROLOGUE The Night the Stars Trembled** Long before the world learned to fear demons, or revere dragons, or whisper the name Cody Bonez with awe or exasperation, there was only silence. Not peace— but the silence that comes just before a scream. Above the sleeping continents, the sky rippled like a wound reopening. Ancient constellations twisted, rearranging themselves into the shape of a great serpentine form: a dragon of starlight, its cosmic wings unfurled across the heavens. It was not an omen. It was a warning. In the ruins of the Celestial War, the spirit of Sylaria, last of the Eclipsed Dragons, stirred from her long vigil. Her spectral form coiled around the shattered shrine where her bones had once rested. Now, only her spirit remained—sharp as wildfire, cold as a dying star. She felt it before she saw it. A heartbeat. His heartbeat. The bloodline she had hidden centuries ago. The final spark of her Celestial flame. The boy who would inherit power no mortal should carry. “Cody…” her voice echoed, not through air but through fate itself. “He has awakened.” Below her shrine, the world convulsed. A pulse of gold-white power erupted from a distant human village, blotting out torchlights, rattling rooftops, and sending every bird screaming into the night. Souls flickered, disturbed. The ground heaved. Even the stars dimmed for a single breath. Sylaria closed her eyes as the cosmic tremor rolled through her spirit. “It begins again.” She did not smile. Dragons rarely smile in matters of fate. But there was something like amusement in her tone when she whispered: “And he’s even more reckless than I feared.” Another presence felt the disturbance too. Far beneath the crust of the world, in a prison forged of cursed metal and screaming souls, a pair of burning red eyes snapped open. Chains thicker than columns strained and groaned as a hulking silhouette leaned forward. The Demon Lord Zerox inhaled sharply, tasting the air as if it carried wine rather than destiny. “Ahhh,” he purred, voice like splitting bone. “The Celestial Heir lives.” The prison shuddered as he rose to his full, monstrous height. “And he bears Sylaria’s flame… perfect.” With a flick of his claw, the souls in his chains writhed in terror. “Prepare the legions,” Zerox whispered. “Our war resumes.” When he laughed, the walls cracked. When he smiled, realities trembled. Above these dark depths, somewhere in the forests bordering the Celestial Shrine, another figu