Eternal Crown: Shadow Awakening

In the last embers of the Bronze Age, fate chose a blacksmith's apprentice. Karl Anvil, an obscure young hammerer in the city of Valyria, awakened the power of the Starfire in an accident. The brand burning on his left arm revealed that he was the last surviving heir of a royal bloodline, and made him a target of the Shadow Council. On this continent, torn apart by elemental rifts, the barriers between races and faiths are already on the verge of collapse. Human city-states are embroiled in infighting; elven prophecies warn that the stars will fall, while the drying of Silvermoon Lake has torn open a rift in their faith. The dwarves face extinction as their runes are lost, and the beastfolk have been corrupted by chaos and reduced to bloodthirsty puppets. More terrifying still, the curse of the Eternal Crown has begun to stir. Forged from the skull of the Creator, this priceless artifact appears once every three thousand years. If it cannot be destroyed, it will devour the world's energy and restart the cycle of destruction. With a warhammer in hand, Karl presses on through betrayal and sacrifice. His weapon evolves from an apprentice's hammer into the Eternal Anvil, but with every increase in his power, the petrification curse consumes another inch of his body. His bond with the elven ranger Eileen, his blood pact with a dragon, and his half-soul alliance with a shadow leopard place upon him the mission of saving the world, one that transcends race. Yet when the Alliance of Light questions his use of witchcraft and the Shadow Council covets his bloodline, Karl must make a choice as faith crumbles around him: will he don the crown and become a new god, or pay the price of annihilation to smash the chains of a three-thousand-year cycle? This is a story of power, sacrifice, and breaking free of fate. Technology clashes with magic, while racial divisions coexist with the threat of world-ending destruction. Only the humblest of blacksmiths can use his soul as an anvil and forge hope.