The ruins of Dawnfire loomed before them, bathed in the pale morning light. Elior’s breath misted in the cold air as he took his first step past the crumbling archway that marked the city’s entrance. The others followed in silence, their eyes wide with wary fascination. The echoes of the past whispered through the wind, the weight of history pressing down on them like an unseen force.Bram let out a low whistle as he surveyed the remnants of once-great structures. “I expected more… decay.”“There’s magic here,” Myrra murmured, her golden eyes narrowing. “Something is preserving this place.”Elior nodded, his gaze sweeping over the towering stone pillars and shattered statues that lined what had once been the main thoroughfare. Time had worn away the finer details, but the grandeur remained. More unsettling, however, was the feeling that they were being watched.Freya ran a gloved hand along a wall, her fingers tracing symbols half-buried beneath layers of ivy. “This wasn’t just a city,
The weight of the Shadebound’s warning settled over the group like a storm cloud. The First King was still here—bound, trapped, existing as more than just a memory. And if Elior claimed the throne, he would share the same fate.The wind stirred, carrying whispers that had no source. The ruins of Dawnfire seemed more alive than ever, as though the city itself was listening, waiting.Elior turned his gaze toward the throne. Even from a distance, its presence was undeniable. It sat upon a raised dais at the heart of what had once been a grand hall. Time had worn away much of its splendor, but the throne remained untouched. Ancient, dark, and pulsing with power.“This is madness,” Bram muttered. “A throne that turns kings into prisoners? Who in their right mind would sit on it?”“They didn’t know,” Myrra said. “The First King, the ones after him—they believed they could control it. They thought they had a choice.” She turned to Elior, her golden eyes dark with worry. “You do.”Elior inhal
The air around them was heavy with silence. Elior’s words still lingered, wrapping around his companions like an unshakable spell. The weight of the decision settled in his chest, solid and unmoving. He knew what had to be done, but the path ahead was shrouded in uncertainty.Bram let out a slow breath, running a hand through his hair. “Destroy the throne? That’s not exactly something you can just smash with a hammer.”Myrra’s golden eyes flickered with unease. “It was forged with ancient magic, a power tied to the Veil itself. If it’s an anchor, then breaking it might not just unseat kings, it could unravel everything.”Elior turned back to the throne, its dark presence thrumming like a heartbeat. The First King’s warning echoed in his mind.Do not hesitate, Harbinger.His fingers curled around the hilt of the Veilblade. The weapon was the key. It had always been the key. The First King’s final battle had sealed the cycle, perhaps it was time to unmake it.Sienna stepped beside him, h
The silence after the throne’s destruction was deafening. Dust and shattered stone filled the air, lingering like the final remnants of an ancient era turned to ruin. Elior remained on one knee, his breath steady but shallow, his fingers still curled as if expecting to grasp the Veilblade once more, but it was gone.The others stirred slowly, as if waking from a long dream. Bram exhaled hard, raking a hand through his hair. “Well, that was either the best idea we’ve ever had or the worst.”No one laughed.Myrra rose to her feet, her golden eyes scanning the remains of the throne. Nothing remained but fractured stone and deep cracks in the earth. Yet, the air still carried the ghost of something ancient, a whisper of power that refused to die completely.Rael sheathed his blades with a slow, deliberate motion. “It’s done.” His voice was firm, but there was an edge to it, a wary hesitation. “So why does it still feel like we haven’t won?”Elior pushed himself up, his legs unsteady benea
The air was thick with the remnants of fading magic, the scent of burnt ozone lingering in the ruins of Dawnfire. The Veilborn were gone, at least for now, but their presence had left something behind, something Elior could still feel pressing against the edges of his mind.His fingers curled into fists. The battle had been won, but it was not victory. It was a warning.Myrra wiped the sweat from her brow, her golden eyes flickering with exhaustion. “That wasn’t supposed to work,” she muttered, shaking her head as if trying to dispel the weight of what had just happened. “The throne’s power should have been lost when we destroyed it. But this… this means something still lingers.”Bram snorted, rolling his shoulders. “Yeah, like whatever the hell those things were.” His gaze swept over the ruins, searching for any remaining movement. “I thought destroying the throne was supposed to stop things like this.”“The throne was a lock,” the First King murmured, his spectral form flickering sl
The road away from Dawnfire was eerily silent. Even the wind had settled, leaving only the sound of their footsteps against the cracked earth. Elior’s shoulders were tense, his senses sharp as he led the group forward. The battle had ended, but something still felt… wrong.Myrra walked beside him, her golden eyes scanning the landscape. “The Veil hasn’t settled,” she muttered. “I can feel it shifting, like it’s searching for something.”Elior didn’t respond immediately. He felt it too, an unseen presence pressing against the edges of his awareness, watching. It was subtle, like a whisper in the back of his mind, but it was there.Bram grumbled as he adjusted the straps of his pack. “I don’t like this. It’s too quiet.”Rael, who had been walking ahead, suddenly halted. His hand went to his blade. “Something’s wrong.”Elior stilled. He didn’t hear anything unusual, but Rael’s instincts were rarely wrong. He raised a hand, signaling the others to stop.Then he heard it.A faint hum in th
Silence held the forest in an iron grip. The woman’s presence felt like a weight pressing against Elior’s chest, a force that did not belong in the world he knew. The shard in her palm pulsed, its silver veins flickering like lightning trapped in glass.Elior forced his voice to remain steady. “If that’s the heart of the Veil, then why is it breaking?”The woman studied him, or at least he thought she did beneath the shadows of her hood. “Because it was never meant to last.”Myrra stepped forward, her golden eyes glowing. “That’s not an answer.”The woman turned slightly, her robes shifting like liquid midnight. “It is the only one I will give.”Elior’s patience thinned. “If the Veil collapses, what happens to everything inside it?”For the first time, the woman hesitated. It was barely a flicker, a pause in her stance, but Elior caught it. Whatever the truth was, she was weighing whether to say it aloud.Then she spoke.“It ceases.”The single word sent a chill down his spine.Rael s
The shard of the Veil pulsed in Elior’s grip, cold and ancient, its silver veins flickering like distant lightning. His breath was still unsteady, the memory of the woman’s final words lingering in his mind."Find the ones who shattered it."His fingers curled around the fragment as if tightening his hold on it would somehow force the answer to reveal itself. But before he could process the weight of her warning, a sharp intake of breath from Myrra shattered the silence.Her golden eyes were fixed on something behind him.Elior turned and his blood ran cold.There, embedded in the earth, was Velibron.It was unmistakable. The obsidian-black blade, streaked with veins of silver light, hummed with power. The very same weapon he had wielded against the Veil. The very same weapon that should not exist anymore.Rael took a cautious step forward, his grip tightening on the hilt of his own sword. “That’s not possible,” he muttered.“It shattered,” Sienna said, her voice unusually quiet.Myrr
The city stretched before them like a forgotten monument to a time long past. Towering spires, cracked and crumbling, reached toward the twilight sky, their surfaces worn smooth by the passage of ages. The streets were paved with obsidian stone, each step echoing unnaturally through the silence. Buildings leaned at odd angles, some suspended mid-collapse, held aloft by unseen forces. Shadows danced where no light shone, shifting as if aware of their presence.Elior took a slow breath, his grip tightening around the hilt of his sword. The city pulsed with power, not the raw, overwhelming might of Erythos, but something older, something watching.Rael exhaled sharply beside him. “Well, this place is cheerful.”Myrra’s gaze swept over the ruins, her fingers brushing the air as if testing for magic. “It’s not just a ruin. Something lingers here.”“Ghosts?” Bram asked, rolling his shoulders. “Wouldn’t surprise me.”“Not ghosts,” Myrra murmured. “Memories.”Elior stepped forward cautiously,
The void was endless.Elior’s breath caught in his throat as he plummeted through the swirling abyss. The battlefield was gone, the ground shattered beneath them, leaving only the vast nothingness of space stretching infinitely in all directions. Stars flickered in the distance, distant pinpricks of light in the consuming dark. Wind, if such a thing existed here, whipped past him, a formless force dragging him downward.Then, with a jarring pull, he stopped.The impact sent a sharp jolt through his body, but there was no ground beneath him, only the illusion of it, a shimmering platform of condensed magic holding him aloft. Around him, the others landed in a similar fashion, some less gracefully than others.Rael let out a sharp grunt as he hit the surface, rolling before pushing himself to his feet. His twin blades remained in his grip, but there was an uncertainty in his eyes, his stance uncharacteristically shaken.Bram hit hard, letting out a pained growl as he struggled to rise.
The moment Sienna unleashed her power, the world erupted into chaos.A wave of golden energy exploded from her palms, crackling like a living storm. Elior barely had time to react before the force slammed into him, sending him skidding backward across the glass-like surface. The impact rattled through his bones, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself upright.Sienna was no longer their ally.She stood beside Erythos now, her form wreathed in shimmering gold, the remnants of the shattered Seal swirling around her like a cloak of divine fury. She was no longer just a strategist, no longer just a wielder of magic, she was something more.A force to be reckoned with.Erythos, standing tall and terrible beside her, lifted his hand. The darkness that bled from his form coiled outward, consuming the light around them. “You were fools to think you could change fate,” he said, his voice reverberating across the void. “Fate belongs to those strong enough to claim it.”Elior tightened his g
The great door loomed before them, pulsing with a golden radiance that seemed to breathe like a living thing. The sheer size of it dwarfed them, stretching high into the misty void above, its surface carved with symbols that shifted as if whispering their secrets.Elior took a step forward, feeling the weight of the moment settle on his shoulders. The trials had tested them, tearing through their doubts and weaknesses. And yet, this felt like the true threshold—the point of no return.Rael let out a slow breath. “So… this is it.”Myrra traced the shifting patterns on the door with her fingers. “The Final Seal lies beyond this,” she murmured. “We break it… and we change the world.”Bram crossed his arms. “No turning back now, is there?”Sienna stood slightly apart, her gaze fixed on the symbols. Elior had noticed her silence more and more lately, but now, her stillness unsettled him.“We need to be ready,” he said. “We don’t know what’s on the other side.”Sienna finally spoke, her voi
The stone steps stretched endlessly before them, winding upward through the ruins in a spiral that seemed impossible in its vastness. The air was thinner here, charged with an unnatural energy that made the hairs on the back of Elior’s neck stand on end.As they climbed, the ruins around them seemed to shift, warping with each step. The sky above was no longer the deep blue of night, nor the pale glow of dawn, it was something else entirely, a swirling expanse of stars and golden light.“This place feels... wrong,” Rael muttered, glancing around. “Like it’s not part of our world.”“That’s because it isn’t,” Myrra said. She touched one of the stone walls, watching as her fingers passed through it like mist before solidifying again. “We’re somewhere in between.”“Between what?” Bram asked.Sienna, who had been silent for most of their ascent, finally spoke. “Between what was and what will be.”Elior glanced at her, noticing the way she kept her gaze fixed ahead, determined but distant.
The air was thick with tension as Elior and his companions stood before the three doors. Each was adorned with shifting symbols, their patterns writhing like living things. The Architect loomed before them, their presence both commanding and ethereal, as if they existed beyond the confines of time itself.“The Trials of the Worthy will test more than your strength,” the Architect intoned, their voice reverberating in the vast emptiness. “They will weigh your purpose, your conviction, and the burdens you carry. Choose wisely, for only those who pass may proceed.”Rael ran a hand through his hair, his jaw set. “And what happens if we fail?”The Architect’s celestial mask tilted slightly. “You will not leave.”A heavy silence fell upon the group.Elior took a steady breath, staring at the doors. “There are three. Does that mean we each face them alone?”“No,” the Architect answered. “Each door presents a different trial. You may choose to enter as a group or face them separately, but kno
The sun hung low in the sky as Elior and his companions made their way through the craggy hills leading toward the Celestial Ruins. The wind carried the scent of earth and distant rain, a stark contrast to the eerie stillness they knew awaited them beyond the horizon. They had been traveling for hours, their boots kicking up dust as they walked along the uneven path.Rael exhaled sharply. "I still don’t understand why the First King left such cryptic messages. If he wanted us to find the ruins, why not just say so?"Myrra, adjusting the strap of her satchel, glanced at him. "Maybe he wanted to make sure only the right people could reach it.""Or maybe he just enjoyed watching people struggle," Bram muttered. He wiped sweat from his brow. "Either way, I’d rather have a proper map than riddles."Sienna, who had been walking slightly ahead, came to a stop near a cluster of trees. "We need to gather supplies before we go any farther. There’s no telling what we’ll face inside the ruins, an
Elior awoke with a gasp, the taste of lightning on his tongue. His chest ached, his head spun, and for a moment, he couldn’t tell if he was still standing in that vast luminous space or if he had been thrown somewhere else entirely. The ground beneath him was solid, but cracked, ashen dust rose around him as he pushed himself upright.He wasn’t alone.Rael lay sprawled a few feet away, groaning as he sat up, rubbing his temples. Myrra’s fingers twitched, her breath shallow as she stirred. Sienna was the last to move, her dark hair spilling over her face as she slowly lifted her head.Elior’s heart pounded. They were back.But something was wrong.The city of Dawnfarc stretched out before them, but it was empty, silent. The streets that had once been teeming with life were barren. The air was thick with dust, and the sky…Elior’s breath caught.The sky was broken.One half blazed red, a sun frozen at the edge of dusk. The other was swallowed by darkness, the moon looming too large, sur
Light surged around Elior as he stepped forward, his senses overwhelmed by the sheer force of it. It wasn’t painful, nor was it warm or cold, it was simply there, wrapping around him, filling every space, stretching infinitely in all directions. The void had vanished, replaced by something greater, something older.His footsteps echoed on unseen ground, each step resonating through the vast expanse. Ahead of him, the First King waited, unmoving, his presence as unwavering as the stars themselves.“You have taken the first step,” the king said, his voice a deep hum within the luminous space. “But you have yet to understand the path you walk.”Elior squared his shoulders, determination hardening his stance. “Then tell me.”The First King’s gaze was unreadable, his expression carved from centuries of knowledge and sacrifice. “To rule is to bear the weight of all things. To shape the world is to accept its burdens, its flaws, its endless contradictions. What you seek is not a throne, not