The Hunter's Guild hall reeked of charred stone and desperation. Ash clung to the air like a burial shroud, stirred by the panicked footsteps of hunters scrambling to fortify the crumbling walls. Valenor's latest rift had torn open directly beneath Emberfall's central plaza-a gaping maw devouring the city from below.
Veythar leaned over a warped map of the Shattered Realms, his fingers tracing the jagged scar marked Voidforge Citadel. Flicker's absence gnawed at him, a phantom ache where the Void Beast had once coiled.
"Sealing the sewers bought us hours, not days," Thalion growled, slamming a fist onto the table.
The cursed vines writhed beneath his sleeve, their thorns digging fresh furrows into his skin. Rune sat silently beside him, her gaze distant, gold and violet flickering in her eyes like a dying flame.
Sylviaris materialized from the shadows, her silver hair glinting in the dim light.
"Valenor accelerates his game," she said, her voice honeyed with mockery.
"The Citadel's forge doesn't create Void Cores-it consumes them.
Your little relic," she nodded at Veythar's chest, "is the only key that can unlock it. Or destroy it."
Veythar met her gaze, the Void Core in his chest pulsing cold. "Why tell us this?"
"Because watching you blunder toward oblivion amuses me." Her shadow stretched unnaturally, claws grazing the map.
"But if you insist on heroics... the guild's archives hold a ritual. The Eclipse Concord. It could stabilize the rifts-temporarily."
Thalion's sword hissed free. "Another trap."
"Always." Sylviaris smiled.
"But ask the scholar in the vaults. He'll confirm it."
The guild's undercroft was a tomb of forgotten knowledge. Ancient tomes lined the walls, their pages brittle with age, and the air hummed with residual Void energy. An elderly scholar hunched over a desk, his hands trembling as he deciphered a scroll etched with glowing runes.
"The Eclipse Concord," he rasped when Veythar demanded answers.
"A forbidden pact. It binds Void energy to a living anchor, creating a... a dam against the rifts."
His milky eyes darted to Sylviaris, who lingered in the doorway.
"But the anchor burns. No one survives it."
Thalion stepped forward.
"How long would it hold?"
"Days. Maybe hours." The scholar shuddered. "And the ritual requires a
Void Core. A willing one."
Veythar's hand drifted to his chest. The Core pulsed, its light seeping through his tunic.
Sylviaris chuckled. "A noble sacrifice, Core-bearer. How very dull."
They found Valenor's rift in the plaza's heart-a vortex of violet lightning tearing through cobblestones and corpses alike. Void Beasts poured forth, their forms warped and bloated, flesh melting into the stone.
Guild hunters fought in desperate clusters, their weapons barely slowing the tide.
"The Concord," Thalion shouted over the chaos. "Do it!"
Veythar hesitated.
The scholar's words echoed: No one survives.
Rune stumbled, clutching her head.
"He's here-Valenor's here-"
A figure emerged from the rift, clad in obsidian armor. Valenor's smile cut through the storm.
"You've led me quite the chase, little thief."
His gaze locked onto Veythar's Core. "But the game ends now."
Veythar ignited the Eclipse Concord.
The ritual's runes flared beneath his feet, their light lancing into the sky. The Void Core tore open, its energy surging into the rift-a torrent of cold fire. Valenor roared as the vortex shuddered, its edges knitting closed.
But the pain-gods, the pain. Veythar's veins turned to ice, then molten iron. His vision blurred, the world dissolving into fractured light.
Thalion lunged at Valenor, his sword clashing against the hunter's corrupted blade. "Rune-now!"
She staggered forward, her hands trembling. Gold light sparked at her fingertips-theremnants of her fading defiance. She pressed them to Veythar's Core, her voice a ragged whisper.
"Take... my darkness. Use it."
The Void energy shifted. Veythar's agony lessened, replaced by a searing duality-light and shadow entwined The rift screamed as the Concord's
dam solidified, sealing it shut.
Valenor vanished, his laughter trailing into the storm.
dam solidified, sealing it shut.
Valenor vanished, his laughter trailing into the storm.
Veythar collapsed, the Core's light dimming to an ember. Rune slumped beside him, her eyes fully gold-for now.
"You... stole his power," Thalion breathed, staring at her.
"No." She touched the fading scar on Veythar's chest.
"I borrowed it."
Sylviaris emerged from the smoke, her shadow writhing with newfound interest.
"Clever girl. But borrowed time is still time." She tossed a shard of blackened metal at Veythar's feet-a fragment of the Citadel's gate.
" Tick-tock, Core-bearer,"
In the guild's infirmary, Veythar traced the Citadel shard. Its surface hummed, whispering images-a towering spire, molten Cores chained to an altar, Valenor's silhouette bathed in their light.
Thalion barged in, his arm bandaged, the vines retreating but not gone.
" We leave at dawn."
"The ritual bought us three days," Veythar said. "Enough to reach the Citadel."
Rune stood by the window, her reflection haloed in moonlight. The gold in her eyes flickered, fragile but unbroken.
"He'll be waiting."
Veythar pocketed the shard, the Core's pulse steadying.
"Let him.
As Sylviaris' shadow watched from the rafters, the guild's bells tolled-a dirge for the doomed and the desperate.
Power had a price. But in the Citadel's shadow, even gods bled.