The Hollow Veins did not sleep.
Even at night, the ground pulsed with muted color, shifting like a heartbeat beneath glass. Kael sat alone, staring into the dying embers of their campfire—his eyes reflecting no light.
He hadn't slept.
Couldn't.
Every time he closed his eyes, memories he didn't own bled into his mind. A child's scream. A battlefield lit with green fire. A tower crumbling in reverse. His own face—but older, crueler.
A whisper echoed inside his skull.
"How many selves must you burn before one survives?"
Kael clenched the Liminal Fang tighter. It hummed in reply, vibrating with a pulse that wasn't quite alive.
Behind him, Lyra stirred. Her eyes, usually gentle, were tired now. "You're slipping again."
"I'm holding on."
"Barely."
She walked closer, gently sitting beside him. "I don't want to lose you to this place."
Kael didn't answer.
The fire crackled. Wind slid between the trees with soft, melodic hums—like lullabies sung by ghosts.
Then Drayke snorted from the other side of the camp. "Tch. You two done whispering sweet nothings? Because we've got incoming."
Kael stood instantly.
System Alert: Aura Disturbance Detected
> Classification: Apex Phantom-Type
Codename: Velhara, the Lost Star
Aura Class: Celestial Wraith (S+)
Status: Fallen Astral Entity – Bound to Forgotten Orbit
Warning: Enemy exists outside natural time cycles.
Ability: Chrono-Dissonance
A silver glow burst through the trees.
Then—silence.
No sound. No birds. Not even wind.
Only a gentle, floating shimmer.
The figure that emerged was both beautiful and terrifying.
A woman in tattered robes, her face veiled with stardust. Her body drifted like it remembered how to walk but had forgotten why. Dozens of orbiting fragments floated around her—small moons, glowing with bleeding light.
Drayke's voice was hushed. "That… thing has aura satellites."
"No," Kael whispered. "She is the satellite."
Velhara turned to face them. Her lips did not move. But they all heard her.
"Where is my orbit? Who stole my dawn?"
Lyra gasped. "She's trapped in a time loop."
Then, without warning, Velhara raised her hand.
The stars stopped spinning.
And time bent.
Kael moved—but too late.
The world froze. Except it didn't. It just remembered a different version of itself.
Velhara stepped forward, arms outstretched. She split into three versions—past, present, future. Each one slashed at him with aura-blades of astral memory.
Kael raised his weapon, but it passed through the first.
Hit the second.
Was countered by the third.
Blood painted the air.
But not his.
Drayke, blazing in flame, had intercepted the final strike.
"Don't just stand there, dammit!" he growled. "I didn't come all this way to see you glitch into a puddle!"
Kael gritted his teeth.
He pulled.
Ashen Veil – Soul Scorch Surge.
New Fusion Path Triggered: Celestial Echo + Ashen Core
> Aura Fusion: Chrono-Ashen Sync
Temporary Skill Unlocked – [Starfade Rewind]
Effect: Rewinds your aura state by 5 seconds. One use per battle.
Warning: Can fragment identity if overused.
He activated it.
Time snapped.
Suddenly, he was five seconds earlier—just before Velhara attacked. Now he moved first.
Kael leapt, blade trailing ash-flame, intercepting her temporal shade. He stabbed through the future version—severing the line of possibility.
Echoflame Excision.
Velhara's form shuddered.
The orbiting moons exploded outward like glass.
Drayke didn't miss the moment.
Infernal Gauntlets – Beast Flame Rampage.
Flames turned gold as he struck Velhara's core, sending cracks through her celestial shell.
Lyra, chanting softly behind them, raised the Sunveil Feather.
Solar Redemption – Nova Pulse.
A burst of pure light enveloped the fading Wraith.
Velhara screamed—and smiled.
"Thank you… for reminding me of my orbit."
Then, she shattered.
System Alert: Apex Target Neutralized
> Core Claimed: [Orbitless Memory]
Special Item: [Starseal Fragment]
Title Earned: Wakers of the Lost Star
Passive: Slight resistance to Chrono-type aura effects
Warning: Aura Instability Detected in Protagonist – Sync Level exceeding safe limit
Kael collapsed to one knee.
His hands trembled.
He looked at Lyra—her worried eyes. At Drayke, panting, bruised—but alive.
And yet…
He wasn't sure he was.
Because in his mind, a memory echoed.
Of Velhara.
Of her orbit.
And of himself—alone, floating in a shattered sky, screaming for a dawn that never came.
He whispered to no one.
"Who am I becoming?"
And from far above, the real stars blinked.