The air in the Eternal Night Swamp clung to Eldrins skin like a suffocating shroud, thick with the stench of rotting vegetation and the metallic tang of corrupted source-shards. Fluorescent mist coiled around gnarled cypress trees, their roots clawing at brackish pools that shimmered with the sickly glow of half-dissolved shard fragments.
Ahead, the ground sloped into a jagged fissurethe entrance to the submerged Titan temple Liora's maps had described. Its obsidian archway loomed like the maw of a forgotten god, veiled in moss and dripping with blackened vines.
This place reeks of Ophira's toys,"Nim muttered, adjusting her spider-mechs fractured lens. The machine's hydraulic legs hissed as they sliced through curtains of hanging moss. Bet my last gear there's a trap every five steps."
Liora brushed her fingers over a rune etched into thearchway, her crystalline dagger humming in response. The temple's defenses are dormant for now."Her emerald eyes narrowed. But the seventh shards resonance will awaken them. Move swiftly."
Eldrin's left arm burned beneath layers of bandages, the lines from the fused shards throbbing in time with the swamp's dissonant heartbeat. The seventh shardnow a molten weight in his chestwhispered promises of power, its voice laced with Ophira's venom. *You cannot outrun what you are.* He clenched his fist, forcing the chaos-fire to simmer.
Tira trailed behind, her hands clasped over the third shard embedded in her chest. Its light flickered erratically,casting jagged shadows across her hollow cheeks. It's--singing," she whispered, her dual voices fraying at the edges. The shard wants to go home."
Homes a pile of rubble," Jace growled, his remaining hand gripping a throwing knife. Focus, or well all be corpses before sunrise."
The temple's interior was a labyrinth of crumbling stone and pulsating shard-crystals. Eldrin's lines flared as they descended, the walls alive with Titan runes that glowed faintly, their light warped by centuries of neglect.
At the heart of the chamber stood a stone pillar, its surface rotating to reveal an altara-jagged slot where the seventh shard pulsed, suspended in a cage of liquid shadow.
There,"Liora breathed, her voice sharp with hunger. The Crucibles key."
Before Eldrin could react, Tira's shadow stretched unnaturally, her reflection in a nearby pool twisting into a feral grin.
"Mine,*" the corrupted voice snarled. The water erupted, thorned vines lashing out to bind the team.
Nim's mech-legs screeched as she severed the vines. Kid's losing it again!"
"Eldrinstabilize her!" Liora barked, her dagger deflectinga shard-crystal projectile hurled by a hidden mechanism.
Eldrin lunged, his lines igniting as he gripped Tira's shoulders. Her human eye pleaded; the other glowed with Ophiras azure light. It's *fighting* me-
Fight harder," he hissed, channeling chaos-fire into her shard. The third shard flared, its light clashing with the corruption. For a heartbeat, Tira's shadow stilledthen the ground *shifted*.
The stone pillar rotated again, revealing a second altara-mirror to the first. Twin shards pulsed in unison, their resonance vibrating Eldrin's bones.
Two?"Liora's voice cracked. The Titans split the seventh shard a failsafe."
Ophira's laughter echoed through the chamber.
The walls *screamed*.
Titan-forged automatonsskeletal remnants of the temple's guardiansemerged from hidden alcoves, their hollow eyes blazing with shard-light. Jace's knives clattered against their bronze plating as Eldrin and Nim lunged into the fray.
Get the shards!"Liora shouted, her dagger carving glowing runes into the air. Before Ophira's shadow" A whip-crack split the chaos.
Ophira materialized atop the central pillar, her form flickering between smoke and flesh. Clever little rats,"she purred, her shadow stretching to caress the twin shards. But did you truly think I'd let you steal my birthright?"
Eldrin's lines erupted, cobalt flames engulfing his arm as he charged. Ophiras shadow dissolved, reforming behind him.
You *cling* to humanity,"she whispered, her breath freezing his neck. Yet you hunger for the power I offer. *Pathetic.*"
Tira screamed as her shadow *twisted*, lashing out to seize the twin shards. Their light fused into a helix of gold and black, tearing a fissure in reality. From the rift poured *new* shardsjagged, weeping fragments that orbited Tira like a macabre crown.
She's merging with them!"Liora's voice rose in alarm. Eldrin*stop her!*"
But the lines had other plans.
Eldrin's chaos-fire faltered as the twin shards' resonance surged through him. Visions tore through his mind:
*A Titan altar. Ophira and Liora as children, a split shard hovering above them.*
*A voice: Which will you be? The hand or the blade?*Tatira's shadow, laughing as it dissolved into the rift.*
No!"Eldrin roared, grappling with the lines's pull.
Tira*fight it!*"
Her human eye locked onto his, tears mingling with shard-light. I cant*she' s too strong*".
The rift *exploded*. ---
When the dust settled, the temple was gonereplaced by a void where reality itself frayed. Tira floated at the epicenter, her body half-consumed by shard-energy. The twin fragments hovered above her palms, their light now fused with Ophira's shadow.
A worthy vessel,"Ophira crooned, her voice echoing from Tira's lips. But you' ve only delayed the inevitable, brother."
Eldrin's lines pulseda-final, desperate command. *Destroy her.*
He raised his hand, chaos-fire coalescing into a blade.
Tira's human eye widened. Do it."
The strike never landed.
The lines *rebelled*, seizing control. Eldrin's fire veered, carving a path into the rift instead. Ophira's shadow howled as the void consumed herfor now.
Tira collapsed, the twin shards clattering to the ground. Their light dimmed, but the corruption in her grain spread.
The shards theyre *alive,*"she whispered, trembling. And theyre *hungry.*"
Liora retrieved the fragments, her face ashen. Ophira planted these. A trap within a trap."
Eldrin stared at his linesnow threaded with streaks of gold. The seventh shard's voice slithered through his mind:
*You cannot outrun me.*
Above them, the rift sealed, leaving only a scar of fused stone. But in the silence, a new resonance hummeda shard's call, deeper and darker than any before.
The game had changed.
---