Echoing Truth

The void pulsed like a dying heartbeat, thick with the weight of something unseen. Kaelin stood in the black, his boots touching ground that didn't exist. He could feel the presence around him, not just watching, but waiting.

Ahead, Leloid knelt in the darkness, bound by shifting chains of shadow. The symbols stretched into them flickered with ominous blue light, pulsing like a heartbeat. His breath came in short, shallow gasps, his face twisted in pain.

Kaelin clenched his fists in so much belief that his friend was still in there. "I'm taking him back," Kaelin said, voice firm.

The void trembled, and then came a sound, a laugh, It wasn't loud. It was chill, creeping, like a gentle cats purr. It slithered through the air, filling the empty space around them.

"You misunderstand, child," the voice murmured. "You are not here to save. You are here to see."

The air around Kaelin twisted, shadows stretching, The darkness swallowed him whole.

And suddenly, he wasn't in the void anymore.

A battlefield stretched before him. Towering figures stood in a broken circle, their celestial robes flowing with the wind. Arcane symbols pulsed around them, glowing against the troubled sky. Kaelin's pulse quickened. This wasn't an illusion.

The air was thick with the scent of burning magic. The ground was scarred, broken by power beyond comprehension. And in the center of it all, a shattered vessel. It pulsed with a dim light, its form struggling to maintain shape.

Kaelin knew what it was. He was witnessing the moment the Architect was severed from his true form. A voice rang out from the gathered mages. "We cannot destroy him. We can only trap him."

The words carried weight, like a law written into the fabric of reality itself, it was more intense than what had been seen by Kaelin in his lifetime. Kaelin's breath froze as he saw it, the Orb of Eternity, suspended in the air, pulsing with untamed power. The mages raised their hands, channeling their energy toward the Orb

Then Kaelin saw himself or rather… someone who looked just like him. Among the mages, a figure stood, his face mysteriously familiar.

Kaelin staggered back, his heart pounding. This no longer seemed like history. This was his past life.

The vision shattered, the battlefield dissolving into mist. Kaelin was pulled backward, hurled back into the endless void. He landed hard, breath shaking. The Architect's presence loomed over him, its form still formless, but its voice was clearer now. "Now you see," it whispered. "You are not here by chance, you always were"

Kaelin's mind raced. The pieces didn't fit, not yet.

But one thing was clear. This fight wasn't new. It was something older than him, something that had been set into motion long before he was born.

He looked up, eyes locking onto Leloid. His friend's body trembled, the chains constricting tighter with every second. There was no more time.

Kaelin pushed away the revelations for now. He had a job to do.

He stepped forward and grasped the chains with both hands.

A shock of energy surged through him. The shard pulsed in his grip, its glow almost unbearable. It wanted to be used.

The Architect's form flickered, its voice curling around him like a noose.

"Break the chains, and you will break him."

Kaelin hesitated.

Was this a trick? Or was there truth in the warning?

Leloid's eyes fluttered open, glazed with pain. His voice came weak, barely a whisper.

"…Kaelin…"

Kaelin gritted his teeth, "Screw it" he said letting out a loud yell.

He pulled.

The chains cracked. The void trembled. A scream, inhuman, ripped through the darkness and then everything exploded into light.