Chapter 26: Echoes of the Past

The Starblade drifted in the void, its hull bearing the scars of their last battle. Inside the ship, the dim glow of emergency lights cast elongated shadows against the cold metal walls. Kara sat at the navigation console, her fingers absently tracing the glowing runes still burned into her skin. The Eleventh Core was sealed, but its echoes still pulsed through her veins. Every time she closed her eyes, she could hear it whispering, like a distant voice calling her name from across time.

Li Wei stood near the viewport, his crystalline skin shimmering faintly. The spear shards embedded in his chest pulsed with erratic energy, their glow alternating between the golden hue of his qi and the inky void that threatened to consume him. He clenched his fists, trying to steady his breath. The battle had taken more from him than he had admitted. The fractures in his body were spreading, and he could feel the void pressing against the edges of his soul.

"We need to move," Kara said, finally breaking the silence. "Elysium's forces won't stay scattered for long."

Li Wei didn't turn. "Where?"

She hesitated. The Eleventh Core's activation had changed everything. The cores weren't just prisons—they were waking up. And the Prisoner…

"The next core," she said, pulling up the star map. A new signal flickered—faint but unmistakable. "It's in the Celestial Wastes."

Li Wei's eyes narrowed. The Celestial Wastes were a graveyard of forgotten wars, a place where ancient civilizations had risen and fallen, leaving behind nothing but ruins and ghosts. Few dared to venture there. The space itself was unstable, time moving in erratic currents. If a core had been hidden there, it was for a reason.

Kara turned to him. "This isn't like the others. The signal is… fractured. Whatever core is there, it's broken."

Li Wei exhaled slowly. "Then we find it before someone else does."

The journey to the Celestial Wastes was turbulent. The moment they entered the region, the Starblade's instruments flickered wildly, struggling to maintain a lock on reality itself. Outside the ship, the remnants of shattered planets drifted in a silent dance, their surfaces scarred by forgotten wars. Faint energy signatures pulsed through the void, remnants of lost battles still echoing through time.

Kara fought against the controls as the ship lurched forward, dragged by unseen gravitational tides. "This place is a nightmare."

Li Wei closed his eyes, reaching out with his qi. The energy here was fractured, but not dead. He could feel something—something ancient, waiting beneath the debris.

"There," he said, pointing towards a derelict structure floating among the wreckage. It was massive, its architecture unlike anything they had encountered before. A fortress, half-buried in the ruins of a lost world. And at its heart, a pulsing light.

The core.

The fortress was eerily silent as they stepped inside. The air was thin, the walls covered in faded engravings of battles long past. Kara's mechanical eye scanned the inscriptions, pulling up fragmented translations.

"'The Last Bastion of the Veil,'" she read aloud. "'Here we stood, at the end of time.'"

Li Wei ran his fingers over the symbols. The Veil. He had heard the name before, whispered in half-forgotten legends. They were the first to battle the Prisoner, long before the Sovereigns or the Jailers. If this was their last bastion, then the core hidden here wasn't just any core—it was one of the first.

Kara's hand tightened on her pistol. "Something's wrong."

A sound echoed through the corridor. A whisper, barely audible. Then another. Then a chorus of voices.

Li Wei turned sharply, his spear shards flaring. Shadows moved along the walls, taking form. Spectral figures, flickering in and out of existence. Warriors clad in armor of light and void, their faces obscured by time itself.

"The Veil…" Kara whispered.

The spirits did not attack. They simply stood, watching. Waiting.

Then, one stepped forward. Unlike the others, its form was clearer, more defined. It raised an arm, pointing toward the heart of the fortress.

Li Wei and Kara exchanged a glance before stepping forward. As they moved deeper into the ruins, the figures followed, their presence pressing against the edges of reality.

At last, they reached it.

The core was unlike any they had seen. It was broken—cracked down the middle, its energy spilling out in waves of chaotic light. It pulsed weakly, as if struggling to stay alive.

Kara reached out. The runes on her arm burned brightly. "This… this isn't just a core," she whispered. "It's a key."

Li Wei's breath caught. A key?

Before he could speak, the air trembled. The shadows around them coalesced, forming a new shape. Not a ghost. Not a warrior.

A figure draped in tattered robes, its face hidden beneath a hood. Its voice was a whisper that echoed in their bones.

"You should not have come."

The fortress shook. The core pulsed violently, as if reacting to the presence of the entity.

Kara's grip tightened. "Who are you?"

The figure did not answer. Instead, it raised a hand. The shadows surged forward.

The battle for the fractured core had begun.