Chapter 11: The Shattered Veil

The Shattered Veil The air around Celestine shimmered with instability, the Veil that separated Eldoria from the lost past fracturing under the immense magical clash. The once-invisible boundary between reality and forgotten history had cracked like glass, revealing glimpses of something ancient—something that was never meant to be seen again.

The voices came first, disembodied whispers rising from the fissures in the Veil. They spoke in forgotten tongues, yet Celestine understood them. They were calling to her, pleading, warning. The air turned heavy with the weight of unseen gazes, the presence of those who had long since perished reaching through the tear in existence.

"Something is waking," the Forgotten One muttered, his golden eyes fixed on the growing fractures. His form flickered as if struggling against an unseen force. "The Veil does not simply hide—it imprisons."

Celestine gritted her teeth. This was no ordinary tear in reality. It was an unraveling. If it continued, the entire balance of Eldoria would collapse, and whatever lay beyond the Veil—those who had been erased by the gods—would return.

The Keepers were momentarily stunned, their divine presence wavering as they beheld the crack in their masters' great deception. One of them, a high-ranking Keeper clad in golden armor, recovered first. "Close the Veil!" he commanded. "Seal the breach before it is too late!"

Celestine knew what that meant—if they closed the Veil now, it would never open again. The truth, the lost history, would be sealed away forever.

A violent gust of ethereal wind tore through the battlefield, carrying the scent of something ancient and decayed. Celestine staggered but kept her stance. The Forgotten One took a slow breath and stepped toward the breach, his fingers twitching with barely contained energy.

"I was imprisoned beyond this barrier once," he murmured. "Now, I see that I was never alone."

A hand reached through the crack—withered, yet pulsating with raw, overwhelming power. The moment it breached the Veil, the entire battlefield trembled. Celestine's breath caught in her throat. This was something older than even the Forgotten One, something buried deeper than mere history.

The Keepers hesitated, fear flashing in their once-unshakable eyes. Whatever was beyond the Veil, even they did not understand it.

"We have to go," the Forgotten One said suddenly, grabbing Celestine's arm. His voice was firm, unyielding. "If we stay, we will be trapped between realms, and I do not intend to share the same fate as those who dwell beyond."

Celestine wanted to resist—she wanted to understand what lay beyond, to speak to those voices—but as she gazed into the breach, she felt a darkness curling at the edges of her mind, a whisper of something ancient seeping into her thoughts. If she stayed too long, she would not leave unchanged.

The Keepers began chanting, their divine magic surging in an attempt to repair the tear. If they succeeded, Celestine would lose this chance forever.

"No," she whispered. "I won't let them erase it again."

Summoning the knowledge she had gained from the Forbidden Archive, she raised her hands and spoke a word of power. The air vibrated, and the crack in the Veil widened instead of closing. The voices beyond the rift roared in unison—a sound of triumph, of fury, of long-lost vengeance.

The Forgotten One looked at her with something between admiration and dread. "You just made a choice that cannot be undone."

A figure stepped through the breach—a silhouette of shifting energy, its form undefined, its presence overwhelming. The gods had erased their existence, but now they were returning.

The past was no longer forgotten.

And the gods would not let this go unpunished.

—

The journey had only just begun, and the fate of Eldoria hung in the balance.