Chapter 57: The Breaking Point

Kael's world narrowed to the pulse of the Shard in his hand—each heartbeat syncing with its eerie glow as time bent around him. The Veil assassins moved in slow motion, their blades cutting through the air like they were pushing through thick honey. He could see every detail—the glint of poison on their daggers, the ripple of their dark cloaks, the unnatural stillness of their featureless masks.

But time manipulation came at a cost.

Blood dripped from his nose, hot and metallic, splattering against the Shard's crystalline surface. The artifact drank it in greedily, its light flaring brighter.

"More," it seemed to whisper.

Aurelia moved like a shadow given form, her daggers flashing as she cut through the advancing assassins. She fought with a precision that bordered on inhuman—every strike lethal, every movement calculated. But Kael could see the strain in her now, the way her breaths came just a fraction too quick. She wasn't invincible. None of them were.

Lucian fought like a storm given flesh. His vampiric speed made him a blur, his sword carving through the Veil's forces with brutal efficiency. But even he couldn't be everywhere at once.

A blade grazed Kael's arm, and time snapped back into place with a vengeance.

Pain lanced through his skull as the Shard's power rebounded, sending him to his knees. The Veil assassin looming over him raised their dagger for the killing strike—

—only to collapse as Lucian's sword erupted from their chest.

"Stay down," Lucian snarled, wrenching his blade free.

Kael barely had time to register the warning before the ground beneath them shuddered.

The trees groaned, their skeletal branches twisting unnaturally. The air itself seemed to thicken, pressing down on them like a physical weight.

Aurelia staggered, her knives slipping from her fingers as she clutched her head. "No—"

Then the earth split open.

A fissure tore through the dead forest, jagged and glowing with the same eerie light as the Shard. From its depths rose a figure—tall, gaunt, draped in tattered robes that might have once been regal. Their face was hidden behind a mask of blackened bone, but Kael didn't need to see their eyes to know they were staring straight at him.

At the Shard.

"You dare wield what is not yours?"

The voice was wrong—too many layers, too many echoes, like a chorus of the dead speaking as one.

Kael's blood turned to ice.

The Veil's leader had arrived.

Aurelia was the first to recover. She snatched up her fallen daggers and stepped between Kael and the towering figure, her smirk razor-sharp despite the blood trickling from her temple. "Let me guess—you're here to monologue about destiny before we kill you?"

The masked figure tilted their head. "You are older than you appear, little one. But even you are no match for what is coming."

Lucian moved to Aurelia's side, his sword still dripping black blood. "We'll see."

Kael forced himself to stand, his grip tightening on the Shard. The artifact burned in his hand, its whispers growing louder, more insistent.

"Use me."

"End this."

But at what cost?

The Veil's leader raised a skeletal hand—and the world screamed.

The ground beneath them dissolved into swirling shadows, the trees twisting into grotesque, grasping shapes. The very air turned thick and suffocating, pressing in from all sides.

Aurelia swore as the darkness coiled around her ankles like living chains. Lucian's sword arm trembled, his movements slowing as if caught in tar.

Kael's vision swam. The Shard pulsed violently, its light flickering between blinding radiance and near-darkness. He could feel it—the breaking point. The moment where the artifact would either save them or destroy them all.

The Veil's leader loomed closer, their voice a death knell. "The Shard was never meant for mortal hands. It will consume you, as it has all who came before."

Kael's fingers shook.

Aurelia met his gaze across the chaos, her eyes fierce. "Do it."

Lucian bared his fangs in defiance. "Now!"

Kael exhaled—and pushed his power into the Shard.

The world shattered.

Light erupted in a blinding wave, tearing through the unnatural darkness. The Veil's leader staggered back, their mask cracking as the force of the blast sent them reeling.

But the Shard wasn't done.

Kael felt it—the moment the artifact turned on him. Agony lanced through his veins as the Shard's power surged back into him, searing through muscle and bone. He couldn't scream. Couldn't breathe.

The last thing he saw before darkness took him was Aurelia's horrified expression—and the Veil's leader, vanishing into the shadows with a promise that echoed in the sudden silence:

"This is only the beginning."

Then—nothing.