Chapter 7:The Fractured Reflection.

The air in the Hunter's Guild infirmary hung thick with the metallic tang of blood and ozone. Rune lay motionless on a cot, her breathing shallow, the gold in her eyes flickering like a guttering candle.

Thalion paced nearby, his cursed arm twitching beneath its bandages, the vines' thorns digging. deeperdeeper with every step. Veythar leaned against the wall, the Void Core inhis chest pulsing faintly-a cold reminder of the cost they'd paid to seal the plaza rift.

"She's slipping again," Thalion muttered, his voice raw.

Veythar said nothing. He'd seen it too-the violet tendrils creeping back into Rune's irises, the way her fingers curled into claws even in sleep.

Sylviaris' warning echoed in his mind: *Borrowed time is still time."

A scream tore through the silence.

Rune lurched upright, her eyes blazing violet. Dark energy crackled around her hands, scorching the sheets. Thalion lunged, pinning her shoulders.' Rune! *Fight it!""

She thrashed, her snarls dissolving into choked sobs. "Thalia... *run*-"

For a heartbeat, gold flared in her gaze. Her hand gripped his wrist, trembling.

"I'm... sorry."

Then the darkness surged.

The guild hall erupted into chaos. Rune's corrupted energy lashed out, shattering windows and hurling hunters aside. Veythar tackled Thalion as a bolt of violet fire seared the wall behind them.

"We need to restrain her!" Veythar shouted.

"No!" Thalion roared. "We *save* her!"

Sylviaris materialized from the smoke, her shadow stretching like a predator's grin.

"How touching. But sentiment won't purge Valenor's corruption." She tossed a vial of swirling black liquid at Veythar's feet.

"The Darkreach Chasm. A rift there holds a primal Void Core-*pure*, untainted. It could cleanse her. Or kill her."

Thalion seized the vial. "Why help us "now*?"

"Because watching you fail bores me," she said, vanishing into the shadows.

The Darkreach Chasm was no ordinary rift. Its edges bled into a labyrinth

of floating obsidian shards, each reflecting a fractured version of reality. Veythar's Void Core hummed in resonance, its light warping as they navigated the unstable terrain.

Rune staggered between them, her breaths ragged, the vial's corruptive energy clashing with the primal Core's pull.

"There," Thalion said, pointing to a pulsing heart of light suspended above an abyss. "The Core."

But the path twisted. Mirroredshards shifted, trapping them in a kaleidoscope of nightmares-Rune's memories.

*Thalion, younger, pleading with a black-eyed Rune: "Don't touch that relic!

*Veythar, alone in the Shadowed Abyss, Flicker's fading whimper:

"Help..."**Valenor, laughing, plunging a blade into a Void Core: "Power is always stolen."*

Rune screamed, clutching her head.

"Make it *stop!*"

"Focus on the light!" Veythar gripped her hand, channeling his Core's energy.

The mirrors shattered, revealing the primal Core-and Valenor, standing before it. --

Valenor turned, his armor dripping with molten Void energy.

"Predictable," he sneered.

"You'd trade *everything* for a ghost of hope."

Thalion charged, his sword clashing against Valenor's corrupted blade.

"She' s not a ghost!"

Veythar lunged for the Core, but the ground splintered. Rune collapsed at the chasm's edge, her body convulsing as darkness and light warred within her.

"Take it!" Thalion shouted, parrying Valenor's strike. "*Now!*"

Veythar seized the primal Core-a searing, crystalline orb-and pressed it to Rune's chest.

Agony. Radiance.

The darkness *screamed*.

Rune's back arched, her veins glowing gold and violet. The chasm trembled, mirrors exploding into shards. Valenor laughed as the abyss yawned wider.

"Fool," he spat. "You've only fed the Void!"

The primal Core shattered.

Rune gasped, her eyes snapping open-*fully gold*. But the victory was hollow. The chasm's rift convulsed, vomiting forth a titanic Void Beast, its form a grotesque amalgam of the mirrored horrors they'd witnessed.

Sylviaris' voice slithered through the chaos:

"Did you truly think purity exists in the Void?"

Thalion hauled Rune to her feet.

"What did you *do*?!"

Veythar stared at the shattered Core.

"It wasn't pure. It was a *mirror*- reflecting what we brought into it."

Valenor vanished into the rift, his laughter echoing. "Until the Citadel, little thieves."

The Beast lunged.

They barely escaped.

Back at the guild, Rune sat silently, her golden eyes haunted. The darkness was gone-but so was the primal Core. Thalion's cursed vines had retreated, yet his arm bore new scars, twisted like fractured glass,

Veythar studied the Citadel shard, its whispers louder now. *

"You cannot outrun what you are.'*

Sylviaris watched from the shadows, her smile sharp.

"Interesting, isn't it?" she purred. "The Void gives only what you're willing to lose."

Rune stood suddenly, her voice steady.

"We go to the Citadel. Not to stop Valenor." She met Veythar's gaze. "To end this."

Thalion tightened his grip on his sword. "Then we end it together."

As the guild's bells tolled, the shadows deepened-and somewhere in the Void, Flicker's faint cry echoed.

Power had a price. But in the end, even mirrors broke.