Chapter 12:Rune's Purification.

The air in the Darkreach Chasm was thick with the scent of ozone and decay, a suffocating miasma that clung to the back of Veythars throat.

The jagged obsidian shards floating around them reflected fractured glimpses of nightmaresmemoriesthat werent theirs, yet felt unnervingly familiar.

Rune staggered between him and Thalion, her breath ragged, the gold in her eyes flickering like a dying ember against the violet corruption seeping back in.

*"It's watching us,"* she whispered, her voice trembling.

Thalion's grip on her arm tightened, his cursed vines twitching beneath his sleeve. "Stay close," he growled, his sword already drawn, its edge glinting in the eerie glow of the chasm's primal Void Core.

The Core pulsed ahead of them, suspended above the abysse- crystalline orb of pure light, or so Sylviaris had claimed.

Veythar didnt trust it. Nothing in the Void was ever pure.

The ground beneath them shifted. The obsidian shards realigned, trapping them in a kaleidoscope of horrors*their own memories*, twisted and reflected back at them.

-**Thalion**, younger, desperation cracking his voice as he lunged for Rune: *"Dont touch that relic!"*

Black tendrils snaked up her arms as her fingers brushed an ancient artifact.

- **Veythar**, alone in the Shadowed Abyss,cradling Flicker's fading form:*"Help.."* The juvenile Void Beast dissolved into smoke, its final whimper echoing.

- **Valenor**, plunging a dagger into a pulsing Core, his grin feral: *"Power is always stolen."+

Rune screamed, clawing at her temples. "Make it *stop!*"

Veythar seized her wrist, channeling his Core's energy into her. "Theyre illusionsfecus on *me*!'

The mirrors shattered, revealing the primal Coreand Valenor, standing before it.

Valenor turned, his obsidian armor dripping 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 beneath him, Rune collapsed at the chasm's edge, her body convulsing as gold and violet light warred beneath her skin.

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

Veythar's fingers closed around the primal Core-searing, crystalline orband pressed it to Rune's chest.

Agony. Radiance.

The darkness *screamed*.

Runes back arched, her veins alight with gold and violet fire. The chasm trembled, mirrors exploding into shards. Valenor laughed as the abyss yawned wider.

"Fool," he spat. "Youve only fed the Void!"

The primal Core *shattered*.

Rune gasped, her eyes snapping openfully 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 theyd witnessed. Twelve eyes, each reflecting a different memory, glared down at them. Claws like fractured glass tore at the air.

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 wasnt pure. It was a *mirror*reflec ting what we brought into it."

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

The Beast lunged.

Time stutteredor perhaps it was Veythar's fraying mind. The Void Core in his chest flared, its light lashing out in jagged arcs. Thalion dragged Rune behind a floating shard as the Beasts claws shredded the ground where they'd stood.

"We need to bind it!" Thalion shouted.

"With *what*?" Veythar snarled. Flicker was gone. The Eclipse Concord had drained him. All he had left was rage.

Rune stepped forward, her voice steady. "Me."

Before they could stop her, she pressed her palms to the nearest mirror. Gold light erupted, searing the Beast's eyes. It recoiled, howlingbut the reflection in the shard shifted.

Not Rune, but *Valenor*, his hand outstretched, violet energy coiled around his fingers.

"No," Thalion breathed. "The mirrorstheyre *anchored* to him!"

The Beast swung its tail, shattering the shard. Rune collapsed, blood trickling from her nose.

"I'm... sorry," she whispered. "I thought..."

Veythar grabbed her arm. "Were leaving. *Now.*"

They barely escaped.

Back at the guild, Rune sat silently, her golden eyes haunted. The darkness was gonebut 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 Sylviaris had given them, its whispers louder now. *"You cannot outrun what you are."*

Sylviaris watched from the shadows, her smile sharp. "Interesting, isnt it?" she purred. "The Void gives only what youre 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 deepenedand somewhere in the Void, Flicker's faint cry echoed.

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