Chapter 14:Betrayal and Truth.
The air in the Hunters Guild infirmary was thick with the scent of blood and burnt ozone. Veythar sat on the edge of a cot, his fingers tracing the jagged scar above his chest where the Void Core pulseda-cold, unrelenting reminder of Flicker's sacrifice.
The Eclipse Pike lay across his lap, its blackened steel still humming with residual energy. Across the room, Thalion bandaged his cursed arm, the vines now receded but not gone, their thorns leaving fresh scars beneath the wrappings.
Rune slept fitfully, her golden eyes darting beneath closed lids, as if fighting shadows even in dreams.
Sylviaris stood by the window, her silver hair catching the dim light, her shadow stretching unnaturally long across the floor. She had saved them. She had also doomed them.
Veythar's voice was a blade. **'Talk."**
Sylviaris turned, her violet eyes gleaming with something between amusement and pity.
**"You already know, Core-bearer. Youve always known."** She stepped closer, her shadow slithering ahead of her like a living thing. **
"Your family didnt just guard Void Cores. They *created* them."**
The words struck like a physical blow.
Veythar's grip tightened on the Pike.
**'Lies."**
**"Is it?"**
She pulled a tarnished locket from her robes and tossed it to him.
Inside was a miniature portraite-man with Veythar's sharp features and cold eyes, standing before an altar of pulsating Cores.**
"Your grandfather. The first thief of the Void."**
Thalion's sword was halfway drawn before he froze.
**"Youre saying his bloodline is the reason the Shattered Realms exist?"**
**"No."** Sylviariss smile was razor-thin. **
"Theyre the reason it hasnt collapsed *entirely*."**
Veythar's mind fractured. Memories surgedwhispers of a childhood spent in ruins, his father's frantic warnings to *never let them find the Core*.
The truth was a poison, seeping into his veins.
His family hadnt just failed to protect the Void. They had *broken* it.
---————
Sylviaris pressed her palm to Veythar's chest, her shadow merging with the Core's light. The room dissolved.
He saw:
-**A throne of bones**, floating in the abyss.
The Devourer coiled around it, its twelve eyes fixed on a figure clad in familiar armorhis grandfather*, plunging a dagger into a beating star.
The First Shattering
- **A child**, screaming as black vines erupted from his skin. *Thalion's ancestor*, cursed for rebellion.
- "*Himself**, standing before the Voidforge Citadel, not to seal it*to open it*.
The vision shattered. Veythar gasped, collapsing to his knees.
**"What the hell was that?"**
**"Your legacy,"** Sylviaris murmured. **
"The Core in your chest isnt just a**
"Your legacy,"** Sylviaris murmured. **
"The Core in your chest isnt just a tool.
Its a *lock*.
And Valenor isnt trying to free the Devourerhe's trying to"become* it."**
Thalions voice was hoarse.
**"Why tell us this now?"**
**"Because the next rift wont be a tear."** Her shadow twisted into the shape of a gaping maw. **"Itll be a *door*. And only a Veythar can open it."**
Rune stirred, her golden eyes flickering open, **"Veythar?"**
He couldnt look at her.
The guilt was a living thing, gnawing at his ribs. His family's sins had poisoned Thalions bloodline, corrupted Rune, and doomed Flicker. And now he was the key to the Devourer's return.
**'There's another way,"** Sylviaris said softly. **
"The Eclipse Concordthe ritual you used to seal the riftit wasnt designed for temporary fixes. It was meant to *reset* the Void."**
Thalions grip on his sword tightened. **"At what cost?"**
**"A Core-bearer's life."** Her gaze locked onto Veythar. **"Your father tried to perform it. He failed."**
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Veythar laughed, the sound raw.
**"So that's the choice? Die to fix my family's mistakes, or live and let the world burn?"**
Sylviariss shadow curled around his wrist, whispering: **"Power always has a price."**
---
Rune staggered to her feet, her golden light flaring.
**"No."** She pressed her palm to Veythar's chest, her voice fierce. **
'The Core isnt just a lock. It's a *mirror*.
It shows you what you *are*not what youre doomed to be."**
For a heartbeat, the room stilled.
Then**the guild's alarms blared.**
A hunter burst in, bloodied and breathless. **
"Valenor's forcestheyre at the
A hunter burst in, bloodied and breathless. **
"Valenor's forcestheyre at the Darkreach Chasm! He's tearing open another rift!"**
Sylviaris's smile was triumphant. **"Right on schedule."**
Veythar stood, the Eclipse Pike humming in his grip. The choice loomedemb race his bloodline's curse, or defy it.
Thalion met his gaze.
**"We end this together."**
Rune's gold light burned brighter. **"No more running."**
And as they stepped into the storm, the Void Core pulsednot with the weight of destiny, but with something far more dangerous.
*Choice."
The Darkreach Chasm was no longer a wound in the world.
It was a "gate*.
Valenor stood at its threshold, his armor fused with writhing tendrils of Void energy. Behind him, the rift shimmerednot with chaotic light, but with eerie clarity.
A path. A *way through*.
**'Took you long enough,"** he called, his voice layered with something deeper, hungrier.
**"Ive been waiting, *little key*."**
The Devourers eyes opened in the abyss.
And the door began to *unlock*.