Chapter 15:The Seal of Shattered Stars.

The Darkreach Chasm pulsed like a festering wound, its edges fraying into violet tendrils that lashed at the sky. Veythar stood at the precipice, the Eclipse Pike heavy in his grip, its fractured-time hum syncing with the erratic rhythm of his Void Core.

Beside him, Thalion's cursed arm trembled, the vines now creeping toward his throat, their thorns glistening with stolen vitality.

Rune's golden light flickeredafragile dam against the Devourer's gaze, which burned through the rift like twelve dying suns,Valenor spread his arms, his armor now fused with the Titan's remnants, veins of void energy threading his flesh.

The door is open, little key," he crooned. All you have to do is step through."

The rift shimmered, revealing a grotesque corridor of floating bones and shattered realms beyond. The path to the Citadel.

Veythars Core screamed.

A torrent of ancestral memories flooded his mind:

His grandfather, plunging the Eclipse Pike into a radiant starthe First Void Coresplintering it into a thousand shards. The Shattering.

Thalions ancestors, black vines erupting from their skin as punishment for rebellion.

Himself, in a future not yet lived, standing before the Devourer's thronenot as a savior, but as a vessel.

You see?"Sylviariss voice slithered through the chaos. The Concord ritual is your only path."

Rune seized Veythar's wrist, her golden eyes blazing. No. The Core isnt just a lockit's a mirror." It shows you what you choose to be."

Valenor laughed. Poetic. But mirrors break."He lunged.

Unique Mechanic: The Eclipse Concord

Thalion intercepted, his sword clashing against Valenors corrupted blade. G o!"he roared. Seal the rift!"

Veythar turned to the chasm, the Pike's weight burning his palms. The Concord ritual demanded a sacrifice: a Core-bearer's life to reset the Void. But Sylviaris had lied.

It required two.

Rune,"Veythar gritted out. The light and the dark. Together."

Her breath hitched. She understood.

They plunged the Pike into the rift.

Emotional Climax: The Price of BalanceEmotional Climax: The Price of Balance

Agony. Radiance.

The world unfolded.

Veythars Core erupted, its light weaving with Rune's gold energy, threading through the rift like a needle stitching reality. The Devourer howled, its form fraying at the edges. Valenor's armor cracked, his stolen power draining.

But the cost was immediate.

Veythars veins blackened, the Core's energy consuming him.

Rune's light dimmed, her knees buckling.

Thalion's vines withered, the curse liftingbut his sword arm dissolved into ash.

Sylviaris watched from the shadows, her violet eyes wide. You werent supposed to survive."

Revelation: The Fractured Legacy The rift sealed with a thunderclap.

Valenor collapsed, his body crumbling like charred parchment. This-isnt… over,"he gasped.

The Devourer's voice echoed through the stillness: You have only delayed the inevitable."

Thensilence.

Veythar staggered, the Pike clattering to the ground. His Core was cracked, its light dimming. Rune lay motionless, her golden eyes closed. Thalion clutched his severed arm, his breath ragged.

And Sylviaris?

She was gone.

Only her shadow remainedeeiled around a single, pulsating shard of the First Core.

Cliffhanger: The Veils Last SecretThe shard moved.

It slithered toward Veythar, whispering:

The Devourer is not the end. It is the beginning."

Then the ground trembled.

Beyond the chasm, the sky splitnot into a rift, but into a gate of stars.

And from it stepped a figure clad in tattered robes, their face obscured by a mask of bone. The Keeper.

Welcome,"they intoned, to the other side of the Veil."