The room was dim, a siern casting flickering light against the cold stone walls. Rael sat across from Victor, arms folded, sidering everything that had just been said.

  Victor exhaled, running a hand through his curled blonde hair. "As long as we reveal the artifact’s true nature, Sir Reyas will uand. He’s not an evil man—just blinded by grief. And as for the false artifact itself… you have it."

  Rael raised a brow. "Just like that?"

  Victave him a sharp look. "As long as you don’t use it to harm the Gurdle family."

  "Wasn’t pnning on it," Rael said with a shrug.

  Victor studied him for a moment, then nodded. "Good. But first, we o find my sister."

  * * *

  A dimly lit warehouse. Dust drifted through the air, illuminated by the pale moonlight filtering through a cracked window. In the ter of the room, a girl with light blonde hair sat tied to a chair, her hands bound behind her back. Freya, bruised but gring defiantly, kept her mouth shut as the men around her spoke.

  "Finally caught this rat," one of the meraries sneered, arms crossed. "I wonder how much Sir Reyas will reward us."

  Another scoffed. "Tch. Doesn’t matter. The real bounty was on the vase she was carrying. That was the info, wasn’t it?"

  "Who cares? We just o make her tell us where it is."

  Before he could say more, a loud otioed outside.

  The first merary cursed, immediately drawing his sword. "The hell was that?"

  "Go check," the sed one said, gripping his dagger tightly and sing the shadows. His instincts were sharp—he had been in this line of work long enough to know something wasn’t right. He turned slightly, cheg the ers of the warehouse—

  A sudden impact.

  The seerary’s visio dark as he colpsed to the ground, unscious.

  Rael stepped over him, shaking his head. "I thought you guys were professionals."

  He moved swiftly, untying Freya and loosening the gag in her mouth. She gasped, flexiiff wrists before her blue eyes locked onto him.

  "You—it's you," she muttered, reition fshing in her gaze.

  "Yeah," Rael said, a hand. "Your brother and I are getting you out of here."

  She hesitated but nodded, gripping his hand as she stood.

  They slipped out of the warehouse, moving through the shadows. The moment they reached the rendezvous point, Victor was already waiting.

  Freya barely had time to process the sight of her brother before he ed her in a tight embrace. "You okay?" he asked, his voice low.

  She nodded. "I’m fine."

  Victor pulled bad smirked at Rael. "Those potions worked better than expected."

  Rael had a brief fshback—Mira, their weathermancer, grinning as she presented one of her strange cos, talking about the ‘perfect bance’ between visibility and fusion. It was ridiculous, but he had to admit—it worked.

  "Yeah," Rael muttered. "Worked like a charm."

  They moved to a safer location, away fr eyes. Otled, Freya listened as Victor expiheir pn.

  After a pause, she nodded. "I know where the artifact is."

  Both men immediately focused on her.

  "Before Madam Lilia passed, she took me there once," Freya tinued. "It’s an underground cavern, a bit far from here. There’s a mini ke inside… and a built around it. Flowers everywhere. That’s where it’s hidden."

  Victor’s eyes widened in shock. “You mean that pce?”

  Freya nodded solemnly. “Yes. That’s where Madam Lilia was buried.”

  A heavy siletled between them.

  “This just got more plicated,” Rael muttered.

  * * *

  The air felt heavier as they stepped into the cavern. A soft glow bathed the area in silver light, filtering in through unseen cracks above. The undergrouretched out before them, its gssy surface refleg the wild scatter of flowers that bloomed along the edges. A small wooden stood he shore, its weathered walls entwined with creeping vines, long untended yet untouched by decay. The pce was eerily serene, as if untouched by time.

  But the ter of the ke was disturbed. A slow, swirling whirlpool ed unnaturally, rippling outward in rhythmic pulses.

  Victor exhaled, his voice barely above a whisper. “This is where Madam Lilia was buried.”

  Rael turo him, but it was Freya who tinued, her gaze locked onto the whirlpool. “Sir Reyas es here often. He never let anyone else step inside, but I followed him once. He always stands at the water’s edge, talking to someone.” She swallowed. “Or something.”

  Rael’s eyes narrowed. “And there’s no one guarding it?”

  Victor shook his head. “No one dares. Even the meraries avoid this pce.”

  Before Rael could reply, the sound of footsteps echoed through the cavern. Slow, deliberate.

  He turned sharply, and there stood Sir Reyas Gurdle.

  The man cut an imposing figure in his rich dark robe, embroidered with silver threads that shimmered uhe cavern’s dim glow. His brown hair was ly trimmed, his posture poised with the air of nobility. Yet, his eyes betrayed him—hollow, sunken with something far worse than exhaustion. His skin, oanned, had faded to an unnatural pallor.

  He barely spared Rael a gnce before his gaze settled on the siblings. His lips curved into a sorrowful, almost delirious smile.

  “I betrayed her trust,” he said softly.

  Victor took a cautious step forward. “Sir Reyas—”

  “She loved you two like her own,” Reyas tinued, his voice trembling. “She would have wanted you safe. A—” He ched his trembling hands. “Ahe one who sold me the artifae… told me there is a way.”

  Freya paled. “What?”

  The cavern’s air grew tense as Reyas spread his arms, his voice gaining fervor. “I bring her back.”

  His gaze turned sharp, feverish, as he finally looked Rael in the eyes. “But to do that… I must make a sacrifice.”

  Victor stiffened. “Sacrifice?”

  “The two of you,” Reyas said, as if it were the most obvious answer.

  A gust of wind surged through the cavern, sending ripples across the water. At the heart of the ke, the whirlpool deepened, its pull intensifying. And then, something broke the surface.

  A cube.

  It hovered above the whirlpool, a seamless bck struct with intricate runic carviched into its surface. Hollow lines glowed faintly, pulsating with a dull, ominous light.

  Rael’s fiwitched toward his belt. The false artifact.

  And Reyas began to t.

  The air grew heavy, thick with an unnatural force as Sir Reyas spread his arms, his hollow eyes gleaming with unhinged fervor. His voice, once filled with grief, now carried an eerie reverence as he began to t in a tongue long fotten.

  "Zy’hal vekh thur’azan, suul drakar velmorith…Vey’ash korr thulen’gra, xai’varoth zehn alzahir!"

  A low, guttural vibration filled the air as the artifact pulsed, its runes shifting iic patterns. Then, behind Sir Reyas, the very fabric of reality twisted. A figure emerged—massive, bound in thick iron s that rattled with unsee.

  It had no hands, its arms ending in jagged stumps ed in broken shackles. Its face was devoid of emotion, its skin the color of burnt obsidian, and from its hollow eyes, thick bck tears cascaded down like an endless stream of sorrow.

  Two colossal horns curved upward from its head, pulsating faintly with a deep crimson glow. Though silent, its presence alone suffocated the cavern, pressing against Rael’s very being. The weight of something a, something beyond human prehension, bore down on them.

  Before the creature could fully materialize, Rael and Victor lunged forward.

  Victor's dagger gleamed in the dim light as he closed the distance, his movements precise, honed for close-quarters bat. A faint glow traced his off-hand as he murmured a minor reinfort spell—Fleetstep—bolstering his speed.

  Rael, moving in tandem, shifted his stance—his footwork sharp, deliberate. He feinted left, f Reyas to adjust, before abruptly vanishing from his line of sight with a swift pivot.

  Reyas snarled, his body twisting unnaturally. Shadows coiled around his hands, f jagged tendrils that shed out to intercept them.

  "You won’t take this from me!" he spat, defleg Victor’s rapid thrust with a surge of dark energy. His eyes, once hollow, now burned with the artifact’s malignant power.

  Victor didn’t retreat. He dipped low, his dagger carving a sharp arc aimed at Reyas' ribs. At the st sed, Reyas pivoted, juring a thin, obsidian barrier that absorbed the strike. The momentary stall gave Rael an opening.

  Ruinous Strike.

  A dark violet hue crackled along the edge of Rael’s bde as he executed the teique, smming his sword down in a brutal diagonal ssh. The moment it ected, a pulse of destructive force erupted outward, shattering the barrier and sending Reyas staggering back.

  Reyas gritted his teeth, his breath ragged—but instead of faltering, he let out a twisted ugh. His fiwitched, and a bck bde coalesced in his grasp, jagged and unstable. He flicked his wrist—hurling it straight at Victor.

  Victor had just shifted his weight mid-step. Off-bano time to react.

  Rael moved first.

  He twisted sharply, his footwork fluid as he cut into the projectile’s path, bringing his sword down in a precise interception. The impact sent a shockwave up his arm, dispersing the brunt of the attack—but slivers of dark energy splintered off, grazing Victor’s shoulder. A sharp hiss of pain escaped him, but he stayed standing.

  Reyas was already preparing another spell.

  The whirlpool at the ke’s ter surged, dark energy crag as the demon’s form began to fully emerge.

  Victor darted fain, his dagger fshing. He aimed for Reyas' exposed side, trying to disable him rather than kill. Reyas tered with a burst of force, shoving Victor back, then turned his sights on Rael.

  Another bde of void-dark energy formed in his hands.

  This time, he hurled it with full force at Victor.

  Victor had no time to dodge. He was mid-step—his footing promised.

  A blur of motion—Freya.

  She threw herself between them.

  Victor's world slowed as Freya’s body jerked mid-air, the jagged bck bde embedding deep intht abdomen. A strangled gasp escaped her lips as crimson bloomed across her clothes.

  "FREYA!"

  Victor caught her before she hit the ground, his hands trembling as he lowered her carefully. Her breath was shallow, her eyes fluttering.

  No. No. No.

  He fumbled with his satchel, grabbing a healing potion. With gritted teeth, he she vial open and poured its glowing liquid directly into her mouth. Drink. Just drink. The thick red potion trickled down her lips.

  Freya coughed weakly, some of the potion spilling, but she swallowed enough. Her breathing steadied—but she was still too pale.

  "Damn it—!"

  Rael had already moved, stepping in front of them as Reyas staggered back, staring at Freya with wide, shaken eyes.

  His hand trembled. His spell had bee for Victor. Not her.

  "No..." Reyas whispered, his voice hollow.

  A memory.

  Madam Lilia, standing in the garden, two children behind her—one boy, one girl. "They will serve under me, Reyas. Treat them well."

  At the time, he'd rese. They were outsiders, strays she had taken in. But Lilia always treated them like her own. Even when he made them servants, she never let them feel like lesser beings.

  The image of a younger Freya, ughing beside Lilia, overpped with the girl now lying in Victor's arms—bleeding, wounded. Because of him.

  His breath came ragged. His fiwitched.

  "No… I didn’t… I didn’t mean—"

  But it was too te.

  The whirlpool at the ke’s ter erupted.

  A deep, abyssal BOOM shook the cavern as dark energy surged skyward, tendrils of bck mist coiling violently.

  Then it spoke.

  "??????'?????????? ???????? ?????????? ???????????? ????????'??????."

  A voice like a thousand shattered screams yered over each other. It didn’t echo—it devoured the sound around it.

  s rattled as the demon materialized.

  A t, malformed figure without hands, only stumps where they should have been. Its twisted horns curled upward, its bed skin cracked with void-light seeping through. And from its hollow eye sockets, rivers of bck tears flowed endlessly.

  The darkness surged, reag for Victor, Freya, and Reyas alike—about to e their very souls.

  And then, it stopped.

  The demon’s movements stilled as if time itself had faltered. The endless void where its eyes should have been shifted. It turned—directly at Rael.

  For the first time, expression crossed its face.

  Curiosity.

  And then it spoke again.

  "??????'?????????? ??????'??????... ??????'?????? ??????'????????."

  As the final sylble left its unseen lips, the t demon began to dissolve. Its form unraveled, strips of void-dark mist peeling away from its body, vanishing into the air like ink dispersing in water. The s binding it rattled o time before fading pletely.

  The oppressive weight in the air lifted.

  Then—

  CRACK!

  The false artifact—the cubic relic—shattered.

  And from within, a Fragment of Zenith flew straight toward Rael.

  [A fragment of 'Zenith' has been added to your iory.]

  [Fragments found: (2/?)]

  Rael exhaled slowly, his grip on his bde loosening. The air was still heavy with the remnants of dark energy, but the immediate danger had passed.

  Why did it just leave?

  He had no answer.

  Victor remained crouched beside Freya, still pressing his hands over her woue the healing potions taking effect. She was stable, her breath shallow but even. Across from them, Reyas sat motionless, his head bowed.

  Silence huween them before Reyas finally spoke, voice hoarse. "...I was blind."

  her Victor nor Freya responded immediately, but Victrip on his dagger rexed. He looked down at his sister, then back at the man who had once been their master. "...You were," he said quietly.

  Reyas nodded. He did not beg for fiveness. He did not weep. He simply looked at the ruined ke, at the shattered remains of his own folly.

  By the time they returned, Order knights were already waiting. Reyas did not resist when they seized him, his hands bound in silver shackles. Before he was led away, he turned back to Victor and Freya.

  "I name you both the rightful heirs of House Gurdle." His voice was steady. "This is my st act as its master."

  Victor and Freya were too stuo respond. The knights pulled him forward, but before he disappeared, Reyas g Rael.

  "Thank you," he said. And then he was gone.

  Victor and Freya turo Rael, the weight of everythiling in. "You didn’t have to help us," Freya said softly.

  Victor nodded. "We owe you."

  Rael just shook his head. "You don’t." Then, after a brief pause, he added, "But thanks."

  And with that, he left.

  * * *

  As Rael left Zarfar behind, he pulled out his interfad opehe group chat. His fingers moved swiftly over the interface as he sent a message.

  [Noctus]: Heading baow.

  There were no immediate replies, but that was expected. Elias robably off doing something dumb, Leon was either crafting or reading spell tomes, and Gale—well, Gale was Gale.

  Rather than taking a direct teleport to Vash’kar, Rael opted for a longer route. He rented another mount, a sleek bck-feathered raptor, a off at a steady pace. The teleportatiowork was ve, but he had a reason for this detour.

  With twments of Zenith now in his possession, another seal should have unlocked. He ime to check it properly.

  The wind rushed past him as the raptor sprinted down the dirt path. Solmora’s ndscape stretched out before him—rolling hills bathed in the evening glow, distant forests darkening as the sun dipped below the horizon.

  He flicked open his interface again and navigated to his iory. The fragment sat there, its description unged. But now, beh the faint glow of the two pieces, something pulsed.

  A notification appeared.

  [A new seal has been unlocked.]