The journey to the Forsaken Gate began at dawn.
Kael, Lin, and Aelira stood atop the cliffs overlooking the Vale of Ashen Roots—a vast, desolate expanse where nothing natural grew, and even the wind whispered of forgotten sins. It stretched like a scar upon the earth, and at its center rose a colossal archway of black stone, half-buried in the ashen soil. The Forsaken Gate.
"It doesn't look like much," Aelira muttered, adjusting the strap on her shoulder-guard. "But my instincts are screaming."
"They're right to," Kael said. "That gate is older than the empire. Older than the realms. I saw it in the vision… it's where the first crack in the covenant began."
Lin stepped forward, eyes narrowed. "I feel… something. Like a pull. A heartbeat under the earth."
Kael didn't respond. He was already walking, every step drawing him closer to the truth—one he was no longer afraid to face.
As they approached the gate, the sky dimmed unnaturally. No clouds moved overhead, yet the sun's warmth faded. Shadows deepened around the black archway, and the very air thickened, charged with dormant power. The stones of the gate pulsed with faint, rhythmic light—like the echo of a long-forgotten drumbeat.
Aelira held up her hand, halting the group. "Look." She pointed to the runes carved across the surface of the gate. They writhed—shifted—as if aware of their presence.
"They're reacting to Kael," Lin whispered.
Kael stepped closer, extending his palm. The mark on his arm—the sigil given by the Throne—flared in response. The gate's runes pulsed brighter.
"I think it recognizes the Pactbearer," Aelira said grimly.
Then the gate responded.
A deep rumble echoed across the valley. The stones of the arch trembled. A slit of black light opened between them, revealing a void beyond—neither shadow nor flame, but something colder. Older.
And from that void stepped a guardian.
It had no face—only a helm of bone and ash. Its body was armor woven from chains of rusted silver, its limbs long and sharp. In its hands, it held a spear of fractured crystal, humming with lethal resonance.
Lin stepped protectively in front of Kael, but he raised a hand to stop her.
"This is my trial," he said quietly.
The guardian spoke—not in words, but in raw will.
"Pactbearer. Prove you are worthy of passage."
Kael stepped forward, summoning his strength. His spirit flared, white and black energies intertwining around him, and the very ground cracked beneath his feet.
The battle began in a flash.
The guardian moved with blinding speed, its spear slashing through the air like a comet. Kael dodged, barely, the tip grazing his cloak. He retaliated with a wave of nullfire—his unique energy, forged from shadow and essence—but the guardian absorbed it into its spear and launched it back, magnified.
Kael flew backward, slammed into the ground. He coughed blood, but rose again.
"You are not yet balanced," the guardian said. "You draw upon power without understanding its cost."
Kael closed his eyes. Images of the vision returned—Lin in his arms, Aelira leading the final charge, the broken sky.
"I will understand," Kael growled. "I must."
He raised both hands. The sigil on his arm glowed brighter, and this time, he didn't suppress it. He let the power surge—let it take form. Not to destroy, but to harmonize.
The air around him rippled. The chains of fate shifted.
He stepped into the flow of the guardian's next strike—not to dodge, but to bind. His hands caught the spear mid-swing, channeling his pact-born energy into it. The weapon shattered, its pieces dissolving into stardust.
The guardian froze.
"You… tempered it," Aelira said in awe. "You didn't fight the power—you guided it."
The guardian knelt, lowering its head.
"Pass, Pactbearer. The Gate opens to those who remember not only war—but balance."
The black light receded, and a portal formed inside the arch—revealing a sprawling world beyond. A realm unbound by the normal laws of time, where secrets of the First Pact lay hidden.
Kael turned to Lin and Aelira.
"Are you ready?"
Lin nodded without hesitation. "Where you go, I go."
Aelira cracked her knuckles. "Let's go shake the bones of the past."
Together, they stepped through the gate—into a realm forgotten by all, save the shadows who had waited far too long.