The darkness was dense when Eliana fully regained consciousness. Her body was still sprawled on the cracked floor of the Temple of Mount Light, its ruined ceiling revealing a clear sky above her, as if the events of the past hours had been nothing but a dream.
"Eliana!" Selene's voice was the first to pierce her hazy awareness. "Eliana, are you alright?"
Eliana opened her eyes with difficulty. Selene was bent over her, her face pale and worried. Beside her stood Icarus and Meredith, and behind them were other figures—Orin, Thorin, and Lena, who had been outside the temple during the confrontation.
"Kairn..." Eliana whispered, attempting to sit up. "Where is Kairn?"
"He vanished," Icarus said, sorrow filling his eyes. "He and the White Shadow… disappeared into the portal."
Eliana sat up, taking a deep breath. She felt a strange heaviness in her right hand. She opened it to find the small black crystal Kairn had given her before his disappearance.
"The Crystal of Truth..." she whispered, recalling his final words. "When things become worse than you could ever imagine... use it."
"What do we have here?" Orin asked as he approached, his gaze fixed on the black crystal in Eliana's hand. "This isn't one of the Seven Crystals."
"Kairn gave it to me… before he disappeared," Eliana replied, looking around. "The Seven Crystals… are they all gone?"
Meredith nodded. "All of them. We saw their light ascend with Kairn and the White Shadow into the portal."
A heavy silence fell over the group. Without the Seven Crystals, they had lost their only means of reaching the Eighth City. Their long journey, collecting the crystals from the seven cities, now seemed futile.
"What do we do now?" Selene asked, her voice tinged with frustration and worry.
Eliana looked at the black crystal in her hand. Its surface was smooth, except for a delicate, incomprehensible engraving on one side. Inside, a faint blue light rippled like the waves of a deep ocean.
"We return to the base. We gather the others and plan our next move," she finally said, clutching the crystal tightly. "Limon and his team are still waiting for us at the mountain's base."
"And what about the Eighth City?" Icarus asked. "Kairn is there now... with the White Shadow. Whatever happens between them will change everything."
"We can't reach it without the crystals," Orin said, helping Eliana to her feet. "But there's something else we can do."
"And what is that?" Eliana asked.
"Uncover the full truth," Orin replied. "There's one person still alive who knows everything about the Eighth City, the crystals, Kairn... and even the White Shadow."
Everyone's eyes widened as they exchanged questioning looks.
"The Last Keeper..." Meredith said, realizing Orin's implication. "The former bearer of the Crystal of Light. The only survivor of the First Age of Oblivion."
Orin nodded. "We used to call him 'The Hermit,' the man who gave his name to the Deep Echo Pass. He's alive... and in hiding."
"And how do we find him?" Selene asked.
"That's the question we've spent our lives trying to answer," Orin replied. "But now, after everything that has happened, I believe he will find us."
The descent from Mount Light was far easier than the climb, but it was filled with silence and reflection. Limon and his team—Saril, Nyari, Marisa, and Bron—were waiting at the junction of the paths, surprised to see the former crystal bearers freed from the City of Sorrow's captivity.
After a brief exchange of greetings and a summary of the events, the now-expanded group—twelve warriors in total—resumed their descent from the mountain, heading toward the Village of the Sheaves, where they could rest and plan.
Eliana walked at the front with Limon. The small black crystal now hung around her neck, swinging gently with each step. Her mind was clouded with questions and flashes of the battle in the temple.
"It wasn't supposed to end like this," Limon said after a long silence. "Five years of searching for the crystals... only to lose them all in a single moment."
Eliana shook her head. "It's not over yet. Kairn... he's still there. In the Eighth City."
"Facing himself... from the future," Limon said, trying to grasp the bizarre concept. "Do you think he'll succeed? That having two versions of himself in the Eighth City will change anything?"
"I don't know," Eliana admitted honestly. "But Kairn gave me this crystal for a reason. And I trust him."
Suddenly, as they rounded a bend in the path, the Village of the Sheaves appeared in the valley below. It looked peaceful and warm in the setting sun, but something unusual was happening. There was no movement—no children playing, no farmers returning from the fields. The village seemed to be in a deep slumber.
"Something's not right," Limon whispered, signaling the group to stop.
Orin cautiously moved forward, his eyes scanning the scene. "There's no visible damage... but the village looks deserted."
"Or protected," Lena added, pointing to the village's perimeter, where a faint pattern of light surrounded it, like an almost-invisible transparent dome.
"A barrier," Thorin said. "An ancient form of protection. But none of the villagers could create something like this."
"The Hermit..." Eliana whispered, feeling the black crystal pulse against her chest. "He's here."
The group cautiously approached the village, and as they neared its boundary, the light barrier began to pulse more strongly. At a certain point, Orin stopped and gestured for everyone to halt.
"Eliana... I think the barrier will only allow you to pass," he said. "The black crystal... it's your key."
Eliana looked at her companions hesitantly. "What if it's a trap?"
"Kairn gave you that crystal," Selene said. "He trusts you."
After a moment's hesitation, Eliana nodded. "I'll go. Wait for me here."
Clutching the black crystal in her hand, she stepped forward alone toward the village's barrier. When she touched the transparent surface, something strange happened—the barrier rippled around her like water, then opened before her like an invisible door.
Eliana stepped through the opening, and as soon as she did, the barrier closed behind her, leaving her companions watching from outside as she stood alone within the silent Village of the Sheaves.
"Everyone is asleep," said a quiet voice behind her.
She turned quickly to find a figure standing in the center of the village square, beneath the large tree where the village elder had sat days before. But this was not the elder.
It was a tall, slender man wearing a simple gray cloak. His long white hair fell over his shoulders, and his face was calm, marked by deep wrinkles that told the story of thousands of years of experience and pain. But his eyes... his eyes were the most striking. One was a deep blue, and the other glowed with a golden light.
"The Hermit..." Eliana whispered, her heart pounding.
The man smiled faintly. "No one has called me that in a long time. Once, I was known as Cyril, the last of the First Keepers." The man approached Aliana slowly, his eyes examining her with deep curiosity. "They have carried the seven crystals to the eighth city... Cairn, and the White Shadow. The past and the future are in confrontation."
"How do you know that?" Aliana asked.
"Because I've seen this happen... seven times before," Cyril replied. "With every cycle of the Great Eclipse, the eighth city comes within reach. And each time, the bearers of the crystals try to reach it, hoping to change fate."
"Is that why you placed the guardians?" Aliana asked. "To protect the crystals?"
Cyril shook his head. "No... to protect the world from the crystals. They're not merely sources of power. They are keys... keys to a door that was never meant to be opened again."
Aliana stepped closer to him. "Tell me... what is the eighth city, really?"
A sorrowful smile crossed Cyril's face. "Come with me. I'll show you."
He turned toward the center of the square, where a small fountain stood. Raising his hand, the water rippled and transformed into a mirror-like surface. He gestured for Aliana to approach.
"Look... and you'll know the truth we've hidden for thousands of years."
Aliana stepped closer to the fountain, leaning over to gaze into the transformed water. What she saw made her recoil in shock and disbelief.
Because the face reflected in the water was not her own.
It was Cairn's.
At the same moment, in a place beyond the boundaries of time and space, Cairn-the-Shadow and Future Cairn were walking through the strange streets of the eighth city. The city's impossible architecture rendered directions meaningless—streets spiraled vertically, bridges twisted into inexplicable patterns, and crystalline buildings intersected one another in defiance of logic.
"This place... it's unlike anything I've ever seen," said Cairn-the-Shadow, his dual-colored eyes—one green, one black—watching his surroundings cautiously.
"And you'll never see anything like it again," replied Future Cairn. "The eighth city... the last remnant of the civilization that preceded everything. The ones who created the crystals... the ones who established the first system of forgetting."
"Who were they?" Cairn-the-Shadow asked.
"Like us... yet entirely different," Future Cairn answered, pointing toward a massive tower at the city's center. "They were the Keepers of Memories... beings who understood that reality itself is merely a memory."
The two stopped at a wide circular plaza, at the center of which stood a massive black crystal pedestal. Upon it, the seven crystals rested in a precise formation, pulsing together in rhythmic harmony.
"Why did you bring me here?" Cairn-the-Shadow asked, his gaze fixed on the crystals. "What do I have that you don't?"
"Choice," Future Cairn replied calmly. "I no longer have choices. My fate is determined... carved into time. But you... you are still free."
"Free to do what, exactly?"
"To save the world we know," said Future Cairn, gesturing toward the crystalline pedestal. "Or to destroy it."
Cairn-the-Shadow stepped forward slowly, placing his hand on the crystals. The moment he touched them, they erupted into a cascade of dancing colors, and the crystal pedestal began to crack and split open, revealing a spiral staircase descending into the depths of the city.
"It's time to confront the secret of the eighth city," said Future Cairn as he began descending the stairs. "And now... it's time for the truth."
Cairn-the-Shadow followed in silence, and as they descended, the entire city began to tremble gently, while the sky above them turned a deep crimson.
The Great Eclipse was reaching its peak, and the eighth city was awakening in full.