The realms were bleeding.
Altharion's boots barely touched the cracked ground as he sprinted, shadows clinging to his heels like living chains. Behind him, Velian limped fiercely forward, one arm wrapped tight but his qi blazing bright enough to light the collapsing twilight. Maelis soared overhead, her wings aflame with ember and obsidian, scouring the horizon for any sign of the fleeing darkness.
The shattered Core's ember had vanished beyond the fractured mountains—an impossible terrain where reality bent and fractured like a broken mirror. Here, gravity twisted sideways, colors bled beyond their spectrums, and time folded back on itself.
"The Veil is rupturing," Velian gasped, eyes wide. "Every step we take, the world unravels further."
Altharion nodded, veins pulsing with blood magic. His shadows coiled and writhed, weaving defensive wards to shield their fragile path. "Then we run on the edge of chaos, or we're swallowed by it."
Ahead, the void darkened—an abyssal maw from which the true enemy's presence radiated. It was no longer a god or a throne. It was a living fracture—a corruption of all things, a parasite thriving on destruction and rebirth alike.
Maelis dove, flaring her phoenix flames to blast the swirling tendrils blocking their path. Each burst scorched shadow and tore the fraying strands of the Veil's decay, but for every tendril destroyed, two more writhed forward.
"Blood-ward, now!" Altharion commanded. He stabbed a dagger deep into the cracked earth, blood welling from his palm as he traced sigils of binding. The ground bloomed with glowing red runes, arresting the advance of the creeping darkness for precious seconds.
Velian pressed forward, voice low and steady despite the pain. "Their corruption distorts qi flow—our powers are muted."
Altharion clenched his fists, releasing a torrent of shadow-qi. His form split—dozens of shadow-clones attacking from every angle, distracting the parasite's probing tendrils.
But the creature adapted quickly. Reality warped violently, and one tendril slammed into Altharion's clone, dispersing it with a scream of broken laws.
Velian's shadow surged, drawing on forbidden blood magic. Crimson tendrils erupted from his palms, lashing through the abyssal corruption and severing a pathway. "Keep moving! This realm collapses fast!"
Maelis circled above, her flaming feathers shedding sparks that bloomed into fiery blossoms midair—each petal a ward against the encroaching void.
Suddenly, the ground shattered beneath them. Time itself fractured. A ripple of distortion sent Velian flying into a broken spire, and Altharion lunged, catching him just before he fell into the void below.
"We can't keep this up," Velian groaned, struggling to stand. "Every moment, the corruption eats reality—and us."
Altharion's eyes gleamed with grim resolve. "Then we end this now."
He focused, channeling every ounce of shadow and blood magic left in his body. His qi flared into a hurricane of black and red, swirling around his blade—Veilrend gleaming with lethal intent.
The parasite pulsed—its form sprawling and impossible to contain. But Altharion's storm surged forward, cleaving through its core. The creature shrieked, warping and recoiling, but his strike shattered its heart of corruption.
Velian roared, joining the assault with a devastating blood-qi blast that tore through the parasite's defenses.
Maelis descended in a fiery spiral, phoenix flames igniting the final rupture until the creature's scream faded into a whisper.
The corruption unraveled, the Veil's tears knitting closed.
But the realms were forever changed.
Panting, wounded, and bloodied, the three warriors stood amid the ruins—knowing the true war was just beginning.