The world was breaking apart. The duel at the Fractured Spire had torn through every layer of the Skell Plane, ripping holes in the sky and shaking the ground until it no longer felt like ground at all. The air twisted in spirals of burning light. The wind moved without reason, sometimes pulling inward, sometimes pushing everything away as if the world was breathing in pain.Caster stood on what remained of the Spire platform, gasping for air. His chest hurt with every breath, and his arms trembled as he held the glowing core crystal to his body. The crystal pulsed slowly, like a dying heartbeat. Each pulse sent warmth into his hands, but the warmth felt weaker every time.Below him, massive cracks split across the plane, revealing rivers of raw mana gushing like molten streams. The sky above him fissured open, leaking white light that flickered like lightning trapped inside glass.Ardis stumbled away from the last shockwave, falling to one knee. His armor was cracked in several pl

The rift screamed as it broke apart. Light twisted in violent spirals, ripping the edges of space until the world looked like torn cloth flapping in a storm. The air was too thin to breathe, but too heavy to escape. Every sound shook like it was trapped between collapsing walls.Caster staggered forward with the crystal held tight against his chest. His body was half light and half flesh, flickering like a candle fighting a dying wind. Each step sent a stab of pain through his legs, but he refused to fall. The others raced ahead of him, running down the narrow, cracking path of unstable space.Lyra cried out as a piece of the collapsing plane struck the ground behind them and exploded into shards of bright white dust. Ardis grabbed her arm and pulled her forward with brutal force.“Do not look back!” Ardis shouted. His voice echoed strangely, as if swallowed by the broken air. “Just keep moving!”Lyra stumbled but did not stop. She kept glancing over her shoulder, her eyes full of f

The Void Corridors were quiet. Too quiet. Caster felt the silence press against his ears as he walked slowly between Ardis and Lyra. The mist swirled beneath their feet with each step, turning to faint stone when they touched the ground, then fading again as they passed. The air carried no wind, no warmth, no smell. Only the faint echo of distant space murmured faintly like a sleeping storm.Caster’s body was weak. Each breath felt heavy, and every step took more effort than the last. The glow in his arms had dimmed, but the cracks in his skin remained. They pulsed with slow, gentle light, reminders of the essence sealed inside the crystal that now floated behind them within the containment sigil.Ardis walked ahead with a hard expression, but there was something different about him now. The proud arrogance was gone. The sharp coldness had softened. He looked like a man carrying a heavy weight he did not know how to set down.Lyra stayed next to Caster. She did not speak much. Ever

The land surrounding the collapsed Skell Rift lay silent under a sky that had forgotten its color. The clouds were pale gray slabs, unmoving and heavy, as if they were carved from old bone. Every breeze carried a faint metallic taste, like the air had been scraped across broken glass. All around, the ruins of old outposts leaned at strange angles, their shadows stretching too far, their stones humming with leftover mana. And then the storms began.Thin cracks of violet lightning scratched through the air, flickering in quick bursts that left a sharp ringing sound behind. They crawled over the shattered ground like living veins, searching for a place to settle. At the heart of the wasteland, where the Skell Rift had closed only days earlier, spirals of dust curled upward like dying breaths.A lone figure stepped into that desolate field.They wore a long, bone-white cloak that brushed the ground without making a sound. Their face was hidden behind a mask shaped like a smooth, expre

Caster stood in the pale light of the broken sub-plane, breathing slowly as the last tremors faded from the cracked crystal core. Dust floated in the air around him like drifting stars, glowing with faint blue shimmer. He felt the shard in his hand vibrate, a soft pulse that matched his heartbeat, as if the Skell essence inside it recognized him as its carrier.The air was cold. Not a natural cold, but the kind that came from places where reality had weakened and let emptiness seep through.He lifted the shard toward the faint sky. Its blue glow spread through his fingers in gentle waves, warm at first, then sharp, like it was trying to speak through light alone.“What are you hiding now,” Caster whispered.There was no answer, but the shard hummed again. He closed his eyes and let his mana flow slowly into it. His mana, once smooth, now carried rough edges. It felt heavier, darker, filled with Skell’s unstable echo. As it poured into the shard, the fragment brightened. Sigils unwo