The campfire flickered in the dying wind, casting dancing shadows across the canyon walls. The team had set up a temporary base on the cliffs above Elarion. Though the mission had succeeded, the silence that followed their escape felt heavier than any fight.Samuel sat apart from the others, his eyes locked on the horizon. The energy in his chest still hadn’t settled since his clash with the Bell. Every breath he took felt like it echoed in another place—another time.Ilara approached quietly, handing him a canteen. “You haven’t said anything since we surfaced.”“I’m still hearing the song,” he admitted. “Not with my ears—but in here.” He tapped his chest. “Like it’s lingering.”“That’s not unusual. You didn’t just resist the Bell—you harmonized with it, then shattered it from the inside. Its residue is bound to you now.”Samuel sipped the water, then glanced over at the rest of the group. Aria and Joey were dozing against a boulder. Dareth stood like a sentinel, arms crossed, staring

The corridors of the Lighthouse Bastion pulsed with a sickening violet light. The air inside was heavy with something synthetic—part oil, part ozone, part memory. Samuel moved swiftly, flames licking at his arms, illuminating the dark metallic walls etched with shifting runes.Behind him, Dareth and Ilara cleared the passage, cutting through the last line of sentry drones. Sparks flew from the shattered machines, limbs twitching in their death throes. Joey caught up from a side hall, blood streaking down his cheek, grinning like a wild dog.“They're learning,” he said between breaths. “Adapting faster. This isn’t just tech—it’s psychic.”“Figures,” Samuel muttered. “He’s using the Bastion as a mind anchor. Every corridor is laced with memory traps. They’re trying to fracture us.”Ilara placed a hand on the nearest wall. Her eyes rolled white for a second before she blinked sharply. “This entire tower is conscious. Not alive, but... aware. It’s feeding on fear. If we’re not careful, we

The air was tense when Samuel returned. He held the crystal in his palm like a wound—something that pulsed and ached with every heartbeat. The others gathered around him, questions burning in their eyes, but no one spoke. Not at first.Ilara stepped forward. “You saw him.”Samuel nodded.Joey clenched his fists. “And?”“He’s not gone. But he’s not who he was.”Kael narrowed his eyes. “Is he an enemy?”Samuel looked down at the crystal, watching its light flicker like a dying star. “No. Not yet. But he’s not on our side either. He’s... somewhere in between.”“Then he’s a danger,” Sarah said coldly. “To himself and to us.”“He gave me this.” Samuel held up the crystal. “Coordinates to a Vault the Gatekeeper feared. Sereth said it holds more than memories. It holds power. Knowledge. Enough to tilt the balance.”Dareth’s brow furrowed. “If it’s real, we need to get to it before the remnants do.”Ilara stepped closer, brushing her fingers over the crystal. Her eyes widened. “This... it’s e

The jagged cliffs of Kirell loomed on the horizon like the broken teeth of a long-dead beast. Ash swirled in the air, thick as fog. The ruins were silent—but not still. Beneath the rubble, something pulsed. A heartbeat of ancient power, slow and menacing.Samuel and his team approached under cover of night. Ilara whispered runes under her breath, wrapping them in an invisibility shroud. Joey clutched his twin daggers tightly, scanning every angle. Dareth, walking in silence, radiated an oppressive energy that even the winds avoided.“This place wasn’t just destroyed,” Ilara muttered. “It was erased.”The crumbled stone towers ahead looked as if they'd been cut from the world—not collapsed, but unraveled.“Is the Gatekeeper here?” Joey asked.“No,” Dareth said. “But his presence lingers. His Sentinels have already been.”They reached the edge of the inner courtyard, where once stood the heart of Kirell’s Order. Now it was a pit—a yawning crater of black stone and glowing veins. The pul

The sky above Mirror Valley had turned violet, a swirl of dusk and dawn that made it impossible to tell what hour ruled the heavens. Ilara stood at the center of the valley, her hands gripping the Echo Stone tightly. The artifact pulsed with chaotic memory, flickering images dancing across its surface—lives that weren’t hers, voices she didn’t recognize, feelings that weren’t her own.Aria paced beside her, glancing nervously at the treetops. “We should move. The Gatekeeper’s Warden might not have followed the others.”Ilara didn’t answer right away. Her eyes were closed, her mind immersed in the psychic pressure of the artifact. She could hear fragments of time like broken glass clinking together—Samuel's voice from a life that never happened, her own death played on loop in another world, Joey's laughter echoing in reverse.“I need ten more minutes,” Ilara finally said. “If I don't bind it properly, it could burn through us all.”Aria nodded, moving toward the edge of the valley to