The night over Blackthorn Ridge was restless.Cold winds drifted like wandering ghosts across the cliffs, carrying with them the scent of wet stone and distant thunder. Down below, the forest rustled—not with the hum of insects or the movement of wildlife, but with something heavier… something watching.Ethan felt it before he saw it.A subtle vibration in the air. A pressure on his chest. A faint ringing in the Star-Core Shard inside him—an instinctive warning.Lara stepped closer, her expression tightening.“You feel it too,” she whispered.Ethan nodded slowly. “We’re being surrounded.”Aemilia unsheathed her blade, eyes narrowed. “The Sovereign?”“Not him,” Ethan said. “But someone who wants to warn us about him.”The branches parted.And from the shadows emerged a tall, hooded figure cloaked in swirling mist—every step he took distorted the ground around him like ripples on water. His presence wasn’t killing intent… but it wasn’t peace either.Aegor raised a hand, shielding Prince

The ridge shook under the Sovereign’s approach.He didn’t rush.He didn’t attack.He simply walked—and the world struggled to contain his presence.Every step bent the air, twisting the space around him like ripples in a dying flame.Ethan could barely breathe.The Star-Core Shard inside him vibrated wildly, like a caged heart trying to break free.Rick’s voice sliced through the paralysis.“Ethan—MOVE!”But Ethan stood frozen, not out of fear…but because something inside him whispered:This moment changes everything.The Sovereign flicked his fingers.A wave of crimson energy burst outward, splitting the ground between them. Dirt and stone erupted skyward. Aemilia barely shielded Aria in time. Aegor was knocked to his knees.Rick grabbed Ethan’s arm and yanked him back as the wave narrowly missed vaporizing him.“Don’t stare at him,” Rick hissed. “That’s how he gets inside your mind.”The Sovereign’s voice rolled across the ridge like rolling thunder.“Rick Alden… still alive. Still

Ethan froze.The words echoed in his skull long after Rick spoke them:“He stayed behind… to die buying us time.”Ethan’s hands clenched so hard his knuckles popped.“No,” he whispered.“No, he wouldn’t just— he wouldn’t—”Rick crouched beside him, voice steady.“Ethan… your father knows the Sovereign better than any living soul. He knows he can’t win. But he also knows something else.”Ethan swallowed, throat burning.“What?”Rick exhaled slowly.“That you’re the one the Sovereign truly wants — and the one prophecy says can stop him.”Aemilia paced in tight circles.“Okay, all this doom talk is great,” she snapped, “but where are we? Because this place feels—wrong.”They all turned to face the towering black cliff.The Veil’s Edge.Violet runes pulsed along its surface like a heartbeat.A cold wind drifted through jagged cracks, carrying whispers—actual whispers—voices speaking in a dozen languages at once.Lara backed up instantly.“Nope. Nope. Nooope. We should not be this close.

The night over the Broken Crescent Valley was unnaturally still. Even the wind seemed afraid to move. Rick stood at the edge of a collapsed stone platform, eyes fixed on the shimmering crack in the air—the same crack that had swallowed Collins Lutherchris moments before.The Veil Rift.It pulsed like a beating heart.Behind Rick, Arin staggered to his feet, clutching his ribs. “Rick… what did he activate?”Rick didn’t answer immediately. The resonance in the air was the same hum he had felt the night his family was slaughtered—the same distortion he sensed when the masked assassin tore open space and vanished. His fists tightened.“It’s the Veil Gate Fragment,” Rick murmured. “He used the wrong key. That rift isn’t stable.”Arin swallowed hard. “So Collins is…?”“Not dead,” Rick replied. “But he’s somewhere between the mortal plane and the Shadow Abyss. If we don’t stabilize the rift, he’ll be pulled apart.”Before Arin could respond, Rick stepped closer to the crack. Dark energy lick

The world blurred.Rick barely had time to react as the assassin’s strike came down—swift, precise, aimed directly at his heart.THRUM—!Rick’s new Veilborne mark flared on its own.A shimmering barrier of white-blue energy exploded outward, catching the assassin’s blade mid-air.The impact shook the entire clearing.Kai was thrown back. Lira shielded her face from the blast of dust and force.The assassin slid backward across the ground, boots carving a deep trench in the soil.He tilted his head, examining Rick with eerie curiosity.“Your mark awakened,” the assassin said.“Good. That makes retrieving you more urgent.”Rick didn’t answer.His heart hammered. His palms shook.That voice…Those movements…The unmistakable killing intent…It was him.The same assassin who tore through Rick’s childhood home.The same figure who walked through fire and ruin without a scratch.The same shadow that ended his family.Rick forced the words out.“Who… are you?”The assassin didn’t hesitate.“