Far Beyond the confines of this plain, their lied a place not many could reach.
But there, an unseen battle was unfolding, determining the course of which this story would take.
—
The Spire rose like a spear into the heavens, built of obsidian and humming with a low, unnatural resonance that made the air pulse with unease. Its top floor—an atrium of glass and shimmering aether—was a sanctum only accessible to those who knew how to speak with stars.
They had come here because there was no more time. Something was breaching. Not a being, but a rupture—a tear in the latticework of space, unraveling reality like thread from a tapestry.
They weren't alone.
A sound cracked through the tower like a scream made of thunder and glass. The walls shook. Flames danced in midair without consuming anything. The rupture had found them.
Kael stood at the center, arms raised, a translucent barrier of shimmering hexagonal glyphs radiating out from his hands. It flickered, strained, buckled. Beyond it, the air itself twisted unnaturally—a visible crack suspended in space, splitting the atmosphere like fractured glass. Something tried to push through. A pulse of anti-light surged from it like a heartbeat.
The shield caught the worst of it.
But not all of it.
Kael gasped, blood spraying from his mouth as the force hit him. The barrier shattered like crystal, and he dropped to one knee, hand clutching his side.
"Kael!" Adrienne's scream cut through the blaze. She ran to him, sliding to her knees beside his collapsing form. Her fingers pressed against his wound, glowing faintly as she tried to channel what healing she could—but the wound was beyond magic. Beyond science.
His eyes fluttered open, still filled with focus, with love. "You need to run. Take the failsafe."
"No," she whispered, tears streaking down her soot-smudged face. "No, not without you. I won't—Kael, please—"
He reached up with trembling fingers, cupping her face. "Our children. They must never know this world. Not like this."
"I know," she choked. "But you… you promised you'd walk with me until the stars blinked out."
His bloodied lips curved into a faint smile. "And I will. Just… from further than before."
The ground trembled violently. A sound like a hundred voices speaking in reverse echoed from the cracked air. From above, something stirred.
A shadow.
It descended slowly, its form undefined—taller than the Spire itself, its edges flickering like a half-remembered nightmare. Its presence bent the very laws of being. Even the flames bowed away from it.
Adrienne looked up, eyes wide. For the first time in centuries, she felt true fear. Not for herself. But for the ones she would leave behind.
She turned back to Kael, wrapping her arms around him. He leaned into her, whispering something only she could hear.
A silent prayer.
She whispered it back, her lips brushing his ear.
The shadow raised a hand—if it was a hand—its movement slow, deliberate. Power gathered like a storm.
Together, Adrienne and Kael held on to each other.
Together, they closed their eyes.
And then—
White.
Endless, blinding white.
As if the world itself had been erased.