The ruins of Silverveil Citadel breathed decay. Moonlight carved jagged shadows across the skeletal remains of the palace, its once-gleaming spires now reduced to shards of obsidian jutting from the earth like broken teeth. Isolde walked alone, her silver-plated boots crunching over frost-coated rubble.
The Holy Lance in her hand felt heavier than it had in decades, its once-radiant glow dimmed to a sickly amber. Beneath her armor, a web of**source-shard lines ** pulseda- parasitic lattice of blue veins creeping up her ribs, throbbing in time with the whispers that haunted her dreams.
*"You were always meant to carry this burden,"* the voice slitheredRivenn's voice, though he had died months ago, reduced to ash by Ophira's chaos-fire. *"But the weight will crush you, as it crushed me."*
Isolde drove the lance into the ground, its tip sparking against stone.
Silenc e,"she hissed, her breath fogging the air. The lance's light flared, casting elongated shadows that twisted into familiar shapes: Rivenn's helmet, half-melted; the crest of the Frostborne Knights, a wolf encircled by thorns. Her gauntlet trembled as she gripped the weapon tighter. The lines beneath her armor burned colder.
---
Midnight came like a blade.
Isolde stood atop the citadel's fractured western wall, her gaze fixed on the distant glow of the Ashfall Librarya flicker of torchlight in the wasteland. The纹路had spread to her collarbone now, its icy tendrils branching toward her heart. She closed her eyes, willing the Holy Lance's fading warmth to steady her.
A crackle of frost snapped her attention downward.
Her shadow stretched unnaturally long, its edges sharpening into serrated wings of ice. The lines beneath her armor flared blue, and suddenly, she was no longer in control.
*Kill them,* Ophira's voice purred from her own throat. *Kill the Chaos Child before he consumes us all."
Isolde's body moved against her will. The Holy Lance erupted with a corrupted glow, its light now tinged with cobalta-fusion of Holy Light and chaos-energy. Ice wings burst from her armor, crystalline feathers shredding the night air as she soared toward the library.
Below, patrols of Frostborne Knights froze mid-stride, their horrified faces locked in rictus grins beneath layers of frost. ---
Eldrin jolted awake, his left arm seizing with a familiar, venomous cold. The lines beneath his skin writhed, reacting to a presence he hadnt felt since the rift's collapse.
*Ophira.*
But nothis resonance was different. Closer.
Get up," he snarled, shaking Tira awake. The girl's third shard flickered in response, its light laced with residual shadows. Across the library's hidden chamber, Liora was already on her feet, her crystalline dagger humming with defensive runes.
Nim cursed, fumbling with her spider-mech's damaged core. What now? More shadow-eaters?"
A blast of frigid wind shattered the chamber's barricaded door, Isolde stood framed in the moonlight, her ice wings glinting, the Holy Lance crackling with corrupted energy. Her eyesone the steel-gray of the Frostborne, the other a molten goldtocked onto Eldrin.
You," she rasped, her voice layered with Ophira's malice. You *infect* everything you touch."
The lance struck before Eldrin could react.
---
Chaos-fire met corrupted Holy Light in a detonation of cobalt and gold. The chamber's ancient bookshelves ignited, their pages disintegrating into ash. Eldrin skidded backward, his lines◆flaring as he parried another blow.
Tsolde, *stop!*"he roared. This isnt you!"
Her laughter was a discordant chorus. You think *I*control this power?"The lance twisted, its tip grazing his shoulder. Ice spread instantly, encasing his arm. You gave Ophira the key. Now *we* are the lock."
Liora lunged, her dagger carving a sigil into the air. A barrier of crystalline light erupted between them, but Isolde's wings slashed through it like glass.
Her linestheyre merging with the Holy Core!"Liora shouted. Eldrin, you must sever the connection!"
Tira screamed as a stray bolt of energy struck her shard. The third shard's light pulsed erratically, its shadows writhing. She's*fighting it*!"
Isolde faltered. For a heartbeat, her steel-gray eye regained focus. Rivenn… warned me"she choked, the lines on her neck bulging. The oath·*breaks us all*".
Her ice wings convulsed, spearing toward Eldrin. He barely dodged, chaos-fire melting the attack into steam.
---
In the maelstrom, Liora's voice cut through the chaos. The lines's nexus is her chest! Strike *now!*"
Eldrin hesitatede-fatal mistake.
Isolde's lance pierced his defenses, its tip embedding in his lines-covered arm. Agony erupted as the lines *screamed*, absorbing the Holy Core's corrupted energy. Visions tore through him:
4solde kneeling before Rivenn's grave, the Frostborne crest clutched in her bloodied hand.*
*Ophira's shadow slithering into her armor, whispering promises of strength.**A pact sealed in desperation: f will bear this burden, brother. Even if it destroys me.*
You*knew him,*"Eldrin gasped, the lines◆burning brighter. Rivenn was your"
Isolde's lance twisted deeper. He was my *squire.* My *failure.*"Her golden eye blazed. And you will *not* take him from me again."
With a roar, Eldrin channeled the liness stolen energy into his free hand. Cobalt flames engulfed the lance, melting it to slag. Isolde staggered, her wings fracturing.
Liora struck.
Her dagger plunged into the lines's nexusa-pulsing knot of Holy Light and chaos-energy above Isolde's heart. The lines *screamed*, its veins retreating like scorched serpents.
Isolde collapsed, her armor splitting to reveal the Frostborne crest etched into her fleshe-mirror to Rivenn's pendant.
The oath"·she whispered, blood flecking her lips. It was never*yours* to bear".
Her shadow stretched, clawing toward Eldrinbut not as an enemy. As a plea,Rivenn's spectral form flickered above her, his hand brushing her brow. *Sh e carries my trial now. As I once carried hers."
The lines dissolved, leaving only scarred flesh. Isolde's ice wings shattered, their fragments melting into the bloodstained floor.
--
Dawn crept through the shattered dome, its light too frail to dispel the chamber's shadows. Isolde lay unconscious but alive, her breathing shallow. Eldrin stared at his linesnow threaded with streaks of Holy Light.
The lines…it's evolving," Liora murmured, her voice unsteady. Ophira's corruption, the Holy Coretheyte merging *within you.*"
Tira touched her own shard, its light dimmed. And her?"
The lines is dormant. For now."Liora's gaze hardened. But Ophiras shadow thrives in the fractures. This is far from over."
Outside, the wind carried the howl of wolveser perhaps something worse. Somewhere in the ruins, a shadow stirred, its laughter echoing through the bones of the fallen.
*Well played, brother"*
The game had only just begun.