In the eternal darkness of the dawning eclipse, a faint golden ring clung to the eastern sky. Inside it and beyond it, the world remained pitch black.
Eleana ran toward the distant blue shimmer she could see. They were in fact the works of blue mages navigating and protecting the huge barrier.
"Be safe, Veer… be safe. You promised me."
Her breath tore at her throat.
"Why am I so useless?"
"You have to save Sythris…"
"I'll bring someone strong enough—anyone—"
"That ghost—please, Goddess, Priessa help him drive it away."
The land roared around her. Slight shockwaves rolled through the ruined streets. But she did not slow.
As she passed a heap of broken stone, a hand pushed up through the debris, fingers scraping for air. Eleana never saw it. Behind her, it kept struggling.
By the time the blue barrier rose ahead of her, her legs were failing. Sweat stung her eyes. She pressed her fingers to the surface. It was like a ripple of water surface. Her hands caused ripples in it and it alerted the blue mages around.
A mage in deep blue approached. He wore a big blue hat and had a compass intricately designed attached to his waist. Light crawled across Eleana's face as the blue mage was started—
"Who are y— Commander Eleana? What happened to you?"
"Please," she said desperately, "Let me in."
She seized his hand like a child offered safety. The barrier took her with a ripple, as if a stone had sunk into still water. The blue mage's hands slightly shone with a blue light as Eleana went inside.
Then the mage's grip went rigid. His eyes narrowed.
"Who are you? Have you stolen the commander's form—"
His blade was already moving.
"Enough, Trevis."
An older mage caught the strike in his hands. Blood flowed from his hands.
"It is the commander herself. Do you mean to commit treason?"
Trevis froze as he looked at the person who stopped his blade. The old man turned to Eleana, surprise cutting through his composure.
"Commander. Your injuries first."
Eleana nodded as she started following the old man. He guided her toward the guesthouse.
"Trevis—feed the barrier. We don't know how long any of this will hold."
As they walked, the old man watched her sidelong. Eleana stared at the guesthouse as if she had never seen it before.
"A double?" he thought. "But she is wounded… and she hasn't attacked, even inside the dome."
"If she is real—what was done to her?"
"Commander," he asked carefully, "do you not remember this place?"
Eleana opened her mouth.
"I remember—"
Suddenly her body folded as she became agitated. She fell like a doll whose strings had been cut.
Just then a figure caught her before she hit the ground.
"Save him…" Eleana whispered. "Please… save Veer. He's fighting alone…"
Then she went still.
The woman holding her looked down, startled.
"Eleana…?"
The old man's eyes widened.
"Lady Caria! You're healed. Please—take the commander. It seems… she has lost her memories."
Caria stood in broken armor, dust in the joints, a thin laugh escaping before she could stop it. The sound made the nearby mages flinch.
She smoothed it over at once.
"Hah. Keep supporting the barrier. I'll take her to the healers."
A pause.
"As for saving that knight… we'll move when we can."
She turned and carried Eleana inside.
It was the same guesthouse where Veer had first opened his eyes without a name.
---
Outside, one of the mages exhaled.
"Old man… what is happening?"
The elder shook his head and lifted a compass toward the blackened sky.
"I never thought I would live to see the things written in the old legends."
His voice lowered.
"What was the King doing with an unparalleled sword like that? And that voice in the sky…"
Someone gave a brittle laugh.
"Does it matter? After enough shocks, the nerves go numb."
"We only have to last until the eclipse ends," another muttered. "Or until we're erased."
"Patrick—do you think we'll survive that long?"
Th man named Patrick swallowed.
"We will. I Think. When that twelve-armed thing manifested, we were too stunned to run… and we're still here."
A beat of silence.
"Maybe someone is protecting us." he said, almost unwillingly.
"And people like commander is still fighting for us somewhere..still now..", He looked towards the guesthouse door that had closed. The three storey guesthouse looked completely unfazed by all the happenings.
The old man kept his eyes on the sky.
"So many have already died. I don't know if a tenth of Drudar will remain."
No one answered. They only breathed, then returned to the barrier's work.
---
Inside, Caria shut the doors.
"Idiots," she muttered. "Your power isn't holding this place together."
Her gaze flicked toward the upper floor.
"After that twelve-armed manifestation, I can feel it. The woman upstairs… she's the one maintaining the barriers. She's the reason any of you are still breathing."
On the ground floor, the air smelled of medicine, wax, and blood. Candles trembled with each distant quake. The injured murmured through clenched teeth.
A blindfolded woman moved among them, hands steady, healing where she could.
Canthia—knight of Breavan, enemy of Drudar by every ordinary measure.
Caria's expression hardened.
She strode forward. She raised her voice as she addressed evryone, "Who gave her permission to treat our people?"
The nurses lowered their heads. Groans filled the pauses between her words.
"Do you even know who she is?" Caria snapped. Then she shifted the weight in her arms. "Look. Do you recognize her?"
A man stammered, "That's— that's Commander Eleana."
Caria nodded and pointed at Canthia.
"Her forces put me on the ground. Hollowed me. Left my mind in pieces. I fought Black Knight Sythris until I blacked out and was left where I fell."
Some nurses clenched their fists. Others stared at the floor.
"And you want her healing our wounded?"
Someone whispered, "But… she's blind. She can barely manage the simplest treatments. How could she have injured you?"
Caria's eyebrow rose.
"So I'm lying?"
"That's not what I—"
"Then understand this. I can't swear it on every detail—but this is the woman who killed Knight Laren on the field."
The room broke.
"Knight Laren is dead?"
"How—?"
"He is the strongest force in Drudar. This is not true...this can't be true..so she really is an enemy"
"We should kill her—"
"A blindfolded healer from Breavan—"
"Let's use her first, then decide—"
The arguments tangled as the ground shook again, deeper this time, as if something vast had turned in its sleep beneath the city. Few seemed to notice.
Canthia raised her voice.
"Enough."
The noise faltered.
"I am from Breavan," she said. "I faced Laren. I will accept judgment for what I have done."
Her head remained bowed.
"But let me help until the war allows otherwise. When it ends, I will answer as you decide."
Silence stretched.
Caria spoke into it, calm and practical.
"Agreed. We should use her. We need every hand if we're to reach the plaza."
"In some moments we need to help the remaining knights fighting that huge ass cross remains."
The protests died. One by one, they accepted it. Gradually they started tending the injured people. There were knights, mages and civilians among them.
As the nurses returned to work, Caria's eyes moved across familiar faces—people who looked at her with respect, with relief, with no idea what stood in front of them. Something in her chest tightened as she looked away.
She placed Eleana in Canthia's arms.
Then she turned toward the stairs.
Canthia's voice followed her, quiet enough that only Caria could hear.
"You… what even are you, Caria?"
"I have never felt anything like you in anyone before."
Caria did not answer.
She continued climbing the stairs.
Canthia looked down at Eleana as she gently placed her on the ground. Although blindfolded, she turned her face in Caria's direction.
Why does her mind feel so ancient?
She shook her head and began examining Eleana, carefully tracing her fingers along her pulse points.
"Dissociation… amnesia?"
"Just who gave you this much trauma ?"
---
Elsewhere, in a place cut off from ordinary darkness, Kerin stood as if dropped into another world. He looked back at the place from which he had emerged.
It was an eye—a golden eye from which black water flowed.
The eye was intricately designed.
"Just where is this?"
Just then, another person emerged. It was a woman with black hair, blue armor, and a royal crown resting upon her head.
Kerin took a deep breath, suppressing his fury toward the other person.
He looked around at the abnormal terrain and landscape.
Black-gold structures resembling open eyes surrounded a vast expanse of water. Few spirits drifted over its surface. The water itself was strange—yellowish-black, heavy, watching.
In his arms lay Eryssa, mature and still, her purple dress contrasting against her pale skin, her golden hair spilling over his sleeve.
Kerin's eyes were bloodshot. He turned toward the figure behind him.
"Caria—what are you? Where have you brought me?"
The eye-like structures. The wandering spirits. The thick, yellowish black water. The air itself hummed as though this were the end of the mortal realm.
"Is this… the Cradle of the Abyss?"
A soft, pleased sound escaped her.
"Oh. You really are knowledgeable. The Sacred Wise Clan earns its name."
A pause.
"Use the abyssal water. Cut out the voids in Eryssa's chest. Without that, she won't return to this world."
Kerin swallowed.
"For what? Why are you—"
"Are you going to save her," Caria cut in irritably, "or keep asking questions?"
Kerin's jaw tightened as he nodded. He slowly walked away from the eye through which they had emerged and made his way toward the pond in the middle. It was connected to the surrounding eyes by what appeared to be a series of staircases.
As he reached it, he looked helplessly at Caria before gazing down at Eryssa. He took a deep breath and lowered her toward the water.
He looked up and noticed structures resembling spinal ascensions, formed from golden web-like threads that stretched all the way to the top. Along the areas there were several golden eyes which meant there were many other paths connecting to this place.
"Are we really living above this...? Or is this even in Drudar?"
He carefully watched Eryssa before extending his hands toward Caria. She made a threatening noise but threw something in his direction.
It was a rune bag.
Kerin looked at it, then back at Caria.
"What? Want me to gouge your face out?"
"The rune bag has lost its emerald threads. But your weapons and other nonsense are still there."
Kerin muttered in shock,"Just as I feared... You guys used all the emerald runes to bring that weapon back into the world."
Caria didn't say anything. She took out some nail polish and began applying it to her long nails.
Kerin took a breath as he retrieved something from the bag. It was a long straw. Then he took out a detailed funnel, followed by a rune pen.
He began drawing something around Eryssa. A circle, followed by complex geometric patterns. Once completed, the entire formation was engulfed in flames.
The flames did not harm Eryssa.
Caria stopped polishing her nails and looked at the scene before her. Reflected in her pupils was neither the flames, Eryssa, nor the black water.
It was Kerin at work.
Kerin submerged one end of the long straw and channelled the water toward Eryssa's chest.
He sat down and drove a nail into the water. Slowly, water began rising through the straw. Kerin's forehead was covered in sweat as the water gradually flowed into Eryssa's chest and vanished.
Black voids kept emerging and disappearing as Kerin continued throwing darts.
No one knew what was happening. Caria simply watched the process.
It continued amid the echoes of a strange hum and ripples spreading across the water.