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Nightveil – March Toward the First Gate
The ground beneath Nyra's boots was ash and bone.
The boy walked at her side, silent as ever, a silver glow coiling in his veins that only she seemed able to see.
Behind them moved her recruits — her loyalists — and, for now, Kael.
His sword gleamed faintly at his hip, but Nyra didn't trust the light it carried.
Not anymore.
Not ever again.
The map Dax carried showed the nearest Hollowfracture just beyond the ancient Nightveil boundaries — where the Whisper Court once sowed secrets like seeds.
Marrow led the vanguard, her staff humming with something older than war itself.
Veila and Varek circled above in swift, low arcs — half-wing, half-shadow.
Iris stayed close to the boy, runes still dripping gold down her palms.
They were an army stitched from betrayal, revenge, and broken promises.
And they would be enough.
They had to be.
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Edge of the Hollowfracture
The first gate was worse than the maps had warned.
Where there should have been trees, there were only bone pillars, growing from the ground like the teeth of some buried god.
The Hollowfracture itself looked like a wound torn into the earth — black, ragged, still bleeding thin silver mist.
And standing around it—
Creatures.
Twisted bodies with no faces.
Wolves with too many legs.
Serpents made of uncoiled arms.
Things that should not exist.
Kael drew his blade without being told.
Veila and Varek landed, weapons already drawn.
Dax cracked his knuckles, grinning like a man who lived for carnage.
Marrow planted her staff into the earth and the ground buckled.
"Your command, Nyra," she said, voice low.
Nyra looked over her soldiers — her family, now.
And she spoke.
"Burn them to nothing."
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The Battle – Fracture's Edge
The Hollowfire creatures moved fast — shrieking, splitting, reforming — but not faster than Nyra's rage.
Veila and Varek tore through the first wave, wings slashing the mist, blades singing.
Marrow unleashed ancient spells, binding the earth itself to lash at the monsters.
Dax waded into the heart of the enemy like a storm, fists shattering bone and ash.
Sera vanished and reappeared between enemies, her twin daggers drinking deep.
And Nyra—
Nyra became the storm itself.
The silver thread inside her blazed, lashing out in arcs that snapped creatures into dust before they could even scream.
Kael fought too — back to back with her once, blades moving in a rhythm that memory still tried to call trust.
But Nyra knew better.
This was not trust.
It was necessity.
Nothing more.
The boy stayed behind Iris, his eyes glowing faintly as he whispered old names—names that made the creatures falter when they heard them.
⸻
The Sealing
As the last creature fell into ash, the fracture howled.
It knew it was losing.
Nyra stepped forward, her hands lifted, her veins burning like molten stars.
The Crowned Nothing's voice flickered across her mind:
"Tested. Chosen. Broken."
She shoved the voice away and thrust her palms into the earth on either side of the fracture.
The silver thread lashed out from her skin, weaving across the wound, stitching the world closed with raw power and defiance.
When it was done, Nyra collapsed to her knees, panting.
Kael caught her arm — steadying, not saving — and for a moment their eyes locked.
Not as allies.
Not as enemies.
But as two weapons forged in the same fire, knowing someday they'd be aimed at each other.
"One down," Dax said, kicking a dissolving bone pillar over.
Veila wiped her blade clean and looked up at the shattered sky.
"How many more?"
Nyra rose slowly, the boy at her side, his small hand steady in hers.
"As many as it takes," she said.
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Elsewhere – The White-Haired Girl
In the ruins of the forgotten kingdom, the white-haired girl knelt before a black pool of water, her reflection rippling.
Behind her stood the growing army of twisted revenants.
Her cracked skin glowed brighter now.
She smiled into the darkness.
"The threads unravel," she whispered.
"And I will be there to weave them into a crown of ash."
⸻
Cliffhanger
Far below Nightveil, something deeper than Hollowfire stirred.
A gate that had never been opened.
A prison that had never been broken.
And now, the first cracks were beginning to show.
The gods were not the only ones who remembered.
The monsters did too.
To be continued...