The path to Serathei was a scar through the forest.
Twisted trees loomed overhead, gnarled branches like fingers grasping at the grey sky. The earth beneath their feet was cold and soft, scattered with roots that seemed to writhe beneath the moss. Eren and Elira moved without speaking, their footsteps light, their eyes always scanning the gloom ahead.
Eren's body still ached from the trial. Though the healing tonic had sealed his wounds and dulled the pain, fatigue clung to him like a second skin. Akreth remained strapped to his back, a constant weight that seemed to whisper its presence with every step.
Elira walked a pace ahead, her cloak fluttering behind her like the trailing wing of a pale bird. She moved with a grace Eren envied calm, steady, and somehow untouched by the darkness surrounding them.
"Was Serathei a city?" he asked after some time, breaking the silence.
Elira didn't stop walking. "Once. A place of knowledge. The last bastion of the Veyari Order before the collapse."
"The Order that created the sword?"
"No," she replied. "They sought to destroy it. But by the time they acted, it was already too late."
Eren frowned. "Too late how?"
"They tried to seal Akreth using blood magic and ancient rites. In doing so, they bound part of its essence to the ruins. That's why we're going. What's left of the blade's origin... it lies buried there."
The path narrowed as they climbed a rocky slope. Mist clung to the stones, and the scent of damp earth filled the air. When they reached the summit, the forest fell away beneath them, revealing a valley below.
And within that valley ruins.
Serathei was not like the Temple of Shadows. It was grander, even in ruin. Towering spires, long broken, pierced the mist like shattered bones. Walls once gilded with arcane sigils now lay crumbled and moss-covered. At the city's heart stood a black obelisk, jagged and unbalanced, as if split by a god's fury.
Eren stared. "It looks like it was torn apart."
"It was," Elira said. "By Cael."
His eyes turned to her, searching her expression. "What happened here?"
She didn't answer immediately. Instead, she began descending the hill. Eren followed.
They entered the ruins through a broken gateway, its arch covered in ivy and cracked glyphs. The air here felt thick heavier somehow, like it remembered pain. Every stone seemed to whisper with forgotten voices.
Elira led him through the remnants of a central plaza. Statues of faceless robed figures stood in partial ruin, arms raised in unknown gestures. The black obelisk loomed ahead, a monolith of hate and memory.
Elira stopped.
"This is where he made his final stand," she said, her voice soft. "Cael came here looking for the truth. And he found it. But in doing so, he became something else."
Eren approached the obelisk. The surface was rough, cracked, and pulsing faintly like a slow heartbeat.
He reached out a hand.
Elira grabbed his wrist. "Not yet."
He turned to her, confused.
"That stone holds what remains of the sealing rite," she explained. "If you touch it unprepared, it will try to bind you as well. That's what broke Cael."
"Then how do I prepare?"
Elira knelt before the obelisk and removed a small blade from her cloak. She cut a line across her palm without hesitation, then pressed it to the stone.
The moment her blood touched the surface, the ruins around them shifted.
A wind rose from nowhere, and the mists pulled inward like breath drawn into lungs. The obelisk flared with red light. Lines of forgotten glyphs blazed across its face.
"Now," she said, stepping back. "You can touch it."
Eren didn't hesitate.
The moment his fingers made contact, he felt himself pulled inward.
The world vanished.
He stood in darkness.
Not empty darkness this one watched. It breathed. And from it emerged a vision. He saw a great hall, flooded with silver light. Bookshelves taller than towers. A circle of sages arguing over a blade suspended in a sphere of magic.
Then Cael.
He looked younger. Brighter. Unscarred.
He stood at the center of the circle, holding Akreth.
"I'll carry it," he said in the vision. "Not to use it but to end it."
One of the sages raised a hand. "And if it takes you?"
"Then let it," Cael replied. "Better me than another."
The vision shifted. The hall burned. The sages lay slain. Cael knelt at the center, clutching the sword. His eyes were gold now not shining, but empty. The same runes Eren had seen on Akreth carved across his skin.
The vision ended.
Eren stumbled back, breath ragged.
Elira caught him. "You saw it?"
He nodded. "He tried to fight it. But he lost."
Elira's eyes were filled with pain. "He didn't lose. Not completely. His soul… part of it is still trapped in the seal. That's why we're here."
"To free him?"
"To free yourself," she said. "Before you follow him down the same path."
They stood in silence before the obelisk, wind curling around them like smoke.
Then Eren looked down at the sword on his back.
"I won't let it take me," he said.
And this time, the runes did not pulse.
They glowed.