Hall of Accord – Blood Moon Uprising
Kael
The chamber erupted into chaos.
The moment the assassin died, the Accord sigils flared red-hot across the floor—then shattered like glass. Ancient laws undone. The System pulsed in my ears, loud and urgent:
❗ Blood Pact Broken
🩸 Faction Immunity Lost
⚔️ All Combatants: Hostile
Dungeon-Like Environment Detected – System Synchronization Pending…
Then the voices started screaming.
Veil blades cut through the air like ribbons of crimson steel. Pact warlocks summoned glyphstorms of shadow and ash. The arena twisted as spells collided—gravity shifted sideways, time stuttered, and bodies were thrown like dolls against the blood-crusted walls.
Lyra vanished.
I panicked—then remembered.
Rewind. Clockfracture. She moves like thought now.
Even so, I moved toward her. Fire clenched at my fists, ready to consume everything between us and the exit if I had to.
A Pact enforcer tried to bar my path—hooded, armored in bone-thread and bronze glyphs. I didn't hesitate.
🔥 Skill Activated: Firebrand (D)
🔺 Strike imbued with volatile flame
💥 CRITICAL HIT – Armor compromised
☠️ Enemy Defeated – +33 XP
He didn't even scream—just collapsed inward, smoke leaking from his eyes.
I didn't slow down.
Lyra
I was five seconds ahead of the room. No more.
That was all I could see—five seconds of future time, folding and unfurling in fractured windows. It wasn't enough. Not in this storm.
Three assassins blinked in from behind a Veil banner, aiming poisoned darts at Kael.
"Behind you!" I shouted—not out loud, but through the temporal weave.
He turned just in time, arms up, fire shielding his face as the darts melted on contact.
🔥 Passive Triggered: Flame Ward – Rank F
🔸 Status Immunity: Poison (5s)
Good.
But this was spiraling fast.
I slid into the timestream and blinked beside Kael.
🕓 Skill Activated: Slipstream Step
⚙️ Skill Activated: Clockfracture
❄️ Target: Pact Pyromancer (Elite)
🕑 Status: Frozen in time (1.8s)
I buried both daggers in his throat before he could finish his incantation.
☠️ Enemy Defeated – +42 XP
🔺 Stat Gain: Temporal Mastery +1
Kael grabbed my arm.
"Back gate," he said. "Now."
I hesitated.
So much power in this room. So much knowledge.
But then I saw Vrosh on the far platform—eyes locked on Kael like a man who wouldn't stop until the world broke with him.
He began the incantation for a soul-bind.
"We have to go," I said.
Kael
We ran through a battlefield of collapsing pacts and dying gods.
Gravespire Hold fell around us like a dying cathedral. Veil champions screamed curses as they were cut down. Pact warlocks detonated their own bodies to take others with them. Blood soaked the carved runes beneath our boots.
Then we reached the back gate.
Or what used to be the gate.
🔒 Exit Sealed – Magical Lock (Tier C)
🩸 Condition: Can be opened with Pact or Veil sigil-blood
"I don't have a sigil," I snarled.
Lyra held up her wrist. Her dagger was already out.
She sliced a thin line across her palm and smeared it on the seal.
The lock hissed, then clicked.
✅ Access Granted – Sigil Blood: Crimson Veil Adjunct
🔓 Passage Opened
The stone parted.
The cold night air hit us like a slap—but we didn't stop.
Not until the screams faded.
Not until the moon slipped behind the clouds.