"Beyond the northern winds lies not the end of the world, but the place where worlds are forgotten."
— Chronicles of the Astral Navigators, Entry 142
🌌 March of the Vanguard
The northernmost frontier of the Hollow Realms was a land few dared to name—The Frosted Expanse, where even qi froze mid-flow and light itself bent beneath the weight of the unknown.
Jin led from the front, his cloak whipping violently as the blizzards howled. Behind him trailed the Vanguard, a coalition of the strongest sect warriors and outcasts alike—each one bound by the Council's decree to follow the Reclaimer into the unknown.
Banners of every sect fluttered in the white storm:
The Iron Fist Monks, their fists wrapped in qi-infused steel cloth.
The Serpent King's Riders, astride scaled beasts that hissed lightning.
The Crimson Moon Archers, eyes glowing like embers through the snow.
And, hidden among them, the Pale Moon Emissaries, silent, watchful, and veiled.
The mission was clear: reach the Void Scar—the wound where the world's edge bled into the Sea of Nothing—and seal what stirred within it.
But Jin knew the truth.
"You can't seal what was meant to awaken," he murmured to himself.
âť„ The Frosted Labyrinth
By the fifth day, the storm broke enough to reveal the ground beneath—a field of ice so clear that they could see shadows moving beneath it.
Massive, slumbering shapes—serpentine and ancient—twisting slowly in the deep.
Lin Xue pressed a hand to the ice. "These aren't beasts. They're… remnants."
Su Ren crouched beside her. "Frozen qi spirits. Trapped since the First War."
Ash-Eye smirked. "Let's hope they stay asleep."
They didn't.
A low rumble echoed from beneath the surface as cracks spiderwebbed through the ice. The frozen lake exploded upward in a geyser of crystal shards, and from the depths rose a creature unlike any seen since myth—a Frost Wyrm, its scales pale as moonlight, its eyes glowing with dead starlight.
The soldiers faltered. Even cultivators of the ninth tier hesitated to breathe.
"Hold the line!" Jin roared.
âš” Clash of Frost and Flame
The Frost Wyrm opened its maw, releasing a beam of blue-white death that turned entire ranks of soldiers into crystal statues. Jin's Leviathan Blade met the blast head-on, steam exploding as water qi clashed against frozen breath.
The air shattered.
The temperature plummeted until even sound cracked.
Jin moved like a phantom—blade arcs forming rings of tidal force that hammered against the beast's skull. Ash-Eye launched into the air, his spear wreathed in lightning, striking the wyrm's left eye. Lin Xue summoned phoenix fire to melt the frost that encased their allies.
But the wyrm was vast—ancient qi condensed into a being that refused to die.
Every wound Jin inflicted froze shut seconds later.
"It feeds on the Scar's essence!" Su Ren shouted. "We can't kill it here!"
Jin's eyes narrowed. "Then we'll tear it from its source."
🌊 The Leviathan's Call
Jin drove the Leviathan Blade into the ice, channeling his qi deep into the ground. The seven Seals burned bright along his arms—Storm, Stone, Flame, Tide, Shadow, Frost, and War—all resonating as one.
"Leviathan," he whispered. "Answer me."
The blade pulsed. A tremor ran through the earth, and the frozen lake moved—the water beneath rising in a colossal spiral.
From within the depths came a voice older than the Realms themselves, heavy and vast:
"You call upon the tide in a sea of silence… then let silence drown no more."
The ice shattered completely.
A spectral leviathan of water and light erupted from the ground, coiling around the wyrm.
The two titans collided, frost and ocean crashing in a storm that turned night into day.
đź’€ The Scar Revealed
When the light finally cleared, the wyrm was gone—its form dissolved into motes of frozen qi.
But the battle had unearthed what lay beneath the ice.
A fissure stretched endlessly northward, black and pulsing like a living wound—the Void Scar.
At its edges floated stones of impossible geometry, twisting and folding in on themselves. The air above shimmered with colors not meant for mortal sight.
Jin approached the edge slowly. The Leviathan Blade vibrated in his grip.
"Do you feel it?" the blade whispered. "The other half of the Accord waits below."
Lin Xue frowned. "The other half?"
Jin stared into the abyss. "The one I sealed away."
đź•Ż Descent Into the Abyss
The soldiers set up camp miles from the fissure's rim, unwilling to come closer. The wind that rose from the Scar carried whispers—soft, mournful, and ancient.
That night, Jin stood alone before the chasm.
The moonlight reflected off the edge, revealing faint symbols carved into the abyss walls—his own handwriting from another life.
"To protect the world, one must forget it."
"To seal the dragons, one must become one."
He clenched his fist. The Seals flared, burning through his cloak.
"Then let me remember," he said quietly. "Even if it destroys me."
And with that, Jin stepped off the cliff.
The world inverted.
🌑 The Descent Begins
He fell not through air but through memories—visions of war, of flames devouring cities, of himself standing atop mountains of corpses while dragons bowed before him.
A voice called through the darkness, clear and sorrowful:
"Reclaimer… you've come back to us."
The Void Scar pulsed like a heartbeat, swallowing his form completely.