The battlefield fell silent, save for Kaelen's ragged breaths. Ash drifted where the guardian had stood, dissolving like smoke into the void. The fragment's glow pulsed ahead, brighter now, unguarded.
Kaelen stepped forward, his blade still simmering with black fire. The closer he came, the heavier the air grew, as though unseen chains bound this piece of the Abyss. The fragment was no simple shard of stone—it hovered above the ground, crystalline and fractured, humming with restrained energy.
When he reached out, his hand trembled—not with fear, but resonance. His Abyss stirred, whispering take it.
The moment his fingers brushed its surface, the world shifted.
Kaelen's sight was wrenched away, replaced by a vision so vivid it felt like his own memory.
A battlefield stretched across eternity, rivers of flame cutting through collapsing skies. Dozens of Keepers stood in defiance, their armor glowing, chains of light binding the abyssal rift before them. Among them towered a figure cloaked in shadow deeper than night—its voice a thunder that cracked the heavens.
"You cannot cage eternity."
The Keepers screamed as their chains snapped one by one. The shadow reached out, and with a gesture, consumed them. Kaelen saw their forms scatter into fragments of light—fragments like the one he held.
The vision ended as abruptly as it began, hurling him back into himself. He staggered, nearly dropping the shard.
Now he understood. These fragments weren't relics. They were memories—remnants of fallen Keepers, echoes of their last stand. Each one carried the weight of their final moments, bound to the being they fought.
And the guardian… it had been nothing more than a lock.
Kaelen clenched the shard tight. The Abyss within him whispered louder now, its hunger rising, its words clear for the first time:
"Gather them all… and I will awaken."
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