The moment Cael crossed the threshold, the world around him seemed to dissolve like mist before the morning sun. Shadows twisted and coalesced, forming shapes both alien and familiar—echoes of memories half-remembered, and dreams yet unspoken.
He stood within a realm suspended between worlds, where time bent like a river caught in eternal eddy. The Veil was not a mere passage, but a crucible—an ancient forge where souls were tested, truths unveiled, and destinies reshaped.
Around him, constellations unfamiliar to mortal eyes traced luminous paths across the dark expanse. The inverted star on his breast burned hotter, its pulse quickening in resonance with the celestial chorus.
A voice, ethereal and distant, whispered through the vastness: "Bearer of the Tenth Star, your path is entwined with the fate of all realms. Yet, beware—such power invites both salvation and ruin."
Cael's heart thundered. The Veil revealed not only the hidden threads that bound his world, but also shadows deeper than night—secrets kept by the nine guilds, and truths twisted by those who wielded power in darkness.
As the veil's whispers enveloped him, Cael understood: to walk this path was to become both hunter and hunted, to embrace a fate that might unravel the very fabric of the heavens.
In the distance, a figure cloaked in starlight beckoned—an ally, or a herald of doom?