The Veil shattered.
Where there had been a wound, now there was a gaping chasm across the sky. From its jagged edges poured shadows thick as oceans, swallowing the horizon in black. The battlefield stretched infinite beneath it, but even the stones themselves cracked, bleeding darkness that reeked of despair.
The Entity arrived.
Not half-formed, not a whisper.
A colossal titan of abyssal flesh and living void, dragging itself through reality. Each movement cracked thunder, each breath shook the stars. Its skeletal ribs opened like a cage of fangs, inside of which burned a pulsing void-heart, spilling tendrils that reached across the land.
Elena staggered back, clutching Anna against her chest. Her light burned weakly, sputtering like a lantern in a storm. Yet her arms tightened protectively, as though her fragile body could shield Anna from the apocalypse.
Kael stood before them, wings of shadow stretched wide, obsidian cracks glowing red across his arms and chest. The corruption coiled in his veins like molten chains. His sword dripped with black flame. His voice rasped low.
"It's here."
The ground split, and from the cracks surged the Entity's army. Not the pale wraiths they had fought before, but monstrous abominations of the Veil—towering forms stitched from bone and shadow, claws that dripped black ichor, eyes that glowed with endless hunger. Thousands upon thousands.
The war had begun.
All across the battlefield, screams echoed. Figures of light—guardians, knights, wanderers who had survived the fall of realms—rose with desperate fury. Their weapons blazed, their chants shook with courage they did not feel.
One knight drove his spear into a beast's throat, only for two more to drag him down. A priestess raised a wall of fire, but shadows devoured it whole. The Veil-born devoured the weak, the fearful, and still they came.
Above it all, the Entity's voice thundered:
"This world shall be my vessel."
Elena pressed her forehead to Anna's hair.
"Stay with me. Don't let it pull you back in," she whispered.
Anna's trembling hand clutched Elena's sleeve. "I won't… I swear." Her voice cracked, faint but real.
Elena forced herself upright, her knees shaking. Her eyes glowed faintly again. "Then we fight. Together."
Anna's lips parted, but before she could speak, the ground quaked violently. The Entity's tendrils whipped outward, crashing into the battlefield like titanic whips. Dozens of warriors were swept into the air, screaming as they dissolved into shadows.
Kael stepped forward, planting his blade into the earth. Shadows flared out in a dome, shielding Elena and Anna from the shockwave. The dome cracked instantly, his body jolting from the strain.
"Elena," Kael rasped, sweat streaking down his face, "you can't shield her alone. If you try, you'll die. Use me."
His shadowy wings spread wider, burning holes into the ground where their tips touched. The air warped around him, reality bending.
Elena turned sharply. "No. That thing is eating you alive. If you push it further—"
His head tilted, eyes glowing red through the dark cracks. A broken smile. "Then let it. If it means you both live."
Anna's breath caught. "Kael—"
But before she could speak, a tidal wave of shadows fell upon them.
Kael roared, his sword blazing with darkness, cleaving the wave in half. The ground split beneath the stroke, black fire devouring the air. The clash was so violent the entire battlefield turned to ash for miles around.
From the other side of the rent, Elena's light flared, piercing the black tide. Her radiance joined his strike, splitting shadow and light across the horizon. The wave shattered, breaking against them in an explosion that turned night into white fire.
For a heartbeat—the warriors behind them saw hope.
"Look!" one shouted.
"They're holding it back!" another cried.
And so the armies of light surged forward, spears and blades raised, screaming in defiance.
They clashed.
Steel rang against bone. Fire seared shadow. Blood soaked into the cracked Veil.
It was not enough.
The Entity shifted. Its titanic head lowered, void-eyes like eclipses staring directly at Elena. Its voice rumbled, shaking the marrow of her bones.
"You cannot save her. You cannot save yourselves. This world is already mine."
Elena's knees trembled. Her light faltered. Her arms around Anna shook.
But she lifted her head, tears burning her eyes. "Then come and take it from me."
The Entity moved.
The Entity's gaze fell like gravity, crushing all breath from lungs. The battlefield itself knelt, stone bowing beneath its colossal presence. Warriors who moments before had been screaming defiance faltered, their voices cracking into silence.
But Elena did not bow.
Her arms wrapped tighter around Anna as she thrust herself forward, golden light surging from her palms. It burst in a radiant arc, striking a tendril mid-whip. The tendril recoiled, shrieking like iron torn apart. For the briefest second, light spread like dawn across the battlefield.
Anna's eyes fluttered open, glowing faintly with that stolen corruption. She clutched Elena's wrist. "Don't stop. Don't let it win."
Elena nodded once, fire lighting her face through her tears.
Kael's shadow burned brighter than ever before. His body shook as cracks spread like lightning across his skin, his wings tearing wider with each heartbeat. Black fire rolled from him in waves.
The shadows obeyed.
He lifted his hand and the battlefield bent, dozens of shadow-beasts turning against each other in an eruption of gore. Yet with each command, his body screamed louder, bleeding shadow from every pore.
"Elena," he called, voice ragged and dark, "if I lose myself—kill me before it takes me."
She turned sharply, eyes fierce. "No! Don't you dare give me that choice. You're not gone yet."
His grin split, half-mad, half-broken. "You always did believe harder than anyone."
Then he leapt.
Kael slammed into a beast three times his size, cleaving through it in a spray of shadow ichor. His blade roared with black flame, each strike tearing apart monsters like paper. He carved a path through the horde, a demon against demons.
The warriors of light followed in his wake, emboldened. A chant rose.
"Push them back!"
"Fight! Fight!"
The Entity roared, and reality split. Its colossal hand descended, crushing both armies indiscriminately. Entire battalions vanished beneath its palm.
Elena screamed, summoning every shred of light left in her veins. Her body glowed, wings of gold burning into existence behind her. She lifted Anna into her arms and shot skyward, slamming into the descending hand with everything she had.
Light against void.
The clash split the heavens.
Her scream became a beacon, scorching through the endless dark. The Entity's hand cracked, shards of shadow raining down. For the first time, the titan faltered.
But Elena fell, body burning, her light dimming fast. She crashed hard into the earth, Anna tumbling from her arms.
"Elena!" Anna scrambled forward, catching her hand. Tears spilled down her face.
The Entity's voice rumbled with fury.
"Child of light… you defy inevitability. Then I shall devour you first."
Its tendrils writhed, diving for her.
Anna staggered to her feet. Her body trembled, corrupted veins glowing, her strength barely a flicker. But she spread her arms wide, stepping in front of Elena.
"Then you'll have to kill me too."
Her voice shook, but it rang clear across the battlefield. Warriors turned. Even Kael, locked in slaughter, froze.
Anna's eyes blazed—one gold, one black.
And for the first time since her corruption, she fought back.
A shockwave burst from her, half-shadow, half-light. It flung tendrils aside, staggering even the Entity. The army paused as if stunned.
Anna's chest heaved, her body threatening to break apart, but her will did not falter. She turned to Elena, whispering:
"You gave me hope when I had none. Now it's my turn."
Elena's eyes widened, light pooling in her tears. "Anna—"
But her voice was drowned by the roar of the Entity, the ground splitting beneath them as its titanic body forced further into the mortal world.
Kael dropped to his knees, shadow flames roaring from his chest, barely able to contain the curse. His sword shook in his hand.
The world itself seemed to shatter—light and dark colliding, armies screaming, the Entity rising in full.
The Breaking War had truly begun.