The battlefield was ash and ruin.
The world trembled as the Entity fully descended, its vast form blotting out the fractured sky. The ground quaked, reality itself groaning beneath the pressure of its existence. Cracks of light and shadow split across the broken plain, each rift spewing fragments of half-formed worlds—the remnants of realms the Entity had already consumed.
Anna's chest heaved. She could feel both sides of herself warring—light and shadow tearing against each other like wild beasts inside her veins. Her fingertips burned, veins glowing with alternating brilliance and corruption. And yet… for the first time, she wasn't afraid.
She raised her eyes to the Entity.
And she stood.
"Anna—" Elena's voice was weak, broken, but filled with desperate hope. She crawled from the wreckage, her silver hair matted with blood, her robes in tatters. Even so, her gaze never left Anna.
Kael, meanwhile, staggered to one knee. His sword was planted into the cracked earth, holding him up as much as he held it. Shadows coiled thickly around him, black fire licking at the edges of his body. His eyes were a storm of gold and void, his humanity flickering like a candle in the wind.
"Don't… let it… take you," he rasped, staring at Anna with something between a plea and a command.
The Entity's laughter shattered the silence. It was not sound—it was collapse, the crumbling of all meaning, the folding of time upon itself.
"Pathetic sparks… how many times must I extinguish you before you learn?"
Its eyes—endless voids studded with dying stars—fixed on Anna.
"You are mine. Both halves… born of me. Why resist what you already are?"
The world convulsed. Waves of pure pressure swept across the battlefield. Stone shattered, rivers boiled to mist, the air itself warped into screaming faces of forgotten souls.
Elena shielded her face, her body trembling under the onslaught.
Kael snarled, forcing himself upright despite the shadow-fire eating at his flesh.
And Anna…
Anna stepped forward.
Her aura flared. Light and shadow rippled around her, neither winning, neither yielding. For a heartbeat, her body flickered between two forms—her human self and something more, something other.
"I am not yours," Anna whispered, though the words rang louder than the Entity's laughter. "I am not your weapon. I am not your vessel."
Her hair, once a dull brown, streamed behind her in strands of white and black fire. Her eyes gleamed—one golden, one obsidian.
The Entity tilted its head, its endless face splitting into a smile made of galaxies collapsing.
"Brave lie."
It extended one colossal hand.
And the world shattered.
Kael roared. He swung his blade, shadows spiraling in a wild arc, cleaving through the wave of void-energy the Entity sent crashing toward them. The collision was catastrophic—stone, flame, and reality itself ripped apart.
Anna lifted her hands, light blazing from one, darkness bleeding from the other. She pushed forward, meeting the storm head-on.
The battlefield was drowned in chaos—beams of light slicing through the heavens, shadow torrents crashing like tidal waves, the Entity's vast form looming larger with each passing heartbeat.
Elena could barely stand, yet her voice cut through the storm.
"Anna! Don't forget who you are! Hold on!"
Anna's heart clenched. Elena's voice—it was an anchor. A tether.
But Kael… Kael was unraveling.
The shadows inside him no longer obeyed. They writhed like living serpents, lashing against his skin, his armor, his mind. His breaths came ragged, his pupils dilating into pure darkness.
"Kael!" Anna cried, panic piercing her battle-focus.
He turned—eyes wild, voice guttural.
"Stay back!"
The shadow curse surged, and for a moment Kael's entire body blurred into something monstrous, half-shadow beast, half-man. He swung his blade again, not at the Entity this time—but at Anna.
Her eyes widened.
Steel screamed through the air.
She barely dodged. His strike carved a canyon through the battlefield, shadow-fire burning the air itself.
"Kael!" Elena's voice broke. "Fight it—please, fight it!"
But Kael's snarl only deepened. His humanity flickered dimmer.
The Entity's laughter thundered again.
"Yes… break. Devour each other. You are all mine already."
Its vast body loomed closer, but it did not strike—not yet.
It wanted to watch.
It wanted to savor.
Anna's heart raced. She could feel the choice before her. If she abandoned Kael, she might rally her strength to strike the Entity directly. But if she reached for him now, she risked losing her own balance in the process.
Elena, trembling, dragged herself to Anna's side, clutching her arm.
"Don't… give up on him. If he falls, we all fall."
Anna closed her eyes. Her veins burned. Her soul screamed.
Then she opened them again, gaze steady.
"No one gets left behind. Not him. Not you. Not me."
Her light surged. Her shadow coiled.
Both obeyed.
For the first time.
Anna launched forward—straight into Kael's storm.
His blade fell, shadows shrieking with hunger. She caught it in her bare hands. Light exploded from one palm, darkness from the other, gripping the cursed steel.
Kael's eyes widened—half fury, half despair.
"Let go!" he roared, shadows ripping at her flesh.
"No," Anna said through gritted teeth, blood running down her arms where the curse tore her skin. "I won't."
The Entity leaned forward, curious now, its many mouths curling into a vast, silent grin.
Anna's voice rose over the battlefield.
"You are not alone, Kael. Not now. Not ever."
Her power surged—shadow answering shadow, light binding light. She poured herself into him, forcing her essence into the storm consuming him.
Kael screamed. Shadows ripped free from his body, howling as if alive. His knees buckled. For a heartbeat, his humanity flickered bright again.
And then—
The Entity struck.
Its colossal hand descended, blotting out what was left of the sky.
Anna whirled, dragging Kael back with her, but the strike was faster than thought. The hand of void smashed into the battlefield, tearing earth into dust.
Elena screamed.
Anna's shield of light and shadow barely formed before the impact crashed down.
The world inverted.
Blackness swallowed everything.
When Anna opened her eyes, she wasn't on the battlefield anymore.
She stood in a vast, endless void. Stars hung shattered in the distance. The Entity's face loomed close, impossibly vast, its voice rumbling like the birth of new universes.
"Do you see now? You are already within me. This… is your truth."
Anna's breath caught. Her body glowed faintly, but her power flickered weak in this place. She felt naked, stripped of her anchors, her tether to Elena, to Kael—gone.
"No," she whispered, though her voice trembled. "This isn't me."
The Entity leaned closer, its shadow engulfing her.
"Then choose. Become my vessel… or watch your friends perish in the ashes of your denial."
Anna's pulse thundered in her ears. Her heart split between terror and defiance.
And for the first time, she truly wondered—
Was this choice ever hers to begin with?
The battlefield screamed.
Not with voices alone, but with the sound of the Veil itself tearing.
Above, the Entity's shadowed form swelled, splitting into a thousand writhing limbs that clawed at the sky. Each strike ripped reality like fragile glass. The horizon bled crimson, the air shook, and soldiers on both sides collapsed to their knees as despair pressed down like an ocean.
And in the middle of it—Anna hung suspended.
Chains of shadow lashed across her limbs, dragging her higher, dragging her closer to the abyss where the Entity's core pulsed. Half of her body was wrapped in light, the other half seared by corruption, her face caught in anguish.
"Anna!" Elena screamed, voice raw. She had nothing left to give—her body trembled, her mana burned to embers. Yet she still lifted her staff, pouring what fragments of radiance remained into a shield that barely held back the Entity's rain of claws.
Kael staggered beside her. His skin split with veins of black fire, shadows licking across his face. His eyes glowed crimson, barely human. "If she falls," he hissed, his voice ragged and twisted, "everything ends."
Another crack tore across the sky. The Entity's laughter thundered, cold and endless.
Do you see now, child? Its voice echoed directly into Anna's mind. You were always meant to be mine. The vessel of the Veil. The bridge between shadow and light. Give in—become eternity.
Anna's breath shook. For a moment, her eyes glazed. She saw visions: herself crowned in darkness, adored and feared, Kael kneeling broken at her feet, Elena's light extinguished. She saw power without limit. Peace without weakness.
Her heart wavered.
"No…" she whispered. The word was so fragile it barely reached her own ears. "I am not yours."
The Entity's chains coiled tighter, piercing her flesh. She cried out, blood spilling in the void.
"Anna!" Elena's cry cut through the storm. "Listen to me! You are more than their vessel! You are you! You are Anna—the girl who laughed, who dreamed, who chose!"
Her words rang, but the Entity's voice drowned them with venom. They lie to you. They fear what you could become. Alone, you will never be enough. With me…you are salvation itself.
Kael's roar shook the earth. He launched himself forward, his cursed flames erupting in a storm of black and red. His blade carved through the Entity's writhing limbs, his every strike reckless. Blood ran from his eyes, his mouth, his arms—yet he did not stop.
"Let her go!" His voice was madness, fury, love all bound together.
The Entity swatted him aside like an insect. Kael slammed into the ground, bones shattering.
But he rose again. Always rising. Always burning.
Elena's shield cracked. Darkness rushed in. She fell to her knees, coughing blood, yet still pressed her hands together in prayer. Her light flared again—weak, trembling—but enough to pierce the gloom for just a heartbeat.
That heartbeat reached Anna.
Her vision cleared. She saw Kael, broken yet unyielding. She saw Elena, fragile yet unrelenting. And she saw herself—not as vessel or weapon, but as their equal.
Her lips curved. The faintest, defiant smile.
"No," Anna whispered. "I choose…me."
Her body ignited.
Half shadow, half light—no longer in conflict, but in harmony. The chains that bound her shattered like brittle glass. The Entity recoiled, shrieking.
A storm of power tore outward. Shadow and radiance fused, swirling into wings of twilight flame. Anna spread her arms, and the battlefield trembled.
Kael's eyes widened, awe piercing through the madness. Elena's tears fell, hope rekindled.
Anna's voice rang across the Veil. "I am not your vessel. I am not your end. I am Anna—and I will never belong to you!"
The Entity screamed. Its limbs coiled tighter, its maw opening like an endless void. It lunged—
And Anna struck.
Her twilight wings slashed forward, carving reality itself. Light and shadow together, unstoppable, undeniable.
The impact ripped the battlefield apart. Soldiers shielded their eyes as a pillar of fused flame and radiance split the heavens. The Entity staggered, its form tearing, pieces of its colossal body disintegrating into nothing.
For the first time, it faltered.
But it did not fall.
Foolish child. The Entity's voice dripped with fury. If you will not be my vessel, then I will break you until nothing remains.
Its core pulsed, blacker than midnight. The Veil cracked wider. From the rift poured an ocean of shadow-beasts, endless, snarling, clawing. The battlefield drowned in chaos.
Anna wavered, her wings flickering. She had struck once, but the cost was great—her body shook, blood seeping from her lips.
Kael staggered to her side, his cursed power boiling over, his form barely stable. Elena limped forward too, her light little more than a candle against the storm.
The three of them stood together—broken, bleeding, but unbowed.
And before them, the Entity loomed, preparing to devour the Veil itself.
The war had only just begun.