Night fell like a warning.
The last light bled out across Ashvale's roofs, swallowed by fog and creeping shadow. The frost that coated the ground began to steam, and the air grew colder than it had any right to be.
Riel stood at the edge of the palisade, chain coiled loosely around his wrist, eyes sunken from fatigue. "They're coming again," he said quietly.
Kaelith joined him, shoulders squared despite the exhaustion that hung off him like armor. His gaze swept the empty field. "We hold until dawn. Same as before."
Seren let out a dry laugh, rolling her shoulder. "You said that yesterday. You also said it would get easier."
"I lied," Kaelith said, smiling faintly.
The first scream came from the mist. Then the shades appeared — hundreds of them, dark and writhing, crawling from the fog like smoke given flesh. At their center rode something different — taller, sharper. A knight of shadow and burning eyes, spectral armor cracked and rusted with light bleeding through the seams.
Varis's voice cut through the rising noise. "It's leading them. Keep it from reaching the gate."
Then the horde crashed against them.
The air exploded with motion — steel on shadow, light against hunger. Riel's chain lashed out, glowing faintly as it carved through the front ranks, scattering the wraiths like smoke. Seren moved beside him, finally feeling enough pressure to use her weapon, her sabre a streak of orange flame, every swing a flare that cut through the dark.
Kaelith met the knight head-on. His claymore burned with silver light, each strike echoing like thunder. But the creature was fast, impossibly so — it parried, countered, and drove him back, spectral blade sparking against divine steel.
Varis stood at the center, muttering under his breath, runes flaring around him in arcs of gold and blue. Each sigil he drew turned into a barrier, a rune of warding that flared whenever a shade struck it. But he was slowing — his breathing shallow, his hands trembling.
Riel caught a shade by the throat with his chain, yanking it close before crushing its skull with a single blow. The shadow dispersed, leaving a hiss of frost in the air. But before he could turn, another one caught him across the back — claws slicing through cloth and skin. He staggered, teeth gritted.
"Riel!" Seren's voice cut through the chaos. She spun, her blade erupting into a pillar of fire that burned through half a dozen shades in a single sweep. "Stay with me, you bastard!"
"Do I look dead yet?" he shot back, blood running down his arm.
"Not yet. Give it five minutes!"
Kaelith drove the spectral knight back, sparks flying from every blow. The ground beneath them began to crack from the force of their strikes. But the knight only grew faster, its form flickering between solid and smoke. It raised its blade — a cleaver of black light — and swung.
The impact sent Kaelith to one knee. His claymore cracked.
He looked up at the knight, eyes burning with defiance — and exhaled.
The world dimmed.
Above him, a moon and a sun merged — light and dark overlapping until they became one blinding ring. The Eclipse bloomed behind him, radiating silent, holy fury. His claymore reformed, burning with both dawn and dusk.
When he swung, the night itself screamed.
A wave of light exploded outward, eradicating everything it touched. The shades dissolved instantly. The knight froze mid-swing, its form splitting apart like cracked glass before it shattered into a storm of black motes that scattered into the wind.
Then came silence.
Kaelith swayed, the eclipse flickering out. The light faded from his eyes, and he fell to one knee, gasping. "Think… that did it."
Seren caught him before he collapsed fully, her tone sharp but trembling. "You absolute idiot, you could've killed yourself."
He smiled weakly. "Would've been… impressive, though."
Varis knelt beside them, already tracing glowing lines over the worst of the burns along Kaelith's arm. "He's burned through most of his soul energy. If he does that again without rest, his heart will stop."
Riel wiped blood from his mouth and glanced at the fading mist. "Then we better figure this out before there's nothing left to burn."
⸻
They didn't rest long. By dawn, Riel was still bleeding through his bandages, and all of them were hollow-eyed.
The temple loomed again on the horizon, faint and ominous against the morning fog. They went anyway.
The moment they crossed the threshold, the air changed. The silence was suffocating, thick with the weight of something unseen. Candles burned along the walls — thin, white, and steady — but no one had lit them.
Seren stepped closer to the nearest one. "We didn't leave these."
Varis crouched by the altar, studying the runes. They were shifting again — twisting into new shapes that seemed to hide something beneath their lines. "The entire structure's false," he murmured. "An illusion bound by scripture."
Kaelith looked up at the ceiling, where the stone seemed to ripple faintly, as though breathing. "Anyone else feel like this place is pretending to be something it's not?"
Riel nodded slowly. "Yeah. Like it's wearing someone else's face."
The air hummed. Whispers slid across the walls — not words, just sound. It brushed past their ears, low and rhythmic, like breath caught in stone. Every flame flickered in unison.
Seren swallowed hard. "If this place starts talking, I'm leaving."
Varis ignored her, eyes narrowing. He reached out and altered one of the runes with a single precise stroke. The change spread instantly — the carvings bled black, then burst outward in a flash of heat and light.
The temple peeled away.
For a single impossible moment, they saw it — a vast obsidian fortress buried beneath illusion, its towers reaching beyond sight, its gates pulsing with molten light.
Then the world snapped back. The four of them were thrown out into the dirt, the temple behind them once again just ruin and moss.
Kaelith groaned, spitting blood. "Well… that's new."
Varis stared at the horizon, voice cold. "Whatever that was, it's hiding here. And it's not done with us yet."
Riel got to his feet, breathing hard. "Then next time, we tear it down."
The wind shifted. The candles inside the temple flickered once — and went out.