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*MOONLIT SHADOW*
*Chapter Eighteen: The Veil Between Us*
Crossing the portal was like falling without end.
For a moment, there was no air. No sound. Just pressure, like being dragged through centuries of memory and bone.
Then light.
Blinding and cold.
Jun landed hard on stone, coughing. Around him, colors bled into shapes — nothing was solid. Trees floated sideways. The sky pulsed violet. The air smelled of fire and roses.
This was the spirit realm.
Mark dropped beside him, groaning. "I hate portals."
Dao stumbled through next, weapon drawn. "Where is she?"
Jun stood slowly. "She's deeper. But this place… it's not just a reflection. It's a *wound.* Someone opened it wrong."
Behind them, the portal vanished.
Mark swore under his breath.
They were trapped.
---
As they walked, the landscape shifted constantly. Trees became ruins. Roads turned to rivers. Time didn't move right here — seconds stretched, hours collapsed.
Mark brushed Jun's hand as they walked, almost without thinking. He looked surprised when Jun didn't pull away.
"I thought you'd hate me after… everything."
Jun kept his eyes ahead. "I don't hate you. I'm just… scared."
"Of me?"
Jun finally looked at him. "No. Of *us*."
Mark didn't speak, but his hand lingered near Jun's the rest of the way.
---
They found the first shrine deep in a valley of shattered mirrors.
Each mirror showed a memory.
Jun saw himself as a child, crying at his mother's grave. He turned away, teeth clenched.
Mark saw himself alone in a dark forest — eyes gold, hands dripping with blood.
Dao watched in silence, then smashed the mirror in front of her.
"They want to break us," she muttered. "Not just physically. Spiritually."
From the mist ahead, a voice echoed.
"You break easily."
Niran.
She stood on a twisted dais of bone and lotus petals, eyes glowing silver. Behind her floated the naga relic — now fully awakened, its scales shimmering, its energy pulsing like a heartbeat.
"You're too late," she said. "The pact is nearly complete. The veil will fall."
Jun stepped forward. "You don't even understand what you're summoning."
"I understand enough," Niran said. "The gods abandoned us. I'm just finishing their work."
She raised her hands — and the world cracked.
---
Spirits swarmed.
Twisted beasts with burning eyes tore through the veil, shrieking. Mark drew his weapon, but the pact surged again — this time not in pain, but in *hunger.*
He saw the creatures — and wanted to *consume* them.
"Mark!" Jun shouted. "Stay with me!"
Mark's vision blurred. He saw Jun — glowing, warm — and the world went silent.
He kissed him.
Desperate, grounding, fierce.
Jun gasped into it — then wrapped his arms around Mark, holding him tight even as the spirits screamed.
Dao covered them both, blade dancing through the horde. "Less kissing, more killing!"
---
When the chaos died, Niran was gone again — but this time, she'd left something behind:
A message burned into the air in spirit script:
*"The one you love will betray you."*
Jun stared at it.
So did Mark.
Neither spoke.
Because the truth was — they both feared the same thing.
And someone — something — knew it.
---
From high above, in the cracked sky of the spirit world, the hidden villain watched.
Not Niran.
Not Khan.
Someone older. Quiet. Patient.
Their face was still shadowed.
But their voice whispered again:
*"Soon, one of them will fall. And the other… will burn."*
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To be continued.