The wind howled like a dying beast as Rai, Seraphine, and Kael stepped onto the wastelands of the Shattered Dominion—a world where time had bled dry. The ground beneath their boots was cracked obsidian, glowing faintly with molten veins. The sky itself seemed wounded, its clouds streaked red and gold, the remnants of celestial firestorms that had torn through eons ago.
Kael shielded his eyes against the swirling ash. "This place… It's like walking on a corpse."
Rai's gaze swept the horizon. In the distance, massive structures of twisted stone and bone jutted from the earth—monuments built from the remains of gods. "That's not far from the truth. The Dominion was the final battlefield. This is where heaven fell."
Seraphine's expression was distant, as if hearing whispers only she could understand. "The air here… it remembers."
They moved carefully through the ruins. Each step sent faint echoes that bounced back unnaturally, warped by the fragments of broken divine energy that lingered like ghosts. The further they went, the more the air thickened, shimmering with echoes of past screams.
Kael glanced nervously at Rai. "You think the traitor is really here?"
Rai's eyes glowed faintly gold. "No. But their shadow is."
Suddenly, the ground trembled. A low rumble rose beneath their feet as if the world itself were growling. The ruins ahead began to twist and move, reforming into towering humanoid figures—Sentinels, born from divine remnants, their bodies made of broken armor and starlight.
Seraphine drew her blade, the flames around it flaring like a miniature sun. "Here we go again."
Rai didn't move at first. He simply raised a hand—and the air itself froze. Time stuttered around him, the world flickering between stillness and chaos. Then, with one motion, he unleashed a shockwave of golden energy that tore through the Sentinels, shattering them like glass.
Kael let out a low whistle. "Still not used to seeing you do that."
Rai didn't respond. His gaze had fixed on a single object among the ruins—a broken mask, half-buried in ash. He knelt and lifted it carefully. The mask was carved from pure white stone, lined with faint gold inscriptions. A symbol at its center—a closed eye—marked it unmistakably.
Seraphine's hand flew to her mouth. "That's… the Knight of Silence's mask."
Rai turned it over in his hand, eyes darkening. "Which means we're close."
The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating. Then a voice echoed through the wasteland—a whisper that carried across every grain of dust and ash.
"You finally came, my king."
The voice was soft, neither male nor female, and seemed to come from everywhere at once. The ruins around them shifted, and from the shadows emerged a figure draped in gray—faceless, featureless, but carrying an aura that pressed against their souls like a storm.
Kael staggered back. "What—what is that?"
Rai stepped forward slowly. "A memory given form. A fragment of the one who betrayed us."
The figure tilted its head. "Betrayed? No. I fulfilled the vow you broke."
Rai's aura flared instantly, the ground cracking beneath him. "You dare speak of vows after spilling the blood of your own?"
The figure raised a pale hand, and the ashes around them rose like waves, swirling into a barrier. Within the storm, images flickered—Rai's army of knights, their downfall, Seraphine's death, and Rai's desperate sealing of the gods.
Seraphine gasped, clutching her head. "Stop—stop showing this!"
The figure's voice grew sharper. "The king who sealed the heavens… fears his own truth. Tell her, Rai. Tell her why you broke the vow!"
The storm grew wild, roaring with divine echoes. Kael was thrown to the ground. Rai's power surged uncontrollably, his eyes burning gold and black as the chains of his vow ignited around him.
"Enough!" His voice split the air like thunder.
The ashes fell still. The figure halted.
Rai stepped closer, his expression unreadable. "You're not the Knight. You're the Echo left to guard their grave."
The figure's head tilted once more, then nodded. "Then you already know… the true traitor lives."
Before Rai could respond, the Echo raised its hand. The mask in Rai's palm disintegrated into dust, and the figure's body began to fade.
"Seek the Eclipsed Citadel," it whispered. "There you'll find the one who broke your chains—and the one who can break you again."
The storm vanished. The wasteland fell silent. Only the faint hum of divine residue lingered in the air.
Kael rose shakily. "What the hell was that supposed to mean?"
Rai stared into the distance, where a faint light shimmered far beyond the horizon—a citadel half-lost in twilight.
"It means," he said quietly, "this isn't over. The gods are moving again. And the Knight… was never the true traitor."
Seraphine sheathed her blade, her voice trembling. "Then who was it?"
Rai's eyes narrowed. "The one who gave us our vow in the first place."
Far above them, the clouds split open—and from the tear in the sky, a single feather of light descended, burning as it fell.