CHAPTER 40 —
The explosion of Eclipse Ascension did not fade like normal light.
It peeled away.
Layer by layer.
As though the detonation had stripped the very concept of brightness from the Illusionary Void Realm. Shards of broken radiance fluttered down like weightless feathers, dissolving before they reached the invisible ground. The air rippled with aftershocks, twisting space into ribbons that stretched, collapsed, and then stretched again.
Haruto staggered a step back, Eclipse Edge still raised. His chest rose and fell in deep, hard breaths. His black-and-silver Eclipse hair swayed like cosmic fire, and his void-silver eyes flickered as the strain clawed at the edges of his vision.
Airi landed beside him moments later, boots gliding lightly against the distorted void-floor as she caught herself. She clutched the Eclipse Staff close to her chest, her silver hair glowing with soft creation-light as her aqua eyes darted across the destructive aftermath.
They weren't separated anymore. The blast had cleared the battlefield.
But it hadn't ended anything.
In fact… the realm looked worse.
The Illusionary Void Realm didn't crack - it screamed.
The sky up above twisted sideways, an ocean of darkness spilling downward like it was raining shadows. Fragments of Aetheria's past, pieces of trees, buildings, stone roads, flickered in and out of existence like broken memories drifting through a nightmare.
Gravity wasn't behaving.
Time wasn't behaving.
Nothing was behaving.
And then.
A rumble. Deep. Violent. Unnatural.
Haruto turned instinctively.
Airi's heart froze.
Lunara, Frost, and Lyria stared in disbelief as the smoke of the explosion cleared… revealing the silhouettes of the enemies still standing.
The three Heralds…
…were unharmed.
Not a crack.
Not a wound.
Not even a scratch.
Azrakan, Herald of Pure Annihilation, stood with crossed arms, his six black wings barely ruffled. His mask split into a cruel smile.
Veyluna, Herald of Distortion, floated upside down, sideways, and right-side up all at once, glitching between positions with childlike giggles bubbling under its breath.
Gathrion, Herald of Eternal Ruin, placed his colossal scythe onto the ground, causing another shockwave that tore a fresh hole in space itself.
Airi whispered with trembling breath, "Onii Chan… that attack… didn't work?"
Haruto clenched his jaw.
Azrakan stepped forward, crossing blades of raw annihilation energy across his chest.
"That was impressive," he said coldly. "Stronger than expected. Enough to erase a lower Herald."
Veyluna tilted its head in a way no neck should bend.
"But we," it said in a broken, childlike voice, "are not lower Heralds."
Gathrion's voice rumbled like a mountain collapsing.
"We are the pinnacle. The True Heralds of the Grinning Circle."
Haruto grit his teeth. "So that was just your warm-up?"
Azrakan raised a single finger.
"No."
A pulse of void-light flickered.
"THIS is the warm-up."
Before anyone could move—
SPACE RUPTURED.
A black sphere formed around Haruto, snapping shut like a collapsing star around him. There was no sound. No flash. No warning. Just instant gravitational death.
"O-Onii Chan!"Airi reached forward, but.
The space under her feet shattered like glass.
Veyluna flickered behind her.
"Little star~ let's play in my world~"
Reality split beneath Airi. She fell, not downward, not upward, just away, her body sucked into a shimmering pocket of distorted space.
"AIRI—!!"
Haruto reached for her, but the black hole crushed inward, swallowing his voice, pulling him violently into a spiraling abyss.
And then.
Lunara roared.
"Haruto! Airi!—no!"
But Gathrion towered before her, raising his scythe that was now burning with ruin-fire.
"Your interference ends HERE."
He slammed the scythe downward.
Lunara covered Lyria with her wings.
Frost lunged with a furious growl.
Lyria summoned celestial barriers with trembling hands.
But the wave of ruin struck them all.
The battlefield split into three.
Three arenas.Three fights.Three do-or-die struggles.
The Heralds' plan was simple:
SEPARATE THE ECLIPSE DUO.BREAK THEM.CRUSH THEM.THEN ERASE THEIR EXISTENCE.
And for the first time since stepping into the Illusionary Void Realm…
Haruto and Airi were no longer together.
HARUTO VS AZRAKAN: The Black Star Arena
Haruto crashed into the black-hole field with a violent soundless impact, rolling across the invisible ground before catching himself with one hand. He coughed, blood dripping from his lip, his body feeling like it had been squeezed and stretched simultaneously.
He forced himself upright.
The arena looked like a shattered galaxy.
Black suns floated overhead, leaking destruction.
Gravity waves pulsed violently.
Time-echo silhouettes of himself flickered behind him.
And waiting at the far end…
Azrakan.
But he wasn't in humanoid shape anymore.
He was shedding it.
Piece by piece.
His mask split apart, peeling into ribbons of dark energy. His wings expanded outward, multiplying from six to twelve, each wing tipped with a blinding point of annihilation. His body elongated, becoming almost starlike, with a core of swirling anti-matter at its center.
Azrakan's voice warbled, distorted and echoing.
"Your blade is impressive.Your will is strong.Your destruction rivals the lower gods."
His wings spread further, consuming light.
"But you…Are still mortal."
Haruto tightened his grip on Eclipse Edge.
"You talk too much."
Azrakan vanished.
Haruto barely blocked the first strike.
CLANG—!!
The force launched him backward, gravity crushing down on him as black starfire exploded across the field. Haruto dug his heels in, sparks spraying behind him.
Azrakan reappeared in front of him.
A single wing-tip touched Haruto's cheek.
His flesh burned.
Haruto slashed.
Azrakan blocked with a wing.
The clash detonated an explosion of pure annihilation.
Haruto flew back again, coughing blood.
Azrakan raised his many wings.
"All things end, Prince of Death.All things die.Even you."
Haruto wiped the blood from his mouth, eyes blazing.
"Yeah…"
He raised Eclipse Edge.
"…but I don't die before Airi."
His power surged.
Black constellations ignited across his skin, glowing like ink soaked with starlight.
Rings of destruction circled behind him, three, then six, then nine, spinning like halos forged from collapsing galaxies.
Azrakan paused.
"…what is that?"
Haruto stepped forward, voice dropping into a terrifying whisper.
"That mid-tier Herald earlier… I beat him with incomplete resonance."
He raised Eclipse Edge.
"But now…"
A pulse of void and creation twisted around him.
"…this is the fully awakened Eclipse form."
Darkness spiraled around him.
Azrakan smiled.
"Show me, mortal."
Haruto launched forward.
And the battlefield exploded.
AIR I VS VEYLUNA: The Fractured Loop
Airi fell through a sideways tear in space, tumbling before landing softly on what felt like a cushion of light. She rose shakily, gripping her staff.
The sky was upside down.
The ground was made of reflections.
Her own silhouette copied every movement a second too late.
A dozen Airi's gazed back at her, not illusions, not clones, but possibilities.
Veyluna floated above her, giggling.
"Welcome to my playground, little star."
Airi steadied herself.
"What… is this place?"
Veyluna's form glitched.
"It's everything and nothing!It's the inside of a thought!The outside of a moment!"
Airi frowned.
She hated how confusing it was.
Veyluna tilted its mask.
"Your spells break here."
Airi conjured a light barrier.
It exploded in her face the moment it formed.
She tried a creation lily.
It wilted into ash.
She tried healing.
And her own hand scarred as time reversed on her skin.
Airi gasped, clutching her arm. "Wh-why… my magic…"
Veyluna giggled.
"Distortion~!Everything you do becomes wrong."
Airi stepped back, trembling.
For the first time since arriving in this world…
Magic betrayed her.
She felt panic rising.
Her breath quickened.
"Onii Chan… I can't…"
And then she remembered.
His voice.His warmth.His hand patting her head.
"Airi… I can fight anything.As long as you're behind me."
Her trembling stopped.
She took a breath.
Her eyes glowed, a soft, divine aqua.
"…then I can't fall here."
She raised the Eclipse Staff.
Veyluna tilted its head.
"You can't win.All your spells break."
Airi whispered:
"Then I'll rewrite the rules."
Light spiraled.
Her runes rearranged.
Creation didn't fight distortion.
Creation corrected it.
Airi lifted her chin.
Pure, soft, divine light erupted around her.
"Concept Rewrite…"
Veyluna's mask cracked.
"…Stability."
And the world stopped breaking.
Airi stepped forward.
Her eyes sharp.
Her staff glowing.
"Let's continue, Herald."
Veyluna shrieked with excitement.
"Oh this will be FUN!"
ANCIENT TRIO VS GATHRION: The Ruin Colossus
Lunara roared as Gathrion's scythe descended.
Frost leaped in front, freezing the ruin-fire.
Lyria spread her wings, chanting healing hymns.
Gathrion took a single step.
The entire field shook.
Lunara shouted, "Frost! Left flank!"
Frost lunged from the side, breath freezing even the void itself.
Lyria followed, summoning celestial vines.
Gathrion didn't block.
He walked through their attacks.
Lunara's pupils shrank.
"He's not even defending—!"
Gathrion raised his arm.
"Ruination Pulse."
The shockwave sent all three flying.
Frost hit the ground first.
Lyria crashed next.
Lunara skidded back, coughing blood.
Gathrion stepped forward, towering like an apocalypse given shape.
"You three resist well.But you cannot stop ruin."
Lunara wiped her mouth and snarled.
"Watch us try."
She lunged and the titan moved to intercept.
Three battles.
Three fronts.
Three crises.
The Eclipse Duo… separated.
And yet.
In three different places.
Haruto whispered:
"Airi…"
Airi whispered:
"Onii Chan…"
And both reached out into the broken world.
Searching for the other.
Wanting to return.
Needing to reunite.
Because together…
They were unstoppable.
And the Heralds knew it.
The void trembled again.
Not from a Herald's attack.
Not from collapse or distortion.
But from something far more dangerous to the Heralds than destruction itself.
Hope.
A low, pulsing thrum rippled through the cracked dimensions…and every Herald in every arena froze for an instant.
Azrakan's wings twitched.
Veyluna's countless eyes darted.
Gathrion's grip tightened on his ruin-scythe.
Because they felt it.
The connection the Duo should not still have.The bond they believed they had severed.
A single thread of resonance.
Thin.
Invisible.
Unbreakable.
And it pulsed again.
dum
Haruto felt it.
Airi felt it.
Both of them looked up at nothing and at each other.
Across impossible distance.Across broken space.Across everything the Heralds split between them.
Airi whispered, barely a breath.
"Onii Chan…"
Haruto exhaled, eyes sharpening.
"Airi…"
The Heralds reacted instantly.
Azrakan screamed.
"CUT THE RESONANCE!"
Veyluna shrieked.
"NO—NO—NO—DON'T LET THEM TOUCH—!"
Gathrion growled.
"ERASE THEM BEFORE THE THREAD FORMS!"
But it was too late.
The void answered the Duo, not the Heralds.
A thin shimmer tore across the Illusionary Void Realm
a microscopic crack from Haruto's arena to Airi's.
Barely visible.Barely stable.Barely real.
But it was there.
A bridge.
A path.
A mistake.
The Heralds' plan, their perfect plan, began to collapse.
And the Eclipse Duo, still trapped apart, still injured, still fighting for their lives…
smiled.
HARUTO VS AZRAKAN: The Black Star Arena (Continued)
Azrakan launched forward first.
He couldn't allow even one more pulse of resonance.
His twelve annihilation wings flared, blinding with anti-light as he screamed:
"YOU WILL NOT REACH HER!"
Haruto raised Eclipse Edge
but this time, he didn't block.
He absorbed.
The blade drank the annihilation energy like a starving beast, glowing darker, heavier, more violent.
Azrakan recoiled in shock.
"That blade should not consume annihilation—!"
Haruto stepped in.
"It doesn't."
He swung.
"I do."
The strike cleaved straight through the wing-shields
a clean diagonal cut that sent Azrakan spinning through collapsing space.
A black sun exploded behind him as he crashed into it, shattering the burning sphere like glass.
Azrakan steadied himself, mask cracking along the jawline.
"You dare injure me… in my domain…?"
Haruto pointed Eclipse Edge forward.
"You tried to take Airi from me."
His pupils sharpened like blades.
"There is no domain strong enough to hide you from that mistake."
Azrakan roared.
Time folded.Gravity spiked.Stars imploded.The entire arena surged into total annihilation mode.
Haruto didn't stop moving.
"Come on."
His voice cut through the impossible pressure.
"I need to get to her."
Their worlds collided again.
AIR I VS VEYLUNA: The Fractured Loop (Continued)
Veyluna felt the resonance.
All of its eyes, all across the sky, the reflections, the broken horizon snapped wide in terror.
"NO! YOU CANNOT HAVE CONNECTION HERE! CONNECTION BREAKS THE LOOP! CONNECTION BREAKS ME!"
The glass floor rippled like liquid lightning as distortion surged outwards, trying to drown Airi in impossible geometry.
Triangles stretched into spirals.Straight lines curled.Up split apart.
Airi planted her staff down softly.
"Stability Field."
The world calmed around her.
The distortions hissed and recoiled like burned serpents.
Airi didn't flinch.
"Veyluna."
She looked up.
Calm.Confident.Certain.
"You're scared."
Veyluna froze.Every eye dilated.Every mask cracked further.
"I—I—am not—"
"You are," Airi said gently. "Because Onii Chan is fighting to reach me."
The distortions trembled.
"And you know he will."
Airi raised her staff.
A single creation rune spun at the tip, slow, controlled, perfect.
Not a beam.Not an explosion.Not an attack.
A correction.
"Concept Rewrite: Distortion… to Order."
Veyluna shrieked in raw, ancient panic as the entire Fractured Loop shook violently.
The illusions around Airi aligned.The reflections sharpened.The sky flattened.The impossible angles bent into symmetry.
A world designed to break her magic…
was now bending for her instead.
Veyluna's voice cracked into a hundred overlapping tones.
"STOP—STOP—STOP—IF YOU MAKE THIS WORLD ORDERED— I DISSOLVE—!"
Airi stepped forward.
"I'm not here to break your world."
She pointed her staff at Veyluna.
"I'm here to leave it."
A single tear slid down her cheek.
"Onii Chan… is waiting."
Veyluna's countless eyes went wide.
The Herald realized:this girl wasn't trying to defeat it.
She was trying to get out.
Which was worse.
A lot worse.
Because if she escaped
the Duo would reunite.
And then the Heralds lose.
ANCIENT TRIO VS GATHRION: The Ruin Colossus (Continued)
Lunara felt the pulse.
So did Frost.So did Lyria.
The bond.
The thread.
The impossible connection snapping back into existence.
Gathrion felt it too.
His mask cracked down the center.
"Unacceptable."
He raised his giant ruin-charged scythe.
"This outcome… cannot exist."
He swung.
But Frost leaped in, freezing the path.
Lunara followed with a burst of dragon flame, curving it around Frost to counter the ruin-fire.
Lyria soared upward, weaving a barrier of light between collapsing void panels.
They weren't trying to overpower Gathrion anymore.
They were buying time.
Lunara shouted:
"HOLD HIM BACK!"
Frost snarled:
"Buy the siblings their opening!"
Lyria cried:
"Let the eclipse reunite!"
Gathrion roared:
"YOU WILL NOT DELAY RUIN!"
He stomped forward.
But this time?The trio didn't fall back.
They stood in his way.
Together.
Ancient magic collided with ancient ruin as the titan advanced and the trio refused to break.
THE SHARED THREAD: The Beginning of the Reunion
The void trembled.
The path between Haruto and Airi flickered again
thin, unstable, shimmering like a fragile strand of moonlight.
Airi reached toward it.
Haruto reached toward it.
The Heralds screamed, each in their own arena:
"STOP THEM!"
"BREAK THEM!"
"ERASE THEM!"
But the siblings ignored everything.
Haruto reached forward, whispering her name:
"Airi…"
Airi reached back, whispering his:
"Onii Chan…"
The thread brightened.
It became visible.
Then solid.
Then.
BOOM—!!
The realm split open.
A tunnel of collapsing light burst between the Black Star Arena and the Fractured Loop.
Haruto gasped, eyes widening.
Airi gasped, tears falling.
They both took a step forward.
The Heralds launched to stop them.
And the chapter ends with them just one step away from reunion.
END OFCHAPTER 40 — THE UNMASKING OF THE TRUE HERALDS