ONLINE: Blades of Eternity

"RUN!" the foxkin girl screamed with all the breath in her lungs, her voice cracking. Her red eyes burned with animal terror as she bolted into the forest, her tail streaming behind her like a banner of desperation.

Her group didn't hesitate. They scattered into the trees, sprinting without direction, without plan—only the instinct to live. Branches tore at their skin, roots clawed their legs, but they didn't stop.

And yet… Endless did not follow.

For the first time since his awakening, his body trembled. A sharp lance of agony stabbed through his skull, his very existence spasming as fractures of unstable energy rippled through him. His glowing eyes dimmed and flared violently, unable to maintain balance.

"Tch… so soon?" Endless muttered, his voice strained. He staggered mid-air, one hand clutching his temple as blood-red cracks of power flashed across his skin before sealing again.

A low, guttural rumble escaped him—not from pain, but from fury at his own imperfection.

"This form… this reformation… is still incomplete."

His voice echoed like a thousand layered murmurs as his body flickered, the surrounding sky bending unnaturally.

From the darkness behind him, two silhouettes—Kael Dragonyx and Alen the Dark Magi—emerged, their forms faint, almost spectral. Endless spoke without turning to them, his tone sharp but weary:

"Kael. Alen. Do not think I have forgotten my goals… but for now, I must enter hibernation. My awakening strains reality itself. To persist like this… is wasteful."

"Understood"

"As you wish"

Kael's spectral form bowed, expression unreadable as he muttered. Alen smirked faintly, shadows swirling around his figure as he also muttered.

After that, Endless exhaled, and the world itself seemed to flinch at the sound. "Guard the remnants of my will. When I return, this world will no longer remember what 'hope' means."

With that, his figure blurred, folding into nothingness, leaving only a faint echo of his aura. The sky cleared instantly, as if pretending nothing had happened.

But deep in the forest, the foxkin girl still ran, her breath ragged, her heart breaking with every step. The tears streaming down her cheeks blurred her vision, but she did not dare stop. She knew one thing—Crescent Paw was gone, and something far worse than any nightmare had awakened.

Meanwhile....

The forest was not kind for the foxkin girl.

Every snap of twigs beneath her bare feet sounded like the claws of death following close behind. The foxkin girl's chest heaved, her breath ragged, her legs burning as she sprinted farther and farther from the smoldering remains of her town. The cries of her kin still echoed in her ears far off in each direction of the forest, mingling with the memory of Endless's abyssal voice and the sight of her elders vanishing one by one into nothingness.

But then, silence.

Hours had passed — or so it felt. The sky had darkened into a moonlit haze, and her body finally gave out. She collapsed against the roots of an ancient oak, sweat dampening her fur-lined cloak, ears twitching at every rustle in the underbrush. The forest itself seemed haunted, but at least here… here, the air wasn't saturated with that suffocating darkness.

Her heart still thudded wildly when her eyes caught a strange shimmer ahead. Not torchlight. Not fire. Something else.

Drawn by instinct, she forced herself forward, creeping through thorn and bramble until she stumbled into a clearing. At its center stood the crumbled remains of an old ruin, swallowed by vines and moss yet glowing faintly with veins of runic light. The structure seemed older than any kingdom she had ever read about in her little shop back in the gone crescent paw town— perhaps older than even the foundation of Aetheris itself.

'Strange, why do I feel drawn to this old thing?'

She thought as her paws trembled while she brushed moss away from one of the stones. Strange symbols flared to life beneath her touch, spiraling outward until the entire ruin seemed to awaken. The girl staggered back, fur bristling, her tails curling tight around her body.

Then came the vision.

A boy stood alone amidst a storm. Not foxkin, not elf, not even beastkin… his features blurred, indistinguishable, as though the ruin itself forbade her from recognizing his race. Yet what she could see was unmistakable — his silver aura, blazing like a second sun, pushing back endless waves of shadow that clawed against the light. His presence was not merely radiant, it was absolute, swallowing despair and turning it into hope.

Her knees buckled beneath the weight of the vision. The ruin whispered in an ancient tongue she could not fully understand, but fragments pierced her mind like echoes:

"The bearer of light… unending… shall rise when the world trembles… when chaos devours all… the boy shall be the dawn."

The foxkin girl's throat went dry. Her claws scraped the dirt, trying to steady herself. 'A boy who would bring unending light? Could such a thing truly exist in a world that had just witnessed the birth of something like Endless?

Her mind reeled with questions. 'Was he human? Elf? Beastkin? Higher being? A Celestial?' She clenched her fists, ears flattening against her head. No answers came, only more mystery.

The vision faded as abruptly as it came, leaving the ruin dark and lifeless once again. Only her trembling form remained in the clearing.

Tears welled in her eyes, not from fear this time, but from a small, fragile ember of something she hadn't felt since before her village was torn apart.

Hope.

She turned her gaze toward the night sky, the image of the boy still etched in her mind. Whoever he was, wherever he came from… if he truly existed, then maybe—just maybe—there was still a future for Aetheris.

And yet, deep down, a question gnawed at her 'Would she live long enough to see this dawn?'

------

At the exact same time Endless had that unforeseen backlash....

Kelvin sat cross-legged in the shadow of an ancient willow tree deep inside Veilwood Forest, its silver leaves rustling faintly as though whispering secrets of old. The forest was unnaturally quiet, as if all living things had recoiled from the pressure leaking out of him. His chest rose and fell unevenly, black and violet wisps coiling from his body before dissipating into the air. His fingers clenched hard against his knees as veins darkened with the mark of his bloodline—the mark of the Heir of Chaos.

The aura around him was unstable, flaring in waves that made the soil under him crack and the nearby shrubs wilt. Kelvin gritted his teeth, sweat sliding down his temples.

"Steady… steady… I have to make it mine. If I lose control now…" His voice trembled, though he forced a bitter grin. "…then the Chaos itself devours me."

He had been like this for hours, isolating himself so he wouldn't endanger Kaelen, Ethan, or anyone else with the fluctuations of the chaos and void he has just been blessed with. But just as his breathing began to find a rhythm, the ground quaked violently beneath him.

Kelvin's eyes snapped open, glowing faintly with chaotic crimson light. The entire forest shuddered with an invisible pulse that rattled the air like a distant thunderclap. A dreadful weight pressed down on his chest as if an unseen hand was trying to crush him. He staggered, clutching his ribs.

"This… this feeling…" he rasped. His pupils shrank to pinpoints as he recognized the source. "…Endless."

"Aargh!!!!"

A searing pain erupted in his core, and his aura went berserk. Chaos energy spiraled outward, bending trees, splintering bark, and sending shockwaves through the Veilwood. Kelvin screamed, digging his hands into the dirt, trying to keep his essence from tearing his body apart.

"Damn it…! He's awakened…?!" His breath hitched. "No… no, it's not full. It's partial. A backlash… a forced reformation…"

He felt it—the unmistakable tremor of Endless awakening, then abruptly faltering, as though the Eternal himself had been ripped apart by his own rebirth. The Chaos inside Kelvin resonated violently with that disturbance, like two strings of the same cursed instrument plucked at once. For a terrifying instant, Kelvin thought he might shatter entirely.

But he bit down hard on his lip, tasting blood, and forced the chaotic energy back into his core. The veins across his skin glowed with pulsing black light, then slowly dimmed as his aura quieted. His breathing came ragged, but he was still alive. Still in control. Barely.

Kelvin collapsed onto one knee, sweat dripping into the soil. He lifted his head, staring past the dense trees, his expression grave.

"That was no ordinary surge… Endless is moving sooner than I thought. If even I could feel this… then I can just imagine how much power he has gained in the Chaos and Void Magic."

His hands curled into fists. He thought of Kaelen, bearing Pandora within him; of Guinevere, Morris, Lila, Ethan—all of them now entangled in the tides of fate. He thought of the Nullcarvers tribes, of the elves, of humanity's fragile walls. And he realized with a sinking weight in his chest:

Time was running out.

"I can't stay here anymore." His voice was low, resolved. "Every moment I and the others waste trying to perfect our balance alone is another step Endless takes toward annihilation. If he awakens fully… there won't be a world left for me to master this power in."

He staggered to his feet, stabilizing his breathing, forcing his chaotic aura into a tight coil inside him. Though imperfect, it was enough for now. His crimson eyes glowed with determination.

"I need to warn the others. Kaelen has to know what just happened. If Endless is already reforming, then the Magic Pandora… the Blade of Eternity… everything will converge faster than we expected."

A faint smirk tugged at his lips, though his tone was heavy with grim irony. "Heh… so much for getting ourselves prepared."

Kelvin looked once more at the Veilwood canopy above, the silver leaves still trembling from his aura's disturbance. Then, without hesitation, he vanished into the forest's depths, the chaotic energy trailing faintly in his wake. Every step carried the urgency of a man who had just glimpsed the edge of the abyss and realized the abyss was reaching back.