Chapter 32: The Vale of Forgotten Echoes
The world lurched violently as the sigil swallowed them whole. Colors bled together, shifting in unnatural ways, and for a moment, Tara felt as though she was being pulled through a thousand different realities at once. Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it ended.
The group was thrown onto solid ground, gasping for air as the oppressive energy of Ludicar's magic faded.
Tara was the first to rise, her eyes scanning their surroundings. What lay before them was a place unlike any they had ever seen. The Forgotten Vale stretched in all directions, an eerie landscape of broken stone, towering skeletal trees, and rivers of mist that snaked through the air like living things. The sky above was a swirling mass of deep purples and blacks, as though time itself had fractured here.
Kael groaned as he pushed himself up. "I'm starting to hate magic doors."
Emrick dusted himself off, gripping his sword tightly. "Where are we exactly? This doesn't feel like the world we left behind."
Tara exhaled slowly. "This is the Forgotten Vale… but it's not just a place. It's a memory, a fracture in time where echoes of the past never fade." She turned to face them. "We need to be careful. If the seal is weakening, the barriers between worlds will be unstable here."
A cold wind howled through the ruins, carrying whispers—voices that spoke in fragmented sentences, their words blending into an eerie symphony of lost knowledge.
Help us… The First stirs… Time is unraveling…
Kael tensed. "I don't like this."
Neither did Tara, but they had no choice. She pulled out the ancient tome they had recovered from the archives. Its pages still pulsed faintly with power, but now, in the Vale, the runes shifted, glowing brighter.
Emrick stepped closer, looking at the book. "Can you read it now?"
Tara nodded slowly. "The energy here is resonating with it… unlocking something." She turned to a page that had previously been blank, only to find a single passage written in glowing ink.
The Seal is not only a cage; it is a wound upon the world. If it breaks, time itself will shatter.
She swallowed hard. "This isn't just about stopping the First. If the Seal fails completely, everything—past, present, and future—could collapse into nothingness."
Kael cursed under his breath. "So no pressure, then?"
Before Tara could respond, the ground beneath them trembled. The whispers grew louder, forming into words that sent a chill through her bones.
It wakes. It sees you.
The mist thickened, and from within it, shadows began to take form.
Figures emerged—warriors clad in spectral armor, their hollow eyes burning with an unnatural glow. Their weapons gleamed with ethereal energy, untouched by time. These were not ordinary ghosts. They were guardians.
"The Keepers of the Vale," Tara whispered. "They were the last defenders of the Seal."
One of the spirits stepped forward, its voice reverberating through the air. "You seek to mend what was never meant to last."
Tara stood her ground. "We seek to prevent the end of all things."
The guardian studied her for a long moment, then raised its weapon. "Then prove your worth… or perish."
With that, the Keepers charged.
Emrick drew his sword, Kael vanished into the shadows, and Tara felt the pulse of magic surge through her veins. The battle for the Seal had begun.