The storm had passed, but the tension lingered—heavy, suffocating, like snow-laden clouds on the brink of collapse. Morning filtered through the veil of mist, washing the cave in silver light. Ashen embers still smoldered in the fire pit, but no one moved to rekindle them. There were more pressing flames to tend.
Shin stood at the cave mouth, arms folded, eyes scanning the distant horizon. The mountains loomed pale and cold. In the valley below, the twisted ruins of an ancient temple pulsed with an unnatural aura—the Falzath ward. A fortress of corruption.
Behind him, the others readied their gear. Armor was tightened. Blades were sharpened. Mana reserves were gathered like coiled springs.
Laverna crouched beside a makeshift map scratched into the cave floor. "Three entrances," she murmured. "Main gate's suicide. Too exposed. The western pass curves behind the cliffs, but the drop is steep."
"Then we take the undercroft," Zera said, her voice calm but laced with tension. "Tight quarters. Ideal for an ambush, but manageable. We'll use smoke if we must."
Tessara winced as she adjusted her sash. Her complexion was pale, her breathing shallow. She whispered something in moon-tongue, then gritted her teeth.
Shin turned, noticing. "Tessara."
"I'm fine," she said too quickly. "It's the Kagetsu no Men. It's straining me. I can still channel moonlight, but it flickers."
He approached and placed a hand on her shoulder. A quiet warmth passed between them. Tessara shivered.
He closed his eyes. His crest on his left hand shimmered softly, pulsing with their bond. Then, without a word, he reached into himself, drawing on his ki and mana.
The effect was immediate. The tension in Tessara's body eased. Her breath steadied. The glow of her magic returned—fragile, but steady.
Laverna noticed. "You stabilized it," she said. "But at what cost?"
Shin staggered slightly and leaned against the cave wall. His skin had lost its color, and his pulse fluttered like a dying ember.
Zera caught him. "You're burning too much."
"I had to," he said, voice hoarse. "The crest responds to my will. To protect her, it demanded more."
Laverna narrowed her eyes. Her own crest flared in quiet agitation. "You can't keep doing this alone."
"I won't," he said, recovering his breath. "But if her magic falters during the assault, the whole plan collapses."
Silence. Even Tessara couldn't refute that.
The moment passed, and Shin straightened. He faced them now, his voice regaining its weight.
"Here's what we know: The Ebon Veil's influence flows from the Falzath ward beneath that temple. If we destroy the source, we cripple their corruption across the region. Maybe even across the continent."
Zera unfolded a rough parchment—intercepted cultist reports scrawled in blood and ash. "They speak of a Black Shepherd. A vanguard. We suspect it's King Tristan."
At that name, the temperature dropped.
"Tristan?" Tessara said. "But... he is in Laginaple. How can he be here if he's over there?"
Zera shook her head. "I don't know, but whatever it is, all we know is that he ascended according to the scrolls we've picked up from the cultists earlier. They mentioned him as if he were a demigod. They say his corruption touches every province except Valeshroud. It's the last to resist."
Laverna's gaze hardened. "Then we hit him where it hurts. We shatter his ward, force his hand."
Tessara hesitated. "And if he shows?"
Shin didn't blink. "Then we hold the line."
They finalized the plan. Laverna would lead the vanguard through the undercroft, her elemental prowess allowing them to breach magical locks and environmental wards. Zera would guard the rear, her blade honed to a razor edge, intercepting anything that tried to flank. Tessara would disable enchantments, and Shin—he would anchor them all.
"The temple is alive," Tessara warned. "Its walls whisper. It listens."
"Then we make it scream," Laverna replied.
They moved at first light. Snow muffled their steps as they descended the ridge. The valley grew darker with each step. Roots jutted out of the ground like claws. The air thickened. Even the wind refused to enter this place.
Laverna touched the entrance stone. Fire leapt from her fingers, searing a path through the creeping corruption. "It recoils," she noted. "Fire and lightning push it back."
"Then burn it," Zera said simply.
They descended into the undercroft.
The air turned rancid, thick with decay. Bones littered the halls—ritual sacrifices arranged like morbid warnings. The walls pulsed, veins of black ichor crawling across them. Whispers clawed at the edges of their minds.
Then the guardians emerged.
Skeletal beasts stitched from the bones of cultists and wild beasts slithered from the shadows, their eyes burning violet. One of them roared, and the sound cracked the stone floor, sending debris flying. The hallway twisted, reshaping itself with living stone as if rejecting their presence.
With a battle cry, Zera surged ahead, her blade igniting in sapphire flame. She cleaved through the first abomination, severing bone and sinew in a flash. The corpse exploded into shadow, splashing ichor on the walls. That ichor began to creep and grow, forming spikes.
"Watch the walls!" Shin shouted.
Laverna threw twin fire orbs that curved mid-air, slamming into the next creature's torso and exploding with concussive force. The blast scorched the ceiling, which collapsed onto a second wave of enemies. Dust and flaming debris filled the tunnel.
Tessara held the rear, moonlight threads spiraling from her fingers as she formed protective runes. One creature lunged from the rubble—only to be turned to ash as her seal flared, unleashing a cascade of lunar energy.
Shin entered the fray last, his orb shifting into a glaive. He spun in a wide arc, cutting a wave of corrupted air in half. Then he slammed the glaive into the floor. The stone ruptured beneath, quaking through the corridor as cracks webbed outward and engulfed several more enemies.
"Collapse the side tunnels!" he ordered.
Laverna redirected her flame beneath the nearest archway, melting it down to molten slag. Zera punctured the ceiling with a vaulting slash, causing a localized cave-in that blocked a flank.
The temple groaned—a sound like bones grinding beneath the earth.
It didn't just feel them. It recognized them.
They advanced through the choking black, their battle carving scars into the halls. The ichor writhed, reacting violently to their presence. Tentacle-like strands reached from the walls, but Tessara shattered them with precise lunar bursts.
Finally, they reached the heart.
Beyond a rusted door, they found it: a black altar, hovering over a pit of liquid shadow. Chains of bone and flesh coiled around it, pulsing with dark energy. The Falzath ward.
Tessara nearly collapsed. "It's feeding on the moonlight. On memory."
Laverna raised both hands. Fire surged. Lightning cracked.
The altar screamed.
Zera hurled a vertical slash that shot out anti-corruption energy in a beautiful sapphire arc into its core. Shin channeled ki through his palm and struck the seal with pure force. The room shook, and fractures split the altar's base.
The altar retaliated.
Dark tendrils burst forth, crashing into the pillars and sending shrapnel flying. One hit Shin squarely, launching him into a column. The stone cracked on impact.
Laverna screamed, unleashing a full arc of wildfire that consumed the left wing of the room. Statues melted. The floor warped.
Zera leapt over a collapsing bridge, stabbing downward into the exposed shadow-pool. Holy light erupted from the blade's impact, sending geysers of radiance skyward.
Shin stood again, blood on his lips. He roared, and Yoshimatsu emerged from the orb, crackling with crimson lightning. With a thunderous slash, he unleashed an arc of destruction, cleaving through altar, shadow, and stone—an unrelenting judgment.
The ward fractured.
Black energy exploded outward.
Their crests flared in unison. A dome of divine light shielded them. Shin's body ached, but he pushed harder.
With one final roar, the altar imploded.
Silence followed.
The whispers stopped.
Tessara breathed. The burden on her chest eased.
Zera sheathed her blade.
Laverna collapsed to one knee, smiling.
Shin exhaled, sweat trailing down his face.
They had done it.
But the warmth on his hand intensified.
The crest shimmered, absorbing the remnants of the ward's energy. Shin felt it—a new resonance. Not just with the others, but with the land itself.
He stood quietly.
It wasn't over. Tristan would know. He would retaliate.
But for now, they had won a battle.
In the war's deepening shadows, a single light refused to die. The Temple of Corruption had fallen.
And from its ashes, the fire of their oath blazed stronger than ever.