CHAPTER 98: THE VOID-REALM’S CRYSTALLINE HEART

The void-realm pulses with a crystalline hum, its jagged stone shimmering under a sky of fractured rifts, their searing light stinging my eyes, the air chilling my lungs with a metallic tang. I am Aelys, mortal and worn, my lunar mark a ghost of a scar, my silvered hair clinging to my brow, Lena’s spark a faint pulse in my chest, strained by Veyn’s rift-world. My blade, etched with Elara’s runes, grips tight in my hand, its steel warm as I lead Kalia and the group—Cassia, Renn, Maddox, Sylvara, Lysara, Theryn, Zorath, Valthor, Lirien, Kael, Veyra, Elyra—across trembling stone, the Veil’s thread fraying in my heart, its weave buckling under the Herald’s hymn. Kalia’s blue aura flares beside me, her rift-touched orb pulsing, its sealed cracks glowing faintly, her twin-star eyes scanning crystalline shards, her breath steady, her fingers clutching the orb, knuckles pale. I touch her arm, my grip gentle, my voice low, slicing through the hum’s pulse. “Kalia, hold the Veil—find the core.”