Rain still pattered faintly on the ruined canopy of trees, washing blood into the earth like it was trying to erase the memory of the dead. Rane stood above Khaos in silence, the boy seated near the base of a leaning stone, arms wrapped tight around his legs, eyes lost in some far-off storm.
He didn't cry. He just… stared.
Rane's jaw tightened. There was something in that stillness that unsettled him. A quiet he recognized not the silence of defeat, but the heavy, choking quiet that came after you've lost too much to feel anything at all.
He had seen that look before. In the mirror. Long ago.
Shion.
Her name stirred like a ghost in his chest.
He'd buried her just yesterday. Or was it last year? Time blurred when grief ran deep.
He had never blamed the Xylen. Monsters did what monsters did. No he blamed the ones who opened the door. The ones who let them in.
His fists clenched, knuckles pale.
And then he remembered. That day… the crowd gathered by the Barrier. The boy, younger then, standing still even as others screamed.
Two figures lay on the other side, broken and lifeless. The boy's parents.
And the whispers.
"They're the ones who did it."
"They opened the way."
"It's their fault."
The boy hadn't denied it. Hadn't defended them. He had just stared at them through the Barrier, as if waiting for them to move. They never did.
Something inside Rane had turned cold that day.
Rane shook the memory off like rain off his cloak.
"Khaos," he said at last, voice low. "Get up."
The boy looked up slowly, eyes hollow but steady.The boy wasn't brave. Just ... emptied. There was nothing left to loose maybe that why he obeyed without a word.
Rane glanced back at the others, grim faces in the mist.
"We must keep moving if we hope to survive sobing won't help us."
The control tower loomed like a forgotten god, half-swallowed by vines and shadow. Inside, the walls pulsed faintly with arcane light. Ancient symbols glimmered across the stone faded, cracked, but unmistakably deliberate.
Drail stepped closer, brushing away moss with his gauntlet. "What the hell are these?"
Brevin narrowed his eyes. "They look… old. Maybe older than Velmira."
"They're Older than any of us," muttered Rane. "Keep your hands off them."
The chamber was circular, built around a raised pedestal where the Barrier's main conduit thrummed with soft, pulsing energy. The crystal at its center glowed steady and bright.
"No fractures," Drail said after inspecting it. "It's stable."
"Which means," Rane murmured, "this isn't where it's broken."
Brevin looked to him. "Then where?"
Rane's eyes shifted toward the northern woods. "The breach. That damn hole they opened. Whatever tool they used to force it open it's still out there."
"You think that's what's keeping the Barrier from healing?" Drail asked.
"I know it is," Rane answered. "The barrier's trying to mend itself, but something's holding it open. Like a knife still wedged in a wound."
Brevin exhaled, wiping rain off his brow. "Then we must pull the knife out."
Silence followed, heavy with implication.
Rane paced slowly, jaw working. "We need to find that artifact. Whatever was used to open the breach it needs to be destroyed or removed."
"And if it's guarded?" Drail asked.
Rane turned to face them, his voice firm. "Then we cut through them."
A beat passed.
"This time We go together," he continued. "No more splitting up. No more leaving anyone behind we work together as knights."
He glanced at Khaos.
" We protect each other. No matter what."
Khaos met his gaze for only a moment and nodded.
Outside the tower, the night breathed fire.
Through the shattered slits in the stone, they could hear the howls low, guttural, hungry. The Xylen hadn't moved far. At least a dozen still circled the clearing, drawn to the tower's arcane hum. Shadows danced just beyond the treeline. One wrong move, and they'd be torn apart.
Rane crouched near the window, scanning the clearing.
"No clean path," Drail muttered behind him, gripping his axe. "and if we try to fight , we will die."
Brevin shook his head. "Then we wait must for dawn."
"They don't fear the sun," Khaos said softly, staring into the dark.
Rane didn't turn. "He's right."
A pause. The air thickened.
"So what then?" Brevin asked. "You want to sprint through that?"
"No," Rane said. "We're not going through them. We go under them."
The others stared.
"There's an old aqueduct beneath the tower," he continued. "Built long before Velmira. It runs beneath the hill and pours out into the lower marshlands. If it hasn't collapsed, we can slip out without them ever knowing."
Brevin frowned. "You're sure?"
"Yes it was discovered when they used to be knights guarding this tower before it was abonded " Rane said flatly. "But it's our best chance."
Khaos stepped closer. "Where's the entrance?"
Rane stood and pointed to a half-buried stairwell in the corner, half-swallowed by roots and moss. "That passage leads to the old maintenance chamber. There's a hatch under the floorboards"
Drail grunted. "I don't like it."
"I don't either," Rane replied. "But I like the idea of getting gutted by a Xylen even less."
Brevin ran a hand through his hair. "Even if we make it out, we still have to find the breach and stop whatever's holding it open."
"We will," Rane said. "One fight at a time."
The iron hatch gave a tortured groan as Rane pried it open, the echo grinding down the spiral stair behind them. A gust of sour air rose up from the dark below thick with mold, mud, and the slow decay of years untouched.
"This way," Rane muttered, stepping into the hole.
Brevin peered down, his voice dry. "How do you know this even leads out?"
"I don't," Rane said. "But staying here isn't an option."
One by one, they dropped into the shaft, their boots splashing into cold, ankle-deep runoff. The tunnel was narrow stone walls tight and slick with moss. Roots pushed down from the ceiling like gnarled veins, dripping rainwater from the storm above.
The deeper they moved, the quieter the world became. The wind was gone. The trees. Even the rain faded to a distant patter through cracks overhead. All that remained was their breath, the squelch of steps, and the occasional clink of armor brushing stone.
The tunnel twisted and narrowed as they moved. Roots snaked through the cracks above. Every turn was slow and deliberate, Rane navigating by memory. The only markers were subtle: a broken pipe, a rusted bracket, the faint sound of flowing water.
After long minutes, they reached the end. A rusted grate sealed the exit, beyond which faint moonlight filtered through the downpour. Trees swayed in the wind, fog clinging to the marsh beyond.
"It's held by two bolts," Rane muttered, kneeling.
Drail joined him. "We'll force it."
It took effort. No tricks. No shortcuts. Just three pairs of hands and the ache of muscles grown cold and stiff from fighting and running. The bolts finally gave with a loud snap, and the grate swung open enough to slip through.
One after another, they emerged into the soaked grass and knee-deep mud of the forest's edge.
The air was colder here. The storm heavier. The rain hadn't stopped.
"Where now?" Brevin asked, scanning the dark woods.
"There's only one place we can go.The breach," Rane said, nodding eastward. "Near the outer curve of the Barrier. That's where we find whatever they used to open it."
"And destroy it?" Drail asked.
"Remove it," Rane corrected. "If we're lucky, that's all it takes."
Khaos stayed quiet, eyes fixed on the shimmer of the Barrier in the distance a wound of light in the storm, flickering weakly.
They moved quickly. Weapons drawn. No more words.
The marsh swallowed their footsteps as they headed toward the broken heart of Velmira.