The descent from the Hollow Deep left a mark—not just on Haruto's soul, but on the air around him. Even the light seemed wary of him now.
They emerged beneath a twilight sky, far from where they entered. The Rift had shifted them again, as if it too obeyed the paths Haruto now walked.
Serenya watched him closely. "You're different."
"I remember more," he said simply. "But not everything. Just enough to know where we must go next."
"Veydril," Lucien muttered. "Sounds like a place with good wine or bad curses."
"Both," Haruto replied. "It was a city of scholars and seers. The place where time was once measured and bent."
They traveled across the barren lands of Garesh, where the sand shimmered with latent magic. Strange phenomena dotted the path—trees growing backward, clouds that rained memories instead of water. The leyline fracture they'd passed earlier was just the edge of a deeper distortion.
After three days, they reached it.
Veydril.
Once a shining capital of the Mage-Kings, now only towers half-buried in dunes remained. Time rippled through the ruins—fragments of the past playing like echoes on loop. Soldiers patrolling empty corridors. Children laughing in halls long collapsed.
Haruto stepped forward and closed his eyes.
The Nullblade pulsed.
"It's still alive," he whispered. "The city… it remembers everything."
As they ventured inside, Serenya raised a ward to protect them from the time distortion. It shimmered like glass around them, slowing the flickering ghosts.
Deeper within, they found the Chronovault—an ancient library where time scrolls were once sealed. Lucien marveled at the machinery, gears rotating in impossible directions, sand flowing upward through hourglass towers.
But at the center was what Haruto came for: a sealed archway.
Etched above it were ancient runes.
Serenya translated aloud. "'He who dares unmake fate must bear all that time forgets.'"
The door responded to Haruto's presence, glowing faintly. It recognized the shard he had reclaimed—the Tactician's insight.
Lucien frowned. "So what's behind Door Number One?"
Haruto stared at it. "The first god-forged seal."
Serenya's eyes widened. "But that's where the barrier between realms thins…"
"And where the one who guards the seal—the Herald of Ends—still sleeps," Haruto finished.
Lucien snorted. "Of course it's a Herald. It's never just an old man with a riddle."
Haruto touched the arch.
It began to open.
And from within… a low, metallic heartbeat echoed through the city.