The ruins of Verneville were silent—eerily so. The cracks in the ground, where once shimmering magic had thrived, now yawned like the jaws of some forgotten beast. Around Seth and Andrea, the remnants of a forgotten battle clung to the air like an oppressive fog.
Seth moved through the debris, his eyes narrowed, his senses stretched thin as he tried to gather information. The energy felt familiar—too familiar. It wasn't the kind of magic he had expected to find in a place like this. It was deeper, darker, like something that had been sealed away for centuries.
Andrea was close behind, her presence a constant anchor in the swirling unease that had settled into Seth's gut. "You feel it too, don't you?" she asked, her voice a whisper in the stifling air.
Seth didn't answer immediately, his attention on a series of runic symbols etched into the stone beneath his feet. They were ancient, older than anything he'd encountered in his travels—and they pulsed with energy.
"Yes," he said finally. "It's not just a magical disturbance. It's a tear in the fabric of reality itself."
Andrea's gaze hardened. "A tear?"
Seth stood, his mind already working through the implications. He couldn't shake the feeling that what they were witnessing was only the beginning of something much larger, something that went beyond the simple breach of a vault.
"You're not just dealing with magic here," Seth continued, his voice low. "Something else is at play. This—this is a rift, not just in magic, but in time and space."
The ground beneath their feet rumbled slightly, as if in response to his words. The air shifted, and from the depths of the broken academy came a low hum—an unnatural sound, like the vibration of some vast, unseen force.
"That's not a good sign," Andrea said, stepping closer to Seth.
Suddenly, the hum grew louder, and the ground cracked open in front of them. From the fissure, a shape emerged—a dark figure, its form indistinct but suffused with an energy that made the air around them shimmer like heat waves.
Seth stepped back, drawing on his mana, his body instinctively preparing for a fight. But before he could move, a voice echoed from the figure's direction—a voice like a whisper in the dark.
"You… are too late."
The figure shifted, its form becoming more defined. A cloaked figure with eyes that glowed like dying stars, its presence oppressive and ancient. It was humanoid, but not human—not entirely.
Andrea's sword was already in her hand, flame flickering along its edge, but Seth raised a hand to stop her. He could sense it—this wasn't a fight they could win, at least not yet. They needed answers, not destruction.
"What do you mean?" Seth asked, his voice carrying a calm, measured edge.
The figure's head tilted slightly, as if considering the question. Its voice came again, resonating in the very air around them.
"You are the ones who sought the truth of the Gate… but it was never meant for you. You cannot undo what has already begun."
Before Seth could respond, the figure stepped forward, and the ground beneath them quaked. The energy around them twisted, warping reality itself, and the space around them seemed to distort and bend.
"Go back," the figure whispered, its form beginning to disintegrate into dark tendrils of energy. "Before it is too late for you all."
But Seth wasn't about to retreat.
The tendrils surged forward, and without thinking, Seth stepped into action, his body moving like liquid, fluid but decisive. He unsheathed his sword in a single, fluid motion, slicing through the dark tendrils that sought to bind him.
"I never take orders," he said with cold certainty, his blade cutting through the air with deadly precision.
The figure's voice echoed one last time, fading into the dark as its form melted into the abyssal energy.
"This world is doomed."
With that, the energy dissipated, leaving the two of them standing in the ruins once more—silent, but not unscathed. The air was thick with tension, and Seth knew that whatever lay ahead, they were now part of something much bigger than they had anticipated.
Andrea exhaled slowly, her sword retracting as the flames around it faded. "What just happened?"
Seth sheathed his blade and turned to face her. "The beginning of the end."
The hum in the distance had returned, louder now, and the night felt heavier with every passing second.