Arc: Dragon Bone Relic | Phase 1: Entry into Vael'Tharuun
đ Scene: "The Rift That Hungers"
The sky cracked open at precisely 4:09 in the afternoon.
It wasn't like the loud, fiery sky-tearing of typical sorcery. No thunder, no quakes. Just silence â as if the world inhaled and forgot to exhale.
Above the ruins of the ancient Tenvakar Outpost, a single black line split the sky like a blade dragged across glass.
Raijiro squinted at the tear, sweat rolling down his temple. "That's not a portal."
Kakari narrowed his eyes. The line above them pulsed â rhythmically. Like a heartbeat.
"No," he muttered. "It's a wound."
---
đ§ Mission: Classified Deployment
Two days prior, the Ashenfang Clan had summoned Kakari's crew without explanation.
Normally, their rank didn't qualify them for deep-relic missions â especially not ones involving fractured dimensions.
But this wasn't a normal request. The head Warden herself had delivered the assignment scroll.
 "You're being chosen not for power⌠but for potential. If the Vael'Tharuun dimension opens again⌠we need eyes inside. Survivors."
The scroll had no map. No names. Just four words stamped in crimson:
 "Retrieve the Dragon Bone Relic."
---
âď¸ Team Status:
Kakari: Equipped with his blacksteel katana and RaikĹgan sealed.
Raijiro: Bracers wrapped and ready. Iron Art's energy stable.
Seijun: Staff glowing faintly. Her tiger spirit unusually quiet.
Reika: Grinning, tossing a droplet of water between fingers like a coin.
They were tense â even Reika's jokes felt dull.
And then, the sky tore open⌠and the world shifted.
---
đ Shift: Enter Vael'Tharuun
The moment they stepped through the rift, they felt it.
Clothes unraveled into threads of light and reshaped â weapons bent and twisted, responding to the new plane's laws.
đ Kakari's armor fused tighter, black and grey with interlocking plates like obsidian scales. His katana fractured mid-air, reshaping into twin tonfa-like staves, dark with soft lightning cracks pulsing across the grip.
đĽ Raijiro's shirtless upper body was now clad in blood-red banded armor around his arms and spine â his bracers now gauntlets, with jagged vents that released bursts of pressure with every movement.
đ¸ Seijun's loose robes became a high-collared blue tunic, her staff now split into a double-edged crescent weapon, the blue tiger symbol coiling along its frame.
đ Reika wore sleek tactical gear with flowing sleeves and wave motifs. His water orbs condensed into three floating anchors that rotated over his shoulders like satellites â small, swirling with mist, each able to become a weapon or shield.
---
đď¸ Location: Dimensional Layer 1 â "Whispersand Vault"
The realm felt unfinished.
Like someone had tried to build a world and stopped halfway â leaving behind fragmented buildings hanging in a violet void. The ground was solid, but barely. If you stepped too hard, it pulsed like a heartbeat beneath your feet.
"Don't like this place," Seijun muttered.
 Reika grinned, "You don't like anything unless it sparkles."
"I like bashing sparkles into people's skulls, if that counts," she snapped back.
Kakari didn't hear them.
---
𧊠Discovery: The Black Relic
He stood at the edge of a stone stairway, staring at the object half-buried in crystal.
It was⌠a core. Like a shattered heart. Encased in a prismatic cage, obsidian-black, pulsing once every few seconds.
But as he drew closerâ
The pulse matched his own.
One throb. Then two.
Then three.
Suddenly the heartbeat inside him â the one he never noticed â synchronized.
He touched the relic.
---
â ď¸ The Warning
BOOM.
A violent black shockwave ripped outward, throwing the team back. Seijun hit a wall hard enough to crack it. Reika rolled midair and landed. Raijiro tanked the blast but staggered.
From the center of the crystal, something had changed.
Kakari stood up.
But his eyesâŚ
They were pitch black with thin grey rings rotating inside.
His body wasn't glowing.
It was⌠consuming light.
Raijiro stepped forward. "Oi. Kakari⌠you okay?"
Kakari blinked once â and the ground beneath his feet caved.
Thenâ
"Something's wrong with me," Kakari whispered.
 "No," the relic responded â voice in his mind.
"Something's been waiting."
---
âď¸ END OF CHAPTER 3
Next Chapter Sneek Peek!!:
 The Awakening begins. A relic-empowered guardians
tirs beneath the stone floors. Kakari's transformation accelerates. But with power comes collapse... and someone's already watching from the edge of this realm.