Sage Arthan's chilling endgame, his plan to reset the Realm and appease the karmic primordials by destroying all post-experiment karma, sent a wave of despair through Elias. With Mei Lin captured and the primordial shard in Arthan's hands, all hope seemed lost.
But Arthan's loyal apprentice, Master Veyra, still at large after her escape, had her own path. She had been the primary instrument of Arthan's will, carrying out the creation of the karmic vortex. Now, cornered by relentless Celestial Sentinels who had finally cornered her after weeks of pursuit, Veyra made her last, desperate move.
She was tracked to a hidden, ancient ley node deep beneath the heart of Jadeheart, a vital convergence point for the city's spiritual energies. The Sentinels swarmed the cavern, their Prana blades already humming. Veyra, her face a mask of grim determination, activated a final bomb. Not the resonance bomb, but a smaller, more focused device, pulsating with a dark, primal energy.
"For the Sage!" she screamed, her voice echoing in the cavern, as she plunged the device into the node.
Elias, monitoring through a desperate, unstable connection, watched in horror, bracing for the devastating explosion, the final shattering of Jadeheart's ley lines.
But the twist was unexpected, chilling. The bomb didn't explode. Instead, it emitted a deep, resonant hum, and began to absorb the karmic vortex. The destructive energy that had been tearing through Emberfall, creeping towards Jadeheart, was drawn into the device, stabilized, contained, and then slowly, horrifyingly, redirected. The ley lines around Jadeheart, though still strained, ceased their frantic screaming. The vortex collapsed in on itself, becoming a localized, contained singularity of raw, unchanneled karma.
Veyra, her body trembling from the immense drain, collapsed as the Sentinels moved in. They apprehended her, bewildered by the unexpected outcome. As they dragged her away, her eyes, filled with a strange, dawning terror, locked onto Elias's distant, unseen presence through the unstable connection.
Her dying words, delivered through a final, desperate burst of Prana, echoed in his mind, chilling him to the bone: "The Sage lied. The primordials aren't coming—they're already here."
Veyra, a fanatic to the end, had revealed a terrifying truth. Her final act, absorbing the vortex, was not a loyal act for Arthan, but a desperate, final attempt to contain a force that even she now feared. The karmic primordials weren't just reacting to Arthan's violation; they were actively manifesting, their cosmic presence slowly encroaching upon the Realm. The battle was no longer against a corrupt Sage, but against the very fabric of existence itself.