🏞 Crossing the Blighted Plains
The sun rose blood-red over the Blighted Plains, casting a sickly glow across a land long forsaken by the gods. The ground was cracked and barren, littered with the bones of beasts and men alike.
Selene led the way, Kael's cloak whipping in the dry wind. Behind her rode Gareth, Mira, and Rin, each silent, each alert for the horrors whispered to haunt these lands.
> "Keep your eyes open," Selene warned. "These plains are said to swallow travelers whole."
Mira scoffed, but even she kept a protective spell at the ready, magic coiling at her fingertips.
Hours turned to days. Strange shadows flitted across the horizon. Once, a colossal serpent skeleton arched across their path, its hollow sockets watching like a sentinel of death.
---
👹 Ambush at Dusk
On the third night, as they made camp near a withered tree, the attack came.
Dark figures emerged from the mists — malformed creatures with too many limbs, jaws that split like cracked porcelain, eyes that glowed with hunger.
> [System Alert: Aberration Swarm — Danger Level: SSS]
The system's warning flashed in Selene's vision, but she was already moving, blades drawn.
> "Gareth! Hold the line!"
The berserker roared, his great axe cleaving the first monster in two.
> "With pleasure!"
Mira's incantations lit the night sky, bolts of lightning searing flesh and bone.
Rin darted between the beasts, his small blade striking true, guided by uncanny instinct.
Selene danced through the chaos, her daggers singing death. But the creatures kept coming, endless as the night.
---
🔥 The Tide Turns
> [System Notice: Bloodline Skill Unlocked — Starfire Veil]
In desperation, Selene invoked it. A corona of silver flames erupted around her, incinerating the nearest aberrations.
The swarm recoiled.
> "Push them back!"
Their counterattack was swift and brutal. Gareth crushed skulls beneath his boots. Mira's spells burned through the remaining horde. Rin's blade struck the final creature down.
When dawn broke, the Blighted Plains were silent again, save for the labored breathing of the victors.
Selene wiped her blades clean.
> "We're not turning back."
> "Didn't plan on it," Gareth rumbled.
🏛 The Lost City of Nyros
By midday, the party reached what remained of Nyros — once a grand city, now a graveyard of shattered towers and broken walls.
The wind howled through the empty streets, carrying with it the faint scent of ash and decay. Statues of forgotten kings lay toppled, their faces worn smooth by time.
Mira stepped forward, eyes glinting with curiosity beneath her hood.
> "Nyros fell during the War of Shadows. If the Shard was hidden anywhere, it would be here."
Selene nodded.
> "Stay close. There's something… wrong here."
The system pulsed a silent warning:
> [System Scan: High Concentration of Residual Death Energy Detected]
---
⚠ The Echoes of the Dead
As they moved deeper into the city, the air grew colder, heavy with a presence unseen. Shadows flickered at the edges of their vision.
Rin shivered.
> "They're watching."
Before Selene could ask who, the first of the dead emerged — wraith-like forms, armored in spectral steel, their hollow eyes burning with malice.
> [System Alert: Nyrosian Revenant (Elite) — Danger Level: SS]
The revenants attacked without warning.
Selene met them head-on, her blades striking true, but the spirits reformed as fast as she cut them down.
> "Their souls are bound to this place!" Mira shouted, unleashing a wave of fire that forced the spirits back.
Gareth bellowed, swinging his axe through three at once, but even he grunted as their spectral blades found flesh.
---
🔮 The Relic's Clue
Fighting through wave after wave, the party reached the heart of Nyros — a ruined temple at the city's center.
At its altar lay an ancient relic: a crystalline shard, humming with power.
Selene grabbed it, and the world seemed to shift.
> [System Message: First Clue Obtained — Shard of Fate Fragment (1/3)]
A vision flooded her mind — a mountain crowned by storm, a cave beneath its roots, and the faint echo of Kael's voice, calling her name.
She gasped, clutching the fragment to her chest.
> "We have a lead."
Mira smirked, exhausted but exhilarated.
> "Then let's not waste time."
⚡ Escape from Nyros
The moment Selene took the fragment, the city seemed to awaken.
The ground shook, and a deafening roar echoed through the ruins. From the shattered temple walls emerged a monstrous figure — a Nyrosian War Titan, a relic of the city's downfall, bound in chains of molten shadow.
> [System Alert: Nyrosian War Titan — Danger Level: SSS+]
Its massive blade, forged of cursed iron, slammed into the ground, sending a shockwave that toppled nearby pillars.
Gareth swore under his breath.
> "We're not fighting that. RUN!"
They fled through the crumbling streets, the titan's footsteps shaking the earth behind them.
Mira conjured barriers of flame and ice to slow the creature's advance, but each barrier shattered beneath its fury.
> "We need to reach the outer wall!" Selene barked.
---
🏹 Rin's Gamble
As they neared the city gates, Rin paused atop a broken archway, drawing his enchanted bow — a weapon too delicate for such a foe, but he had no choice.
> "Buy me a heartbeat!" he called.
Selene turned, launching herself at the titan's legs, striking at the joints. Sparks flew, but the beast barely faltered.
Mira unleashed a storm of lightning, blinding it for a moment.
Rin fired. The arrow — tipped with the last of their silverbane oil — found a gap in the titan's helm, piercing deep.
The creature bellowed, staggering as black ichor gushed from the wound.
> "NOW!" Rin yelled.
---
🚪 The Last Gate
They burst through Nyros's ancient gates just as the titan collapsed behind them, shattering what remained of the city's main avenue.
Breathless, battered, but alive, they did not stop running until the city's cursed walls were far behind.
Finally, as night fell, they made camp on a ridge overlooking Nyros. The ruined city glowed faintly under the full moon, haunted and defeated.
Selene turned the fragment over in her hands, feeling its power pulse in rhythm with her heart.
> [System Notice: Main Quest Updated — Seek the Stormspire Shard (2/3)]
> "Next stop — the Stormspire Mountains."
Gareth grinned despite his bruises.
> "About time. I was starting to miss fresh air."
Mira smirked.
> "And here I thought you liked ghosts."
Selene said nothing, eyes fixed on the horizon. The journey was far from over.