MASTERS OF THE ETERNITY
CHAPTER 9:AMONGST STONE
The ruined road west of Muraei twisted like an old scar, its path fractured by time and war. Jagged trees loomed at the edges, branches long-dead and dry, crackling in the wind like bones clicking together.
Raian walked with a hand resting on his blade, eyes sharp. Izek led with that steady stride of his, every step deliberate, every sound weighed and measured. And Lira followed just behind them — the light leaking from her skin had dimmed, but her presence still felt... off.
She hadn't spoken much since the campfire.
Raian couldn't decide if she was hiding something — or didn't yet understand herself.
Ahead, the sky grew darker, not from clouds but from the towering cliffs of the Akar Reach — a jagged gorge that once served as a boundary between Hitorika scouting lands and the outer wilderness. Somewhere within those cliffs, hidden from ordinary travelers, was the outpost Izek remembered.
"There should be a forward station just ahead," he said, slowing. "If it's still intact, we can resupply."
Raian scoffed. "And if it's not?"
"Then we'll see what's left."
---
The station wasn't just abandoned — it was dead.
A shattered Hitorika banner fluttered above the gate, torn in two. The defensive wards engraved into the cliffside pulsed faintly, but most had been burned out, their energy drained like marrow from bone.
Raian drew his blade the moment they entered. The courtyard was filled with bodies — but they hadn't decayed.
Lira stepped between two fallen guards, crouching. "They've been drained. No blood. No marks."
Izek knelt near one of the bodies. "No resonance either. It's like they were emptied."
Raian moved toward the command hall, kicking the door open. Inside, the walls were covered in scrawl — not written with ink or paint, but etched directly into stone.
Symbols. Circles. Names. One phrase repeated more than any other:
> THE ECLIPSE IS THE END.
Raian ran his hand across it. "Someone wanted us to find this."
Then something coughed.
From behind a collapsed beam, a figure stirred — gaunt, shaking, barely alive. His skin was pale and stretched, and his eyes glowed faintly violet.
A survivor.
Izek rushed to his side, lifting the debris off. "Who are you?"
The man rasped, "Rek… Rek Tenvar. I was a record-keeper."
Raian stepped close. "What happened here?"
Rek's mouth trembled. "They came in silence. Not Hollowkind. Not our own. Something else. They wore old armor — but their eyes were gone. Just black light."
He coughed violently. Lira tried to stabilize his pulse with a faint field of resonance, but he shook his head.
"I listened at the edge of the stone... heard them speak. They said the Eclipse has begun moving. Said the Blade of Eternity is waking."
Raian's jaw tightened. "They're looking for the same thing we are."
Rek grabbed Izek's wrist with surprising strength. "They said... the Blade won't save you. It will choose one to break the cycle — and all others to fuel it."
Then his hand dropped. He was gone.
A long silence followed.
Lira stood, her voice trembling. "The Sable Creed."
Izek looked to her. "You know them?"
She nodded. "Only by rumor. A faction that believes the Blade isn't salvation — it's a weapon meant to end the world cleanly. Not save it."
Raian stared at the writing again. "The Eclipse… are they the Creed?"
"No," Lira said. "The Eclipse is worse. It's what comes after the Creed fails."
---
That night, they camped on the edge of the canyon, flames crackling low.
Raian sat on a rock away from the fire, staring at the stars overhead. Or rather, where the stars should've been — many were gone.
Lira approached quietly. "You don't sleep, do you?"
Raian shrugged. "Can't. Not lately."
She sat beside him. "Your power. It's Resonant Fold, isn't it?"
"You know it?"
"Only in theory. It's like folding space around yourself — bending time with movement."
Raian said nothing.
Lira hesitated. "I think mine… it might be Hollow-touched."
That got his attention.
She looked at her hands. "I don't lose control. But sometimes I feel something watching through me — like I'm a lantern for something else."
Raian stared at her for a moment. "If it turns you, Izek will do what's necessary."
"I know," she whispered. "I'd want him to."
---
Back at the station, beneath the rubble… something moved.
From a split in the earth, a dark hand reached up — skeletal, armored in cracked obsidian. The creature wore a mask — not bone, but metal shaped like a screaming face.
It stepped into the ruin, eyes glowing with shifting constellations.
The Pale Twin had arrived.
TO BE CONTINUED