MASTERS OF THE ETERNITY
CHAPTER 19: THE KEEPER'S TESTAMENT
The Hollow Scar swallowed them whole.
Raian followed the Keeper into the ravine's winding depths, the walls narrowing as old glyphs whispered along the stone — phrases not meant for tongues but for memory. The Blade pulsed faintly in his hand, no longer urgent, but curious. Listening.
Lira and Izek trailed behind, the light dimming with every step.
They didn't speak.
Even Izek, usually irreverent, kept his mouth shut. Because something deeper than fear had settled on them now.
Reverence.
---
After what felt like hours, they reached a stone bridge — ancient, cracked, suspended over an impossible drop. Beneath it, glowing veins of energy writhed like roots — red, silver, and green — alive, but dormant.
The Keeper turned.
His cracked porcelain mask caught the low light.
> "You stand above the Cradle of Threads."
Raian frowned. "What is it?"
> "Where all resonance was born. Before Order. Before Creed. Before the Blade chose anything… it chose this place."
He stepped aside, motioning Raian forward.
> "Let it see you."
---
Raian stepped to the bridge's edge.
The Blade vibrated — not violently, but like a tuning fork struck just right. A hum rose from the earth. It threaded up through his legs, his spine, his pulse. The vision came instantly:
---
He stood amidst the nine once more.
But now he knew them.
Not their names, but their energies.
The Iron Flame.
The Silent Root.
The Weaver of Winds.
The Blood of Ash.
The Mirror Child.
The Drowned Oracle.
The Thunder-Bound.
The Hollow Herald.
And at their center, a cloaked figure holding the Blade of Eternity.
Its form was different then — simpler, but heavier in presence. Not fully awakened.
Raian turned to the one at the center. The bearer.
And the bearer turned to him.
Their face was hidden beneath a veil of stars.
> "You are the echo. The recursion. You are the final chance."
---
Raian gasped, stumbling back.
Lira caught him again. Her eyes were wet.
"I saw it too," she whispered. "We were all there."
The Keeper nodded.
> "The Order wasn't a title. It was a cycle. The Creed broke it. The Pale Twin shattered it."
Izek stepped forward now. "Then what are we supposed to do — restart it?"
The Keeper turned away.
> "No. You must choose whether to end it for good… or risk what we sealed returning."
---
They followed him into a chamber — circular, with a great disc of obsidian set in the floor, etched with a thousand overlapping glyphs. At the center: a hollow indentation, blade-shaped.
The Keeper motioned to it.
> "Place it."
Raian hesitated.
Then stepped forward and pressed the Blade of Eternity into the cradle.
The reaction was instant.
The chamber roared.
Glyphs burned blue and silver.
Wind surged upward, but it wasn't wind — it was memory given shape.
Voices cried out — some in pain, others in determination.
And Raian felt the second resonance — his elemental thread — fully awaken.
---
Dust coiled around him, lifted, then froze mid-air. Rocks hovered. The pull of gravity twisted slightly, not enough to destabilize, but enough to bend space. Vines cracked from stone walls, grown in seconds by his unconscious will.
Lira stepped back in awe. "You're reshaping the environment."
Raian opened his eyes — glowing now, faintly, from within. "It's not control. It's harmony."
The Keeper raised his hand again — and this time, so did Raian, without thought.
Their Renkai forces touched.
But they didn't clash.
They merged.
And in that moment, Raian understood:
There was still a hidden third resonance the Blade hadn't shown him.
A resonance only the Pale Twin had touched.
---
The Keeper spoke once more, his voice suddenly heavier.
> "You are ready. But she is more ready."
Raian blinked. "The Pale Twin?"
> "She's already begun unraveling the Creed. Not to destroy it… but to absorb it."
> "She wants to forge a new truth."
Izek frowned. "What kind of truth?"
> "One where the Blade doesn't choose anything — only her."
---
Lightning cracked far above.
Not natural lightning — something unnatural split the sky.
The Keeper turned sharply. His tone changed.
> "You must go. Now."
> "To the Aether March. That's where she's heading. That's where the Creed will make their final stand."
Raian pulled the Blade from the cradle.
It had changed.
Slightly longer. Finer etchings. Its weight more fluid. Not yet complete — but growing.
Lira whispered, "What if we're not enough?"
Raian looked at her. Then at Izek.
Then at the Keeper.
"No one ever was," he said. "That's why the Order ended."
He turned toward the passage.
"But this time, we finish what they started."
---
The Keeper bowed his head.
> "Then may the Threads bind true."
And behind them, as they left, the Hollow Scar closed.
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TO BE CONTINUED