MASTERS OF THE ETERNITY
CHAPTER 26: THE EDGE OF BREATH
The plains gave way to jagged hills, their silhouettes shrouded in the half-light of an unnatural dawn. The air was thin here, almost sharp, and each breath came with the faint taste of iron. Raian walked ahead, the Blade of Eternity strapped across his back, its weight strangely absent, as though it was no longer a weapon carried but a current he moved within.
The others followed in wary silence. The Pale Twin's hood was drawn low, her gaze fixed on the horizon. Lira lingered a step behind Raian, clutching her sketches — the symbols she had drawn now seemed to rearrange themselves on the parchment when she wasn't looking. Izek moved with restless impatience, his steps leaving shallow cracks in the stone.
> "We're close to something," the Pale Twin said at last. "Can you feel it?"
Raian could. The air trembled in ways it shouldn't, like the world was holding its breath. A faint hum under the ground matched the rhythm of his pulse. He didn't need the Blade to tell him they were moving toward a convergence.
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They came upon it without fanfare — a cliff that seemed to stretch into nothing. Below lay an endless chasm, its depths veiled in swirling fog that glowed faintly from within. Stone arches jutted from the cliffside, forming the remnants of what might once have been a bridge. Each arch was engraved with spiraling runes so ancient they made the air ripple just by existing.
> "This isn't natural," Lira murmured.
> "It's older than natural," the Pale Twin replied. "This is the Breath's Edge. Where the leyline doesn't run under the world — it spills into it."
Izek peered into the abyss, his expression tightening. "And we're crossing it?"
The Pale Twin's lips curled faintly. "We don't cross it. We descend it."
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The arches reacted to Raian before he even stepped closer. Runes flared in muted gold, and the hum under the ground swelled until the stones themselves began to shift. Pieces of the old bridge moved into place with groaning resonance, forming a spiraling descent that vanished into the glowing fog below.
Lira's hand tightened on Raian's arm. "Something's awake down there."
Raian nodded. "Then we'll meet it awake."
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The descent was slow. The fog was thicker than it looked, clinging to skin like cold breath, whispering in voices that weren't theirs. Shapes drifted in and out of view — not entirely human, not entirely anything. They moved like memory.
Halfway down, a tremor shook the path, and part of the bridge cracked under their feet. Izek caught Lira before she slipped, his hand glowing faintly with that strange, planetary pull he had been carrying since the fight with the First Spear.
> "It's following us," he said.
> "Not following," the Pale Twin murmured. "Judging."
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At the base of the spiral path, the fog broke into a wide stone platform that seemed suspended in the air itself. In its center rose a monolith of black crystal, its surface cracked but still pulsing faintly with inner light.
Raian felt the Blade stir against his back — not in warning, but in recognition.
The Pale Twin stepped forward, her voice low. "One of the Anchors. I didn't think any survived."
> "Anchor to what?" Lira asked.
> "To the Breath itself," she replied. "And… perhaps… to the
Before Raian could move, the air thickened. Shadows slid out from the cracks in the crystal — not mindless Hollowkind, but something older, shaped like warriors with faces hidden behind smooth masks. They moved without sound, their blades forged from the same crystal as the monolith.
The first strike came fast — Raian blocked on instinct, and the clash sent a shockwave through the platform. The runes in the arches above flared in sympathy. Izek leapt into the fray, his strikes heavy and deliberate, each one leaving shallow dents in the crystal armor. Lira stayed near the edge, singing a low, sharp tone that made the shadows hesitate, their forms distorting in the sound.
> "They're bound to the Anchor!" the Pale Twin shouted. "Break it, or they'll never stop!"
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Raian's eyes locked on the monolith. The Blade pulsed, urging, guiding. He charged, cutting through the warriors, each clash of steel sending sparks of golden resonance across the platform. When he reached the crystal, he drove the Blade into its heart.
The sound was not of breaking stone but of breath released after an eternity. The crystal flared, the light within erupting upward into the arches — and in that flare, Raian saw them: seven symbols burning in sequence across the sky before fading back into the void.
They were unlike any runes he had seen. They felt… alive. Watching. Waiting.
The Pale Twin's voice trembled — the first time Raian had ever heard it do so. "The First Rune has revealed itself."
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The shadows dissolved into drifting motes of light, vanishing into the abyss. The Blade in Raian's hand was warm now, almost unbearably so, the new symbols etched on its surface faintly aligning with the memory of the runes he had just seen.
Lira stared at him. "What are those?"
> "Pieces," Raian said, his voice low. "Pieces of something bigger."
The Pale Twin stepped closer, her expression unreadable. "Then you've just taken the first step toward something you cannot undo."
Raian looked east, past the arches, past the abyss, toward lands still hidden in shadow. He could feel the pull now — not just of the Blade, but of the runes themselves.
> "Then we keep walking," he said.
And the fog closed behind them, sealing the Breath's Edge as if it had never been there.
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TO BE CONTINUED