Without warning, the sky collapsed.
Aetherion appeared flawless for a split second. Bridges floated softly above streams of vivid magic, and its floating towers gleamed in the sunlight.
The realm appeared to be singing an old song that had been playing since the dawn of time. That melody faltered, though. Before she could see it, Lunara felt it.
The air was eerily empty, as though something vital had been violently removed. Aetherion's core, the realm's heart, skipped a beat as the ground beneath her flickered with an erratic glow. The sky then opened up.
Unimaginable blackness spilled from the jagged cracks that tore apart the sky. It absorbed color as well as light. Instead of fire or storm, it was lack to itself, the empty space that clung to existence. Gravity faltered and the air twisted violently, causing entire districts to lurch and tilt.
Towers screamed as their runes flared, faded, and disappeared into drifting dust. Aetherion was disintegrating.
"No," Lunara whispered. The wind howled past her, full of unbridled magic and icy cold, and she clung to the railing of a trembling terrace. Above the city, the threadspire, the glowing center of the realm, broke.
The invisible strands that bound reality together broke and vanished. Every break had an effect on Lunara.
"Lunara!"
As Kael ran toward her across a bridge that defied reality, she turned. Sections slammed back together after drifting apart. His face was streaked with blood, his armor was cracked and glowed oddly, but his eyes were clear and fierce.
He declared, "They've broken through the Veil. There are no longer any outer sanctums." The emptiness responded as if it had been summoned.
From the dark sky, shapes emerged. They were wrong, hollow objects wrapped in shifting shadow. Voidspawn. Their presence drained the warmth from the air, and magic was consumed upon contact.
Guardians rushed to confront them. Fire shot into the sky. Lightning split the clouds. Rising water solidified into spears. Hope flared for a brief moment. Then magic touched the emptiness.
Flames appeared to vanish into nothing, and smoke filled the air. Water froze and then completely vanished, while lightning flickered and vanished.
Screams reverberated throughout the city. Lunara stood motionless as she watched a guardian vanish, darkness consuming his armor until he seemed like a forgotten memory.
"This can't be happening," she muttered as her heart began to race. "It is," Kael said, firmly grasping her shoulders. "And time is running out."
Her chest was tight. Lunara gasped and clutched the satchel on her back as warmth poured through it. The unraveling of the Threads caused the six elemental gems inside—fire, water, air, earth, light, and shadow—to pulse.
"You sense them," Kael murmured. With tears in her eyes, she nodded. He leaned his forehead against hers and calmly said, "The realm will be ripped into pieces by them."
"Now you have to leave."
Her heart was totally broken. She said "I will not do it." He told them again in a voice. If the void gets the gems the whole thing is over.
It is not just Aetherion that will be finished. Everything will be done. The void taking the gems is a problem. It means the end, for Aetherion and everything else. A big shock hit the terrace. Everyone went flying. Lunara crashed into a stone wall when a huge tower, near her came tumbling down getting eaten up by the growing darkness.
She looked up and saw that Kael was already taking action. He was yelling out commands getting the attention of the voidspawn and pulling them towards himself and the threadspire. To certain death.
A flash of light came down beside her. The light was very bright. It landed softly beside her. She saw the flash of light with her eyes and it was a really strange thing to see a flash of light, beside her.
Elyra grasped both of Lunara's arms with torn and flickering wings. "The Gate of Crossing still holds. Barely."
Lunara looked straight at Kael. He turned around again. Their eyes met in all the confusion.. Kaels face did not show any fear. Lunara's stare was still fixed on Kael. Only resolve. The man said run without making a sound. He mouthed the word run.
Something inside of Lunara just broke. It was, like a little part of her had given up. Lunara felt this change happening. It was very strange. Something snapped inside Lunara. She was not the same anymore. She let Elyra pull her to the plaza. The Crossing Gate had these symbols that were flashing all over the place.
The Voidspawn were getting closer and closer. The Guardians were falling down. Elyra was saying some kind of words trying really hard to keep her spell going with the little power she had left.
The Voidspawn were still coming for them. Elyra was chanting desperately to hold on to her spell. A big flash of light burst out. The light was really bright. It burst out suddenly. Pain followed me. The pain was really bad. It was the kind of pain that I had never felt before. The pain followed.
The world, around Lunara started to get really weird. It felt like it was tearing apart as she was being pulled through the Gate. Lunara let out a scream. It was like her voice was trapped between two worlds.
Nobody could hear her scream. "Then She fell down on the stone ground gasping for breath. The air, around her was really thick. The magic felt very far away.
The Gate turned slowly beside her. And died.
Lunara gazed at it, waiting for light to be restored. It never did. Aetherion was nowhere to Sorrow knocked her to her knees. She laid her forehead against foreign earth, and grief ripped a sob from her very soul.
Finally, warmth trickled from the satchel at her back, gems that pulsed and breathed. A reminder. Lunara rose up and saw a city of steel and glass; instead of runes, there were lights; instead of the song of magic, there was noise. A fragile world.
"She pulled her hood up, hiding her grief, her truth." "I'll find your bearers," she whispered. Deep within the heart of the forest, far away "The threads had snapped—" —but they had begun to reach.