The fracture in the air was widening slowly, yet relentlessly, as if the very fabric of reality were being pulled apart by a force struggling to break free, and the darkness leaking from it was not ordinary shadow, for it did not fall upon the ground nor obey the laws of light—instead it slid through the air like a living thing searching for shape.
Drakar stood before it, spinning the chains around his arms, while the silver glow emanating from Selene washed over his bronze skin, over the runes pulsing beneath it, and for a brief moment their powers seemed like opposing elements—moon and storm, cold and flame, calm and fury.
But now they fought on the same side.
The first creature fully emerged from the rift.
Its body was composed of fragments of stone, shadow, and emptiness, yet the most disturbing part was the twisted rune pulsing at the center of its chest, a symbol that looked as if someone had taken a divine sigil, broken it apart, and forced it to continue living.
"They feed on fractures," Selene said quietly.
Drakar did not take his eyes off the monster.
"Then we close them."
The creature roared.
Its cry was not truly a sound but a wave of dark energy that caused the trees around the clearing to tremble, and the next instant it lunged forward, moving in broken, unnatural motions as though it were teleporting through the air.
Drakar was already moving.
A chain shot forward.
The blade slammed into the creature's shoulder, but instead of blood, dark energy burst outward and dissolved into the air, and the monster grabbed the chain, trying to rip it from Drakar's grip.
He did not let go.
Instead—
Drakar jerked the chain backward and leapt forward, using it as leverage to drag the creature closer, and when the distance between them vanished he spun the second blade and struck directly into the monster's chest.
Stone cracked.
But the rune did not break.
Selene raised her hand.
Silver light poured from her staff, spreading through the air and forming a circle around the creature.
"Hold it!"
Drakar planted his feet firmly into the ground.
The monster struggled.
Its body shifted and twisted as if trying to escape its own form.
"Faster!" he growled.
Selene closed her eyes.
The runes on her skin ignited.
The silver light intensified.
"These are not just creatures," she whispered. "They are fragments of shattered gods."
Drakar tilted his head slightly.
"Then let's give them a new ending."
He thrust his hand into the monster's chest.
It felt similar to when he tore runes from the bodies of gods.
But worse.
This power was cold.
Empty.
His fingers touched the rune.
And it resisted.
Not like divine energy.
Like something that did not want to exist.
Drakar clenched it.
"Come out."
And tore.
The rune ripped free from the creature's chest, and in the same instant its body collapsed into black dust that the wind carried away.
But the fracture behind them widened.
More creatures began to emerge.
Selene exhaled slowly.
"There are more."
Drakar looked at the rune in his hand.
It was dark.
Twisted.
He clenched his fist.
The rune was absorbed into his body.
The runes on his skin ignited.
Dark flame ran along his chains.
"Then we move faster."
The second creature lunged forward.
This time Drakar did not wait.
He hurled a chain into a tree above the clearing, pulled himself upward, and launched into the air before using the momentum to crash down upon the monster from above.
His blades drove into its back.
The creature howled.
Selene struck with her magic.
A beam of silver light pierced through its chest.
Drakar plunged his hand into the cracked stone flesh.
Another rune.
Another pull.
Another explosion of dark energy.
Now two remained.
But the fracture had grown three times larger.
And something else began emerging from it.
Not merely another monster.
Something greater.
The darkness inside the rift began forming a massive figure.
Selene stepped back.
"This is bad."
Drakar tilted his head.
"How bad?"
She stared into the fracture.
"Those were only scouts."
"What is coming now… is a general."
The air grew colder.
The darkness thickened.
And from the rift stepped a towering figure.
Its body was formed from dark stone and void, while wings of living shadow unfolded behind its back.
At the center of its chest burned a rune.
But this one was different.
Older.
Stronger.
Drakar felt the runes within his body respond to it.
"One of them," he whispered.
Selene nodded.
"A general of Nyxaroth."
The figure stepped forward.
The ground beneath it began turning black.
Its voice was quiet.
Yet every word fell like a stone into an endless abyss.
"So…" it said."It is you."
Drakar spun his chains.
"And who are you?"
The dark figure smiled.
"Kaeltar."
"Herald of the Void."
Selene whispered quietly:
"The strongest among the generals."
Kaeltar stepped forward again.
"My master has long wished to see you."
Drakar tilted his head slightly.
"Tell him I feel the same."
And then he leapt.
The battle with the Void General had begun.