"It is not the blade you see that cuts the deepest. It's the one hidden beside your heart."
---
📍 Shadow Flame Stronghold – War Room
The air in the war room was heavy.
Kael stood at the head of the obsidian table, his fingers tapping lightly against the runed surface. Around him, maps hovered mid-air, magical projections flickering with threat zones, supply routes, and suspected Guild activity.
Myrla stepped forward, expression tight.
"We lost contact with two scout teams last night. Both near the Seraphel Ruins."
Kael frowned. "Guild ambush?"
"Possibly. But it was too clean. No flare signals. No mana residue. It's as if they vanished."
Syl added, "Or someone tipped them off."
The room went quiet.
A single word sat between them like a curse.
> Traitor.
---
📍 Inner Fortress – Nara's Quarters
Nara sat at her desk, reviewing recovered medical records from a refugee camp raided two weeks prior.
Several names matched with former Shadow Flame contacts. But what caught her attention was a symbol hidden in the corner of the document—barely visible, etched in fading ink.
A spiral. Inverted.
She'd seen it before. Once… long ago. In the research files of an experimental mana lab funded by the Guilds.
A knock came at the door.
She opened it to find Syl.
"We need to talk," Syl said without waiting for permission to enter. "Someone's leaking routes. Supply drops. I've narrowed it to the inner circle."
Nara narrowed her eyes.
"Then we're all suspects."
Syl nodded grimly.
"And if we don't find out who soon, Kael will."
---
📍 City of Juren – Guild Dragoon Underground Facility
The infiltrator knelt before a communication rune etched into a slab of obsidian.
A cold voice responded from the other side.
> "Report."
The infiltrator whispered, "He's beginning to suspect. Internal fractures are forming."
> "Good. Push them deeper. Distrust is more fatal than blades."
> "And the relic?"
The infiltrator removed a small shard of crystal from their pouch—pulsing softly with dark energy.
> "Plant it near his sanctum. Let the shadows do the rest."
---
📍 Kael – Meditation Chamber
Kael sat cross-legged, surrounded by shadow runes pulsating like a heartbeat.
His mind drifted into the Veil, the space between light and dark where the Shadow System whispered in silence.
> [Warning: Fragment presence detected]
[Shadow interference threshold rising…]
[Cognitive clarity: compromised]
He opened his eyes—sweat trickling down his jaw.
The shadows around him shifted unnaturally. Not like before. Something else was inside them now.
Something that didn't belong.
---
📍 Myrla – Archive Vaults
Alone in the lower archives, Myrla uncovered a set of old reports stamped with the Guild's ancient sigils. Among them, a page caught her breath:
> Project: Dominion Chain
Subject Type: Living Vessels
Purpose: Host-link stabilization of interdimensional systems
Viable Candidates: [REDACTED]
Codename: K-VR01
Her hands trembled.
"Kael…"
She wasn't just fighting beside him.
She was part of the reason he had to fight at all.
---
📍 Nightfall – Upper Balcony
Kael stood alone again, looking out at Juren. The wind carried whispers. Rumors. Fear. Faith.
Nara approached slowly.
"We've started watching each other," she said quietly. "That's how it begins."
Kael didn't answer.
"I know you want to trust us," she continued, "but you're starting to lose sleep. To hear things. You're slipping, Kael."
He turned to her.
"I'm still in control."
She looked into his eyes.
"For now."
A long silence stretched between them.
Then Kael said, almost to himself:
"If I fall, it won't be by their hand. It'll be because I let them get too close."
---
đź“Ť Underground, Unseen
In a place where even light dared not enter, something ancient stirred.
The shard had been planted. The first corruption had begun.
And far beyond the veil…
The first Arconte opened one eye.
---
📌 *Next Chapter: Chapter 21 – Fractures