A brittle dawn cracked over the Silverfang Hold as Zephyr Ardent rode from the courtyard toward the Academy's southern gate. His gauntleted hand hovered over the Binding Glyph at his hip, heart drumming with both anticipation and dread. Today, the apex of the Unbroken Circle's power would be tested—when the Codex's final integration ritual opened the Gate of Convergence, linking every warded node in Aurex Bay into a living lattice.
Rook fell into stride beside him, her amber eyes steeled. "The Circle is ready," she said. "But I can still feel the echoes of last night's Mirror Vault—like a ghost waiting at the threshold."
Zephyr nodded, pulling rein at the colossal southern gate carved with all six runes. Beyond lay the ritual grounds: an open plaza ringed by moonstone pillars, each bearing a ward crystal. In its center stood the Convergence Altar—an obsidian dais etched with the full Codex spiral.
Hybrid scouts and Covenant medics took their places by the perimeter; Court scribes unfurled the Charter of the Unbroken Circle on a marble lectern. Elara stood ready at the altar's edge, Celestial Verse scroll in hand; Corin with the Prism of Echo—a moonstone lens to focus the Chorus energy.
As the first sunbeam struck the central rune, Zephyr raised his voice. "By blood's bond, lunar grace, echo's chord, and celestial place—unite all wards, let Convergence blaze!"
He pressed his palm to the altar's glyph. A tremor of silver‐crimson light surged into each moonstone pillar, but instead of steady glow, one crystal flashed erratically—its light sputtering like a dying flame.
Rook lunged forward, fingers dancing to reinforce the Reflection ward, but the pillar shattered, shards of moon‐crystal raining down. A low, keening howl rose from the eastern edge of the plaza—where the misty outline of a distorted figure emerged: the Nightshade Revenant, born of the Mirror Vault's corrupted shards.
The Revenant's eyes blazed with malice as it lifted a fractured mirror blade, slashing a swath through the western pillar. Its shards embedded in stone, releasing a pulse of twisted reflection that sent every ward crystal flickering into shadow. The Convergence Altar cracked beneath Zephyr's hand.
Elara shouted, "Fall back! The ritual is undone!"
Rook caught Serenity's staff as the Revenant lunged into the circle, its blade's mirrored edge aiming straight for Zephyr's heart. In that instant, time seemed to slow: Zephyr's gauntlet flared with Binding energy, Rook's ward coalesced at her shield, and hybrid scouts steeled themselves for the final stand—yet none could see the Revenant's true power just awakening...
Rook's shield shuddered under the Revenant's mirrored slash, the ward net flickering as hemaleth‐tinged shards skittered across its surface. Zephyr thrust his gauntlet into the Revenant's flank, pouring Binding Glyph energy into its wound—but the creature's form fractured, slipping through the binding like liquid glass, reforming behind Elara in a spray of splintered light.
"Elara, watch yourself!" Zephyr roared, sprinting to her side, gauntlet crackling. He caught her elbow as the Revenant's blade descended—but the strike wasn't aimed at flesh. The Revenant shattered the Celestial Verse scroll in its wielder's hand, rending the parchment and sending the ritual's power scattering into the dawn breeze.
Elara staggered, clutching the ruined scroll. Silver ink spilled across the altar steps as the Prism of Echo tumbled from Corin's trembling grasp. Corin lunged to catch it—only to have it slip like liquid moonlight through his fingers, clattering across the cracked glyph and extinguishing its glow.
Hybrid scouts dashed in, dual blades drawn. Seren barreled into the Revenant, chanting the Chorus-empowered restraint incantation. But the Revenant's reflection wards absorbed the Chorus wave, converting it into jagged beams of red‐silver light that cut through the scouts' wards, sending them tumbling outward in stunned silence.
Rook planted her feet and unleashed a Howl of Dominion pitched through Emberfall's echo chamber. The Revenant froze—eyes reflecting a thousand shards of moonlight. But as the howl faded, a darker echo answered from the shattered pillars: a chorus of twisted laughter that rose from every cracked ward crystal.
Zephyr's heart thundered. The Convergence ritual—meant to unite every ward—was unraveling before their eyes. Without the Celestial Verse, without the Chorus stabilized, the Codex's power could warp reality itself. And in the Revenant's gaze, Zephyr saw the promise of nightmares made manifest.
He raised his gauntlet, summoning every ounce of Hemaleth and Lunar binding he could muster. Behind him, Rook and Elara formed a last‐ditch circle of light—but the Revenant advanced, each step fracturing the plaza's stones, each breath bending the dawn's golden rays into pale, sickly hues.
"Hold the circle!" Zephyr shouted, voice cracking with urgency. "Bind its core!"
Elara's voice echoed back, fierce and trembling: "Not enough! We need the Prism—Corin, reach it!"
Corin scrambled to his knees beside the fallen Prism, shards of moon‐crystal nicking his fingers. He pressed his palm to a stray shard, eyes wild with desperation. The shard glowed—and in that instant, a beam of pure moonlight arced from the shattered hall toward Corin's hand, drawing the Prism's scattered fragments to reassemble in a silver flash.
But as the Prism reformed, a thunderous crack split the sky. From the Darkwood beyond the Moonlit Road, a column of swirling shadow and hemaleth rose—an army of fractured reflections, each one a distorted echo of the Citadel's mirror guardians, marching inexorably toward the Hold.
Zephyr's chest tightened as he understood the true enemy: not a single Revenant, but a legion born of every corrupted shard they had shattered. The Unbroken Circle's very foundations trembled beneath the weight of that approaching horde.
He met Rook's gaze. "We can't hold them all here—fall back to the inner wards!"
But before the command could finish, the first of the mirror‐shadows reached the plaza's edge, dagger‐hands flicking like liquid night. The air shimmered with broken reflections as Zephyr braced for the onslaught—knowing that the next moment would decide whether the Codex's light would be extinguished at its very heart…
Zephyr turned on his heel and sprinted toward the inner ward gates, Rook and Elara close behind, the Prism's moonlight guiding their path. Behind them, the Revenant's mirrored howl cracked the dawn as the shadow‐shard horde poured into the plaza, each step fracturing warded stone.
At the gates, Corin and Seren fought to anchor the outer binding runes, hands glowing with desperate power. The gates trembled on their hinges—already sagging under the spectral weight.
Zephyr slammed his gauntlet into the locking glyph, pouring every ounce of Hemaleth and Celestial energy he could spare:
"Blood and moon, star and echo—seal this breach, let no darkness flow!"
A pulse of blinding silver‐crimson light flared from the locked gate, pushing back the first wave of mirror‐shadows like a tidal roar. The horde recoiled, their fractured forms flickering at the plaza's edge.
For a breathless moment, silence fell.
Then, through the smoke and splintered wards, the Revenant's broken mirror‐blade rose against the horizon—reflecting the dawn's red glow as it advanced slower, deliberate, and unhurt by the blast.
Zephyr's heart thundered as he realized: the Revenant had one more reflection to shatter—himself.
He raised his gauntlet for one final strike…
But before the blade could fall, the Revenant spoke in a voice of a thousand echoes:
"The last shard is your own reflection, Bloodwolf."
And in that instant, Zephyr saw across the Revenant's mirrored mask not his own face—but something older… and far more dangerous…