The sky wept blood.

Kaelis stood motionless on the edge of the Crimson Abyss, a towering canyon where the world seemed to end and fall into endless nothingness. The sky was the color of a fresh wound, slashed open by the crimson streaks of the Eclipse Infernum, the celestial event that tore apart reality itself. Even now, the ground beneath his feet trembled, still reeling from the aftershocks of the cataclysm that had shattered time, space, and the fragile human psyche. He could feel it, a low hum in his bones, the resonance of broken timelines colliding, melding, and dissolving.

Everything had changed since the Eclipse. The sun had become a blackened husk, its light a sickly, distorted reflection of what it once was. The world, once vibrant and full of life, now rotted beneath an eternal twilight. The once-great civilizations had crumbled, reduced to scattered enclaves of desperate survivors fighting for scraps of sanity and survival.

Kaelis no longer remembered what the world had been like before. He could not recall the names of his loved ones, his homeland, or even his own face. The Hellfire Chakra pulsed through his body like molten iron, its searing heat a constant reminder of his cursed existence. His right arm the arm of death, the skeletal appendage that had cost him everything was wrapped in the charred remains of his former monk's robe, its bones gleaming faintly beneath the tattered cloth. The arm was a mark of his corruption, a symbol of the power that had both saved and damned him.

For as long as he could remember, he had wandered this broken landscape, a fractured man in a fractured world, hunting for the missing pieces of his soul. He was a Soulshard Monk, one of the few who had survived the Eclipse Infernumwith enough of their minds intact to search for redemption. But the more he fought, the more he killed, the further he strayed from that path. Each battle brought him closer to the void, and his soul became more fragmented with every life he took.

Today, however, something was different. Kaelis could feel it a disturbance in the air, a ripple in the shattered fabric of reality. The fragmented timelines had aligned for just a moment, a fleeting second in which he could sense the presence of a soul shard one of the pieces of himself that had been torn away by the Eclipse. It called to him from the depths of the Crimson Abyss, a faint pulse of familiarity that stirred something deep within him, something he had not felt in years.

Hope.

The word tasted foreign on his tongue, like ash and smoke. He had long since abandoned hope, cast it aside along with his humanity. But now, as he stared into the void below, he could not deny the faint flicker of it that burned in his chest.

"Are you ready to face your past, monk?"

The voice was a whisper of steel and venom, cold and cutting. Kaelis turned slowly, his eyes narrowing as they met the masked gaze of Lyra, the Widow of Ashes. She stood just a few paces behind him, her silhouette sharp against the blood-red horizon. Her armor, once regal and resplendent, was now scarred and blackened by fire and battle. The mask she wore concealed her face, but Kaelis knew the woman beneath it well. Lyra was a warrior queen who had lost everything her kingdom, her people, her husband to the Fragmented, the twisted abominations born from the souls of the damned.

Lyra's mask gleamed in the dying light, the only sign of the nobility she had once held. Beneath that mask, Kaelis knew, there was nothing. Not a face, but a void. An endless, yawning chasm where her features had once been, devouring the memories of anyone who dared to look upon it. She had become a living curse, a walking embodiment of loss and grief.

"I don't know what I'm ready for anymore," Kaelis said, his voice rough from years of silence. His skeletal arm twitched, the Hellfire Chakra flickering just beneath the surface, threatening to ignite. "But that shard... it's calling me."

Lyra's gaze shifted to the abyss. "Then we descend," she said simply.

Without another word, she stepped forward, her movements fluid and purposeful. Kaelis followed, his boots crunching against the charred earth as they approached the edge of the cliff. Below, the Abyss yawned wide, an endless chasm filled with swirling darkness and faint, flickering lights remnants of shattered timelines, lost souls, and forgotten memories.

As they stood at the precipice, Kaelis felt the air shift again, the ripple of distorted reality growing stronger. The shard was close, but so was something else. A presence. It moved through the Abyss like a predator, lurking just beyond sight, waiting for them to make their descent.

"Something's down there," Kaelis muttered, his grip tightening on the hilt of his blade. His right arm twitched again, the skeletal fingers flexing involuntarily. The Hellfire Chakra sensed danger, feeding off his unease, ready to consume anything that threatened him.

"Of course there is," Lyra replied, her voice as cold and calm as ever. "There always is."

With that, she leaped into the Abyss, her body disappearing into the swirling void below. Kaelis hesitated for a moment, his mind racing with the horrors that could await them in the darkness. But he had no choice. The shard was there, and if he didn't retrieve it, he would lose another piece of himself forever.

Gritting his teeth, he stepped off the edge and plunged into the void.

The fall was disorienting, a dizzying plunge through layers of broken reality. Time fractured around him, shards of past and future flashing by in the blink of an eye. He caught glimpses of himself versions of Kaelis that had never been, never would be. In one shard, he was a hero, a savior of the world. In another, a tyrant drenched in blood. The fragments of his possible lives swirled around him like shattered glass, cutting into his mind, his soul.

He screamed, the sound lost in the cacophony of collapsing timelines.

Then, with a bone-jarring impact, he hit the ground.

The world around him was a twisted reflection of the one he had left behind. The ground was slick with blood, the sky a roiling mass of dark clouds and fire. The air was thick with the stench of decay, and the distant wails of the Fragmentedechoed through the landscape like a dirge for the damned.

Lyra stood nearby, her mask gleaming in the dim light, unfazed by the fall. She turned to him, her voice barely audible over the howling winds. "The shard is close. But we're not alone."

Kaelis staggered to his feet, his head spinning from the fall. He could feel the presence now, stronger than ever. It was watching them, stalking them through the darkness. He drew his blade, the Hellfire Chakra igniting in his skeletal arm, flames licking at the edges of his vision.

And then, from the shadows, it appeared.

The creature was massive, towering over them like a nightmare given form. Its body was a grotesque mass of limbs and faces, each twisted in agony, each a reflection of the souls it had consumed. Its eyes, dozens of them, stared down at Kaelis and Lyra with a hunger that burned through the darkness.

It was one of the Fragmented, a soul twisted and corrupted by the Eclipse, now nothing more than a monstrous abomination driven by pain and torment.

Kaelis felt the shard pulse in his chest, calling to him. It was inside the creature, buried deep within its twisted form. He would have to kill it to reclaim it.

With a growl, Kaelis charged, his blade slicing through the air, the Hellfire Chakra blazing with deadly intent. The creature roared, its many mouths opening in a chorus of screams, and the battle began.