The air inside the ruins grew cold. It weighted down on the Guardians with a suffocating embrace. Shadows writhed in every corner, twisting and morphing to become dark figures moving forward. These things sucked the light out of their very being, shifting like liquid darkness, eyes burned red in that malevolent glow.
Aiden cinched his sword, that old familiar flush running through him. And with his weapon out, he felt a burst in himself and a deep sense of unease clawing at his resolve. He'd fought monsters and dark magic before, but this.this was different. Born not of shadow but of pure void, the creatures' essence was more absence than presence, and the touch itself seemed to pull life out of anything it touched.
"Get close!" Aiden called to Lyra and Caelum. "We don't know what they are yet."
The Guardians drew into a tight, defensive line, bracing themselves against the drifting horde of nothing creatures. Lyra glanced back at Caelum over the soft sheen of her blade in the gloom.
"Do you feel them? Are they really living?" she asked, her voice tight with tension.
His eyes narrowed as he focused, the staff that he was holding glowing faintly. "Not in the way we understand life. These are entities of pure entropy. They exist to consume, to pull everything into the void itself.".
Speaking, one of the creatures lunged forward, its form stretching out like a shadow slowly extending under the sun. Aiden met its advance, his sword cutting through it, but instead of the creature dissipating it seemed to reform around the blade, the essence dripping onto his hand like cold sludge. He jerked back in horror as the creature absorbed the light of his sword, growing more defined, more real.
"They're feasting off our energy!" Aiden shouted, trying to eliminate the dark residue that seemed to cling to his hand.
Lyra's expression did not soften. "Then we have to find another way to overcome them."
She focused, calling on the elemental magic she had received as a child. Her sword was lit along its length with a blue flame that flickered brighter as she chopped at the next creature. It hissed and drew back at the touch of the flames against its form, recoiling at the light.
"It works!" she cried out, cutting through another creature, which it evaporated into wisps of smoke.
Fed by her triumph, Aiden drew on his own inner light, directing that current into a blaze of searing white. His sword burst into brilliance, holding back the dark things, but as he clashed, Aiden came to realize something appalling: with every blow, the things multiplied. For every one they killed, two more seemed to spring forth out of the darkness, as if they had no end, were somehow born from the shadows themselves.
"They are drawing from the destruction," Caelum cried out, his mind aflame with understanding. "These beasts aren't just appearing-they're being made, summoned from the very darkness within this place. It's as if a portal. We're fighting mere shadows of something far greater!"
Lyra spoke through tight lips. "Then we have to shut the door. Whatever thing is at the heart of this place-if we desecrate it, perhaps we can cut them off.".
The Guardians pressed on, cutting through against a tide of foul creatures. The crystal sitting atop the altar pulsed in response, burning more brightly until it cast unnatural red across the ancient stones. Each step was like wading through thick, oppressive fog; as though the ruin itself were resisting their advance.
They finally reached the heart of the ruin, where the altar stood, radiating with sickly, crystal energy. The moment they moved up to it, the void creatures halted and began to form a circle around it, as if protecting it.
"This is it," Caelum whispered, his eyes wide open. "The source."
Aiden took a step forward, steadying his sword. "We destroy it and we end the invasion of shadows."
He nodded, but his face was set in a deep frown of worry. "Destorying it could unleash a surge of dark energy. There's no telling what could happen. But… there may be another way."
"What do you mean?" Lyra asked.
Caelum filled his lungs with air. "I can try to tie the crystal energy, sealing it up and stopping it from spilling out further into Eldoria. It's dangerous, though. If it fails, the backlash might tear us apart.".
Aiden pondered the decision before them, the burden of which clearly weighed his shoulders down. If they attempted to destroy the crystal themselves, there was a danger they would cut the connection to the void. But Caelum's plan, dangerous as it was, still promised to trap the darkness wholly.
"Do it," Aiden said, stepping back. "We'll protect you.".
Caelum knelt before the crystal, raised his staff, closed his eyes, and spoke in the ancient Eldorian tongue, mumbling binding and sealing words that happened to coincide with the bones of the earth. The crystal quivered under his breath as he spoke-the light stuttering wildly-and the void creatures let out a howl, advancing to protect their link to the dark realm.
Lyra and Aiden positioned themselves on either side of Caelum in a defensive stance against what threatened to come their way. Aiden could feel the steep uptick in power coming from Caelum as the spell began to take shape. Energy filled the air, and a circle of golden light started appearing around the crystal, tightening with every word Caelum spoke.
The creatures hurled themselves at the Guardians with renewed savagery, their forms more solid, more desperate. Aiden and Lyra fought with all they had, pushing back against the relentless tide. But as Caelum's spell neared its climax, the crystal began to scream, wail in pain that resonated through the very stone beneath them.
" Hold on, Caelum!" Aiden shouted, his own strength waning under the relentless assault.
And then, his voice reached a crescendo, his eyes blazing in their fervor of concentration, as he spoke the final words of the incantation. The golden light around the crystal had surged up tight, in and on the dark energy, until, with one last blinding flash, the crystal imploded, its dark essence folding in upon itself and leaving nothing but silence in its wake.
For a single moment, all was still. The ruin, the air, the shadows-all were silent.
And as if called forth, the void creatures started to melt away, their forms dissolving into smoke, until nothing was left but a faint whisper of darkness. The Guardians stood silent as the last of the creatures disappeared into nothingness, the ruin eerily desolate.
Caelum fell onto his feet, visibly drained but triumphant. "It's over. The connection is broken."
Aiden placed his hand on his shoulder. "You did it, Caelum. You saved us all."
But as they spoke, Aiden couldn't shake that residue of nervousness. The crystal was gone, and the immediate threat was dead, but the hollow it had left was ugly. He could feel it, like a lightweight residue in the air, a shadowed echo of its presence, watching and waiting.
"What now?" Lyra said, looking around at the ruined landscape.
Caelum was shaking his head. "We've only stopped one part of it. The void-the true darkness-is still out there, lurking beyond the edges of our reality. This was only a fragment, a piece of something far larger."
Aiden's face was darkening. "Then our fight isn't over.".
They turned their backs to depart the ruins, and they carried with them what they had witnessed. The entry into the Shadowlands was one of fighting for survival and sacrifice, battling forces they hardly understood. But as they stepped back into the world of light, they knew well that their work as Guardians would still be far from over.
The real storm was yet to brew, waiting for the strength to unleash its fury upon Eldoria. And when it came, they would be there to face it.