The air over the rift rippled with pulsating force, producing ambiguous and ever-changing forms across the snow-blanketed glade. Kael's grip on the Starforged Blade tightened when the silver-haired woman looked at him (filled with a look of an amused wisdom) and smiled. On her squad the runes beat in sync with the energy of the rift, a spooky metronome that terrified Kael.
"You seem troubled," she mused, tilting her head. Face it, your individual battle against the Order is itself just one grain of sand on the seashore of the universe.
Kael took a step forward, blade still raised. "The Order is playing with forces it doesn't understand. I've seen what the rifts do. You're tearing this world apart."
She chuckled, her amber eyes gleaming. "You see only fragments, boy. What the Order is doing isn't destruction—it's rebirth. The Veil Nexus is the key to our ascension."
Kael's mind raced. Veil Nexus? It was the second time he saw the name. Initially from the enforcer in a ruined village, and now from her. "You talk about ascension, but all I see is devastation. Your riftspawn attack villages, kill innocent people. What kind of world are you trying to build?"
The woman slightly stopped her smirk, and the woman's grip on her polearm tightened up a bit. A world unchained from that dying one. However, talking it through with you would be a waste of breath. The Order does not need your understanding—only your silence."
Without warning, she thrust her staff into the ground. That depression of hers, it exploded in fury, and black vines sprang out to enmesh Kael.
[Threat Assessment: High-level Rift Manipulator. Strategy: Evade and disrupt core synchronization. Warning: Rift instability increasing.]
Kael could not even get a chance to react, before the tendrils attacked him. He veered suddenly to the left, skidding, and one hit to the body produced a painful exciting shock from the knee all the way up his body. With a clenched jaw, he plunged the Starforged Blade through the centre, severing the tendril in a stream of stellar light.
The woman laughed. "Interesting. You have a gun made of the stars, but have never seen it. ".
But Kael ignored her words, and just instead shut in [right]size upon her. He lunged, blade arcing toward her. Just as she reaches the end of time, she swings her staff upwards, deflects the blow with a wave of black energy. Force shoved Kael backward, the ice slick beneath him, leaving grooves in the snow.
[Synchronization increased by 2%. Current Level: 38%. Celestial Pulse available.]
Kael's breath came in short bursts. The system's notification flickered in his vision. He had an opening.
Summoning the power within him, Kael activated Celestial Pulse. A halo of yellow energy ripples outward, lit from the inside with a luminescent sheen that hides the clearing. The woman's eyes widened as the force slammed into her, shattering the protective energy surrounding her.
For the first time, she looked genuinely annoyed.
"Enough of this," she hissed, raising her staff again. "You think you've won something here? The Order's plans are already in motion. The opening lock has been ours for some time now, and nothing that you can say or do will stop it," the voice lamented.
Kael froze. The Keystone?
The woman smirked at his reaction. "Ah. So you didn't know? That's amusing. Run along, little warrior. Go chasing ghosts if you like. You will fail. Just like all the others."
Dark energy swirled around her, and before Kael could strike again, she vanished into the rift. The moment she disappeared, the rift imploded in on itself, leaving only a faint, pulsing scar in the air.
Kael stood there, heart pounding. The system chimed.
[Analysis: Rift collapse complete. Residual instability detected. Host's combat proficiency increased. New objective identified: Investigate the Keystone of the Veil.]
Kael let out a slow breath. The Keystone. If the Order was after it, then he needed to find it first.
He exited dissipated rift energy, still pondering the conversation. The woman still battled with a remarkable level of accuracy, her control of the tear drill much better than he had ever witnessed before. Who was she? Her entrance, her strength there wasn't just another enforcer of the Order. She knew more. She was more.
[Observation: Opponent's energy signature suggests extensive rift synchronization. High probability of Order leadership involvement.]
Kael exhaled sharply. "So she's not just some lackey. Figures."
He inhaled several deep breaths, trying to concentrate on what came next. The woman had let something slip—whether by mistake or on purpose, he didn't know. But it was a lead. The Keystone of the Veil. He'd never heard of it but if the Order wanted it then, it had to be important. Maybe even the key to stopping them altogether.
But first, he needed more information. There was only [one] thing that anyone would have it.
Orlan.
A rogue scholar. A defector from the Order. Kael knew the name already, as had Lira, when searching for scraps of information about the rifts. Everybody would know, if anybody knew what the Keystone is and where to look for it, it would be him.
Grasping the Starforged Blade firmer, Kael turned south into the Frostwood. He had been skirting the unknown for too long. It was time to get ahead of it.
The hunt for the Keystone had begun.