The Dead Sun armada blotted out the horizon, their obsidian hulls bristling with cannons that glowed like dying stars. Kairos stood at the prow of the Elysian Dawn, the Phoenix Core's warmth humming beneath his ribs. Behind him, Li Na sharpened her daggers with methodical precision, while Anara charted their course through the debris-strewn skies.
"Thirty ships," Anara muttered, her fingers tracing the holographic map. "All marked with that thing."
The Dead Sun's sigil—a blackened star devouring its own light—stared back from the projection.
"They're not here for the Veil," Li Na said, her scars flickering faintly. "They're here for her."
Her. Isvalla's name hung unspoken, a poison in the air.
Kai flexed his healed hand, the ghost of corruption still prickling beneath his skin. [Synchronization: 22%.] "We need a fragment. Fast."
"The closest is on Veyra's Grave," Anara said, avoiding his gaze. "Your family's burial isle."
The Dawn shuddered as a Dead Sun scout ship peeled from the fleet, its cannons charging.
"Incoming!" Veyra-7's hologram flickered, her tone annoyingly calm. "Recommend evasive maneuvers. Or prayer."
The Sky's Maw
The scout ship fired—a beam of condensed void energy that warped the air. Kai slammed his palm onto the helm, channeling the Phoenix Core. Golden flames engulfed the Dawn, deflecting the blast.
"Get us close!" he barked.
Anara yanked the throttle. The Dawn banked sharply, raking the scout's hull with solar fire. Li Na leapt onto the railing, daggers glowing with stolen Dead Sun runes.
"Open the hatch," she ordered.
"You'll die out there!" Anara snapped.
"I don't die easy."
The hatch hissed open. Li Na plunged into the vacuum, her body dissolving into shadow—a new Veil power, bought with Kai's healing. She rematerialized inside the scout ship, daggers flashing.
Kai watched through their bond, Shared Sight searing his mind. Li Na moved like smoke, slaughtering crewmen with brutal efficiency. When she reached the reactor, she planted a glowing charge.
"Pull back," she commanded.
The Dawn veered away as the scout ship detonated, its debris peppering the Dead Sun fleet.
"One down," Li Na said, rematerializing aboard, her scars now edged in void-black. "Next?"
[Synchronization: 25%.]
The Grave of Kings
Veyra's Grave was a jagged spire of rock, its peaks crowned with the crumbling tombs of Kai's ancestors. The Dawn docked at a burial platform, its stone etched with warnings: "Those who trespass here shall join the forgotten."
"Cheery," Anara said, igniting a lumen-stone.
The tomb's interior was a labyrinth of ash-strewn halls and spectral murals. One depicted Isvalla, her wings outstretched, gifting the first Veil fragment to Kai's forefather.
"Traitors," Li Na hissed. "My ancestors warned yours. The Veil was never meant to be wielded."
"And yet here we are," Kai said, pressing his palm to a sealed door. The Phoenix Core reacted, melting the locks.
Inside lay a sarcophagus of black glass. Within it rested a skeleton clutching a Veil shard—this one blazing silver, untouched by corruption.
"Yours," a voice echoed.
The Dead Sun commander stood in the doorway, her armor fused with pulsing void-crystals. Her face was obscured by a helm shaped like a screaming star, but her voice…
"Lyra?" Li Na whispered.
The commander froze.
"You know her?" Kai asked.
"She was my sister," Li Na said, trembling. "She died in the celestial storm."
"No," the commander said, removing her helm. Li Na's face stared back—younger, unscarred, eyes hollowed by void energy. "I became something better."
Bonds of Blood and Void
Lyra raised a hand, and the tomb trembled. Void tendrils erupted, binding Kai and Anara.
"The Dead Sun reshaped me," Lyra said, circling Li Na. "They found me in the storm's heart, begging for death. Now, I am Eclipse."
"You serve them?" Li Na snarled.
"I lead them," Lyra corrected. She pressed a void-crystal to Li Na's chest, drinking her sister's pained gasp like wine. "Join me. Together, we'll erase Isvalla's curse."
"Never."
Lyra sighed. "Then become a lesson."
The void tendrils tightened. Anara screamed as her armor cracked. Kai's Phoenix Core flared, but Lyra's power smothered it.
[Synchronization: 18%.]
Pathetic, Isvalla's voice slithered through his mind. Let me in. Save them.
"No," Kai growled.
Then watch them die.
Lyra raised her blade, aiming for Li Na's heart—
A dagger flashed. Anara, freed by a well-aimed lumen-stone, tackled Lyra. The void tendrils faltered.
Kai seized the silver fragment.
Power, pure and untainted, flooded him. The tomb's murals ignited, ancestors' voices chanting as the Veil merged with the Phoenix Core. [Synchronization: 35%. New Ability: Solar Rebirth.]
Lyra hissed, retreating into a void portal. "This isn't over, sister."
"No," Li Na said, clutching her wounded chest. "It's just begun."
The Cost of Dawn
Back aboard the Dawn, Kai studied the silver fragment. It pulsed in sync with Isvalla's voice, now louder, hungrier.
Anara bandaged Li Na's wounds, her hands unsteady. "Your sister… she's one of them now."
"She's dead," Li Na said flatly. "That thing wears her face. Nothing more."
Kai placed the fragment into the ship's core. The Dawn's engine roared, its fungal patches replaced by gleaming aurum.
"Course plotted," Veyra-7 announced. "To the Storm's Eye—Isvalla's prison."
"We're walking into a trap," Anara said.
"Yes," Kai said. "But it's the only way to end this."
Li Na gripped his arm, her scars glowing. "If you free her, the Storm consumes everything."
"I won't free her," Kai said, staring at the Dead Sun armada regrouping in the distance. "I'll destroy her."
[Synchronization: 40%.]
Isvalla's laugh echoed through the Veil. You'll try, little king.