Vol2/Chap 5: The Veil Between Stars
Klaus stood motionless in the center of devastation, breathing slowly as his wounded arm knitted itself back together. The unnatural blue energy from the ssenger’s attack had left behind a residue that stung like frozen needles beneath his skin. Around him stretched a sea of blue mana stones, thousands upon thousands of them scattered across the bloodstained snow like fallen stars. Each one represented a life extinguished, a creature that had crawled through the rift only to et its end at the hands of a boy and his dragon.
Dudu nudged his uninjured shoulder, golden eyes flickering with concern. The dragon’s obsidian scales were speckled with frost and sothing darker, residue from the void flas he had unleashed during the battle.
{Your wound is healing too slowly,} Greed observed ntally, the black blade still gripped tightly in Klaus’s hand. {That energy was not just physical damage. It carried sothing else, sothing that resists your natural regeneration.}
Klaus flexed his fingers experintally. The pain had dulled to a persistent ache, but the flesh remained angry and red around the edges of the wound. He glanced up at the unnatural star burning in the twilight sky, the Harbinger Star that hadn’t been there before the ssenger’s appearance.
"They will co," Klaus stated flatly, wiping black ichor from Greed’s blade edge. "The Celestials always monitor cosmic anomalies."
{More than that,} Greed corrected, his ntal voice unusually grave. {That star is not just a signal. It is a beacon. A declaration. The appearance of a Harbinger Star ans the boundaries between certain powers have been breached. The Celestial Investigators will be here within hours, possibly minutes. They cannot ignore such an obvious sign.}
Klaus’s jaw tightened. The Celestials. According to the false mories Arkadius had implanted, he was once one of them, a vessel for the Celestial King himself. The thought made his stomach churn. If they ca and recognized him as Arkadius’s potential vessel, what then? Would they try to complete the possession? Or eliminate him as a threat?
"And the ssengers?" Klaus asked quietly. "Will more of them co for this?" He gestured with the cloth-wrapped shard still clutched in his hand.
{Absolutely,} Greed replied. {That core is a homing beacon. It is calling to them even now, though the signal is muffled by the cloth. Leave it. We need to go, now. Before we are caught between forces that would think nothing of crushing a mortal like you to achieve their goals.}
Klaus looked down at the wrapped shard. Despite the cloth barrier, he could feel its cold pulse against his palm. It was more than just power, it was knowledge. Information about an enemy he barely understood. Letting it go felt like surrendering a vital piece of a puzzle he had been trying to solve across multiple lifetis.
But Greed was right. Survival ca first. Always.
He took a breath, preparing to drop the shard onto the snow. Dudu sensed his decision and lowered his head, ready to take flight.
{Klaus, don’t be a fool—} Greed began, but Klaus cut him off with a ntal command.
"I need this," he whispered aloud. "If this is truly a war between cosmic powers, I will not be caught unprepared again. I will not be a pawn."
Dudu rumbled in agreent, sensing his master’s resolve.
{You stubborn—} Greed’s ntal voice broke off suddenly. {No. Klaus, look.}
Klaus followed the sword’s direction. On the horizon, where the mountains t the unnatural twilight cast by the Harbinger Star, sothing was moving. Not a beast or a man, but lights. Pinpricks of gold and silver light, descending from the sky like falling stars.
{Celestial Investigators,} Greed confird. {They move faster than I expected.}
Klaus calculated the distance, the speed of their approach. "We have minutes at most. Dudu, prepare to fly."
The dragon spread his massive wings, stirring the snow around them into a miniature blizzard.
{Drop the core,} Greed insisted again. {It is our only chance to escape without being tracked. Without being seen. You know what the Celestials do to mortals who ddle with forces beyond their understanding.}
Klaus looked down at the cloth-wrapped shard. The cold pulse against his skin had grown stronger, almost as if it was responding to the approaching lights. He could feel Tomas Veil’s mories screaming at him not to surrender it, not when answers were finally within reach.
But Greed was right about one thing. He would not survive being caught between these forces. Not yet. Not while Arkadius still lurked in the shadows of his mind, waiting for an opportunity to seize control.
"Alright," Klaus conceded. He unwrapped the cloth slowly, the crystalline shard catching the light of the Harbinger Star. It pulsed brighter as the fabric fell away, revealing its full form, a jagged piece of crystalline material that seed to absorb light rather than reflect it. "Dudu, on my mark."
He raised his arm to drop the core onto the snow.
The world shifted.
It was not a physical movent. It was not an illusion. It was as if a veil that had covered reality itself had been torn away. Klaus froze mid-motion, his arm still raised, the ssenger’s core hovering above his palm.
Before him, where monts before there had been only empty snow, stood two figures.
Klaus’s breath caught in his throat. His battle senses scread danger, but his mind could not process how they had appeared. Not teleportation. Not illusion. It was as if they had always been there, and so fundantal law of reality had simply changed to reveal them.
The first figure was tall and slender, clad in robes that seed woven from starlight itself. Their face was androgynous, neither male nor female, with eyes that held the depth of galaxies. In one hand, they held a staff topped with a crystal that glowed with pure golden light.
The second figure was shorter, more solid. They wore armor that shimred like liquid silver, reflecting the Harbinger Star’s light in patterns that seed to shift with cosmic significance. Their face was partially obscured by a helt that bore the markings of constellations, but from within the shadows of the visor, eyes glowed with a light that existed before ti.
Both figures were looking directly at the ssenger’s core in Klaus’s hand.
Neither appeared surprised to see him.
Dudu let out a low, warning growl, his massive body shifting to place himself between Klaus and the newcors. His golden eyes narrowed, muscles coiling beneath his obsidian scales.
{I didn’t sense them coming,} Greed confird ntally, his voice stripped of all arrogance, replaced by sothing Klaus had never heard before: fear. {Not at all. They simply... were.}
Klaus remained frozen, his arm still raised, the ssenger’s core pulsing in his hand like a living thing. His mind raced through possibilities, through Tomas Veil’s mories, through Arkadius’s false recollections. None of them prepared him for this mont, for standing before beings who operated on a scale beyond mortal comprehension.
The Harbinger Star burned brighter in the sky above them, its unnatural light casting long shadows across the battlefield of blue mana stones. The wind carried the scent of ozone and sothing else, sothing ancient that made Klaus’s white hair stand on end.
He was no longer alone on this battlefield. And whatever ca next, it would change everything.
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