The rain fell harder now.
The City Beyond stretched before me, a labyrinth of broken towers and sunken streets. Every shadow seemed to move. Every alley whispered my name.
I moved quickly, keeping to the deeper paths, my cloak wrapped tight against the storm.
The crystal the woman had given me pulsed in my hand, a faint, rhythmic glow guiding me toward the next Pillar. But its light also made me a beacon for those who hunted me.
And they were coming.
I could feel them.
Wardens.
Or what was left of them.
Betrayers who had sold their oaths for power, twisted now into something less than human, more beast than man.
They would not show mercy.
I ducked into a side passage, moving between the shattered remains of old monuments. Statues of the first kings, worn faceless by time and sorrow, loomed around me.
Somewhere beyond this maze, the first Pillar awaited.
But between me and salvation stood death.
I heard the first hunter before I saw him.
A soft scrape of metal against stone.
I spun, relic-sword raised.
He emerged from the mist — tall, skeletal, clad in rusted armor. His face was hidden beneath a cracked helm, and in his hands, he held a blade shaped from living bone.
No words.
No challenge.
Only death.
He lunged.
I met his strike with mine, the relic-sword flaring with ancient power. Sparks flew as our blades clashed, the force of the impact rattling my bones.
He was fast.
Faster than any mortal man.
Each blow he struck was meant to kill. No feints. No hesitation. Only relentless, mechanical precision.
I gave ground carefully, luring him into the tighter corridors between ruined statues.
He followed blindly.
That was his mistake.
As he thrust forward, I sidestepped, twisting low, and drove the relic-sword upward into the gap beneath his arm.
The blade tore through corrupted flesh and shattered bone.
He shuddered, releasing a low, gurgling snarl, and collapsed.
I did not stop to watch him die.
There would be more.
Always more.
The crystal pulsed brighter now, pulling me deeper into the heart of the city.
The ruins thickened around me, and the mist grew heavier, almost solid. Shapes shifted at the edges of my vision — broken echoes of lives lost long ago.
A second hunter attacked from above, leaping from a crumbling balcony with a jagged spear.
I rolled aside, feeling the rush of air as the spear stabbed the ground where I had stood.
This one was different — smaller, faster, cloaked in strips of blackened cloth. Her movements were almost graceful, like a dancer of death.
She circled me, probing for weakness.
I kept the relic-sword steady, watching, waiting.
When she struck, it was a blur.
I parried once, twice, then caught her third thrust and twisted, ripping the spear from her grasp.
She shrieked, a sound of rage and despair, and drew twin daggers.
But I was already moving.
One clean slash severed her right arm at the elbow.
A second strike ended it.
She collapsed silently, joining the dead that littered the streets.
I wiped the blade clean on my cloak and pressed onward.
The City Beyond was a graveyard now.
And I was its only living soul.
The crystal pulsed faster, guiding me toward a crumbling cathedral at the heart of the ruins.
Its spires pierced the clouds like broken spears, and its gates hung open, yawning like a mouth hungry for sacrifice.
I hesitated at the threshold.
Inside, I could feel the Pillar.
But I could also feel something else.
A presence vast and ancient.
Watching.
Waiting.
I stepped inside.
The air was colder here, thick with the scent of old blood and older betrayals. Rows of shattered pews lined the nave, and faded murals on the walls depicted the forgotten gods of a forgotten age.
At the far end of the cathedral, where the altar should have stood, the Pillar rose — a massive column of stone wrapped in chains of gold and shadow.
It pulsed weakly, as if barely clinging to life.
I approached cautiously.
The relic-sword vibrated in my hand, resonating with the Pillar's pain.
But as I reached the halfway point, a figure stepped from the shadows.
Another hunter.
But this one was different.
He wore no armor.
No mask.
Only a simple robe of deep crimson, stitched with the sigils of betrayal.
His face was lined with age, but his eyes burned with fanatical light.
"You should not have come," he said.
His voice was soft, almost kind.
I said nothing.
Words would not change what was coming.
He raised a hand.
Chains erupted from the ground, forged of shadow and sorrow, and shot toward me.
I moved instinctively, slicing through the first wave with the relic-sword.
But the chains were relentless, each one seeking to bind, to break.
I fought them off, inching closer to the Pillar.
The hunter chanted, his words lost to the storm, but their power tangible.
The ground cracked beneath me.
The walls wept blood.
The relic-sword flared brighter, answering the Pillar's call.
At last, with a cry of pure will, I drove the relic-sword into the base of the Pillar.
Light exploded outward, a wave of force that shattered the chains and flung the hunter across the cathedral.
The Pillar pulsed once, then twice.
The golden chains that bound it shattered.
The darkness fled.
And the world shifted.
For a moment, I saw beyond the veil.
I saw the network of Pillars stretching across the world, each one a beacon against the coming storm.
And I saw how many had already fallen.
The task ahead was greater than I had feared.
The Herald was only one piece of the puzzle.
The true enemy waited beyond the stars.
And it was awakening.
The vision faded.
I fell to my knees, gasping.
The cathedral was silent once more.
The Pillar stood tall and whole, its light pushing back the mist.
But I knew this was only the beginning.
The true war had yet to come.
And I would need allies.
Or I would die alone in the ashes of a broken world.