The world they landed in felt wrong.
Gone were the vibrant hues of the realm, the sky painted in magic and stardust. Now, the sky was dull and gray, heavy with smog and silence. The air was thick with the scent of metal and dust. They stood in a dim alley, surrounded by towering buildings, their walls smeared with graffiti and memories long erased.
Liam took a deep breath, coughing at the sting in his lungs. "This is... Earth?"
"One part of it," Aeris murmured, pocketing the now-dull crystal. Its light had died the moment they crossed through. "The human world. But not the one you knew."
Kael squinted up at the skyline, blades ready at his side. "Feels like a dead city."
"Or one trying to forget it's alive," Nyra added softly. Her gaze flicked to the shadows moving just beyond the alley. She held her staff tight.
They had arrived in a city that had once flourished — now hushed, wary of its own ghosts. They stepped cautiously into the open, cloaked by illusion spells Nyra could still manage — weak as they were without realm magic. A single wrong step might trigger more than human eyes. After all, if the protectors were hiding, so might the enemy.
The streets were cracked. Buses rusted along sidewalks. A billboard flickered overhead: "HopeTech - The Future is Yours!" It was decades old.
Liam reached out, brushing dust from a storefront window. A mannequin stared back at him, faceless. It unnerved him more than the beasts in the realm ever had.
"Where do we start?" Kael asked, glancing around. His wind senses were sluggish here. The city's air had no song to sing.
Aeris closed her eyes, centering herself. "We're looking for remnants. Protectors who never returned to the realm. Some might have passed as humans. Blended in. If Elira truly entrusted them with part of the spellbook's map, they won't be easy to find."
"Or they're already being hunted," Nyra added darkly.
Liam turned to them. "We need to split up."
"No," Kael said instantly. "Too dangerous."
But Aeris was already considering it. "No one goes alone. Pairs. We'll draw less attention. Nyra and I will take the east blocks. Kael, you and Liam head west. If anything goes wrong, we meet back here by nightfall."
Kael grumbled, but nodded.
As they parted ways, Liam felt a cold chill run down his spine. Not just from the air, but something else. Something following them.
The city's west blocks were worse. Glass crunched under Liam's boots as they stepped into a collapsed bookstore. Shelves lay shattered. Pages were torn and scattered like snow.
Kael poked at a fallen book with the tip of his blade. "Your world's… kind of a mess."
Liam shrugged. "It wasn't always. But even before magic faded from here, people were already forgetting the stories."
Kael glanced at him. "Stories matter. That's where truth hides."
Before Liam could reply, the sound of footsteps echoed from the second floor.
Kael's blade was out in a flash.
They crept up the stairs, senses sharp. Liam felt a strange vibration — not magic, but familiar. Like someone he once knew.
A figure darted across the aisle. Hooded. Fast.
Kael threw a wind pulse — not to harm, but to knock the stranger down. They tumbled behind a stack of books.
Liam rushed over, kneeling. "Hey! We're not enemies!"
The figure growled. Female. Young.
And then she turned.
Liam froze.
"You're… Elira?"
She looked exactly like her — the same eyes, the same face. But older. Worn by time.
"I'm not Elira," the woman snapped. She stood, brushing off her coat. Her voice was harsher. "But I know that name. You must be from the realm."
Kael stepped forward cautiously. "Then who are you?"
She hesitated. Then pulled down her hood.
"I'm Selene. Elira's sister."
Liam's heart skipped. "She never told me she had a sister."
"Because she didn't remember," Selene said flatly. "After the veil shattered and she crossed, her memories were scattered like shards. I stayed behind. I've been hiding ever since."
Kael exchanged glances with Liam. "Are you… one of the protectors?"
"Not exactly," Selene said. "I'm what's left of them. And if you're here… it means the darkness has already awakened."
She turned and pulled a journal from a hidden compartment in the wall. Old leather. Sealed with arcane thread.
"Elira entrusted this to me before she vanished for good. Said someone would come for it. Took decades. But I never stopped waiting."
Liam accepted the journal, hands trembling. A strange warmth pulsed from it. The third fragment wasn't inside — but the map to it was. And something else: a vision. Not written, but buried in the pages like echoes.
His vision blurred.
He saw fire. Wings of shadow. Elira screaming.
And a voice — no longer hers.
"Free me… before he does."
Liam gasped and stumbled back.
Kael caught him. "What did you see?"
Liam's lips were pale. "Elira's alive. But not safe."
Selene's face hardened. "Then we don't have much time. If Nytherion finds her first… you'll lose her forever."
Elsewhere in the city, Aeris and Nyra had found only silence. Empty homes. Shadows whispering.
Until they saw it.
A symbol.
Scrawled on a church wall, drawn in blood. A broken mirror — the sigil of Nytherion's cult.
Aeris whispered, "He's already here."
Nyra's hands shook.
A door slammed shut behind them.
And the hunt began.