The mouth of the Marshlight Caverns yawned like the throat of a dead god.
Rei stood at the edge, the early morning sun behind him and the heavy mist of the swamp clinging to his cloak. Cracked stone teeth lined the cavern's entrance, covered in moss and ghost mushrooms that faintly glowed even in daylight.
He stepped inside.
The first thirty feet descended sharply into shallow tunnels filled with ankle-deep water. The distant dripping echoed through the cavern like whispered secrets. Rei moved carefully, hand near the hilt of his dagger, senses on high alert.
His magic simmered beneath his skin — that familiar pressure in his blood, like the very air recoiled from his steps.
But he had it under control.
He had to keep it under control.
Far behind him, hidden in the jagged shadows of the entrance, a figure watched.
Myra crouched low behind a large root, squinting into the gloom. She had followed him for nearly an hour without being noticed. She hadn't meant to interfere — only observe. But curiosity had turned into obsession.
He's not just strong. There's something wrong with him…
But something fascinating, too.
She waited several minutes after he disappeared, then quietly slipped inside.
Meanwhile, Rei pressed deeper.
The cavern grew stranger with every step. The walls curved unnaturally — smooth and polished in places, as if shaped by an unseen hand. Faint violet light pulsed deeper within, casting shadows that seemed to breathe.
Eventually, Rei found the ledge.
And there it was — the artifact.
A strange metallic object nestled in a crevice just above a shallow pool. It resembled a flower, with no natural bloom it still bore crystal petals and silver roots that pulsed faintly with warmth.
He reached out carefully, wrapping it in cloth before tucking it into his satchel.
Too easy.
That's when he heard it.
A scream.
Myra.
She had stepped in the wrong place.
The floor gave way beneath her weight, and now she dangled from a jagged stone halfway down a sheer drop. Her leg was gashed by a sharp rock; blood dripped into the black water below.
"Damn it—!" she cursed, struggling.
Then she heard odd movement.
From the darkness below, something rose.
It had no face — only a mouth. A serpentine mass of bone and oil, stitched with ancient armor plates.
She screamed again.
Rei reached her just in time.
His blade sank into the beast's eye as it lunged, spraying acrid blood across the rock. He grabbed Myra with his free hand and leapt — not back up the ledge, but across a narrow ridge bathed in faint flickering light.
The creature screamed.
So did Rei's power.
In that moment, the stress — the fear — the pull of the artifact, the danger to someone he didn't mean to care about — it overwhelmed him.
A crack split the air.
The ground shook.
The beast burst.
A wave of energy rushed from Rei like a silent scream. The cavern shattered, walls fracturing into warped hexagonal patterns. Stone melted in places.
Myra gasped as the pulse washed over her. "What the hell is—?"
Then, they came.
Archons.
Three of them.
They did not walk or fly — they descended, as if slipping through cracks in the sky that hadn't been there a moment before.
Towering figures, 20 feet tall? No, maybe more, forged from white-gold light and shadowless bone. Each bore a halo spinning like a gear behind their skulls. Their eyes burned with infinite contempt.
They did not speak.
They judged.
"Anomaly detected."
A voice whispered in Rei's mind — not words, but will.
"Worldbreaker class: Partial Trigger."
They raised their arms.
Lances of divine fire formed midair.
Rei pushed Myra behind him, blood trickling from his nose and ears. His vision swam. He tried to lift his hand to fight back, but his body buckled.
Too much.
He had pushed too far.
Then — light.
A different kind.
A flash of silver and blue tore through the cavern like thunder.
The first Archon shattered.
The second was thrown against the wall, vanishing in a fracture of sound.
The third… turned and fled.
Something… someone… stronger than them had arrived.
Rei collapsed as the air stilled.
Before darkness claimed him, he saw a silhouette — human-shaped, cloaked in silver, eyes glowing with soft white light.
They knelt beside him for a heartbeat, placed a hand on his chest, and whispered something Rei did not hear.
Then they vanished — as if they had never been there.