The city of Helios burned. Not with fire—but with fear. Bells rang through the golden streets as smoke curled above the eastern quarter. Houses that once sang with laughter now echoed with the sound of steel meeting steel.
Rai stood on a rooftop, the wind tugging at his torn cloak. His crimson eyes reflected the chaos below. The black seal on his wrist—his "Eclipse Mark"—pulsed faintly, responding to the presence of something… ancient.
He could feel it—the resonance of forbidden magic beneath the city. A whisper crawling through his mind like venom.
"Come find me, Vowbound child…"
The voice wasn't human. It was the same that haunted his dreams since the massacre of his village—a deep, melodic tone that always ended in laughter.
Behind him, Kael landed soundlessly, his white armor smeared with blood. "Rai. The city guards have fallen. They're not soldiers anymore—they're puppets. Someone's using the Eclipse Code."
Rai's grip tightened on his sword hilt. "Then we've been led here on purpose."
Kael frowned. "A trap?"
Rai nodded slowly. "A stage."
Before they could speak further, the sky cracked. A column of light surged upward from the central plaza, warping the clouds into spirals. The seal on Rai's wrist burned like molten iron.
"Finally…" The voice laughed again. "You've grown strong enough to enter the labyrinth."
Kael unsheathed his blade. "Rai! That light—"
"I know," Rai said through gritted teeth. "That's where it begins."
They leapt from the rooftop, crashing through the shattered stained glass of the central temple. Inside, the marble floor had split apart, revealing a massive spiral staircase descending into darkness. Runes carved into the walls pulsed with azure glow—alive, breathing.
"This place…" Kael muttered, staring into the abyss below. "It wasn't here before."
Rai crouched, placing his palm on the rune-covered ground. He felt it—an old memory, one that wasn't his. A battlefield, a woman's scream, and the sound of shattering vows.
"It's not new," Rai said quietly. "It's just been sleeping."
Suddenly, chains erupted from the ground, wrapping around Kael's arm and dragging him toward the pit. He roared, slicing through some, but more sprouted—each one whispering in human voices.
"Kael!"
"Don't!" Kael shouted back. "It's me they want—GO!"
Rai hesitated only a second. Then the floor beneath Kael collapsed. The knight vanished into the abyss, his scream fading into the echoing void.
Rai's hand trembled. For the first time in years, fear returned—not of death, but of being alone again.
The temple walls began to shake violently, dust raining from above.
He looked toward the blinding light.
"Fine," he whispered. "If you want me to descend… then I'll descend."
He stepped into the darkness.
The staircase spiraled endlessly, and with each step, fragments of voices echoed from the walls—his comrades, his enemies, and even the people he'd lost. But beneath all that was a new sound.
Footsteps.
Someone else was descending too.
"Rai…" a familiar voice called softly.
He froze. That voice. It couldn't be.
It was Lyra—the girl who had died in his arms years ago.
When he turned, a shadowed figure stood behind him, smiling with eyes full of sorrow. "Did you really think vows die with the dead?"
The flames around his sword burst to life, the runes reacting violently.
And as the light consumed them both, the last thing Rai saw before the world fractured—was Lyra reaching out, whispering:
"The Eclipse was never your curse. It was your promise."