Title: Crimson Thrones: Volume 145 – Shadows Within
By Sabbir Ahmed
The Fractured Realms were alive.
Every step Seraphine, Kaelen, and the Unforgotten took echoed in impossible ways. A single doubt could spawn an enemy; a single hesitation could reshape the very ground beneath them. The Shrouded Veil's power had grown beyond memory, beyond illusion—it now manipulated existence itself.
Inside the Fractured Realm, the Unforgotten faced versions of themselves they had never wanted to meet: children twisted by fear, allies corrupted by ambition, and reflections of Seraphine and Kaelen that whispered betrayal. Every confrontation tested loyalty, courage, and love.
Kaelen's quiet fire flared continuously, anchoring reality with his presence, yet even he felt its strain. "This is more than a battle for the kingdom," he said to Seraphine, voice tense. "It's a battle for who we are. One false step, and the realm—and ourselves—could be lost forever."
Seraphine gritted her teeth, drawing strength from her own memories. "We endure," she said. "Because even fractured, even twisted, we remember. And we choose—together."
But the Shrouded Veil had prepared its cruelest weapon yet: the Shadow Within. They drew fragments of fear, regret, and anger from the minds of the Unforgotten, manifesting them as living, sentient darkness. Every strike they faced was not from outside, but from within—reliving moments they had hoped to forget, every hesitation amplified a hundredfold.
Some faltered. Some nearly succumbed. But Seraphine and Kaelen led the Unforgotten through, not by force, but by choice: trusting one another, affirming memories, and reclaiming fractured pieces of themselves.
In the heart of the realm, the leaders of the Shrouded Veil awaited—masked, their true faces hidden even from their own memories. "You fight shadows of yourselves," one hissed. "And yet you call it unity?"
Kaelen stepped forward, fire coiling like a living entity around his body. "Unity is more than memory," he said. "It is love, it is choice, it is action. We will not bend to illusions."
The realm itself seemed to shiver. Shadows recoiled as the combined will of the Unforgotten pressed forward, shattering illusions, reclaiming fractured memories, and turning the Shrouded Veil's power against them.
Yet victory came at a cost. When the group returned to Veyrath, every member of the Unforgotten carried scars in memory: gaps where the Fractured Realm had tested them most, fears that would linger, and truths they could never fully forget.
Seraphine and Kaelen looked at each other across the battlefield of minds. They had survived the Shadows Within—but Veyrath would never again be the same.
And somewhere in the darkness, the Shrouded Veil whispered again:
This is only the beginning of what you cannot yet see.