Over at the Whitecrest Clan's territory, the silence was absolute.
The wind howled through the clearing as Lalira stood alone in her white dress, the fabric fluttering like torn silk against the pale light of this early morning. White grass swayed around her ankles, and ghost-like trees rose like silent statues beneath the towering waterfall. Everything was white—the land, the mist, and even the light itself seemed bleached of all color.
She held her white fanged blade at her side, staring at the roaring curtain of water with narrowed eyes.
"So this is where it is?" she muttered, her voice barely audible over the roar of the falls as she raised her palm toward the stone wall hidden behind the water. "Since I don't have access to open whatever's behind this… I'll just force it open."
She inhaled sharply, her mana peaking to a jagged edge. "Dalar'ol!"
A black beam erupted from her hand, tearing through the mist and slamming into the waterfall with the force of a falling star. But instead of piercing through, the beam struck the water as if it were solid, unbreakable stone.
The waterfall froze mid-descent. The water stopped moving, suspended in the air like a glass sculpture. The grass stopped rustling. Even the wind died in her lungs.
"The hell…?" Lalira whispered, her heart skipping a beat.
Silence. Total and suffocating.
Then—a faint rustle behind her.
She spun instantly, her instincts screaming, firing another beam toward the sound without hesitation. It struck a white tree—and the bark simply absorbed the magic like ink sinking into dry paper, leaving not a single mark behind.
"What the actual fuck…"
Then she felt it. A presence. Cold. Heavy. Standing directly behind her.
Her chest pounded against her ribs as she turned, her breath hitching in her throat. Several feet away stood Eiden.
His tied-back white hair flowed in the dead wind, and his black cloak and robe shifted with a slow, unnatural ripple that defied the laws of physics. His grey eyes were half-lit in the gloom, empty of mercy, filled only with a quiet, terrifying bloodlust. One of the three blades at his waist was already unsheathed—a katana, its edge gleaming with a hunger that seemed to pull at the very light around it.
"No way… you're not even supposed to be here—!"
She didn't finish the sentence.
In a single, silent dash, Eiden moved past her. She didn't even see the swing of the blade. Her vision tilted suddenly, the horizon spinning. Her body felt weightless, detached from the earth.
Then—Thud.
Her head hit the soft white grass first. Her body collapsed a heartbeat later, falling sideways into the clearing as the life left her eyes. Her blade slipped from her cold fingers and clinked softly against a stone, a final, lonely sound in the void.
The world stayed frozen, the waterfall still suspended in time. Only Eiden moved, sheathing his blade with a soft, metallic click.
And Lalira was no more.