Kaelen and Elara arrived at the Weeping Stone Crossing just before dawn. The location was a wide, arid riverbed bordered by scattered, wind-worn boulders—a place of ill omens, yet perfect for their final, desperate stand.
The ground was firm, offering a stable surface for the extreme concentration required for the Phase Shunt Rune. The surrounding boulders provided Elara with cover and clear sightlines, which were critical for the 1.7-second timing.
"The Executor will be here within twelve hours," Kaelen stated, assessing the desolate terrain. "I need one hundred percent focus on the Phase Shunt. Your role is to be my timer, my shield, and my eyes."
He pulled the Codex of Echoes from the satchel. They needed to use the ancestral wisdom one last time, not for a spell, but for a physical, mundane defense.
Kaelen opened the section detailing battlefield geometry, translating the ancient glyphs. "I need a stable platform, resistant to the Executor's seismic impact. It's programmed to generate a small, localized ground tremor upon approach to destabilize the Aether flow of its target."
Elara scanned the surrounding area, recalling the geological structure of the riverbed from the novel's descriptions. "The rock is unstable, mostly loose sediment. But there's a subterranean layer of slate beneath that cluster of boulders," she pointed to a prominent rock formation fifty yards away. "We need to clear the sediment there to expose the slate. That will give you a stable casting platform."
Kaelen nodded. He channeled a series of small, rapid Earth-Sift spells—minimal Aether usage, yet physically taxing—to clear the sediment from the chosen area. After an hour of grueling work, a dark, flat slab of slate was exposed, perfectly level and unyielding.
He then set the Codex of Echoes on the slate, allowing the powerful scroll to act as a focusing lens and an anchor for his final spell.
"I will be focusing on the Phase Shunt from now on," Kaelen said, his eyes already glazing over with the intensity of his concentration. "The Executor is anti-magic. If I use Aether to protect myself, the effect will be the reverse. It will draw its attention. I must rely entirely on the Echo Guard and your timing."
He positioned himself on the slate, closing his eyes. He began the slow, arduous process of building the massive, concentrated Phase Shunt Rune internally, holding the Aether coiled in his core, ready for the instant release.
"Elara," Kaelen's voice was barely a whisper now, absorbed in the complex geometry of the temporal spell. "Your instructions are precise. Hide among the boulders. The moment you see the Executor initiate its attack—the physical wind-up for its charge—you start counting. At 1.6 seconds, you shout 'Release.' Not a second before, not a second after."
Elara retreated to the designated cluster of rocks. She found a crevice that offered full concealment and a clear line of sight to Kaelen and the Executor's projected path. She pulled out a small, metallic shard and focused on the counting—mentally measuring the critical 1.6-second window, which was less than two heartbeats.
She knew that if she blinked, if she misjudged the timing by a tenth of a second, the Executor would connect, and Kaelen's Echo Guard would be the only thing preventing immediate death. The Phase Shunt Rune would collapse, and they would be left defenseless.
The long hours of waiting began. The dry riverbed baked under the rising sun. Kaelen sat perfectly still, the Codex of Echoes radiating a controlled silence next to him, the full might of the Varr lineage coalesced into a single, terrifying, temporal weapon.
Meanwhile, miles away, a massive, anti-magic transport ship, cloaked by a physical dampening field, positioned itself over the Crag of Whispering Stones.
Prince Valerius, watching from his command center, received the devastating report. The sealed tunnel confirmed that Kaelen Varr was not dead, but had successfully neutralized the Shadow Legion vanguard using a geological trick.
"The Ironwood Crag is compromised. Varr knew about the dampening effect," Valerius snarled, his eyes dark with fury. "But he used a massive Aether discharge to seal the cave. Where is the Aether Key? Where is the Codex?"
His chief arcanist, now promoted after Gideon's failure, pointed to the last known significant magical event: the Temporal Echo Rune launch site, which led directly to the Weeping Stone Crossing.
"He is weak, but he is preparing something there, Your Highness," the arcanist warned. "Send the Executor. Eliminate him now. Bring the corpse back for public display."
Valerius gave the grim command. "Deploy the Executor. Target coordinates: Weeping Stone Crossing. Objective: Absolute elimination of Kaelen Varr."
The transport ship immediately shifted course, heading toward the dry riverbed. The final confrontation was set in motion.