(Author's Note: Bonus chapter because it's a new month and the last month of the year 💃💃)
*****
The ruins breathed.
Not in wind, not in echoes. They breathed.
Germaine stepped cautiously, Solaryn on her right arm, wings half-spread, golden heat shimmering in short bursts. Lumira hovered near her left cheek, pulses tight and irregular, scanning the shadows like a sixth sense in motion.
The entrance to the temple yawned before her: a black fissure in the stone, jagged and wide enough to swallow two people at once. Vines dripped like ink from the arch above, wet with dew or perhaps something darker. The air smelled sharp, metallic, and wrong.
The Shard throbbed in her chest like a heartbeat magnified tenfold. It pulled, insistent, toward the darkness. Lumenumbra energy hummed faintly along the Catalyst Gauntlet's core, coiling across her arm in spirals of holy-gold and abyssal-violet.
"I don't like this," Lumira's pulse buzzed in distress. Neither do I.
Solaryn flared heat into the shadows. "Neither do I," he chirped. "But I'm ready."
Germaine exhaled. She'd been ready for this since the day the Shard had chosen her. Since Lumenumbra had named itself across her hands.
She stepped inside.
Darkness hit her first. Not just the absence of light, but a presence. It pressed against her eyes, throat, even her bones. It seemed to shift, crawling along the walls, slithering across the stone floor like black liquid.
Her pulse doubled. The Catalyst Gauntlet responded immediately, sending a thin barrier outward—just enough to carve a narrow corridor of safety. Solaryn flapped above, scattering golden sparks across the gloom. Lumira pulsed in rapid succession, drawing faint geometric patterns into the air to counter the pressure.
A low rumble rolled beneath her feet. Not seismic. Not exactly. More like the ground was alive, resonating with something ancient.
Germaine adjusted her stance. Lattice threads rippled faintly beneath her skin, resonating with Lumenumbra energy. She'd been training for years to push mana into external structures like this, but nothing had prepared her for… this.
And then she heard it.
Movement.
From above.
Shadows detached themselves from the stone walls. Dark shapes with elongated limbs, joints bending at impossible angles, slipping along the ceiling with unnatural silence. They weren't human. They weren't animals. They were wrong.
Solaryn screeched, feathers flaring golden fire. Lumira's violet light shot forward, lancing the shapes, making them recoil for a heartbeat.
Germaine raised her hand. Catalyst Gauntlet hummed. Lumenumbra light spiraled outward.
"Stay sharp!" she whispered to her SoulPets.
The shadows lunged.
Not in waves. Not slowly. One. Two. Three in perfect, horrifying coordination.
She reacted on instinct. Lattice threads twisted inside her chest, feeding Lumenumbra energy outward. A blast of pure golden-light fused with violet shadow shot from the Gauntlet, striking the first shape. Its body fractured into black shards of mist, only to recombine and leap again.
"Good—keep it together!" she barked.
Solaryn swooped down, wings spinning arcs of heat, slamming into a shadow mid-flight, scattering it across the corridor. Lumira pulsed a stabilizing field across the floor, creating a lattice net that caught another shape and held it suspended long enough for Germaine to strike.
Her hands burned. The Gauntlet screamed. Her Shard pulsed violently.
Then came the floor traps.
Not mechanical, not runes—just holes. Great yawning gaps in the stone floor, lined with jagged shards of rock and rusted remnants of iron spikes. Something had left them decades ago, but they had been triggered magically.
She felt the pull of her Shard. It screamed move! Move! Move!
She leapt. Solaryn dove beside her, wings like a golden shield. Lumira twisted midair, pulsing light into the wall to guide their landing. They hit the far side safely, but barely.
Her chest heaved. Lumenumbra energy still flowed in bursts from the Catalyst Gauntlet, feeding her lattice. She could feel herself growing stronger, absorbing ambient mana from the temple itself.
This is training. This is survival. This is control.
A sound from the shadows made her freeze. Low, wet, dragging.
Something had survived the blast. A creature of stone and bone, wings torn yet vast, eyes molten with amber light, talons curved enough to pierce armor. Its body moved like it was part solid, part smoke.
"Solaryn! Lumira! Now!"
They responded instantly. Solaryn flared, rushing forward in a spiral of golden fire, striking the creature's side. Lumira pulsed, drawing intricate stabilizing lines around it, slowing its movement.
Germaine felt the Shard pulse through her arm into the Gauntlet. Amplify. Control. Own it.
She reached deeper. Lattice threads expanded in her chest, feeding the Lumenumbra resonance into the weapon. The Gauntlet flared brighter than ever, and the creature roared—not sound, but energy, as if the temple itself was wailing through it.
The first attack grazed her shoulder. Not enough to cut, but enough to send mana surging backward through her veins. Pain twisted into adrenaline. Her lattice stabilized. Lumenumbra flared.
"Not today," she hissed.
The Gauntlet released a spiral strike of light and shadow, wrapping around the creature, feeding Solaryn's fire and Lumira's pulses into a perfect resonance net. It struggled, thrashing violently, and the air cracked.
She felt herself absorbing. Not just mana—but the energy from the temple, the creature's movements, even the lingering fear of the trapped Shards. Every hit fed her lattice, every pulse made her stronger.
Another shape lunged—from above this time.
She barely had time to leap. Solaryn caught it midair, raking it with fire. Lumira wrapped a stabilizing pulse around both of them, turning the two-on-one into a defensive triangle.
Her heart raced. Sweat stung her eyes.
But then—she felt it.
Her elemental awakening, Lumenumbra, was stirring. The darkness inside it, the holy light—it wasn't just magic anymore. It was conscious. Responding. Thinking. Guiding her.
"I can do this." she whispered.
She moved, faster than instinct allowed, weaving through collapsing floors, dodging shadows with impossible agility, summoning strikes of Lumenumbra energy that burned and healed simultaneously. Every motion synced with her SoulPets, every strike amplified by the Catalyst Gauntlet, every pulse absorbed into her lattice.
They reached the heart of the temple.
A massive hall. Pillars broken, rubble everywhere. Shadows clung to every corner, twisting unnaturally, watching.
And at the center: a pit. A Shard. A deep, pulsing black core, humming with pure chaos.
Germaine felt her Shard scream in recognition. Lumenumbra flared. She gritted her teeth.
"This… ends now," she whispered.
Solaryn flared, wings beating golden arcs around her. Lumira pulsed bright enough to make the shadows recoil. The Catalyst Gauntlet hummed violently, Lumenumbra coiling across her arm.
She stepped forward.
And the shadows lunged, teeth and claws and limbs stretching in impossible angles.
She dodged, parried, struck. Every pulse from the Gauntlet absorbed into her lattice, every touch of her SoulPets reinforced her stability.
The world tilted. The walls groaned. The air vibrated with energy that could have torn her in half.
And yet she stood.
Her chest flared with Lumenumbra. Her Gauntlet flared back. The Shard inside her responded as if it were alive, whispering: Strike. Align. Own it.
She struck the chaos Shard with a blast of pure Lumenumbra.
The temple shuddered. Dust rained. Shadows screamed—not in pain, but in fear.
Her hands burned. Solaryn screeched, wings ablaze, but she felt the lattice expand, solidify, pulse with rhythm. Lumira's pulses wrapped around her like a second heartbeat.
The chaos Shard convulsed. For a heartbeat, she feared it would shatter the floor beneath them. Then—stillness.
Germaine dropped to her knees. Her chest heaved. Lumenumbra light danced across her fingers.
The Shard pulsed. A soft, almost reverent vibration.
Her own Shard responded, calm. Balanced. Controlled.
And somewhere in the shadows, the remaining creatures retreated, as if understanding she was no longer prey.
Solaryn flapped onto her shoulder, talons digging gently. Lumira curled around her cheek, violet pulses soft and steady.
Germaine exhaled.
She had survived. She had controlled. She had awakened.
Lumenumbra whispered in her chest: This is only the beginning.
She looked toward the pit. The chaos Shard pulsed faintly. Not gone. Not defeated. But aligned—just enough.
Germaine smiled, trembling. "You ready for round two?"
Solaryn chirped fiercely. Lumira pulsed in affirmation.
Together, they stepped further into the temple.
And the ruins waited.