Renn's face went white at Garr's choked whisper, "Herald," the word slipping out and everything around him seemed to blur.
He spun, and immediately he ran.
Kain stood rooted.
The panic stirred Vaelor's memories in his mind, faint whispers from a forgotten dream.
Before Ecliptica had names or cities before aether learned to flow, the void gazed at creation and yearned.
From that yearning came seven wills.
The laws beneath reality itself.
They were the Heralds, not gods but voices of existence's core, the whisper before life, the echo after death.
Of them, Dust was the quietest.
The end that waits for all beginnings.
When they warred, Light against Silence, Bloom against Dust, the sky cracked, the world bled, and Nexus ground formed where their essence fell, realms pulsing with ancient power.
Sometimes, those realms dreamed, birthing Nexusborn creatures.
Renn didn't stop, his breath ragged, as he sprinted toward the nexus's edge.
"Renn, stop!" Lira screamed, her voice filled with fear. "You're gonna get killed!"
Garr shouted, his usual bravado gone, while Thom's quieter plea, "Please, Renn, come back!" broke with desperation.
Their calls fell on deaf ears, as the only thing Renn could think of was to get out of here.
The word "Herald" burned behind his eyes.
Suddenly, the fog split, a serpent's tail snapped through, with insane pace. Scaled in bone-white armor, etched with faint, dark veins of abyssal aether.
It was as thick as a man's thigh, and it drilled through Renn's back with a tearing crunch, bursting out his chest in a spray of blood and crushed bones.
He froze mid-stride, eyes bulging, mouth gaping in a silent scream.
Slowly, he turned his head back, blood bubbling from his lips, his face etched with horror and regret, as if seeing every choice that led him here unravel.
The tail soon drilled its way out, and Renn coughed a torrent of red, stumbling as his legs gave way.
He hit the ground with a heavy splash, eyes staring blankly at the darkening sky, twitching once before going still.
The other three stood frozen, and the shock was still written evidently over their faces.
From the swamp's depths, the creature emerged, a gravetide serpent.
Its body writhed, a coil of bone and shadow. Each segment armored in scales that bled black fluid.
The tail, now coiled back around the serpent with Renn's blood around it
Its head was huge and above its head hovered a halo crown of abyssal aether, the undeniable mark of a Herald, a remnant of divine birth.
"It's… an Herald," Garr stammered, as he stumbled back.
"That crown, oh my god, it's real."
An Herald of Dust, everything it touched withered.
Lira gulped, her flame aether flickering weakly in her palms. "It's young—look at the crown, it's dim, not full."
"I want to think we got a shot." She added.
Garr stared at her like she'd been punched or was hit in the head. "Young? That thing's a damn mountain! It just treated Renn's life like it was nothing."
"Where do we even start?" he said.
Thom nodded, agreeing to what Garr said. "Lira, that's no baby. That's death we are looking at right now. Let's run."
Lira shook her head, fire sparking brighter in her hands. "If we run we die, we need to fight—for Renn. We can take it."
"The eclipse is almost here already, it will get even stronger."
Thom took a deep breath, wiping the bead of sweat that was on his forehead. "Holy shit. Fine. Let's do this."
Garr clutched his staff, Tide aether rippling around him. "But If we die, I'm cursing your name first, Lira."
"Kain!" Lira immediately turned to look at him and then yelled. "Get out of here, run! We'll create time for you to run outside!"
The others nodded, as they agreed with what Lira said but Kain didn't budge.
He stood frozen, lost in a trance, the tattoo on his chest pulsing even harder as the eclipse slowly began to unfold.
As the three of them faced the serpent, their aether sparking as they braced for a fight they barely knew how to wage.
Lira's flames sputtered, a shaky fireball lurching toward the serpent, while Garr thrust his hands out, summoning a wobbly wave from the swamp's stagnant pools.
Thom trembled raised a thin ice wall, their powers collided, a fireball crashing into the wave, freezing into a slushy blast with Thom's frost moving toward the serpent.
The creature didn't stir, its eyes didn't blink. The jagged crown pulsing faintly, as if daring them to try harder.
And they did.
Their fused blast struck its scales, a blur of steam and ice. The serpent's pulse answered, freezing it midair before shattering it into glittering shards that sliced Lira's arm.
She gasped with blood oozing out.
Garr cursed, his wave collapsing as the serpent's tail flicked, turning the water to black ice that exploded, slicing his shoulder.
Thom's ice wall rose again, but the serpent's maw opened, spewing a chilling mist of abyssal frost that withered the mud beneath them, forcing all three to scramble back.
The eclipse deepened, the sun a mere crescent, bathing the area in near-darkness.
The rogues fought on, Lira's flames flared in a desperate arc, merging with Garr's tidal surge to form a mist while Thom's frost spikes shot up, aiming for the serpent's underbelly.
The creature didn't budge, its eyes gleaming with cold amusement.
Lira's whip cracked, aiming for its void-like eyes, but an abyssal pulse froze her flames, shattering them into ash. Garr's whirlpool pulled water from the swamp's roots, Thom's frost turning it to jagged ice, but the serpent's tail spun, its abyssal aether turning the attack to a frozen torrent that exploded, shards cutting Thom's leg, making him stumble with a pained cry.
Then the serpent moved, Its body coiled, tail launching a barrage of frozen spikes, each dripping abyssal aether that withered the ground to dust on contact.
They fought as one, Lira's fireball merged with Garr's wave, Thom's frost turning it to a blast that roared toward the serpent.
But its abyssal tide surged, a dark frost wave that froze their attack mid-air, shattering it into a blizzard of icy shards that slashed their skin.
The serpent's maw gaped, unleashing a churning tide of dark frost that withered Lira's flames and coated Garr's arm in black ice, and his wail reverbrated through the area.
"Don't you dare quit!" Lira blurted.
Garr grunted, sweat beading on his brow, thrusting his hands out to summon a wave.
Thom trembled, his breath hitching, poured his frost aether into a shaky cage of ice, as it tried to snare the serpent's tail. Their powers collided clumsily, Lira's fireball smacking into Garr's wave while Thom's frost hardened it into a brittle, icy net that lunged for the serpent.
But the serpent's moves were unreal, a nightmare given form. Its tail whipped into a frenzied spiral, a whirlwind of bone-white scales, launching a barrage of frozen spikes, each dripping with abyssal aether.
One spike hit Lira, punching through her cloak with a wet rip, blood soaking the fabric even more as her flames flickered out.
She staggered, gasping, her hand clutching the wound as blood dripped between her fingers.
And the serpent wasn't done.
A vortex of shadow and frost erupted, devouring Garr's wave in a single.
The tide surged over Thom, freezing his legs in a crust of black ice that burned like fire, pinning him as he cried out.
The serpent struck, its tail lashing like a thunderbolt, drilling through Lira's chest with a sickening crunch. Blood sprayed, as her body tore apart, ribs cracking, her eyes wide with shock, and the fire in her hand disappeared.
She crumpled, blood sipping out of her mouth, her final breath a ragged wheeze as the light left her gaze.
"Nooooooo… how dare you?!" Garr's scream ripped through the air, primal and desperate, as he summoned a final, faltering wave, the water collapsing into a weak ripple.
The serpent's maw yawned wider, a void that sucked in the swamp's faint light, and it lunged, swallowing him whole.
His cries then muffled, faded into the wet, gurgling darkness of its throat.
Thom staggered blood oozing from his chest, hurled a final ice spike forward.
The serpent's claws raked him open in a single swipe, blood gushing in a hot arc. Its maw descended, devouring him in one swift move.
Now, only Kain and the serpent remained in the nexus ground. The eclipse cloaked the sky, the sun a mere sliver behind a veil of darkness, casting the swamp in a suffocating twilight.
The tattoo on Kain's chest thrummed like a war drum, but he stood frozen, his blind eyes locked on the serpent.
The serpent loomed, its crown of abyssal light pulsing weakly, veins writhing like thorns that had tasted blood and wanted more.
Its eyes locked on him.
The mark on Kain's chest throbbed in rhythm with the creature's pulse, the air between them humming with ancient recognition. The world seemed to shrink to the space between two breaths.
The serpent tilted its head, then a low voice sounded.
"Why do you wear their face?"