Collide: The Memory of Stars

Third Person's POV

As they continued, they had finally arrived at the ruins of Eldoria's heart, looming before them like the skeletal remains of a forgotten kingdom.

The entrance was buried beneath what had once been a grand cathedral—now nothing more than a shadow of its former self.

Cracked stone pillars reached toward the sky, their surfaces marred by time and corruption. Blackened vines, pulsating with an eerie dark energy, coiled around the ruins like serpents, as if they too sought to keep intruders away.

Selene stepped forward, her fingers brushing against the cold stone.

Though she could not see, she felt the weight of countless lives lost here, the very essence of the past woven into the wind itself. A whisper of sorrow clung to the air, brushing against her skin like unseen fingers.

"We're here," Aldric said solemnly, his voice laced with both reverence and unease.

Axel exhaled slowly, his gaze scanning the ruins.

"I don't like this. It's too quiet."

Khael, who had been unusually silent, frowned.

"Are there... ghosts here?"

Aldric shook his head.

"No, lad. Worse. These are echoes—remnants of those lost to the void. The seal did more than just contain Vherezoth; it trapped the voices of the fallen." As if on cue, the air trembled, and faint whispers slithered through the silence. Some voices were pleading. Others were filled with hate. Some simply wept.

Selene's breath hitched. Even without sight, she could feel the weight of the countless souls trapped here.

"They don't want us to go any further."

"Too bad," Axel muttered. "We're going anyway." The entrance to the sanctum was hidden beneath layers of collapsed stone. Tyra and Axel worked together, using brute force and magic to clear the way. As the rubble shifted, a stairway was revealed, spiraling downward into darkness.

A gust of cold, stale air rose to meet them, carrying the scent of forgotten decay.

Selene hesitated. There was something about this place—something that felt like it had been waiting for her.

"Let's move," Aldric urged, stepping in first. The others followed, their footsteps echoing eerily against the stone walls as they descended into the abyss.

The further they went, the less stable reality seemed to be. The walls no longer felt like solid stone; at times, they seemed to shift, bending and stretching as if alive.

Time itself felt distorted—each step felt longer than the last, the path ahead warping like a dream teetering on the edge of waking.

Selene's pulse quickened.

The closer they got, the more she could hear it—a presence, vast and ancient, stirring in the depths below.

Then, a voice slithered into her mind, rich with amusement.

"You've come far, little key."

Selene froze. The voice wasn't loud, yet it rang through her entire being, reverberating like a whisper in an empty void. It was neither cruel nor kind. It simply was.

Axel immediately noticed her tensing.

"Selene? What's wrong?"

She swallowed hard. "She's awake."

Aldric stiffened. "Vherezoth… she knows we're here."

Tyra, who had remained silent, suddenly clutched her head, staggering back. Her breath came in sharp, uneven gasps.

"No… no, no, no, I… I remember…" Her silver eyes flashed with recognition, a buried memory clawing its way to the surface.

Vherezoth's voice hummed in their minds, smooth and slow, like silk unraveling.

"Ah… the little traitor remembers, does she?"

Tyra clenched her fists, her expression stricken with horror.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this…"

Selene reached for her. "Tyra, what do you—"

Before she could finish, the walls around them shuddered violently.

The air itself rippled as an unseen force pulsed outward. The seal—what remained of it—was failing.

At the heart of the ruins, they found it—the seal.

It was unlike anything Selene had ever imagined. A massive, intricate formation of golden light, cracked and splintered, its glow flickering like a dying star. Tendrils of darkness leaked from its wounds, pulsing hungrily, like claws seeking freedom.

Aldric's face was grim.

"It won't hold much longer."

Selene felt drawn to it. Without thinking, she reached out, her fingertips grazing the broken edges of the seal.

The moment she touched it, her mind was flooded with visions.

A battlefield, drowning in golden light and endless shadows. A woman—her golden hair whipping in the wind—standing against the darkness.

And then, a voice. Familiar, yet distant.

"You were never meant to be the key… but fate is cruel."

Selene's breath caught in her throat.

"Eltharia…?"

Before she could process the memory, the entire sanctum trembled. A deep, guttural crack split the silence as the last threads of the seal began to unravel

Axel drew his blade. "Get ready. Something's coming."

And then, the world broke.

The ground beneath them split apart, revealing an abyss that stretched into infinity. From its depths, shadows began to rise—twisted, nightmarish creatures formed from the corrupted souls of the fallen.

Their eyes glowed with sickly light, their bodies writhing like something caught between existence and oblivion.

Khael's breath came in sharp gasps.

"What… what are those?"

Aldric's face darkened.

"The army of the void. The first wave."

A piercing shriek tore through the air as the creatures surged forward.

Axel didn't hesitate. He lunged, his blade slicing through the first abomination, but the creature barely flinched, its form twisting unnaturally around the wound.

"Damn it—they're not normal!"

Selene, heart pounding, clenched her fists. She had spent so long running from her power, but now… now there was no choice. She reached deep within herself, feeling for the thread of energy that had always been there, waiting.

The moment she found it, the air around her changed. The void itself seemed to hesitate.

And then, for the first time since the descent began, Vherezoth laughed

"Oh, little key… you are more than I expected."

As the battle erupted within the heart of Eldoria, the once-solemn ruins were now swallowed by a maelstrom of chaos. The ground trembled as creatures of the abyss poured forth from the cracks of the fractured seal, their formless shadows twisting into grotesque horrors, their eyes glowing with eerie luminescence.

The air itself seemed to shudder beneath the weight of their emergence, and the battlefield was soon drenched in a cacophony of war cries and the clash of steel against the void-born entities.

Axel led the charge, his blade a beacon of light in the encroaching darkness.

His sword was unlike any ordinary weapon—it pulsed with the remnant of his lost divine power, cutting through the nightmarish creatures with sheer force of will.

Tyra fought beside him, her twin daggers moving like fangs of a serpent, slicing through the abyssal forms before they could retaliate.

Aldric, the old wizard, weaved spells of golden light, erecting barriers and striking down swarms of voidspawn with arcs of searing magic.

Khael, though young, fought with fire itself, his flames roaring defiantly against the creeping blackness.

Yet it was not enough.

For every enemy they felled, more arose from the abyss. Vherezoth's power had not waned in the centuries of her slumber; if anything, she had only grown stronger in her imprisonment.

Her laughter echoed through the battlefield, rich and taunting, as she observed their futile struggle.

"Ah, how amusing," she mused, her voice dripping with amusement and something else—almost admiration.

"You fight, you bleed, yet you stand no chance. Did you truly believe you could stop me?"

And then, she emerged.

Vherezoth did not rise from the abyss like her creations; she materialized from the very void itself, stepping forward as if she had always belonged in this shattered reality.

The darkness curled around her like a lover's embrace, her form untouched by time. Her beauty was undeniable—long, silken black hair cascading over her shoulders, her crimson eyes glowing like dying stars.

Her porcelain skin was smooth, unblemished by the centuries, her presence commanding yet elegant.

She was not merely a being of destruction; she was a force of nature, a queen who had never lost her throne, only bided her time.

Selene, though blind, felt her presence clearer than anyone else. It was suffocating, a weight upon her soul.

"So, you are the key," Vherezoth murmured, her voice like velvet wrapping around

Selene's mind. "Pathetic."

With a flick of her wrist, the battlefield turned into a slaughterhouse.

A surge of void energy erupted from Vherezoth's hand, the black tide consuming everything in its wake.

Axel raised his sword to block the onslaught, but the force sent him crashing into the broken stone pillars.

Aldric's barriers shattered like fragile glass, leaving him defenseless as the voidspawn swarmed him. Tyra screamed as dark tendrils coiled around her limbs, dragging her down as she fought desperately to free herself.

One by one, they fell.

Khael, with fire burning in his veins, launched himself at Vherezoth with a defiant roar, his flames illuminating the battlefield like a second sun.

"I won't let you win!" His fire engulfed her, a maelstrom of crimson and gold. For a moment, there was silence.

Then, she emerged from the inferno, untouched.

"Foolish child," she whispered, before driving her clawed fingers into his chest. The fire in Khael's eyes flickered as he gasped, his body convulsing before the darkness swallowed him whole.

Selene could hear his body hit the ground. Her heart stopped.

Aldric, wounded and drained from his relentless spellcasting, stepped forward. Blood stained his robes, his hands trembling as he lifted his staff. He knew he would not leave this battlefield alive, but he had one final duty—to buy Selene time. With a deep breath, he called forth the last of his magic, golden runes forming around him in a desperate attempt to hold back the abyss.

"Vherezoth," he rasped, his voice carrying the weight of centuries.

"You will not have her."

The void queen tilted her head, amusement flickering in her crimson eyes.

"Oh? And what will you do, old man?"

Aldric slammed his staff into the ground, the earth beneath them quaking as radiant chains erupted from the soil, wrapping around Vherezoth's limbs.

A temporary seal—a fraction of the magic that once bound her.

She sighed, almost disappointed.

"You delay the inevitable."

With a flick of her fingers, the chains shattered. Before Aldric could react, darkness surged toward him, tendrils of pure void impaling his body. He gasped, blood spilling from his lips as his legs gave out beneath him.

Selene heard the thud of his body hitting the ground, felt the warmth of his magic fade into nothingness.

Axel, broken and bloodied, still tried to stand, his eyes filled with rage and sorrow as he watched his comrades perish. He staggered towards Selene, reaching for her.

"Selene… run," he rasped.

But there was nowhere to run.

Selene collapsed to her knees, her hands trembling.

The battlefield had gone silent. The warmth of her friends, their presence, their voices—gone. All that remained was the queen of the void and the key to both destruction and salvation.

Vherezoth knelt before her, tilting Selene's chin up with a single elegant finger.

"Look at you," she cooed.

"All alone. Just like I was."

Selene gritted her teeth, refusing to break. "I will stop you."

Vherezoth smiled. "Then stand, little key. Show me."

The war was over. The real battle had just begun.

To be continued.