AetherFall

Celeste moved through the market district, The destruction she had left behind weighed on her mind, The Enclave would not stop hunting her. If anything, the devastation she had caused would only make them more relentless.

Her body ached from the chase, but she pushed forward. She needed to vanish into the places where they could not chase her

The Underbelly of Eidolon.

The city above was a of divine architecture—marble, gold, and towers. But beneath it lay a second city, This was where outlaws dwelled, away from the Pantheon's eyes.

Celeste had never ventured into the undercity before

She tightened the straps of her cloak and slipped into a narrow alleyway.

The entrance was hidden beneath a  chapel, its once-pristine walls now covered in creeping vines. She pressed her hand against the stone relief of an old deity, one whose name had been long erased from history. Aether pulsed beneath her fingertips.

A click echoed through the alley as the ground beneath the statue shifted. A staircase of ancient stone spiraled downward .

Celeste looked down then she walked down the stairs

The undercity real. Dimly lit corridors stretched into vast chambers where the forgotten thrived. 

She walked carefully, her senses sharp. This was not a place for the careless.

Aether hummed faintly in the air, but it felt… different. As if the energy here had been altered by something unnatural.

Celeste rounded a corner and nearly collided with a figure.

"Easy there," a voice said, amused.

She stepped back, ready to summon her Aether

"Relax. If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead."

His cloak was deep blue, trimmed with silver—an insignia she recognized from old texts.

A scholar of the Forbidden Archives.

Her pulse quickened.

"You're not supposed to exist," she said.

"Neither are you," the man replied with a smirk.

Celeste narrowed her eyes. "Who are you?"

He gave a small bow, dramatic and exaggerated. "Orion Caelum, at your service. And if you truly want to survive hear what I have to say."

Celeste hesitated. "Fine"

And something told her that Orion knew something about the Labyrinth of Nyx.