NOVEL WEB Chapter 48– Vernara Village (14)
Juno's body tensed, his taishin glyphs glowing instinctively.
His voice came in a whisper of disbelief:
"No... she's breaking the seal!"
Khael ran.
Not toward Ko.
Not toward Li.
Toward her.
"LIN!!"
His voice cracked through the roar of the storm.
He didn't know if she could hear him—
He only prayed her heart would.
But just as he reached for her—
Dark tendrils burst from the Rift.
Like serpents of smoke and starlight, they lashed out and hurled him backward.
WHAM!
Khael hit the dirt, gasping.
But his body moved before his breath returned.
"Move, damn it—MOVE!"
He rose again, every muscle screaming.
The tendrils surged again.
He roared into the wind, forcing his way forward, feet grinding against the ground.
A voice came. One only he could hear.
"SYSTEM WARNING: VOIDFLARE DETECTED"
"SEALING STRUCTURE—BREACHED"
"RIFT ACTIVATION—47%"
"What—?!"
The Dragon Knight system. His personal interface.
But why now?
Ceyla stared—frozen—as Lin's silhouette stood at the heart of the storm.
She took one step forward.
"Lin…!"
But Juno's voice sliced the moment:
"No—DON'T!!"
His arm flung out.
Not to attack.
To protect.
Even his taishin was struggling to contain the Void's pressure.
Sil, he stood up, one eye swollen shut, and stepped forward anyway.
Kirell and Therys moved too
From across the field, Raiquen gritted his teeth, heat gathering at his fists again.
"She's a kid! She's scared—what do we DO?!"
Braggen, knees shaking, slammed his palm into the dirt again, holding his stance against the wind.
"We protect her. That's what."
And at the center of it all—
Lin stood alone.
Bathed in darkness.
The Rift behind her—a black wound in the sky—oozing with lightless flame and whispers too ancient to name.
And then—
Elder Lao fell to his knees.
His hands trembling, his face pale.
"It's too late…"
"We can't stop it now…"
The world was breaking.
But not all was lost.
Because Khael, still fighting the tendrils, still reaching—
Didn't stop moving.
Not for a god.
Not for the Elders.
And not for fate.
As Khael stumbled, his boots scraping across the cracked earth as dark tendrils lashed outward like whips of ink. The pressure was immense, as if reality itself were folding inward.
"LIN!!"
His voice cut through the chaos. Not as a command. Not as a plea.
But as a lifeline.
The girl trembled in the center of the spiraling glyphs, her hair floating unnaturally, eyes wide with terror. She couldn't scream she had no voice but her body was screaming in every twitch, every breathless shudder.
A sudden shockwave burst outward from her chest. Khael flew back, slammed into the ground with a grunt, arms shielding his face.
System Notification:
DRAGON KNIGHT SYSTEM
Warning: Unstable Shinrei Detected.
Voidflare Manifestation Imminent.
Subject: Lin of Bloom.
Engage containment protocol?
"Voidflare…?"
Khael's eyes widened, A rift in Shinrei. A collapse of balance.
Behind him, Ceyla tried to move, her face pale. "We have to do something!"
Juno's voice rang out like steel on steel.
"NO! Don't go near it—you'll get pulled in!"
He held her back just as the ground cracked again darkness oozing like blood from the veins of the village. Wind howled as energy screamed into the skies, lightning flickering black and violet.
Raiquen stood frozen, his usual arrogance gone.
Braggen whispered, "She's just a kid…"
Therys murmur. "That's not her anymore."
Elder Lao fell to his knees, robes fluttering in the growing wind.
"It's too late," he muttered, voice hollow. "The seal is broken. We can't stop it now..."
In the center of it all, Lin clutched her chest.
The glyphs were gone. Her voice, sealed. Her body, trembling.
But her soul—
It howled.
Inside Lin's Shinrei…
She stood alone in a void of light and darkness. A mirror of every choice made for her. Every burden. Every silence.
"I don't want this…"
Her voice echoed inside herself.
"I didn't ask for this…"
Memories played—being passed around from elder to elder. Trained, tested, used.
And forgotten.
Then—
Khael's voice echoed, distant but warm.
"You're not a weapon."
"You're not a seal."
"You're Lin."
Her eyes widened. The void trembled.
Back outside
The ground shattered beneath each of his steps.
Khael forced himself forward, legs straining, body bowing beneath the unrelenting pressure of the Rift. Each step tore muscle, ripped skin, shredded breath from lungs he no longer trusted but still, he moved.
"LIN! I'm here!! Don't listen to the Void!!"
The tendrils snapped across his chest again, carving a deep red line through flesh and cloth.
He staggered.
But didn't fall.
He would not fall.
From the side, Raiquen watched, eyebrows pulled low, lips drawn tight.
"Why the hell does this guy keep pushing…? What's the point…?"
But even as he asked, the answer stood before him. Step after bleeding step. A man without prophecy, without permission—just will.
Inside Khael, pain mixed with memory.
His mind cracked open.
(Lin… when I heard what they planned to do to you… it reminded me—)
(Loiran.)
(My sister… back when I was still Shigeo Smith…)
(She died helpless in that white hospital bed. Sick since she was born. Fragile. Afraid.)
(And I stood there. A useless brother. Couldn't ease her pain. Couldn't change her fate. Not even a whisper of help from the gods.)
(But you—)
(I will save you. Even if it kills me.)
Another tendril slashed across his side.
He grunted, dropping to one knee.
But again, he rose.
Blood pouring.
Breath shallow.
Steps forward.
Behind him, Ko and Li once loyal guardians of the Elders stood frozen.
Li's voice was barely a breath.
"Khael…"
Ko's fists trembled.
"He's… choosing her?"
As if it made no sense to them.
As if it should've been a choice at all.
Ceyla broke free from Juno's grasp, eyes red, breath ragged.
"If he dies—if he dies—I'll never forgive you!!"
But she didn't charge forward.
Not because she was afraid.
Because she trusted him.
Then the wind shrieked.
The glyphs etched into the battlefield began to crack, threads of shinrei unraveling in the air like a tapestry being undone.
And then it came.
A blinding pulse.
Lin screamed.
Not with voice—but with Shinrei.
A cry that bypassed the ears and slammed directly into the soul.
Golden glyphs surged across her skin, bright and burning, branding her name into the
fabric of the world like fire through parchment.
The Rift howled.
The Void twisted in pain.
And then—
Crack.
The air fractured like glass under strain.
The Void cracked splintered shrieked.
Its tendrils flailed wildly, writhing in agony.
Then collapsed inward.
The pulse faded.
And Lin fell.
But she didn't hit the ground.
Khael caught her.
Arms wrapping around her small, shaking body.
He sank to his knees, holding her tightly against his chest.
Her breaths were shallow.
Her limbs limp.
But
She was still here.
Alive.
The battlefield hushed.
Even the Void itself seemed to hold its breath.
All that remained was the soft, fluttering beat of Lin's heart.
A fragile rhythm pressed against Khael's chest.
Then:
"SYSTEM: CONTAINMENT… COMPLETE"
❖ Dragon Knight Synchronicity: 12%...
Subject: Lin — Status: Stabilized.
Khael looked down at her.
And for a moment—
He didn't see the girl wrapped in void, pulsing with dangerous resonance.
He saw Loiran.
His sister.
So small. So scared.
So innocent.
And he whispered, voice cracked but whole:
"You're not alone."
"Brother is here."
Above them, the sky cleared—partially.
The rift hadn't closed completely.
It hung above the battlefield like a wounded god, bleeding starlight and dark winds into the sky. Not whole. Not healed. But paused.
A full rupture. Not complete destruction—but something far worse: an open wound.
And below it all, the Elders kneeled.
Elder Lao, once proud, once feared, now trembled on the dirt like a man watching a kingdom burn.
His eyes wide.
His spirit cracked.
And finally, the words he never imagined speaking:
"For one hundred and twenty years… our tradition… ended like this."
There was no power in his voice.
Only loss.
Only regret.
Only the slow, cold realization that the old ways everything they built had failed.
To be continue