NOVEL WEB Chapter 49– Vernara Village (15)
"For one hundred and twenty years…"
Elder Lao's voice was barely above a whisper, like a ghost reciting scripture from a crumbling scroll.
"Our tradition… ended like this."
His tone carried no power. No fire.
Only loss.
Only regret.
Only the slow, cold realization that everything they had built—rituals, oaths, generations of purpose had crumbled into ash.
Elder Mia stood beside him, her head bowed. Her eyes shimmered with unspoken sorrow, a single tear tracing the edge of her cheek.
Ko stood paralyzed, fists clenched so tightly his knuckles whitened, as if gripping onto something that had already slipped through his fingers.
Li turned his face upward toward the chaotic, cracked sky searching for a sign. A symbol. Anything. But the heavens offered only silence.
Juno took a slow step back. The wind tore at her hair as her gaze drifted—not toward the elders, nor the void but toward Lin.
And Khael.
His arms were wrapped around her like a shield against the world.
Ceyla stood still. Her heart thundered against her ribs. Her breath came shallow, fists trembling by her sides.
She wanted to run to them to reach Khael and Lin before whatever came next.
But something in the air stopped her.
A pressure.
A whisper.
A vibration… deep beneath the skin.
Khael slowly turned, lifting Lin into his arms. His breathing was labored, but his eyes were sharp focused beyond the shattered sky.
"Don't go toward it…" he said, voice low, but firm.
The world held its breath.
"I sense it… something is crawling beyond the veil."
And then
The wind shifted.
Not just in direction but in nature.
It thickened. Darkened. Grew… wrong.
A slow, black drip bled from the rift like divine ichor from a wounded god. It floated, yet it pulled everything downward, into something unseen.
Khael's jaw tightened. His voice turned cold.
"The Voidborn…" he said.
"They're coming."
A pause. The kind that froze time.
Then—
"A lot of them."
No one moved.
Not even the wind dared speak.
And somewhere—deep in the cracked sky and splintered ground—
The breath of the world stopped.
Elder Lao stood atop the rise, robes fluttering weakly in the growing wind, his ancient eyes reflecting the darkness blossoming across the battlefield like a curse long awakened.
Beside him, Elder Mia trembled as she clutched her hands tight against her chest. Elder Loe said nothing—his gaze fixed, unblinking, at the cracking horizon, where starlight bled like open veins in the sky.
"Is this... the end of our village?"
His voice fragile, hollow barely stirred the air.
And yet it echoed in the hearts of all who heard it.
A death knell wrapped in despair.
Below, the ground shuddered with a low groan.
And from the haze of wind and shadow—
She stepped forward.
Eliryn.
Ashen-silver hair tumbled like mist behind her, catching the fading light of the setting sun. Her eyes, a piercing storm of violet and gray, swept across the battlefield like a judgment. Not cold. Not warm. Resolute.
She wore the sacred robes of the Verdyn Guardians—white trimmed in faded green, embroidered with curling thorn patterns that shimmered with protective wards.
But all eyes were drawn to the weapon she carried:
A scythe.
Curved like a crescent moon, forged of black obsidian laced with silver veins that pulsed faintly with Shinrei.
And just above the grip, a strange, unopened flower bloomed—its petals sealed tight, vibrating faintly with quiet power.
From the edge of the wounded field, Raiquen saw her.
His throat clenched.
His pulse faltered.
"Eliryn!!"
The name tore from his lips like a wound reopening raw, full of pain, hope, and fear.
But she didn't turn.
She didn't even flinch.
Her voice, when it came, was steady and quiet.
"I need to protect the village."
Not a declaration.
A promise.
A vow written in the marrow of her soul.
Raiquen staggered forward, fighting pain with every breath, blood still wet on his ribs.
"Eliryn..."
He saw her silhouette against the shimmering rift.
The way her knees wavered, just slightly.
The exhaustion she didn't show.
But her eyes…
Her eyes were steady.
And then he wasn't alone.
Braggen stepped up beside him, his shoulder wrapped in a crude bandage.
Sil limped next, eyes hard despite the pain.
Kirell wiped blood from her brow and took her place.
Therys coughed violently but stood tall.
They said nothing.
They didn't need to.
They were rebels. Young. Broken.
But they followed Raiquen.
Because Raiquen still stood.
And Raiquen couldn't bear to let her stand alone.
Raiquen's thoughts thundered like a war drum in his chest:
"(I can't lose her.
Not again.
Not to the Void.
Not to sacrifice.
Not to fate.)"
He gritted his teeth, forced one foot forward.
The air stung with Shinrei and ash.
And still—he stood.
"Then we fight."
He unsheathed his blade, its steel humming in the tainted wind.
"We fight for the village."
Kirell clicked her tongue and grinned through cracked lips.
"Tsk. You know we can't disobey you…"
She slid a dagger from her belt, twirling it once despite her trembling hand.
"So if we're doing this—let's make them regret letting us get back up."
The five of them—bloody, bruised, and barely standing—formed a crooked line beside Eliryn.
Facing the rift.
Facing the unknown.
But not backing down.
Not this time.
And above them, the wound in the sky trembled—
a slit in the heavens, leaking black starlight and cold wind,
as the Voidborn began to stir like flies over a battlefield.
Shadows with shapes and whispers began to descend.
Khael stepped forward slow, but firm standing beside Eliryn and the rebels.
His boots crushed blood-soaked grass. His eyes didn't waver.
"We fight too."
His voice wasn't loud.
It didn't have to be.
It was the voice of someone who had already decided.
Juno cracked his knuckles beside him, a faint aura of steam rising from his body.
"Taishin Form: Iron Nerve Gate... Open."
Veins along his arms lit up with crimson heat, like molten cracks in stone.
Ceyla rolled her shoulders, eyes flicking from rebel to rebel—
then locked onto the first slithering form rising from the rift.
Twin daggers spun into her palms. She grinned.
"Let's kill these sons of a bitch."
Inside Khael's mind, the storm swirled—
"SYSTEM: Echo Field unstable. Void signature detected.
Warning: DRAGON KNIGHT PROTOCOL LIMITED.
Primary Affinity: WIND — UNLOCKED.
Other protocols: SEALED until further synchronization."
"Tch… I still can't use full Dragon Knight mode.
Just wind. But… not ordinary wind.
This wind came from dragon blood itself.
They won't recognize it—unless Master Isen is watching…"
He inhaled.
The wind answered.
Above the battlefield, the first Voidborn emerged.
Its body was fractured flame constantly burning and rebuilding.
Its skull wore a cracked mirror for a face.
It screamed in loops—
"WHY DIDN'T I SAVE HER—WHY DIDN'T I SAVE HER—WHY DIDN'T I—"
Burning Regret (Flame Affinity Voidborn)
Every step it took left embers of memory on the ground—
visions of a dead village, a burned girl, a thousand voices crying out.
Eliryn lifted her scythe.
"That's a memory echo…"
"It's not his voice anymore," Raiquen said.
"It's the Void. Repeating the moment until it eats him alive."
Then came the second.
A floating woman made of pink petals, her eyes weeping sap and rot.
She hovered like a gentle storm, and when she spoke, it sounded like lullabies and screams twisted together.
"Healing is a lie. Hope is a lie. All blossoms wither."
🌸 Rotbloom (Bloom Affinity Voidborn)
She reached forward and the grass beneath her died instantly.
Ceyla flinched back as her dagger's metal rusted in seconds just from proximity.
"Shit—"
"She's a Bloom-type corrupted," Kirell muttered.
"If she touches anyone with healing Shinrei—she'll invert it. Poison us."
Then—
A new voice.
Not a scream.
Not a whisper.
A temptation.
Soft. Male. Familiar.
"Khael… You could stop all this."
"One more gate. Just open it. Eclipse Gate. Let me in."
A shadow in his mind now.
A face made of shattered wind and dragon scales.
"You want to protect her, don't you?
You want to stop losing people. Like Loiran.
Open. The. Gate."
Khael's knees almost buckled.
But then he looked at Lin—
Still trembling, barely stabilized, glyphs flickering with pressure.
"No.
I'll find my own way.
I won't use power I don't understand."
The whisper hissed in disappointment. Then faded.
To be continue
Author's note: Voidborn are entities birthed from the Void, a malevolent plane that feeds on corrupted memories, emotions, and Shinrei energy. They manifest during high Void activity especially during anomalies like the Sky Rift. Also when a person's Vein Gates rupture from trauma, hatred, or fear, they may lose control, become possessed by Void Echoes, or mutate into a Voidborn. These beings are twisted reflections of their former selves, wielding distorted versions of their original powers, and spreading corruption wherever they go.