ONLINE: Blades of Eternity

Kaelen and Kelvin trailed behind the old woman, their footsteps echoing against the cold stone floor of the Nullcarvers' hidden stronghold. The girl walked beside them, quiet as ever, her expression unreadable. The air grew colder as they moved further, not from the environment—but from something else. Something deep. Ancient.

The winding stone path eventually led them out of the narrower tunnels and into a vast, open chamber. But it wasn't the kind of chamber Kaelen expected.

It was a ruin.

Crumbled pillars jutted out of cracked ground, half-swallowed by moss and vines that had long turned to stone. Weathered murals lined the sunken walls, depicting strange, otherworldly creatures clawing their way out of dark, swirling masses. At the very center lay a colossal stone seal, covered in chains of black iron and engraved with jagged sigils that shimmered faintly even in the dim light.

"This," the old woman said, finally stopping and turning to face them, "was once the square where the Nullcarvers gathered for council. Now, it is the mouth of something far older and darker than anything you have seen."

She turned her eyes to Kaelen and Kelvin, the shadows of the ruin dancing across her sharp, aged features.

"My name is Eirana Vahl, once the Sentinel of the Fifth Circle. Now, I am the last Matron of the Nullcarvers."

She gestured to the girl beside her.

"And this girl, whom you owe your lives to… is Naeva. My granddaughter. And the last born among the Nullcarvers."

Kaelen's brow furrowed. "Nullcarvers… what exactly are you?"

Eirana's expression did not shift. Her voice, however, became solemn, steeped with time. "We were once the guardians of a secret too vile for the surface world to bear. A people born without mana, carved from stillness and silence, so that we might live in places where mana could not exist. The Deadroot Jungle, the Deep Trenches of Aetheris, the Hollowed Peaks—we were born to walk where others with magic could not tread."

Kelvin looked around, his grip still on his scythe. "So what were you guarding here?"

Eirana turned and walked slowly to the edge of the enormous seal in the center of the ruined square. Her fingers traced a rune glowing softly along its edge.

"Our only purpose," she said, "was to prevent the rise of the Leech."

Kaelen blinked. "The what?"

Eirana's eyes darkened. "The Leech is not a being like any other. It is not of flesh or bone. It is not even of magic. It is a thing of void. An ancient presence that feeds not on blood or body, but on essence—mana, soul, memory, even time itself."

She turned back to them, her tone grave.

"It is a parasite that latched onto the fabric of this world eons ago. Although the Eternal were the ones whom indirectly created while they were forming the land of Aetheris as we know it, They feared it. And in their desperation, they created the Nullcarvers to guard its prison… to keep it from ever awakening."

Kaelen felt a chill run down his spine. "And you think it's… waking up?"

"You misunderstand," Eirana said, her eyes narrowing. "It is already awake."

She placed her palm on the seal.

"And you brought it a scent."

Kelvin stepped forward. "Wait. Are you saying it's after Kaelen?"

Naeva, silent until now, finally spoke in a low tone. "It's after what's inside him. The Pandora is older than it looks. It's not just a vessel of magic, it is many things. And one of its uses is that It's a key."

"A key to what?" Kaelen asked, his voice tense.

"To the seal," Eirana replied without pause. "To this very prison. And now that it has caught the scent of the Pandora, it will do more than just send fragments of mist. It will come."

She pressed both hands on the seal. The runes flickered. The chains groaned faintly.

"You asked what the Leech is," she said, voice dropping lower. "You're about to find out."

With a heavy grind, part of the stone seal shifted. The air grew thick, and an ancient rumble vibrated through the chamber floor.

A slit opened at the center of the seal, narrow and unnatural. It exhaled a breathless void—a cold that wasn't temperature, a silence that swallowed sound.

And from that slit, something moved.

Not a creature.

Not a form.

But a presence.

A ripple of anti-existence, like a scar in the air itself.

Kaelen stepped back instinctively, his mana surging inside him out of alarm.

Kelvin muttered, "What in the actual—?"

Eirana raised a hand. "That is a sliver. A fraction of the Leech's true self. The seal still holds. Barely."

"And if it breaks?" Kaelen asked, his voice tight.

Eirana didn't answer immediately.

Then she said, "Then your world ends, and the Leech consumes the last of the mana veins… starting with you."

The slit in the seal slowly began to close again.

The tremors stopped.

But the cold lingered.

Eirana finally turned to Kaelen and Kelvin again, her face grim. "Now you understand why I wanted you dead the moment I saw you."

Naeva added softly, "But you're not dead. Which means now… you'll have to fight."

The void-light from the seal had barely died down when Kelvin suddenly stepped forward, scythe clutched tightly, a visible scowl across his face.

"Okay," he said, voice edged with frustration, "you want us to fight that thing—the Leech—but how, exactly? The moment we step outside this place, we'll be stripped of our mana again! We're helpless out there, and you know it!"

His voice echoed through the ruined square, bouncing off stone and shadow alike. Even Kaelen, who had remained silent, wore a grim expression.

They weren't just walking into a fight anymore. They were being asked to take up arms against something that shouldn't be fought.

Eirana didn't answer. She only gazed silently at the seal, her weathered fingers curling faintly at her sides.

Time dragged in the silence, a thick pause weighed down by the enormity of the truth they now knew.

And then—Naeva spoke.

"If you're going to fight like us," she said slowly, her voice tinged with something cold and ancient, "then I'll have to teach you the fighting techniques of the Nullcarvers."

Her words sliced the silence like a blade.

Kaelen and Kelvin both turned toward her in shock.

"What?" Kelvin muttered.

But before the thought could even settle in their minds, a ripple passed through the air—soft footsteps echoing in from every direction.

Figures emerged from the edges of the ruined square, stepping silently from shadowed archways and the skeletal remains of buildings. Men and women draped in gray and black, with weapons made of stone, bone, and forged silence. Their presence didn't carry the weight of mana—but there was something other about them.

Something dangerous.

They were the Nullcarvers.

One of them, a tall man with eyes like carved obsidian and braided silver-gray hair, stepped forward. His voice rang sharp and biting:

"You will not teach the outsiders our ways, Naeva."

Another—a lithe woman carrying twin daggers at her waist—added, "Our techniques are not to be shared with those who were born of mana. It is sacrilege."

More voices joined in, rising like a tide of resistance. "They are not like us." "They will never understand the Silence." "They were not carved by Null."

But Naeva remained unmoved. Her arms folded across her chest, her crimson eyes unwavering.

"If we don't teach them," she said evenly, "then this entire world will fall. Not just us. Not just the jungles or the ruins or the old seals. Everything."

Her voice grew louder, colder, more forceful with each word.

"You've all felt the stirrings, haven't you? The tremors in the roots. The breathing mists. The corruption inching closer. The Leech has already begun to unravel the seals. And I…" she glanced at Kaelen and Kelvin briefly, "…I've seen what they can do, even without mana. Imagine what they could become—if they learned the ways of the Carvers."

The old Nullcarvers stood still, many of them clenching their fists or tightening their grips on weapons. The silence between them was dense, pregnant with history and judgment.

And then…

Ding!

Both Kaelen and Kelvin froze as their system interfaces appeared before their eyes, blinking with radiant light.

[New Quest Received: BECOME NULLCARVERS]

[Time Limit: 5 Days]

[Objective: Complete the Foundational Techniques of the Nullcarver Path and pass the Silence Trial.]

[Reward: Permanent resistance to mana-stripping zones. Access to Hidden Null Techniques.]

[Penalty for Failure: System Lockout for 30 days. Affinity to Magic Pandora weakened. Potential Leech contamination.]

Kaelen blinked.

Kelvin let out a sharp laugh, disbelieving. "You've got to be kidding me…"

Naeva looked between the two of them. "What is it? What is front of you guys?"

"Wait, you can see this?" Kaelen asked in shock as he pointed at the screen in front of him.

"Is there a problem that I am able to?" Naeva asked with a confused look on her face.

Kaelen swallowed, then turned his interface around for her to see. "It's… our system. It's telling us to become Nullcarvers. In five days."

A low murmur spread among the gathered villagers. Whispers of "System-bearers…" and "Chosen by Silence?" filled the air.

Eirana finally stepped forward. Her old gaze lingered on the glowing text, then rose to Kaelen's face.

"So the Leech knows your worth," she murmured. "Perhaps fate isn't yet lost."

The tall man from earlier gave a sharp hiss. "If they are to train, then they do it under trial. We will not spoon-feed them our secrets."

"I wasn't going to," Naeva said, stepping forward.

She met Kaelen and Kelvin's eyes.

"You have five days. And if you're not strong enough by then…" her tone was final, "you won't just be left behind. You'll be buried here. Because no one who carries the scent of the Pandora walks free among the Nullcarvers unless they can carry our silence."

Kaelen exhaled slowly. Kelvin rolled his shoulders and gave a sharp grin despite the pressure.

"Then let's get started," he muttered. "We've got a damn apocalypse to stop."