The skies rumbled unnaturally, not with thunder—but with voices.
Whispers carried on the wind, incomprehensible yet hauntingly melodic, like chants of a long-forgotten language resurrected from the dead.
Mei Lin was the first to notice.
"It's coming from everywhere," she murmured, gripping her staff. "Voices… inside my head. I can't block them out."
Feng Yu scanned the treetops. "It's not just you. Even the birds are gone. Something is calling to all living things."
Yun Jian clenched his fists.
The Eye is bleeding.
That's what the second fragment had shown him.
Each time he sealed a piece of the Eclipse God's essence, its awareness grew more erratic. And now, like a trapped beast, it was crying out.
Far North – Black Choir Citadel
High in the snowy wastes, beneath a cathedral carved from obsidian and bone, hundreds of robed figures stood in perfect silence.
They wore masks of white porcelain, each carved into an expression of sorrow, and carried staffs tipped with bleeding thorns.
At the altar stood a tall woman cloaked in mourning black. Her voice resonated like broken bells.
"Children of the Choir," she intoned, "The Sovereign walks the path of rebellion."
"Let his shadow drown in ours."
The choir began to chant, each voice layered on the next until a dreadful harmony emerged—like a funeral dirge sung across dimensions.
Black flames rose from their bodies, forming wings of ash.
The Black Choir had awoken.
And they would sing only death.
Meanwhile – Forest Outside Obsidian Crater
Yun Jian's group set up camp at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ancient plains. The Eclipse Fragment pulsed weakly from inside Yun Jian's satchel.
It had been sealed, but it wasn't quiet.
Even now, Yun Jian could hear it whispering.
You are still a part of me... you were made for this.
Why do you fight your nature?
Yun Jian stared at the sky, watching the false moon above shimmer unnaturally. Each pulse of that cursed celestial eye sent a ripple of unease through the world.
"The next fragment," he said at last, "is beneath the Ruins of Kareth'Val, a buried city swallowed by time and earth."
Feng Yu looked up from his blade. "And what's guarding it?"
Yun Jian's eyes narrowed. "The Black Choir."
Daybreak – Journey to the Ruins
Their path led them through the Weeping Woods, a haunted forest where trees grew in the shape of human faces and the mist could make men forget who they were.
As they walked, Yun Jian noticed the forest reacting to him.
Branches bowed. Shadows elongated toward him. The faces in the trees wept black sap.
"It knows me," he muttered.
Ghostfang padded silently at his side, eyes ever-vigilant.
A low howl echoed in the distance.
Not a wolf.
Not a man.
Something... in between.
Suddenly, a scream pierced the fog.
Yun Jian and his team rushed toward the sound and found a caravan of pilgrims under attack.
They were being dragged into the mist by faceless wraiths, creatures made of song and sorrow.
One of the wraiths turned toward Yun Jian.
And sang.
The melody stabbed into his mind like knives.
"Come… Vessel… Join the Harmony…"
Yun Jian bared his teeth.
In a single flash, his shadow exploded outward.
"Silence."
The shadows obeyed.
Like a tidal wave, his aura consumed the wraiths, pinning them to the earth before slicing them into smoke.
The caravan leader stumbled to him, trembling.
"Thank you… Oh heavens… You saved us!"
Yun Jian's voice was quiet. "No. I stopped them. For now."
That Night – A Warning in the Flames
Around their fire, the group sat in wary silence.
Aran tossed another log into the blaze, watching it crackle with blue sparks.
"Those wraiths were born from sound," he said. "They sang in patterns that warped our thinking."
"It's the Choir," Mei Lin whispered. "Their song is old magic. Older than the Shadow Arts."
Yun Jian closed his eyes.
"They serve the Eclipse God," he said. "And they've begun the Rite of Rebirth."
He stood.
"If they reach the Ruins before us and awaken the third fragment, it will be too late."
The Next Day – Arrival at Kareth'Val
The entrance to the buried city resembled the mouth of a sleeping giant—jagged stone teeth and a breath of sulfur.
Carvings of weeping angels and screaming beasts lined the path downward.
Even the wind didn't dare descend.
They stepped into the dark.
And were met with a wall of sound.
The Black Choir had already arrived.
Hundreds of masked cultists stood in perfect concentric circles around a massive obelisk of pure nightstone. Atop it sat the third fragment—a crystalline orb that shimmered like a dying star.
Their song rose.
The obelisk pulsed.
Reality trembled.
Yun Jian's heart pounded. "They're forcing it to awaken."
He turned to his allies.
"No mercy. We end this now."
Battle Beneath the Ruins
The moment Yun Jian stepped into the circle, the Choir turned as one.
"VESSEL," they cried in perfect harmony.
Then, chaos erupted.
Mei Lin unleashed a barrage of spirit-fire that tore through three cultists in an instant. Feng Yu danced with twin swords, slashing down masked singers before they could chant.
Ghostfang leapt into the fray, howling with fury.
But Yun Jian?
He strode straight to the obelisk.
A wall of black flame surged before him.
At its center was the Maestra of the Black Choir—the woman in mourning black.
Her mask bore no eyes, only a mouth stretched wide in eternal song.
"You are late," she whispered. "The song has already begun."
Yun Jian raised his hand.
"I brought the silence."
His shadow roared to life, clashing with her sonic magic in a war of vibration and void.
Blades of silence shattered verses of power.
Each strike sent shockwaves through the ruin.
Then—Yun Jian vanished.
Reappeared behind her.
And plunged his hand into her chest.
But there was no heart.
Only a crystal of sound.
A trap.
The moment his fingers touched it, the third fragment awakened.
A vortex of voices screamed through the chamber.
The fragment tried to merge with him by force.
LET US IN
YOU ARE OUR INHERITOR
SING WITH US
Yun Jian fell to one knee, bleeding from the ears, nose, and eyes.
Then… Mei Lin reached him.
She placed her hand on his back.
And began to sing.
But not the Choir's song.
Hers.
A lullaby from their childhood village.
A song of light.
Yun Jian's eyes flickered.
He clutched the fragment…
…and sealed it.
The voices fell silent.
The Maestra dropped to her knees—her power broken.
The Choir screamed in dissonance, their unity unraveling.
And Yun Jian stood—third fragment glowing dimly in his palm.
Aftermath – Outside the Ruins
Smoke rose from the shattered remains of Kareth'Val.
Yun Jian stared at the fragment in his hand, now a stone of deep gray.
Three sealed.
Three remained.
The others gathered around him.
Feng Yu sheathed his blades. "What now?"
Yun Jian looked to the sky.
The eclipse moon flickered—its light fractured.
"The Choir won't stop," he said. "The next cult will be worse."
Aran nodded. "They'll send their champions now."
Yun Jian's gaze hardened.
"Then I'll break them all."
Far East – Crimson Tundra
Deep within a storm of blood and snow, a figure in golden armor stood silently before a temple made of ice.
He looked up.
The Eye was watching.
"Send me," he whispered.
"Let me face the Shadow Sovereign."
The wind carried a single word in reply.
"Go."