Darkness wrapped around him, but not the kind that simply comes from a lack of light. This was an internal darkness — deep and cold, coiling around his thoughts like a serpent. Kiyoshi Haruto lay at the edge of a broken stream, hidden beneath layers of stone and roots. His injuries were minor, but they cut deeper into his pride. The 12th Knight had defeated him, not due to his own weakness, but because he had dared to challenge a power beyond his understanding.
As he lay there, his breathing slowed—not from the pain that had dulled, but from a paradoxical peace that enveloped him when the Veil Souls began to gather. They swirled around him, whispering in a mixture of languages, offering lessons and warnings, echoes of a thousand forgotten battles.
"The Celestial Pactbearer… his strength was not his own."
"You are not yet shaped. Only stirred."
Then a new voice broke through the haze.
"You're not dead, so that means you're not done."
Suddenly, warmth spread against his skin — steady and tangible. A soft blue-white glow illuminated the trees, and from his blurred vision, Kiyoshi saw a figure kneeling beside him. She didn't resemble the others. No armor adorned her, no noble crests. Instead, she wore flowing robes that danced with light, and her eyes shone like the moon.
"Try not to move," she instructed, placing her palm over his chest. Veil energy streamed from her fingers, weaving around him like thread from a loom crafted by the gods.
Kiyoshi blinked. "You're healing me."
She smirked at him. "Just a bit. I don't waste energy on corpses that don't talk."
She was Violet, a former noble who had chosen to abandon court life for freedom. Her Veilblade skills were unlike anything Kiyoshi had encountered — graceful, precise, and lethal. But behind that beauty, he sensed her pain, a rebellion buried deep within. Raised in a palace filled with mirrors, she learned to be a perfect symbol for her father, but when she awakened to her Veil, she chose her own path instead.
"I don't kill for duty," she said resolutely. "Only for truth. And sometimes for stubborn kids who think they can fight gods."
In the days that followed, Kiyoshi recuperated in a quiet ruin she had claimed. This place was part shrine, part hideout. Though they spoke little, Violet was perceptive. She asked questions others wouldn't dare to, and she wasn't easily fooled by Kiyoshi's tricks.
"You tried to test my patience," she remarked one day, flipping a blade casually between her fingers. "Most people lie. You chose silence."
Kiyoshi offered a thin smile. "Did it work?"
"No, but I appreciated the effort."
As Kiyoshi regained his strength, he began to reflect on his failure. The 12th Knight's Veilcall class, the Celestial Pactbearer, didn't draw power from within the self as he had assumed. Instead, it formed contracts with beings in the higher Veil Realms. This revelation overwhelmed him; he realized he hadn't been fighting just one opponent, but a legion communicating through a single voice.
Now, he understood what he needed to study.
He devoured the souls of nearby creatures and whispered to echoes of the dead. At times, while Violet slept, he tested his limits by absorbing fragments of her leftover Veil aura — just enough to learn without harming her.
Slowly, his Veilborn class stirred to life. The powers he absorbed started to linger longer, and he found it easier to recall forms. Sometimes, just sometimes, the Veil whispered not of the past but of future possibilities.
One night, as clouds obscured the moon, Violet went rigid. Her blades sprang to life instinctively.
"Someone's watching," she warned.
Kiyoshi sensed it too — a flicker of cold, electric Veil energy, precise and calculated. It felt different from the chaotic storms of the 12th Knight.
From the shadows emerged a tall figure clad in armor that seemed grown from machines, glowing with mind sigils like a crown of circuits.
Sir Cael Arxen.
The 11th Knight.
The Synaptic Warden.
He didn't draw his blade. He didn't need to.
"You survived my brother's trial," Cael said, his voice smooth like glass. "That makes you… interesting."
Kiyoshi slowly stood. "Came to finish the job?"
Cael tilted his head. "No. I came to study the anomaly."
His eyes shimmered with data-like light.
"You're not like the others. Yes, a Veilborn, but with something deeper… a fracture in the weave."
Violet stepped in front of Kiyoshi, weapons poised. "He's not for study."
Cael raised his hand, forming a sharp spike of energy out of thin air.
"If he's not for study," he replied coolly, "then he's for deletion."