The mist thickened until the sun vanished behind it, turning the world into a dim sphere of gray and echoing water. Every step Arka took along the shoreline sent quiet ripples through the black lake, as if the surface itself was listening.
Lysander's voice came through the fog. "The readings are unstable. The mana levels keep dropping and then spiking again."
Arka crouched, hand hovering just above the surface. "It's not random. Something's breathing down there."
He rose, drawing the blade that now shimmered with threads of gold along its silver edge. "We're going in."
One of the mages hesitated. "We don't have the gear to"
Arka glanced back, eyes faintly glowing. "I'll keep the path open. Stay behind me and don't break formation."
Seraphiel's presence stirred within him. "The corruption is anchored beneath the lake. I can sense an ancient seal, but it's fractured. Proceed carefully."
The team followed as Arka stepped onto the water. It didn't ripple under his weight instead, it hardened into a smooth mirror, light bending beneath each step. The others followed hesitantly, their boots clinking softly against the thin layer of starlight forming beneath them.
Then, with a gesture, Arka raised his blade and the surface parted. A column of silver light spiraled downward, creating a passage through the depths. The lake swallowed them whole.
The descent was endless.
Beneath the surface, the water was clear but heavy, pressing around them like liquid glass. Strange shapes drifted in the dark statues half-buried in sand, towers of white stone covered in cracks, remnants of something ancient.
Lysander whispered, "This isn't natural. These aren't ruins from our time."
"No," Seraphiel murmured from within Arka. "This place was once called Lunareth. A sanctuary where Celestials and mortals walked together before the schism."
Arka frowned. "Before the schism? You mean before Heaven and the Abyss divided?"
"Yes," she said. "Before we decided who was pure… and who was not."
The deeper they went, the more the ruins pulsed with faint blue light. Symbols carved into the stone walls glowed when Arka passed, reacting to the sigil on his arm.
"It's responding to me," he muttered.
Seraphiel's voice grew tense. "It's because your essence carries both domains. You are a key that opens what should have stayed sealed."
A low hum vibrated through the water soft at first, then deep enough to shake their bones. The knights raised their weapons. "What was that?"
Then they saw it.
At the bottom of the lake, resting like a fallen moon, was a massive crystalline structure. Its surface pulsed like a heartbeat, veins of light crawling across it in rhythmic intervals. Within its translucent shell floated the outline of a figure enormous, winged, but fractured into pieces held together by chains of golden light.
Arka's breath caught. "A Celestial… buried?"
Seraphiel's voice trembled. "No. Bound."
The pulse grew stronger. Runes along the structure began to shift, rearranging into new patterns. Then a voice echoed through the water not from outside, but from inside their minds.
"Who disturbs my dream…"
The team froze. The waters churned, pulling them closer. Arka steadied his stance. "Show yourself!"
The light within the crystal flared, revealing the creature fully not divine, not monstrous, but both. Its wings were a patchwork of shadow and gold, its body riddled with cracks that leaked luminous mist.
Seraphiel gasped. "Impossible… that's Aeltharion. The First Herald. The one who led the Celestial Rebellion."
Arka's pulse raced. "The traitor angel."
The figure's eyes opened twin voids rimmed with starlight.
"Not traitor… visionary," it said slowly. "They sealed me here to silence the truth. But now… you bring both halves of creation back to me."
The golden chains around the crystal began to strain and creak.
Seraphiel shouted, "Arka, stop him! If Aeltharion breaks free, this world will collapse!"
Arka lifted his blade, its light slicing through the dark water. But before he could strike, the being's gaze fell upon him.
"I know you, wolf of the stars. You are what I dreamed would come."
Arka gritted his teeth. "I'm nothing like you."
"No?" The water quivered with each word. "Then why do the heavens fear you? Why does the void whisper your name?"
The crystal cracked once, twice and a flood of light burst outward.
Lysander yelled, "Arka!"
He threw his arm forward, summoning a barrier of intertwined starlight and divine gold. The blast hit, throwing them upward through the lake. For an instant, everything turned white.
When the light faded, Arka found himself on the surface again, gasping for breath. The lake was boiling, glowing from below like a dying star.
Seraphiel's tone was grim. "You couldn't destroy him."
"No," Arka said, rising to his feet. "But I woke him up."
Far below, something vast moved in the depths a slow, deliberate motion, as if stretching after a long sleep.
The chains that held the First Herald were breaking.