The sun rose weakly over the horizon, a pale and trembling orb that struggled to pierce the gray haze spreading across the world. Once, the light of the Harmony had painted the skies with gold and sapphire. Now, it was thin—fragile, like a memory fading in slow motion.
Arka stood atop the ruins of the Observatory Spire, his cloak torn and his armor cracked. Below him stretched the city of Solmere, once the radiant heart of the new world. Now, veins of black mist crawled along its streets. Houses were quiet. Fires no longer burned. Even the wind seemed hesitant to breathe.
Lyra leaned against a broken pillar, her hand pressed over the wound that refused to heal. The crystal embedded in her palm—once a perfect sphere of gold—now pulsed half-dark, half-light.
"It's spreading faster," she murmured.
Arka nodded. "The balance wasn't restored. It fractured."
They watched in silence as, far below, people began to emerge. But their movements were wrong. Too smooth. Too silent.
A child looked up at the faint sun, eyes empty—then his shadow began to move differently than his body. The darkness beneath him writhed, then rose, forming a second shape.
Lyra's voice trembled. "They're splitting."
Arka's jaw tightened. "The Harmony's collapse is dividing them—their essence from their souls."
He leaped from the tower, landing on the cracked plaza. The air around him rippled with residual starlight. As he approached the figures, they turned their hollow eyes toward him, whispering in distorted echoes of their own voices.
"You built this world… to save us…"
"…but you left the wound open…"
"…now we bleed the truth you hid…"
Their shadows surged forward. Arka drew his blade. The starlight cut through the darkness, each swing sending arcs of silver fire that illuminated the ruins. But for every shadow slain, another rose from the ground, born from the same corrupted light.
Lyra descended beside him, her hands trembling as she raised her crystal. Golden threads spilled from her fingers, wrapping around the shadows, binding them. But even as she pulled, part of her light turned black.
"Arka—" she gasped, "it's feeding on me—"
"Then stop!"
"I can't. If I let go, they'll consume everything!"
Arka stepped between her and the swarm, his blade burning brighter. "Then I'll hold them."
He fought without pause—every strike a burst of fury and desperation. His energy crackled, unstable. With each impact, the ground split further, the city collapsing into itself.
Lyra's voice echoed through the chaos. "We can't fight the fracture. We need to contain it!"
Arka turned to her, sweat and blood streaking his face. "How?"
Her eyes flickered with light. "We seal the wound again—temporarily. Use our link."
He froze. "That could tear us apart."
"Then let it." Her voice was steady now, filled with the same quiet strength that had always anchored him. "The world deserves one more dawn."
For a moment, they stared at each other—two halves of a dying creation. Then Arka nodded.
They pressed their palms together.
Light and shadow spiraled outward from them, intertwining. The city groaned under the weight of the surge, its foundations splitting open. Energy cascaded into the sky, forming a vast spiral that pierced the clouds.
The shadows screamed as they were drawn upward, dissolving into the vortex. For a heartbeat, the world glowed pure again.
Then silence.
When the light faded, Solmere was gone. Only a crater remained, at its center a single, glowing tree—its roots buried deep in darkness, its leaves shimmering with stars.
Lyra lay motionless beside it. Arka knelt, his body trembling, his starlight fading to ash.
He touched her hand. "Lyra…"
Her eyes opened weakly, gold dimming to gray. "You did it… the world will heal…"
He shook his head. "Not without you."
She smiled faintly. "Then let it remember us."
Her hand slipped from his grasp, dissolving into light that drifted into the tree's branches.
Arka looked up, tears falling silently. The dawn broke again—but this time, it was fractured, painted in streaks of gold and black.
He rose, whispering to the horizon.
"If this is the world we built, then I'll protect it… until the stars fall again."
And somewhere deep beneath the earth, a faint heartbeat answered.