The battlefield had long since settled into silence, but the weight of what had happened still clung to the air. The scent of blood, steel, and something more unnatural lingered, like an invisible stain no amount of wind could carry away.
Evolis stood at the edge of the carnage, his golden eyes flickering with traces of residual Etherion as he surveyed the scene. The mercenaries who had fought beside them, who had fallen, were gone.
Not corpses left to rot. Not bodies looted by scavengers.
Vanished.
And the ones responsible? Already watching from the shadows, somewhere beyond their reach.
Aeliana let out a slow breath beside him, her grip tightening on the hilt of her sword as she followed his gaze to the distant ridges. "They're not coming back, are they?"
Evolis shook his head. "No."
Silence stretched between them before Orion let out an exaggerated sigh, running a hand down his face. "Right. So, I know we just survived an ambush by regenerating death warriors, but hear me out—what if we don't stick around to meet their bigger, uglier friends?"
Aeliana shot him a glare. "We can't just leave without knowing what's happening here."
Orion gave a short, dry laugh. "Yeah? And what exactly are we supposed to do, Princess? Walk up to the guys responsible and ask them nicely to spill their secrets?" He gestured at the battlefield. "In case you missed it, whatever's happening here is way beyond standard war tactics. This is dark magic, experiments, or something worse."
Evolis remained quiet, his mind working through the puzzle. The threads of Etherion he had seen. The way the fallen warriors were being manipulated, their wounds reversing rather than healing naturally, it wasn't something he had encountered before.
It wasn't just war.
It was something else.
And that something had a source.
"Orion's right," Evolis finally said, though his voice carried none of Orion's humor. "We're walking into something we don't understand. But if we leave now, we lose any chance of getting ahead of it."
Orion exhaled loudly. "Great. Another bad idea. I love those."
Aeliana ignored him. "You saw more than we did, didn't you?" she asked Evolis.
He nodded. "Whoever was controlling them wasn't here. They were watching from a distance, pulling the strings. The regeneration wasn't natural, it was forced, like their bodies weren't even theirs anymore." He glanced toward where the ridge met the dense forests ahead. "And if we want answers, we need to follow the trail before it disappears."
Orion groaned. "I really hate when you say things like that, kid."
Evolis smirked faintly. "We'll be careful."
"We better be." Orion sighed again, stretching his arms behind his head. "Fine. Lead the way, genius. Let's go poke the nest and see what happens."
The deeper they ventured into the forest, the more wrong everything felt.
The usual hum of life that should have filled the air—birds, insects, the rustling of leaves—was absent.
The silence was unnatural.
Aeliana pressed forward, eyes sharp as she traced the faintest indentations in the earth. "Whoever was here didn't even try to hide their movements. That's either arrogance… or a trap."
Orion snorted. "Knowing our luck? Probably both."
Evolis remained focused, his golden irises shifting subtly as he peeled back the layers of perception. His sight, attuned to the underlying truths of Etherion, traced the lingering threads in the air, the same ones he had seen on the battlefield.
But something was wrong.
The trail didn't fade. It was leading them somewhere.
His eyes narrowed. A lure.
"They want us to follow," Evolis murmured.
Aeliana halted, her grip tightening on her weapon. "What?"
Evolis exhaled. "This isn't just a retreat. Whoever's behind this is drawing us in on purpose."
Orion let out a slow whistle. "Fantastic. So not only are we walking into a trap, but we're also doing it knowingly. Again."
"Can you tell where it leads?" Aeliana asked.
Evolis focused, his gaze cutting through the thick of the forest, following the unseen flow of Etherion like a current in water. "There's something ahead. A focal point. The energy there is denser."
Aeliana exchanged a glance with Orion.
"Could be a hidden outpost," she suggested.
"Could be a death pit," Orion countered.
Evolis glanced back at them. "Only one way to find out."
Orion sighed, throwing up his hands. "Of course. Of course, we're doing this."
The Discovery
The forest gave way to an ancient ruin.
Half-buried in moss and decay, the remains of an old temple loomed before them, its once-proud stone walls now fractured by time and war.
Aeliana's breath hitched. "This… This architecture is Elven."
Evolis frowned. "Veylith?"
She shook her head, stepping closer, her fingers brushing over the worn carvings on the outer wall. "No. Older. Much older."
Orion scoffed. "Great. Ancient ruins in the middle of a cursed battlefield. This is totally not a bad sign."
Evolis didn't respond. His eyes flickered as he examined the structure—not just with his sight, but with the perception beyond it.
And what he saw made his pulse spike.
"This isn't abandoned," he murmured.
Aeliana and Orion turned to him sharply.
"What do you mean?" Aeliana asked.
Evolis' golden eyes narrowed, tracing the nearly invisible web of Etherion running through the temple's stones. It was subtle—deliberate.
"Someone is using this place," he said. "As a conduit. As a—"
"Containment."
The realization struck him just as the air around them shifted.
The energy that had been lingering in the background suddenly surged.
The temple responded.
A sharp hum of Etherion vibrated through the ground, resonating through Evolis' bones.
Orion cursed. "Oh, come on. Now the creepy magic decides to wake up?"
Aeliana drew her blade. "Something's coming."
And then—
The ruins began to glow.
Intricate runes, once faded by time, lit up in eerie crimson light, pulsing like a heartbeat.
Evolis barely had time to react before something shattered within the temple.
A burst of Etherion erupted outward—
And the ground beneath them collapsed.
The world blurred.
Evolis barely had time to brace himself before he was falling.
The stone beneath their feet gave way in a violent implosion, the earth swallowing them whole as ancient Etherion surged through the ruins. Dust and debris filled the air, a deafening roar consuming all sound as gravity seized them.
Then—darkness.
Evolis twisted mid-fall, forcing space around him to loosen, slowing his descent just as the others plunged into the abyss. With a flick of his wrist, he reached out—
Aeliana's sharp inhale cut through the chaos as Evolis caught her wrist just before she tumbled past him. Their eyes met, wide but steady.
"I got you," he muttered.
She barely had time to reply before Orion's yell echoed from above.
"Not to interrupt this romantic moment, but I'm about to hit the ground at a very unfortunate speed!"
Evolis gritted his teeth, reaching out again, compressing space just enough to redirect Orion's fall at the last moment. The older warrior twisted, landing in a controlled roll just as they hit solid ground.
Aeliana and Evolis landed right after.
The impact sent a jolt through Evolis' legs, the cavern floor cold and unyielding beneath him. A heavy silence settled over them, broken only by the last echoes of falling debris.
Then—light.
The same ominous crimson glow that had ignited the ruins above pulsed through the vast underground chamber they had landed in.
Orion let out a low groan, pushing himself up from where he had landed sprawled across the floor. "You know, one of these days, we should really just walk into places like normal people."
Evolis ignored him, scanning their surroundings. The chamber was massive, carved from dark stone, its walls lined with faded Elven script. Large crystalline structures jutted from the ground, humming with residual Etherion, casting eerie reflections across the underground walls.
Aeliana dusted herself off, her silver eyes narrowing. "This place... It's ancient."
Evolis agreed. The architecture, the layout, this wasn't just a ruin.
It was a tomb.
Aeliana stepped closer to one of the walls, tracing her fingers over the inscriptions. "This writing... it's Old Elvish. Pre-Divine Era. I've only seen fragments of this script in the royal archives."
"Great," Orion muttered, cracking his neck. "So we're in a dead language death trap. Love that for us."
Evolis' golden eyes flickered as he activated his sight, breaking down the layered Etherion within the chamber.
What he saw wasn't normal.
The walls weren't just old. They were sealed, not by time, but by something deliberate. Etherion chains, woven through the very foundation, locking something inside.
His stomach twisted. "This place wasn't just abandoned. It was locked away."
Aeliana stilled. "Sealed?"
Evolis nodded. "And whatever was here… someone didn't want it getting out."
Orion huffed, glancing at the glowing crimson runes around them. "Well, that's just fantastic, because I'm guessing us crashing through the floor wasn't exactly helping with that whole 'keeping it locked' thing."
Before Evolis could respond, something shifted deeper within the ruins.
A low hum, barely perceptible, vibrating through the stone.
Then... a distant echo of movement.
Orion immediately tensed, one hand drifting toward his blade. "Tell me that was just the ruins settling."
Evolis' sharp gaze snapped toward the far end of the chamber, where a crumbling corridor stretched into the darkness.
"It wasn't."
The three of them moved cautiously, their steps barely making a sound as they ventured further into the ruins. The corridor was narrow, lined with shattered carvings and the skeletal remains of what once must have been Elven architecture.
The deeper they went, the colder the air became.
Then they found it.
A door.
Not a simple one. Not like the collapsed archways or broken entryways they had seen above.
This door was pristine, untouched by time.
It was massive, carved from obsidian-like stone, and unlike the rest of the ruin, it bore modern markings, runes that pulsed with familiar Dark Elven Etherion.
Aeliana's breath hitched. "This… this wasn't built during the old era. This was placed here recently."
Evolis traced the runes with his sight, peeling back their layers.
A security measure. A barrier.
And yet, the door was already slightly ajar.
A cold sense of dread settled in his stomach.
Orion exhaled. "Alright. I hate this already."
Evolis pressed a hand against the stone, pushing the door open further.
What lay beyond stole his breath.
Rows upon rows of dark Etherion chambers, each large enough to hold a body.
And inside them—
People.
Or at least… what remained of them.
Aeliana let out a sharp curse. Orion's expression darkened.
The bodies were not dead.
Not fully.
Suspended in glowing red Etherion, their forms twitched, pulsing unnaturally as if something was keeping them from fully dying.
Aeliana took a step back, her voice barely a whisper. "What… what is this?"
Evolis stepped closer, his golden eyes piercing through the veil of Etherion surrounding the bodies.
Then... he saw the truth.
These bodies were not whole.
They were missing pieces—limbs, organs, patches of skin torn away and replaced.
And the Etherion running through them?
It wasn't their Etherion.
It was foreign, stitched together in an unnatural, grotesque way.
Orion clenched his fists. "They're experimenting."
Evolis' stomach twisted.
This was it.
This was what they were using to modify their soldiers.
This is why the Dark Elves' warriors regenerated so quickly.
They weren't healing.
They were being rebuilt.
Aeliana turned to Evolis, horror and realization flashing in her eyes. "They're testing Etherion compatibility on bodies."
Evolis exhaled, his mind racing. The implications of this… If they had perfected a way to replace their fallen warriors instead of losing them permanently, the war was about to take a very dark turn.
Then—
A sound.
From deep within the facility.
A slow, mechanical hissing, like a pressure seal being released.
And then—a voice.
Low, rasping, not quite alive.
"Intruders…"
Aeliana reached for her blade. Orion immediately shifted into a defensive stance.
Evolis' golden eyes burned as he turned toward the source.
Something had just woken up.
And it was not happy.