They descended into the Umbravault at dusk.
The terrain warped the deeper they moved—trees twisted at odd angles, stones hovering mid-air, and entire ridges crumpled as if folded by a giant, unseen hand. Kaien, Ilira, and Varen advanced with caution, their forms flickering with the glow of active core stabilization.
Each step was a struggle against reality itself.
Ilira's breath fogged despite the heat, her Lunaflare Core pulsing against the pressure. Her sabers shimmered faintly at her back, defensive runes glowing pale blue.
"Still think this was a good idea?" she muttered, voice tight.
Kaien, leading, didn't answer. His eyes were fixed ahead—on a chasm that shouldn't exist, stitched across the land like a wound that refused to heal. Space around it folded and shimmered. Stars reflected off the broken air like mirrors in water.
Varen came last, hands spread as magnetic anchors floated around them, locking into the terrain to reduce the gravitational instability. His Forgecore was humming at full tension.
"This zone's bleeding Rift. I'm detecting fractured time-stamps across the stone. Some of this land's aging forward and backward at once."
Ilira frowned. "Does that mean what I think it means?"
"Touch the wrong patch of ground," Varen said, "and you might forget how to breathe."
Kaien stepped forward, drawing his Phasebrand katana. Space warped around the blade, bending faintly inward like a collapsed star. "It's here."
The chasm pulsed.
Below it, something was buried. Not just the next Rift relic—but a Celestia Node, a sealed celestial anchor capable of resonating with the highest tier of aether cores. Ancient. Forbidden. Lost during the Collapse.
Ilira stepped beside Kaien. "I'm getting strong pressure. A watcher—just past the veil."
Kaien focused. He didn't see it at first. But then… the shadows shifted.
Something stood on the other side of the chasm. Tall. Graceful. Wrapped in a swirling cloak of dark aether and starlight threads. Hair like liquid silver. Eyes glowing like dying suns.
Ilvethe.
She smiled as the fold between worlds bent inward and stepped through the impossible.
Kaien's eyes widened.
"You—"
Ilvethe tilted her head. "So this is the Rift-Touched boy everyone's chasing."
Ilira was already moving, blades drawn, but Kaien raised a hand to stop her.
"No," he said, stepping forward. "She's not just Rift-touched."
Ilvethe chuckled, sound like fractured bells. "Oh, I've been far more than that. You're standing at the edge of a great truth, Kaien Morreti. A truth the Council tried to erase."
Her hand flicked. Space unraveled around her like a spider's web.
"You've inherited the broken light of the sky. But you don't even know what it is, do you?"
Kaien's grip on his katana tightened.
"You're not with the Council anymore," he said slowly. "So what do you want?"
Ilvethe's smile widened.
"Everything."
In a blink, she was gone.
No explosion. No storm. Just absence.
Varen shouted—Kaien spun just in time to block her strike. Phasebrand met Riftflame, the impact shattering the ground between them. Gravity collapsed inward. Stone and light twisted as space screamed.
Ilira leapt into the fray, spinning into Moonstep Mirage form—one blade feinting, the other aiming for Ilvethe's exposed flank.
But Ilvethe bent time itself.
The moment paused.
She caught Ilira's blade mid-air and flicked her across the field like a doll, sending her crashing through a ridge of suspended stone.
Kaien roared and surged forward, katana igniting with Rift-threaded energy. He struck, again and again—slashes layered with warp-pressure and acceleration coils—but Ilvethe danced through space like it was water.
She didn't fight to win.
She fought to measure him.
Finally, Kaien forced her back—just a single step. It was enough.
Ilvethe tilted her head again, thoughtful now. "You'll survive the next shard," she whispered. "And then we'll speak properly."
Then she vanished—space folding behind her like silk.
Ilira groaned from the rubble. Varen pulled her up, bruised but conscious.
Kaien stood at the edge of the relic site.
No more illusions.
The second Rift relic, bound in a shell of collapsed gravity and frozen time, hovered in a prism of spinning matter. It waited for him.
"Next time," Kaien said softly, "I'll be ready."
End of Chapter 19.