The seal shattered.


    A shockwave of raw, otherworldly energy erupted from the fractured sphere, sending ripples across the Floating Islands of Veyra.


    The skies darkened as arcs of violet lightning slashed through the heavens.


    The ground beneath Henry’s feet trembled, the very air twisting with a pressure that made his skin crawl


    Then came the sound...a distorted, layered whisper, as if countless voices spoke at once, overlapping in a chaotic, maddening chorus.


    The Veils had breached the barrier.


    From the shattered seal, the first creature emerged.


    It had no true form.


    Only a writhing mass of elongated limbs, shifting like liquid, twisting in and out of reality.


    Where its face should have been, there was only emptiness, a void that devoured light. Merely looking at it sent a wave of nausea rolling through Henry’s gut.


    Then, it screeched- a sound so guttural, so alien, that the very air seemed to recoil from it.


    And then…


    Chaos.


    The Veilguard acolytes, who had moments ago been chanting in triumph, were the first to suffer.


    The creature''s tendrils lashed out, piercing through their chests with grotesque ease.


    Their bodies twisted unnaturally, like marionettes with broken strings.


    Blood splattered, yet instead of falling, it rose, drifting toward the crack in the sky.


    Henry didn’t hesitate.


    He lunged forward, Unchained cleaving through the air.


    The blade, imbued with sheer force, met the creature’s undulating body-


    And slid through like water.


    His eyes widened, “What the hell-?”


    The Veil’s body rippled, reforming instantly.


    It moved too fast and its shifting limbs lunging toward him. Henry barely dodged, and the mere wind pressure from its strike carved deep gashes into the stone beneath him.


    Ethan didn’t flinch.


    He flipped open his spellbook, golden sigils forming around him as he chanted, “Luminara Divinitas.”


    A pillar of divine light descended from above, engulfing the creature in searing radiance.


    It screeched, its form twisting violently...but it did not die.


    It simply shifted, flowing backward like liquid, reforming just outside the blast radius.


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    Ethan’s expression darkened, “This isn’t good.”


    Nearby, the Deer, blood dripping from his mouth, let out a broken laugh. His body barely held together, but his eyes burned with wild, fanatical glee.


    “Do you see now? You cannot fight what you do not understand. The Veils… are beyond your world. They will save us.”


    Above, the sky fractured further.


    The Hollow Eclipse had reached its peak.


    Another figure emerged from the rift.


    This one taller than the first. A blue-skinned, six-armed humanoid, its elongated claws gleaming like obsidian. Its face was featureless except for a disturbingly wide mouth, and its long, greenish tentacle-hair slithered like living vines. It tilted its head at Henry and Ethan...observing their figure.


    Then, it raised one hand.


    The battlefield froze.


    A sudden, suffocating force pressed down upon reality itself.


    Then, he arrived.


    A black robe manifested from the void. A staff materialized in the air.


    Henry felt his muscles seize against his will. His breath caught in his throat. Even Ethan, bathed in divine aura, staggered, his golden sigils cracking under the sheer pressure.


    A voice echoed across the battlefield. Deep. Resonant. Absolute.


    “Freedom.”


    A figure descended from the Rift.


    He stepped onto the battlefield not like an invader, but like a ruler...inspecting his domain.


    His presence alone was suffocating, an abyss that demanded submission.


    His cloak, woven from shadows and embroidered with dark purple sigils, barely stirred in the wind.


    His face—a green, squid-like visage, tentacles resting against his chest. His long black dreadlocks cascaded down his back.


    And his eyes...piercing silver, glowing with an otherworldly light.


    But it was the symbol on his forehead that sent a chill down Henry’s spine. A blackened sigil, pulsing with eldritch energy, a mark of something beyond mortal comprehension.


    Henry exhaled, teeth clenched.


    “…Dante.”


    Ethan’s fingers tightened around his spellbook, “Damn it. Why is he here?”


    Dante, the Veilborne Monarch.


    Once, he had stood among humanity’s greatest warriors. Once, he had fought alongside them. Then he had vanished beyond the Rift…


    And returned changed.


    Dante’s gaze swept across the battlefield, impassive, unreadable. Then, with a single, languid motion, he lifted his hand—


    Every Veil creature halted.


    The six-armed being immediately knelt before him.


    The Deer, moments ago basking in victory, now trembled in fear.


    “L-Lord Dante… please, share your happiness with us.”


    Dante didn’t even spare him a glance. With a flick of his fingers—


    The Deer collapsed inward.


    It wasn’t an explosion. It wasn’t a cut. It was as if reality itself rejected his existence, folding him like a discarded scrap of paper.


    No blood. No scream. Just... gone.


    A terrible silence followed.


    Henry’s grip on Unchained tightened. Every instinct screamed at him to move—to fight, to run, to do something.


    But he knew better.


    Dante wasn’t just powerful.


    He was unknowable.


    Dante turned to them, a flicker of amusement in his silver eyes.


    “Still clinging to this broken world, I see.”


    Ethan stepped forward, divine energy crackling around him, “Why have you returned?”


    Dante smiled. Slow. Calculated.


    “To bring happiness to the Veils.”


    Behind him, the Rift expanded.


    Beyond its gaping maw, more Veil creatures stirred. Watching. Waiting.


    Dante spread his arms.


    “The Hollow Eclipse is not an end… it is a beginning.”


    His voice carried across the battlefield, resonating like prophecy.


    “This world has forgotten its true nature. Forgotten the truth beyond the veil.”


    His gaze darkened, and below his feet—something began to rise.


    The Deer, the one he had just erased from existence—returned.


    Twisted. Wrong. A Veil-born monstrosity, its former body nothing more than jagged flesh. A mask had formed where its head should have been, distorting into a grotesque, hunched shape.


    The other cultists watched—and they envied.


    Dante turned to them, voice soft yet brimming with authority.


    “If you wish to join my conquest… accept my gift.”


    The three remaining cultists knelt instantly, their heads bowed to the dirt.


    Then—bloody spikes erupted from the ground, impaling them.


    Their bodies twisted, morphed, transformed.


    The wolf became a black knight, his head engulfed in flames, wielding a two-handed sword of obsidian.


    The fox shed its humanity, reshaping into a humanoid plant, its presence radiating unnatural allure.


    And the hippocampus… swelled, becoming an abomination of grotesque, shifting flesh.


    Henry cursed under his breath, “This might be trouble.”


    Dante, uninterested in their reaction, conjured a throne of human remains and sat, exhaling softly.


    Then, with a single, lazy command...


    “Kill them both.”