The crimson haze over the western skies deepened with each passing day, a veil of dread that spread from the ruins of the Iron Veil Clan like a scar across the heavens. Word had reached Tianming even before he crossed into the Dawnshade territories—Iron Veil had fallen. Not to invasion. Not to civil strife.
They had knelt.
"Willing subjugation," Zhao Yueyin spat, reading the messenger's report. "They accepted the Abyss's whisper before we even arrived. Their Blood Sigil is likely corrupted already."
Tianming stood in silent thought atop a jagged ridge overlooking the passage to Dawnshade's fortress. Below, a caravan of refugees trudged slowly along the valley path—clanfolk fleeing the spreading darkness. Children clutched broken talismans. Elders murmured ancestral hymns that no longer carried protection.
"We won't reach them in time," Lan Mei said. "If Iron Veil has fallen, the others will be next."
"No," Tianming said at last. "That just means we have to move faster."
He turned to his party, eyes burning with a fire only forged in desperation and duty.
"Today, we break the next chain."
---
Dawnshade Citadel – Seat of the Radiant Oath
Unlike the forest sanctuary of the Verdant Fang, Dawnshade was carved into a cliff face of golden obsidian, its towers rising like sunbursts from the stone. Its people—keepers of lightcraft and memory—once stood as the scribes of celestial history. Their Blood Pact had bound them to truth above all else.
Yet now, the Citadel felt hollow.
The gates opened with ceremonial fanfare, but the expressions of the honor guard were stiff, their movements too practiced. Tianming stepped into the grand hall with Zhao Yueyin and Lan Mei flanking him. Braziers burned crimson instead of gold.
And at the top of the throne dais sat two figures.
The first, cloaked in pale silver with a blindfold of phoenix feathers, was High Scribe Liansu—matron of Dawnshade. Her presence was as serene as Tianming remembered from court assemblies.
But beside her stood a younger man, clad in crimson armor laced with void threads, his eyes two pits of blackened flame.
"Sister," the man said. "Our guest has arrived."
Liansu's face was unreadable. "Vanguard of Light. Welcome. I see you've come for the Sigil."
Tianming's hand drifted to Starpiercer. "And I see you're no longer alone in your rule, High Scribe."
The man laughed. "I am Liansu's blood. Her own nephew. And I bring truth of a different sort."
"You bring a leash," Zhao Yueyin growled.
Lan Mei's fingers twitched toward her hidden blade.
The man stepped forward. "The Abyss remembers the Dawnshade. We recorded the world's sins—and now we stand ready to rewrite them. Isn't that what you seek too, Tianming? A new world order?"
Tianming didn't move. "I seek to protect what remains. Not burn the bones to make a throne."
The man grinned. "Then I suppose we're at odds."
---
The Duel of Truth
Liansu spoke quietly, yet her voice carried through the chamber like a gong. "There is a rite. An old one. Not called in millennia. A truth duel. If Tianming wishes the Sigil, he must survive it."
Her nephew's grin faltered slightly. "You'd let him—?"
"I remember the oaths," she replied.
Tianming nodded. "Then I accept."
A circle of runes blazed into being, carved into the obsidian floor by ancient glyphs. As he stepped into the center, his opponent mirrored him—clad now in robes woven from corrupted sun threads.
The duel began not with blade or magic, but with memory.
"Speak your truth," the circle commanded.
Tianming closed his eyes. He saw the villagers of his homeland. The flames that consumed the Crimson Ridge. The children crushed by voidstorms. The whisper that had offered him power, and the choice to turn away.
> "I am light because I know the dark. I choose to stand—not because I am pure—but because I refuse to kneel."
The glyphs pulsed.
His opponent's turn came. He raised a hand, revealing a scar branded across his heart.
> "I was born to the blind. Our clan saw only light, ignored the creeping rot. The Abyss showed me truth. That all is balance. That light that ignores shadow becomes tyranny."
The glyphs shimmered again.
Then truth gave way to trial.
They clashed.
Blades of sunsteel and voidglass collided in flashes that cracked the very throne hall. Tianming's Celestial Core flared, invoking constellations to counter the man's inverted light techniques.
Zhao Yueyin and Lan Mei kept the guards at bay as the duel tore through the chamber. Pillars shattered. Windows imploded. History itself screamed from the walls.
Then Tianming broke through.
Not with strength.
But by lowering his blade.
"Strike me," he said, "if you believe you've found a better path."
The man faltered.
And in that breath of hesitation—Tianming sealed him in a cocoon of starlight.
The glyphs flared. Judgment passed.
> Blood Sigil of Dawnshade Acquired
Progress toward Severing the Five Pacts: 2 of 5
---
The Cracking Veil
They departed at dawn, leaving the citadel in silence.
Liansu met them at the gate alone.
"I will try to rebuild what I can," she said. "But the void… it stains more than walls."
Tianming bowed. "Truth can still be reclaimed. Thank you."
As they rode toward their next destination—Crimson Spear territory—the sky cracked.
Literally.
A jagged rent split the western firmament, revealing an eye of void swirling within. The gate was not idle.
"They've accelerated the ritual," Zhao Yueyin said grimly. "We're running out of time."
Lan Mei turned toward Tianming. "Then let's not waste another breath."
He nodded, drawing Starpiercer once more.
"We ride."