The cold stones of the chamber were slick with sweat and dust as Zhao Wei stumbled back, the world spinning violently around her. The prophecy, ancient and wrapped in death, clawed at her mind, demanding to be understood.

  But her head… her head felt like it was splitting. Images and words that weren’t hers flickered in and out of focus, like the fragmented visions of a forgotten dream. A vision of a man she once loved his face, twisted by time, or perhaps by something darker lingered at the edge of her consciousness. But no matter how much she strained to remember, it was like trying to grasp smoke with bare hands.

  Her breath came in ragged gasps. The prophecy spoke of the balance of power, of bloodlines lost and promises broken, of war that spanned lifetimes. She had always suspected the Creed had ties to her past, but this… this was more than she could have ever imagined.

  The chamber’s walls seemed to tighten around her, as though they were closing in, suffocating her with the weight of what she now knew.

  “Zhao Wei,” a voice whispered, far too close for comfort.

  She froze, every muscle in her body locking. It was as though the very air had changed, thick with a presence that had no place in her world. Slowly, she turned, finding herself face-to-face with a figure that shouldn’t have been there. His silver chainmail shimmered under the low light, the same as the Messenger's but his eyes were different. Cold, empty, and utterly familiar.

  A shudder ran down her spine. No… it couldn’t be. But the man in front of her was no ordinary soldier of the Creed.

  “I was wondering when you'd show up," Zhao Wei’s voice was a low rasp. She could taste the bile in her throat. "You’re not who you once were."

  The man no, the shadow of the man she once loved took a step forward, his expression unreadable. “Your memories are... clouded,” he said, his tone soft but dangerous. “But it’s not too late to remember. If you’d only let me show you...”

  Zhao Wei shook her head fiercely. “No. What happened to you?”

  The last time she had seen him, they had been fighting together. They had been a team, a pair of fire and ice, willing to sacrifice everything for each other. But now… he was a shell. Hollowed out. A puppet to the Creed.

  “You’ve changed. You’re no longer the person I loved,” she whispered.

  His lips curled upward into a sadistic smile. “I haven’t changed. You just can’t see past your own hatred. It’s a weapon, Zhao Wei. But it makes you blind.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Before she could respond, the ground beneath her feet trembled, shaking the walls of the chamber. An explosion of force, and the chamber’s entrance was blasted open, revealing a dozen Creed soldiers, their black armor gleaming in the dim light.

  Behind them stood a figure cloaked in shadow. Zhao Wei’s heart skipped a beat as her worst fear was realized. She had known this moment would come just never so soon.

  Feng Ren, his face a mask of hard resolve, stepped into the chamber. His sword gleamed like a star in the darkness, but his eyes, those eyes, were full of something far darker than even Zhao Wei’s greatest enemies could wield.

  “We’re too late,” Feng Ren said quietly, surveying the chaos. “We should have left sooner. But I didn’t realize the Creed would be this far ahead of us.”

  The man who had once been Zhao Wei’s love, the one now standing before her as a stranger, made no move. His eyes flickered from Zhao Wei to Feng Ren, his expression unreadable.

  “You’re not getting away with this,” Zhao Wei spat, her voice thick with venom. She could feel the burn of the blood moon outside, an omen of war and reckoning. She wasn’t about to let them control her again.

  But the stranger’s lips twitched in something that might have been a smile, though there was nothing in his eyes to suggest it. “You think you can stop what has already begun?”

  Feng Ren raised his sword. “We’ll see about that.”

  The ground shook again, this time more violently. Zhao Wei barely had time to react as the chamber seemed to implode around her. A wall of black smoke surged in from the shattered entrance, and in the distance, the unmistakable sound of battle rang out.

  The Creed had arrived in force.

  Without hesitation, Zhao Wei turned to Feng Ren. “The prophecy isn’t the only thing I found,” she muttered under her breath. “There’s something much darker at play here. Something… someone who has been watching me all along. And it’s not just them. It’s the prophecy itself.”

  Feng Ren frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “The past…” Zhao Wei’s eyes darkened. “It’s like it’s always been part of the plan. They’ve known… known about my connection to all of this. And there’s someone still alive who shouldn’t be. Someone who holds the key to everything.”

  Feng Ren’s face tightened. “Who?”

  Zhao Wei met his gaze and didn’t flinch. “Someone I loved. Someone I trusted. And they might just be the one who’s been pulling the strings all along.”

  As the Creed soldiers poured in, Zhao Wei grabbed Feng Ren by the arm and pulled him into the shadows.

  “We need to leave now. The game’s changed. And if we don’t move quickly, we’re going to be the ones caught in the flames.”

  But before they could escape, a voice rang out from the edge of the chamber, a voice that carried with it the finality of a death sentence.

  “Leave now, Zhao Wei, and I’ll be forced to consider you an enemy of the Creed.”

  Zhao Wei stopped. Her heart pounded in her chest as she turned to face the figure that had spoken. Her stomach churned as she saw who it was. The man who had once stood by her side, her comrade, her love, stood at the entrance, his eyes filled with ice. No trace of warmth remained.

  “I don’t want to fight you,” Zhao Wei said softly, stepping toward him. “But I will.”

  He tilted his head slightly. “Then you leave me no choice.”

  Before Zhao Wei could react, he snapped his fingers, and the Creed soldiers moved into action. The battle was about to begin.

  The fight wasn’t just for her survival anymore. It was for everything. And the truth she had uncovered in the chamber would be the key to either her downfall or her redemption.

  The flames of war had already begun to consume the world.