The strike came like breath—quick, sharp, precise.
Asli moved with the wind, each step a whisper. He didn't clash with the Rift Guardian so much as slip around it, folding through the fractures in space and silence. Every motion flowed with eerie, deliberate grace.
His shadow moved ahead of him, an extension of thought, curling around the Guardian's limbs like smoke with mass. Each coil thickened the air, weighed the enemy down. It was impossible to tell where Asli ended and the shadow began. They moved as one—a blade guided by instinct, sharpened by silence.
The Rift Guardian loomed—tall, faceless, cloaked in a mantle of black that shimmered like liquid starlight. The material of its robes shifted unnaturally, like oil drifting through water. Its shape flickered, flicked in and out of visual certainty, as if the world itself had trouble keeping it defined.
It did not breathe. Did not blink. It only watched.
And still, Asli pressed forward.
Weapons bloomed from his hands and vanished again—staffs, polearms, daggers, whips. Each conjured from shadow, each discarded in perfect rhythm. He never relied on one form. His style was not built around showmanship. It was precision. Elimination. Endings.
Nora staggered to her feet, curls tangled with sweat and ash. Her limbs shook, blood streaking her skin—but the fire in her eyes hadn't dimmed. She didn't hesitate.
Her hand snapped upward.
Flames erupted—white-hot, unfurling behind her like wings as she launched forward. It was raw. Reckless. Enough.
Shadow and flame crashed forward, side by side—cutting the Rift Guardian's space in half.
The creature moved then.
One arm lifted, deliberate and slow, trailing strings of liquid shadow. Threads spun mid-air—unnatural marionette cords, reaching.
Asli vanished, a flicker in the dark. A tendril tore through the place he'd been, leveling the ground with a deafening crack. Nora twisted under the next, flame whipping in a defensive arc. Her fire curled around one thread—but it didn't burn. It only dimmed.
The Guardian adapted. Fast.
Tendrils moved faster, flickering like thought—one lashed around Asli's ankle. For a moment, it held. Then his shadow struck upward like a blade, severing it clean.
But they were losing ground.
Ezra watched—paralyzed. His skin buzzed with dormant Aether. Breath stuck in his chest. It was too much. Too fast. But still—he saw them holding the line. Nora burned like a star, erratic and brilliant. Asli moved like a whisper, a cut too deep to see.
Ezra's fists clenched.
The ground cracked beneath him as chains surged from the earth, coiling around the Guardian's midsection with brutal force. They slammed shut with a sound like thunder. For a breath, it stopped moving.
The Rift Guardian turned.
Its slit of a gaze locked onto him for the first time.
Ezra's lips curled. "Yeah," he muttered. "Now you're looking at me."
Chains erupted again, lashing around its limbs, dragging it back. Nora's fire surged. Asli slipped between them, his body a blur, weapons flashing.
Three against one.
And for the first time—they had the upper hand.
But the Rift Guardian wasn't finished.
The shadows around its form pulsed—thickened. A low hum rippled through the air, not sound, but vibration. The pressure shifted—subtle, ancient, wrong.
Asli slowed.
Nora stumbled, mid-step.
Ezra's chains strained, groaning beneath the mounting force.
The Rift Guardian tilted its head—as if remembering.
And then it spoke.
Not sound. Not speech. Thought.
"The Hollow Coil slithers still. The shadow that split from the root."
Asli stopped.
His shadow buckled—twitched beneath him, like something recoiling.
"You wear the shape of man… but your echo is older. Born of mistake. Birthed in silence. Forgotten not by time… but by design."
The air changed. Dense. Still.
Even Nora's flames dimmed, flickering in response to something older than language.
Ezra looked between them—unease crawling up his spine.
The Rift Guardian took one step back.
Its faceless mask shimmered.
"The Unseen Coil returns to the wound. The Celestials buried her once. The Primordials feared to name him twice."
Asli's gaze was unreadable. Still. But in the reflection of his eyes—the shadow stirred.
In confusion and fear.