The Vale of Mourned Stars was not a valley—it was a memory carved into the skin of the world.
Stone obelisks jutted from the ground like shattered teeth. Veins of starlight shimmered through them, pulsing faintly beneath layers of frost. The path wound between ruins where forgotten banners fluttered in a wind that smelled of incense and cold iron.
Above, the sky refused day.
Twilight stretched endlessly, and the stars refused to fade.
Not one, but dozens shimmered—brighter than they should have been—forming unfamiliar constellations that pulsed with a rhythm Li Shen could almost hear. The Eidolon Blade whispered against his back in response, resonating with something buried deep in the stones.
And then—
A scream.
Not of pain. But of steel.
A sword was crying.
Li Shen broke into a sprint toward the sound.
Beyond the ruins, a high platform of pale stone jutted over a sheer drop into mist.
There, surrounded by floating shards of glowing glass, stood a lone swordswoman.
Her garments were tattered robes of star-silk, glittering with threads of broken constellations. Her skin bore glowing lines like cracked porcelain, and her long hair floated as though underwater.
But it was her blade that held Li Shen's attention.
It wasn't one sword—it was seven.
They spun around her in an orbit of light, shimmering with celestial radiance, each forged from fragments of fallen stars. They danced, moved, and parried invisible foes.
Each movement she made summoned one of the swords—calling it from her orbit to clash, defend, or vanish in a streak of energy.
A celestial blade dancer.
She turned to Li Shen without fear. Her voice echoed with a faint, harmonic distortion. "You carry blades that do not belong to this world."
"And you're not of this world either," Li Shen said. "Are you the guardian of this vale?"
She nodded. "I am Yara of the Silent Eclipse. Exiled from the Astral Sanctum. Sword-reader of the Constellant Oath. This vale remembers only echoes. And you, trespasser, bring too many."
"Then test me," he said, drawing the Ocean Soul Blade.
The forest wind died.
The stars pulsed brighter.
And the duel began.
First Starfall Form: Nebula Wheel.
Yara's blades spun around her in a perfect arc, slicing through the air with blinding speed. A flurry of starlight surged forward in a spinning crescent.
Li Shen countered with Ocean Soul's Fifth Form: Tidal Cross, crossing his arms and drawing a torrent of water into an X-shaped surge that collided with the light. The air exploded with steam and crackling resonance.
She was already moving.
Two of her blades split off, angling toward him from opposite sides like twin comets. He dropped low, activating Mirror Vale's Third Reflection: Splinter Path, and his image split into three—only one real.
The astral swords struck all three.
Pain flared across his ribs.
She could see through illusions.
"Good," she said. "You bleed."
Yara raised both hands. The sky darkened, and five of her starblades rose overhead like a constellation made of steel.
"Echo Bloom."
They rained down in a spiral pattern, weaving starlight and sword intent into a blooming lotus of death.
Li Shen grit his teeth. This was more than swordsmanship—it was celestial art.
He focused everything into the Eidolon Blade.
It didn't glow.
It didn't shine.
It consumed.
Eidolon Blade: First Veil – Grasp of the Forgotten.
All color drained from the air.
The swords froze mid-fall, distorted by a field of compressed stillness. Li Shen leapt upward into the heart of the bloom and slashed once—his blade humming with echoes of things unsaid.
The veil shattered.
The starlight cracked.
And Yara was knocked back, her floating blades trembling.
She landed, blood trailing from her lip.
But she smiled.
"You can sever echoes."
Instead of attacking again, Yara sank to one knee.
"You are no invader," she said. "The blades have judged you worthy."
Around them, the obelisks pulsed.
The constellations above shifted—and something vast stirred behind the veil of sky.
A massive structure, half-temple, half-tree, rose from the mist at the far end of the vale—its roots embedded in time itself. Glowing fruit hung from its branches, each shaped like an unsheathed sword.
"The Archive Tree," Yara said, rising. "One of the last relics of the Astral Sanctum. It holds the memories of all starforged swords… and the truth of the Bladeless War."
Li Shen stepped forward slowly. The Eidolon Blade hummed as if in recognition.
Yara turned to him. "To take the next sword, you must offer one in return."
"What do you mean?"
"One of your three. It must be planted beneath the tree. Its echo will remain. Only then may you claim a starblade."
Li Shen hesitated.
Each blade had become part of him.
But he stepped toward the roots anyway.
After a long moment… he unsheathed the Mirror Vale Blade.
He knelt. And drove it into the soil.
Light flared. A pulse of memory surged into the sky. The blade melted into glowing mist and vanished.
From the branches above, one of the sword-shaped fruits fell slowly.
Li Shen caught it.
As his fingers closed around it, stars swirled in his vision—and a new presence settled in his soul:
The Astral Blade: Sērahn's Echo.
Forged from collapsed constellations.
A sword of celestial memory.
A whisper of eternity.