CHAPTER 350: INTENTIONS AND DUTIES

The air was thick with tension as Naena stood at the edge of her sacred Hollow, her signature qi swirling gently around her silver-lined robes. Beside her stood her granddaughter, Eirana, her face calm yet shadowed with unease. Behind them gathered a crowd of Nullcarvers, the elite of the Qi-wielding tribe—silent warriors cloaked in twilight robes, emanating strength from their stillness. Kaelen’s friends—Morris, Ethan, and Guinevere—stood just behind them, alert and armed. The air buzzed with Qi and readiness.

Naena’s expression was grim. The elven presence approaching them had not gone unnoticed. She raised her hand and turned toward the tall Nullcarver who had just returned from Lila’s former chamber. "Bring Kaelen and Kelvin to me," she commanded in a voice that cut through the veil of silence like a knife.

"Yes, Matriarch," the Nullcarver bowed, disappearing in a flash of silver mist, heading for Kaelen’s location.

Moments later, Kaelen arrived along with Kelvin, both of their breath were even, but Kaelen’s eyes were sharp with resolve.

"You sent for us, matriarch?" he asked, voice quiet but unwavering.

Naena turned her gaze to him and gave a nod. "Yes. You were insistent about being by her side in case things go awry... Now, it seems war might break before anything else does."

"I’m ready," Kaelen replied firmly, his hand resting on the hilt of his sheathed weapon, the incomplete Blade of Eternity still strapped to his back like a ghost of its former glory. "If they’re here for her, they’ll go through me."

Naena stared at him for a moment before nodding, then turned to the rest. "We meet them head-on. This is still our home. We do not cower."

Hearing this, Kaelen stayed silent for a short while before he replied. "Alright"

Without another word, the group began moving through the dense forest path that led to the edge of the Nullcarver’s territory. As they walked, the trees thinned, revealing the approach of the Elven army.

Dozens of mounted elves glistened beneath the canopy, banners of the Verdant Sigil fluttering like silent threats in the cold wind. Towering and proud, armored with emerald steel and silver filigree, they stood at attention as their commander sat atop a moon-antlered stag. Her piercing green eyes met Naena’s calmly, though the tension between them sparked the very mist around them.

"Commander Maeralyn," Naena addressed without pause, her voice stern, ancient authority laced in every word. "You stand on the threshold of sacred land. State your purpose, before I assume you come with intentions unwise."

Maeralyn, regal and cold, raised a hand. "Elder Naena, your sacred Hollow harbors two fugitives," she said calmly but firmly. "One, an intruder who violated the sovereignty of Elven lands—your own granddaughter. And two..." She paused and her expression darkened. "A Seer... a High Elven Seer, hidden from the Council. A threat to balance."

Kaelen’s fists clenched at the wording.

Ethan muttered behind him, "Threat to balance? Or to their control..."

Guinevere gritted her teeth, but Naena raised her hand to silence them.

"The girl you speak of," Naena responded, her voice harder now, "was not hidden. She awakened. It was not by my doing. It was by destiny’s hand. And if she now possesses the Seer’s gift, then the Elves should kneel in reverence, not brandish blades in ignorance."

Maeralyn’s gaze didn’t waver. "The Seer bloodline is too dangerous to be left to its own devices. You know that well, Elder. The Council has decreed her return is non-negotiable. If she resists, we will use force."

Kaelen took one step forward. "You’ll have to use it on me too, then."

"Same here," Kelvin added, his body already humming with dormant Qi.

Morris stepped beside them. "You Elves think you’re the only ones with blood that matters? Think again."

Commander Maeralyn sighed, as if the burden of patience was wearing thin. "You are willing to die for her?"

"No," Naena cut in, voice now cold steel. "They are willing to live for her. And that should terrify you more."

The forest tensed.

Elves tightened their grips on spears and swords. The Nullcarvers, despite fewer in number, began channeling their Qi, the air warping slightly from their raw presence. Sparks of elemental resonance danced along Ethan’s fingertips, while Guinevere’s cloak flickered with lingering Amaterasu flame.

But then—

BOOM!

A sound rumbled from the skies—distant, subtle—but its vibration echoed through the earth. A faint ripple of mana shimmered through the air. Everyone paused. Maeralyn lifted her head sharply, sensing it. Naena’s eyes narrowed.

Kaelen’s gut clenched.

"Seems like she is not here..." Naena murmured, half to herself.

"Lila?" Kaelen turned to her.

Naena didn’t respond, but the faintest frown formed on her lips.

Maeralyn’s eyes also flickered with understanding. "Then it’s true... she’s no longer in your Hollow."

Naena’s expression hardened, but before she could answer, Kaelen stepped forward, drawing all attention back to him.

"She’s not yours to claim," he said firmly. "She’s not a tool, not a relic of your people’s past. She is her own person. And if she becomes something greater... you’ll only have yourselves to blame for trying to put a leash on her."

Maeralyn studied him for a long time. "Then the next time we meet, it may be with drawn blades."

"Then let it be," Kaelen replied.

With no blood drawn—for now—the air settled slightly. Maeralyn gave a signal to her troops. "We’ll await her return at the Veil of Whispering Trees. But if she steps into Elven lands again... she will not leave."

And with that, the Elves turned and began their retreat.

Kaelen remained still, even as they vanished into the trees.

"...She’s in danger," he said at last.

"Yes," Naena said slowly. "And she knows it. Yet she moves anyway."

Kaelen’s eyes narrowed as he replied despite his heart has been struck badly for Lila to flee without notifying him. "Then we move faster. We have to find her before they do"

"You don’t have to worry about that, we will naturally find her pretty quickly if my hunch is accurate. What you should be worried about is how to recover your blade of eternity" Neana replied as she pointed at the slumbering broken Blade of Eternity behind Kaelen.

"You have a hunch? Where?" Kaelen quickly asked with a curious yet serious look on his face. Neana first narrowed her gaze as she answered. "Let’s just say she might have gone to a place that is connected to her seer Bloodline."

––––––

Several days later...

The wind howled across a ravine of sharp crimson stones as Lila stood at the edge of a cliff, her light-blue hair billowing behind her like a silken banner of divinity. The terrain beneath her boots crackled with dormant mana—raw, untouched, and thick as mist. The air shimmered with golden threads of energy, drifting freely like spirits uncaged. It wasn’t just atmospheric mana here—it was concentrated, compressed, alive.

Before her stretched the land of the Hybrids.

Unlike the Elven forests or the Nullcarver sanctuaries buried in the Deadroot, this place—known only as the Domain of Convergence—was an entirely different world. Floating stone ridges connected mountain peaks above with seamless platforms. Below, silver rivers glittered like mercury, pulsing with energy. And at the very heart of it all, standing impossibly tall, was a jagged obsidian spire veined with celestial light—the Spinal Citadel, the rumored capital of the Hybrids.

It was overwhelming to behold.

It should have terrified her.

But it didn’t.

Lila’s light blue eyes—now slowly shifting to an ethereal violet—remained steady, unwavering. The hum of energy made her Seer’s blood stir. Yet even as invisible tremors surged up her feet and through her core, she didn’t flinch.

Her voice, soft but absolute, broke the silence.

"...So this is where it all began."

She could feel it now—threads in the aether, pulling her toward the land as though the very realm itself recognized her presence. The sacred mark hidden beneath her collarbone throbbed with heat—the Seer Crest, now fully awakened within her, resonated with something ancient just beyond the misted cliffs.

And she knew.

This place... is part of me.

She stepped forward.

The moment her boot crossed the threshold, a surge of mana hit her chest like a boulder. A pulse—like a heartbeat made of light—shuddered through the air around her. From within the trees, hidden Hybrid sentinels gasped as their senses lit up like firestorms. Mana flared around Lila like a dome of holy fire for a second, before vanishing as quickly as it had come.

But she didn’t collapse. She didn’t stumble.

She kept walking.

Sentinels hidden in cloaked auras watched her every move, confused, shaken. Some activated alarm glyphs. Others whispered through telepathic links. But none dared to stop her. Something about her presence commanded stillness.

"She’s walking freely... through the Veiled Pressure Field?" one whispered in disbelief.

"No Hybrid—even trained—can maintain composure under that... What is she?"

And still she walked, barefoot now, having shed her boots as a sign of reverence for the sacred ground beneath her. Each step connected her to something greater. She wasn’t just moving forward physically—she was diving deeper into her lineage, her fate.

At the foot of the stone trail leading to the mountains, Lila finally paused. She looked ahead as the horizon shimmered with distant Hybrid settlements, their structures carved into mountainsides and suspended in the air with ancient technomagic.

She knelt, placing one hand on the ground.

From deep within the land, something answered. A presence—not a voice, not a vision—but a pull, like a whisper made of gravity.

Come.

"...There’s something hidden here," she murmured, her eyes glowing faintly. "Something the world forgot. But it didn’t forget me."

Suddenly, her Seer Crest pulsed again—this time more violently. A surge of memories not hers flashed across her vision: a Hybrid woman screaming in labor... a golden-eyed child born between two fates... a war that left the bloodlines shattered... and a seal placed by Celestials long ago.

Lila gasped.

Then clenched her fists.

"This is why the Elves feared me. Why the Celestials marked me. And why... I have to know the truth."

With a deep breath, she stood and faced the valley. Lightning cracked across the sky in the distance—harbingers of power waking up from centuries of slumber.

She whispered under her breath:

"I am not just a Seer.

I am the one meant to unseal the forgotten."

And with that, she stepped fully into the Domain of the Hybrids—toward the heart of a history long buried beneath the bones of war and silence.