The mark on the golden barrier remained for less than a minute.
Then it disappeared.
That should have been reassuring.
It wasn’t.
Eryndor continued staring at the place where the corruption had touched the barrier.
Nothing remained.
No crack.
No darkness.
No sign that anything had happened.
Yet everyone who had witnessed it knew the truth.
Something had tested the ancient protection surrounding Vaelcrest.
Something had been strong enough to leave a mark.
And something had been intelligent enough to withdraw.
Eryndor turned away from the barrier.
“Everyone needs to return home.”
The guards looked at him.
One of them frowned.
“Why?”
“Because we don’t know what happens next.”
The captain hesitated.
“We should reinforce the wall.”
“The wall isn’t what protects us.”
Eryndor pointed toward the golden barrier.
“That does.”
The captain looked at the enormous wall of golden light surrounding the region.
“And if it fails?”
Eryndor’s expression hardened.
“Then a wooden wall won’t matter.”
No one argued.
The people began returning to their homes.
But Eryndor didn’t.
He remained outside the eastern gate, watching the forest.
The horned beast had disappeared.
The mysterious presence had withdrawn.
The barrier had stabilized.
For the moment, there was peace.
But Eryndor knew better than to trust it.
He had seen too much of the future to believe that peace lasted.
He turned toward the town.
Aldren was waiting.
“You’ve got that expression again.”
“What expression?”
“The one that means you’re about to do something dangerous.”
Eryndor smiled slightly.
“I’m going to investigate.”
“I knew it.”
Aldren sighed.
“Where?”
“The barrier.”
Aldren stared at him.
“You just told everyone it was protecting us.”
“It is.”
“Then why investigate it?”
“Because I need to understand what it is.”
Aldren’s expression became serious.
“Will you be safe?”
Eryndor hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
Aldren nodded slowly.
“At least you’re finally honest.”
They walked toward the center of Vaelcrest.
The golden barrier was visible from almost every part of the region.
But from within the town, Eryndor could sense only a fraction of its true scale.
The Tower had shown him ten barriers.
Ten positions.
Ten ancient Domains.
Now he wondered whether the barriers were connected.
If they were remnants of the Ten Primordials, then each one should possess some form of Authority.
The barrier itself wasn’t alive.
He knew that.
But it carried something.
A remnant.
An ancient imprint.
Perhaps even a fragment of Law.
He needed to understand it before Corruption did.
As Eryndor approached the edge of town, a familiar sensation appeared.
His pendant warmed.
He stopped.
The mirror surfaced beneath his clothes.
He pulled it out.
The reflection showed Vaelcrest.
Then the image changed.
The town disappeared.
Ten regions appeared.
Ten vast territories separated across the enormous world.
Eryndor recognized them.
The first was Vaelcrest.
The second stretched around a vast dimensional sea.
The third contained enormous mountains and colossal stone structures.
The fourth was covered in forests.
The fifth was filled with rivers of elemental energy.
The sixth was dark and oppressive.
The seventh shone with celestial light.
The eighth was surrounded by chaotic distortions.
The ninth was filled with beasts.
The tenth…
Eryndor stared.
The tenth region seemed to extend into the sky itself.
Stars filled it.
Planets moved across its horizon.
Something enormous drifted through the darkness.
Eldermere.
The Cosmic Domain.
The mirror displayed all ten.
Then words appeared across its surface.
Not written in any language Eryndor knew.
Yet he understood them.
Ten remnants.
His breathing slowed.
Another line appeared.
Ten inheritances.
Then:
Ten seals.
Eryndor frowned.
“Seals?”
The mirror went dark.
Aldren looked at him.
“What did you see?”
“The Ten Domains.”
“You’ve mentioned them before.”
“They aren’t just territories.”
“What are they?”
Eryndor looked toward the barrier.
“Remnants.”
Aldren waited.
“Of what?”
Eryndor hesitated.
“Primordials.”
The word carried weight.
Neither of them fully understood it.
But Eryndor had heard the Tower use it.
The Tower had detected Primordial remnants during his trial.
Now the connection seemed obvious.
The Ten Domains were not merely places.
They were remnants of beings who had existed before the current age.
The golden barriers were their remaining Authority.
Their dead existence still protected the world.
Eryndor suddenly wondered what would happen if the barriers were destroyed.
He didn’t want to find out.
A tremor moved through the ground.
Eryndor looked up.
The golden barrier flashed.
Then something appeared.
Not outside.
Inside.
A symbol formed in the air.
A circle.
Within it were ten smaller symbols.
Eryndor recognized the pattern from his Tower trial.
The Ten Domains.
Then one symbol brightened.
Vaelcrest.
A second brightened.
Astravelle.
Then Drakemere.
Lunareth.
Caelthorn.
Veyrion.
Solmara.
Ravenholt.
Highmere.
Eldermere.
All ten.
The symbols connected.
A network formed across the air.
Eryndor stared.
The barriers were connected.
Not physically.
Through Authority.
He suddenly felt something beneath the ground.
A pulse.
Then another.
The entire Domain responded.
For one brief moment, Eryndor sensed something enormous beneath Vaelcrest.
Not consciousness.
Not thought.
A remnant.
Something that had once belonged to a being whose existence had been far beyond anything Eryndor could currently comprehend.
Then the sensation vanished.
Eryndor staggered.
Aldren caught him.
“Eryndor!”
“I’m fine.”
He steadied himself.
“What did you feel?”
Eryndor looked toward the ground.
“Something ancient.”
Aldren’s expression tightened.
“Did it speak?”
“No.”
“Then what was it?”
Eryndor thought about the sensation.
“It felt like a corpse.”
Aldren went silent.
Eryndor looked toward the ten connected symbols.
A dead Primordial.
A surviving Authority.
A barrier.
A world suddenly filled with awakened life.
And something trying to corrupt it.
The pieces were beginning to connect.
But there was one problem.
If these Domains were remnants of dead Primordials, why had they appeared now?
The Awakening had not simply awakened humanity.
It had awakened the remnants.
It had expanded the world.
It had opened the Tower.
It had given intelligence to beasts and plants.
It had awakened cosmic bodies.
And it had apparently disturbed something ancient enough to threaten the barriers.
The Awakening was connected to all of it.
Eryndor felt a headache forming.
His memories had never explained the origin of the Awakening.
In his previous timeline, historians had simply called it the beginning of the Awakening Era.
No one had known why it happened.
At least, not publicly.
Perhaps even the future he remembered had misunderstood the event.
A distant sound interrupted his thoughts.
A horn.
Then another.
Eryndor looked toward the northern road.
A group of people was approaching.
They carried weapons.
Several wore newly crafted armor.
At their center walked a young man with broad shoulders and short dark hair.
Eryndor recognized him immediately.
Kael Dravorn.
Titan Race.
Titanic Momentum.
The young man stopped when he saw Eryndor.
His eyes narrowed.
“So you really are here.”
Eryndor raised an eyebrow.
“Do we know each other?”
“We met in the Tower.”
“Briefly.”
Kael stepped forward.
“You were the one who created that strange technique.”
“Echo Path.”
“Yes.”
Kael studied him.
“You’ve gotten stronger.”
Eryndor noticed something immediately.
Kael was different from the first time they had met.
His posture was stronger.
His movements were more controlled.
Faint lines had appeared across his arms.
Law Runes.
His Titan Bloodline had already begun expressing itself.
Yet Eryndor could tell something else.
Kael had only one Core.
Like him.
The Tower Trial had awakened it.
But Kael’s potential was different.
He had a strong foundation, but not unlimited.
“Why are you here?” Eryndor asked.
Kael glanced toward the barrier.
“Drakemere is having problems.”
“What kind?”
“Beasts.”
Eryndor waited.
“Not ordinary beasts.
Some have awakened Bloodlines.”
“That’s happening everywhere.”
“I know.”
Kael looked toward the golden barrier.
“But something else is happening.”
“What?”
Kael’s expression became serious.
“The Domain.”
Eryndor’s eyes sharpened.
“What about it?”
“The land is changing.”
Kael looked toward the distant mountains.
“Ancient structures have appeared.
Places that weren’t there before.
Some of them contain inscriptions.”
“Can you read them?”
“No.”
Kael looked back at Eryndor.
“But one word keeps appearing.”
Eryndor waited.
“Primordial.”
Silence.
The same word.
Again.
Eryndor looked at the golden barrier.
The world was beginning to reveal pieces of its forgotten history.
And every piece seemed to point toward the same ten beings.
“How did you get here?” Eryndor asked.
Kael shrugged.
“I walked.”
Eryndor almost laughed.
“You walked from Drakemere?”
“Yes.”
“That’s hundreds of kilometers.”
Kael looked confused.
“So?”
Eryndor shook his head.
“Nothing.”
The Titan’s physical abilities were already becoming absurd.
Kael crossed his arms.
“I came because I wanted answers.”
“So do I.”
“Then perhaps we should search together.”
Eryndor considered it.
In the future he remembered, Kael would become important.
But this was not the same future.
He could not assume Kael would follow the same path.
Still, there was value in cooperation.
“Fine.”
Kael nodded.
Then the golden barrier flashed again.
This time, all ten barriers across Aetherion responded.
Eryndor felt it.
The Ten Domains had synchronized.
For a single moment, every awakened being within their boundaries experienced the same sensation.
A heartbeat.
One enormous pulse.
Then silence.
Far away, beneath an ancient forest, something opened its eyes.
Within a distant mountain, stone shifted.
Across an endless sea, the water became perfectly still.
In a realm of dimensions, space folded inward.
In a land of chaos, reality trembled.
And beneath the surface of Aetherion, something ancient moved.
Not a Primordial.
Not a beast.
Not a human.
Something that had never truly belonged to the world.
Eryndor felt the pendant become cold.
He looked down.
The mirror showed only one sentence.
The seals are weakening.
Eryndor’s expression hardened.
Ten Domains.
Ten remnants.
Ten barriers.
Ten seals.
And something outside them was waiting.
He closed the mirror.
The world had awakened.
Now its ancient secrets were beginning to awaken with it.
And Eryndor had a feeling that the Ten Domains were not merely protecting the world from what was outside.
They were also protecting the world from something that was already inside.