ONLINE: Blades of Eternity-Chapter 328: HYBRID’S INTERVENTION

The dense mists of Deadroot Forest hung heavy over the bloodied battlefield like the breath of a dying beast. Steam rose from cracked tree roots, and cinders from the earlier battle between the Nullcarvers and the Chaos practitioners still smoldered in the underbrush.

Eirana stood tall amidst the wreckage. Her silver hair clung to her sweat-slicked cheeks, her breathing calm but sharp. Behind her, seventeen Nullcarver warriors—manaless, Qi-hardened, sworn to silence and survival—stood in rigid formation, their bodies laced with the deep etchings of secret techniques only the ancient could decipher.

Facing them from the opposite side of the clearing were more than two dozen Elven warriors, adorned in green and silver lightweave armor, bows nocked and swords drawn. At their head was Captain Maeralyn, a stoic warrior whose lineage seems to be from a royal line due to how the others are treating him.

Tension suffocated the air like iron chains. One spark would ignite a wildfire of blades.

"Eirana Nullcarver or whatever you call yourselves." Maeralyn said coolly, her tone not yet hostile, but edged with growing impatience. "You’re harboring forbidden knowledge. A blight has touched this land, and the High Elders demand answers."

Eirana’s voice was low but resolute, like a stone lodged in the roots of the earth.

"What happened here is not for your kind to know. Your presence already threatens a balance we’ve barely preserved."

"Balance?" Maeralyn’s lips curled. "We both know we earlier saw a pair of apparently chaos magic practitioners get away. We also saw the explosion of corrupted Qi. This place reeks of entropy. Do not insult the intelligence of the Elven court by pretending it’s coincidence."

Eirana stepped forward slightly. Her silver blade reflected none of the misty light.

"We do not answer to you. The Nullcarvers guard secrets older than your kingdoms."

The warriors behind her shifted their stance, hands inching toward weapon hilts.

The Elves did the same.

And then—

"What an interesting gathering"

A voice trailed into the two parties midst before a pulse.

A stillness.

And then... he appeared.

With no warning. No sound. No flash. Only pressure.

At the edge of the clearing, Endless emerged from the deadened woods, walking through the mist as though it parted out of fear. His obsidian armor gleamed faintly, absorbing the dim light. His very presence bent the forest around him. Trees leaned away. The wind stilled. Birds, bugs—everything—went silent.

Every being in the clearing, Elf or Nullcarver, froze.

’Is that... The rumored Endless. What kind of power is this?’ Eirana thought in sheer fright and horror

Limbs stiffened.

Hearts faltered.

Even the air felt like it refused to pass through lungs.

Endless did not speak at first. He merely looked. His head turned slowly toward the patch of land where his creature—the Leech—had once nested. It was gone. Utterly gone. And something was wrong.

He opened his mouth to speak—

But he was interrupted by a scream of light.

BEEEMM!!

A blinding, divine beam—not of mana, nor of Qi, but of something far older and purer—descended from the skies above Deadroot. It was not a strike or an attack, but a divine act. It swept through the entire forest like a celestial tide, evaporating the eternal mists that had clung to Deadroot since its creation. The rot, the fog, the dark breath of Endless’s design—cleansed in an instant.

ROAAAAR!!!

Even the residual essence of the Leech, hidden in spores and bone-deep taint, was torn away as though the light knew exactly where it lingered.

The forest... breathed for the first time in centuries.

The warriors on both sides collapsed to their knees, shielding their eyes. Even Eirana grunted, her Qi shielding torn apart by the radiance. Endless staggered a step—not from injury, but from sheer rage.

"Who DARES—?!" he boomed, his voice distorting the trees, shaking the ground.

His helm turned skyward. And then he saw them.

From the light above, figures descended, carried by wings not of feathers, but of crystallized divinity. They wore robes spun from stardust, and their presence emanated neither Qi nor mana, but something wholly alien—Celestial Favor.

There were five of them.

Each one bore a mark on their forehead in the shape of a burning circle—the mark of a Hybrid, the rarest and most blessed of all Aetheris’s children. Beings born of both mortal and celestial bloodlines. They were not gods, but they stood closer to the Eternals than any living creature.

The one who stood in front—tall, with hair like woven aurora and eyes like twin moons—spoke calmly.

"Endless," he said. His voice was like a bell ringing at the end of time. "Your creations have violated the Balance long enough. The forest you corrupted... has been purified."

Endless’s arms twitched at his sides, shadow breaking out like tendrils from his back.

"I crafted this land from my own knowledge. I seeded my creature here. I left it to grow. You dare interfere in my workings?"

Another Hybrid, a woman with skin like dusk and a halo of white flame, spoke.

"You have forgotten your place. You are not a god. You are a remnant, an echo of ambition that the Eternals let linger."

Endless lifted a hand—and the ground cracked beneath his rage.

But before he could strike, the five Hybrids simultaneously lifted their arms, and a seal of radiant hexagon patterns formed mid-air, shimmering across the entire forest. Even Endless paused—recognizing the Divine Binding Matrix. A sealing array only the Hybrids could use, empowered by the dormant Eternals.

"You will not go further," said the first. "This forest has served your madness long enough."

Endless’s silence was thunderous.

Behind him, both Nullcarver and Elf had momentarily forgotten their conflict, now kneeling or sitting in stunned silence, watching this cosmic confrontation unfold.

Eirana clenched her jaw.

"So even they have intervened..."

Endless finally spoke again, softly.

"Then let us see how long your borrowed divinity can protect you..."

And with that, he vanished, retreating deeper into the forest’s depths—but not beaten, only momentarily denied.

The Hybrids slowly descended further, their gaze turning toward the mortals below.

"War is coming," one of them said, eyes passing over Eirana, then the Elves. "Whether you are ready or not. The Pandora has awakened... and so too have the Eternals begun to stir."

Before either the Elves or the Nullcarvers could utter a word in response, the Hybrid leading the group of hybrids suddenly turned to face the Nullcarvers, Eirana in particular as he asked. "I believe that you lot know where Magic Pandora wielder is?"

"Ye.... Yes" Eirana muttered in hesitation. "Good, now take us to that person immediately" the leading hybrid said coolly and in a commanding tone.

After staring at each other for a brief moment, Eirana finally gave a short nod as she replied.

"Ok"

–––––

Ashen branches bent low beneath the crimson-streaked sky as the far edge of Deadroot Forest trembled in death throes. The sacred mist that once clung like marrow to the woods had been ripped away—obliterated by a force divine and unknowable.

Now, the forest breathed differently. The shadows whispered in new tongues.

And through those broken roots and blood-crusted undergrowth stumbled Selene and Aron—two Chaos practitioners, once proud agents of entropy, now little more than fractured remnants of the battlefield they had fled.

Selene’s cloak hung in tatters, her left arm dangling limp at her side. Her once-pristine face was marred by a deep gash across her cheekbone, blood still trickling. The burn marks on her side sizzled faintly with unstable Chaos mana.

Aron walked beside her with a limp, his twin blades sheathed but humming erratically—wounded as much by backlash as by physical pain. One of his eyes was swollen shut. His breath wheezed with every step.

They emerged from the tree line opposite the Elven borders, stepping into a ridge that overlooked the far reaches of the now-exposed Deadroot basin.

"So... what now?" Aron rasped, squinting at the scarred lands before them. "That damn light... it wasn’t just celestial. It was... beyond."

Selene leaned against a crooked stone pillar, the remnants of an old Nullcarver marker. She winced as she slid down to rest.

"Kaelen has become something more than what we were told," she muttered. "If the Hybrids are appearing... then the Pandora’s awakening is accelerating faster than expected."

Aron spat out blood and rubbed his temples.

"We could head back to the Labyrinth. Report to Kael. Let him deal with this mess.At this point, We’re just pawns in this game."

"Or," Selene whispered, eyes hard, "we go rogue. Find our own stake in this war. Everyone’s distracted by Endless and the Eternals. We can vanish... maybe even claim a fragment of power for ourselves."

They locked eyes for a moment.

But then, the air cracked.

Like the sky itself held its breath.

A ripple of cold silence tore through the space around them, and suddenly—

He appeared.

Endless.

Not with a blaze of fire nor a thunderous tremor. Simply there, as though he had always been watching.

His robe was darker than death. His presence, suffocating. And yet he stood motionless, his hollow gaze fixed directly upon them.

Selene and Aron immediately staggered up, all wounds forgotten. Chaos mana roared around them like a wildfire given form, unstable and furious. Their instincts screamed to attack.

"What... is he doing here?" Aron hissed, every muscle taut.

"I don’t know," Selene breathed, raising both hands, black flames igniting between her fingers. "But if he takes one step toward us—"

Endless slowly lifted a hand—not in threat, but in calm.

The temperature didn’t drop. It evaporated. Even the remnants of Chaos trembled in the air around him, shivering at the presence of the original architect of entropy.

"I mean you no harm," Endless said, his voice like an ancient drumbeat in the marrow of their bones. "Unless you strike first."

The tension hung.

Then, slowly, Aron sheathed his blades. Selene let her Chaos flames shrink into her palms, wariness in her eyes.

"Why are you here?" she asked, voice strained. "What could you possibly want from us?"

Endless stepped closer—but not toward them. Instead, he looked out across the ridge, where the Leech’s remains had once been, now cleansed by that impossible light.

A long silence passed.

Then, Endless spoke again—softly, almost conversationally.

"You stand at a precipice... lost. Without cause. Without conviction. Betrayed by the very order you served."

His helm turned slightly. Not looking at them—through them.

"Would you like a new purpose?"

Selene frowned, her brows tightening.

"What do you mean... purpose?"

Endless took a step forward. No threat. No malice. Just gravity in words.

"The world you knew is gone. The families will fall. The academies have already begun to crumble. Your master, Kael Dragonyx, plots from the shadows of a dying age. You two... could rise beyond it all."

Aron’s mouth went dry. "What are you offering? Power?"

Endless tilted his head ever so slightly.

"Something rarer."

Another pause.

"Relevance."

Selene blinked. "What the hell does that mean?"

A crooked smile spread across the helm of Endless. Or maybe it didn’t. Maybe they just felt it.

"If you seek to matter... if you seek to carve a truth in the bones of this dying world... then follow me."

He turned around without waiting for their answer.

And began walking deeper into the forest—into the hollowed heart of Deadroot where only ruin, silence, and lost gods dared tread.

Selene and Aron stood in stunned silence.

And then Selene whispered,

"...Should we follow?"

After staying silent for a short while, Aron replied while staring at the fading back of Endless.

"Seems like we have no choice"

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