The devastated park of the Veil remained suspended within an instant that no longer advanced. The gigantic spear of energy that the robots had released remained halted in the sky like a crystallized structure of power, its tornado of energy motionless around the luminous core while Narka’s gravitational dome remained frozen at the exact moment in which it absorbed the violence of the impact. Fragments of rock, remains of uprooted trees and the deformed bodies of malicious spirits that had been dragged by the gravitational rotation floated around the field like pieces of a petrified landscape that no longer belonged to the flow of time. In the middle of that halted world, only two presences continued existing outside the temporal prison. One was the manifestation of the Elazria that continued moving its wings with absolute serenity high in the spiritual sky. The other was Narka.

The guardian advanced slowly toward the robots suspended in the air. The circular formation they had built to launch their attack remained intact, each machine frozen at the exact point of its rotational movement around the gravitational field. The columns of translucent energy that sprang from the thrusters of their feet extended downward like frozen pillars of pale light, suspended in the air of the Veil without wavering or dispersing. The metallic shine of their armors reflected the reddish light of the spiritual pillar that continued rising toward the sky behind the motionless figure of Sebastián, creating a strange contrast between the stillness of the halted world and the permanence of the spiritual power that continued existing beyond the frozen time.

Narka rose until he was in front of one of the robots.

From close range the machine clearly showed its design. Its structure was robust, with thick arms and reinforced joints that resembled more the construction of a war armor than the form of a simple automaton. The metallic surface was composed of interconnected plates that adjusted over one another like mechanical scales designed to resist violent impacts. On the back of the machine protruded the square box that had channeled the distributed energy during the previous attack, and from the shoulders descended metallic conduits that connected the different parts of the frame with an industrial precision that did not belong to the world of Qi nor to the spiritual arts of the continent.

The guardian observed the machine for an instant.

Then he raised one of his front legs.

The claw descended against the frame of the robot.

The impact was dry.

The metallic surface was not protected by any energetic defense within the halted time, and under the pressure of Narka’s strength the metal yielded like a brittle shell. The frontal plate of the robot fractured under the pressure of the mineral claw, and the guardian continued pushing his leg downward while the frame began to open slowly from the head toward the torso as if the body of the machine were being split in two.

The metallic plates separated with a sound of rigid deformation.

The crack continued descending.

First it crossed the head of the robot.

Then it descended toward the neck.

When Narka’s claw reached the height of the chest, the guardian stopped.

His leg remained motionless inside the broken frame.

He had felt something.

It was not metal.

It was not cable.

It was not a mechanical structure.

It was flesh.

For an instant the guardian remained completely still.

His golden eyes descended toward the opening he had created in the torso of the robot. The separated metal revealed the interior of the frame with a clarity that had not existed before, and what appeared inside was not the mechanical system that a war machine should have had.

It was a human body.

The torso of a man was integrated inside the interior of the robot, fused with the frame through a dark suit full of mechanical connections that ran across his chest, his shoulders and his back. Metallic tubes emerged from the armor and penetrated the pilot’s suit like artificial roots that connected his nervous system with the structure of the machine. His body did not begin from the robot’s feet as one might expect; it was embedded within the chest of the machine, with his arms aligned with the internal conduits that connected with the metallic limbs of the robot.

The head of the man was split in half.

The fracture descended from the upper part of the skull to the height of the jaw, a brutal cut that had destroyed the face with the same precision with which Narka’s rotating stone had pierced the back of the robot during the previous combat. The blood that had emerged from the wound was frozen within the halted instant, suspended in the air around the opening of the skull like small dark drops that neither fell nor dispersed.

That was the contact Narka had felt with his claw.

The flesh of the pilot.

The guardian slowly withdrew his leg from inside the broken frame.

For an instant he observed the human body trapped inside the machine.

The scene had nothing natural about it. The pilot did not wear an external armor like a warrior nor did he carry a control structure like a driver of spiritual artifacts. His body was integrated inside the robot as if the machine itself had been built around him, using his nervous system as the core that controlled every movement of the metallic frame.

Narka remained silent.

Then he slightly closed his eyes.

War always found new ways to exist.

His gaze rose toward the other robots suspended in the sky.

The circular formation remained intact.

Four machines still floated in the air, each one frozen in the middle of the rotational movement they had executed around the gravitational field before time stopped.

The guardian approached the next one.

His claw descended again.

The metal yielded in the same way.

And the interior revealed the same truth.

Another human pilot.

Integrated inside the machine.

Frozen inside the instant where time had stopped advancing.

Narka did not open the frame of the next robot again. The revelation he had found inside the first two machines had already made clear the nature of those armors: they were not empty automatons nor purely mechanical constructions, but war bodies built around a human pilot who became the living core of each machine. Repeating the same gesture on the other two would not change anything of what he had already understood. For that reason the guardian advanced toward the next robot suspended in the air with the same calm with which he had crossed the frozen battlefield, stopping in front of the metallic torso of the machine while his golden gaze briefly ran across the robust structure of the frame.

Narka’s front leg rose.

The mineral mass descended with all its force onto the upper part of the robot.

The impact deformed the metal immediately. The head of the machine collapsed under the pressure of the blow, and the torso followed the same fate when the descending force of the guardian pierced the structure as if the frame were a hollow shell incapable of resisting the brutality of the impact. The metallic plates bent inward, the mechanical conduits broke and the upper half of the robot opened under the weight of Narka’s leg.

The interior burst outward.

Fragments of metal, torn cables and mechanical components emerged from the interior of the robot at the same time that the remains of the human pilot were destroyed by the force of the impact. The pressure of the blow had pierced the man’s torso along with the frame of the machine, tearing his body apart in a silent explosion of flesh, blood and organs that remained suspended in the air together with the fragments of the destroyed robot. Open intestines floated among broken metallic plates, drops of blood remained motionless in the air and pieces of human tissue stayed suspended within the halted instant that dominated the entire park of the Veil.

Nothing fell.

Nothing continued moving.

Destruction itself remained frozen in the air.

Narka slowly withdrew his leg from the interior of the crushed frame while the remains of the robot remained suspended around him like fragments of a violent sculpture halted at the exact moment of its birth.

The guardian did not look at the remains again.

His body advanced toward the last machine.

The robot remained suspended a few meters away, frozen in the position it had maintained within the circular formation before time was stopped. The metallic surface of its torso reflected the reddish light of the spiritual pillar that continued rising toward the sky of the Veil behind the motionless figure of Sebastián, and the lines of energy that ran through its armor remained visible beneath the surface of the metal like luminous veins frozen inside the structure of the machine.

Narka stopped in front of it.

His leg rose again.

The blow descended.

The force of the impact was even more brutal than the previous one. The head of the robot deformed under the pressure of the blow and the metallic structure of the torso collapsed inward in an instant compression that pierced the entire frame. The upper half of the machine split under the pressure of the guardian’s mineral leg, and the interior opened in a silent burst where the mechanical structure and the human body that served as the core of the machine were destroyed at the same time.

The body of the pilot was destroyed together with the frame.

The pressure of the impact tore his torso apart and the human remains emerged outward mixed with the fragments of the destroyed robot. Pieces of metal, cables, intestines and blood remained suspended in the air within the halted instant where time had stopped advancing. Each fragment remained motionless in the space of the Veil, frozen at the exact moment in which the destruction had occurred.

Narka withdrew his leg for the second time.

The remains of the two machines now floated in the sky of the Veil together with the human fragments of their pilots, trapped within the same frozen instant that kept the entire battlefield halted.

The guardian slowly raised his gaze.

His attention directed itself upward.

The manifestation of the Elazria remained suspended behind the spiritual pillar with the same absolute stillness it had shown since the moment of its appearance. Its six pairs of translucent wings continued moving with a perfect serenity that did not belong to the halted world of the devastated park. Each feather moved slowly in the air as if the flow of time that had been stopped by Narka’s Dao of Time had never had dominion over that presence.

Narka began to ascend.

His body slowly rose toward the white figure suspended high in the sky of the Veil. Around him remained floating the frozen remains of the combat: fragments of destroyed robots, torn cables, pieces of human flesh and drops of blood suspended in the air like particles of a scene petrified outside the flow of time.

The guardian continued ascending until reaching the height of the face of the manifestation.

He slowly approached the right side of its face.

The white mask remained oriented toward the spiritual pillar, completely motionless, its smooth surface reflecting the reddish light of the spiritual flow that crossed the sky of the Veil. Narka stopped his advance when the distance between his mineral face and the mask of the manifestation was reduced to barely a few centimeters.

The presence that emanated from the manifestation of the Elazria was not hostile.

Nor was it kind.

It was simply superior.

The guardian slightly inclined his head before speaking.

His voice emerged calmly within the halted world.

He asked what it was that she truly wanted with Valentina.

For an instant the silence remained absolute.

Then something occurred that had not happened since the moment of her appearance.

The manifestation of the Elazria moved her head.

Her face slowly turned toward Narka.

The head of the manifestation finished turning toward Narka with an absolute slowness that contrasted with the total immobility of the rest of the world. Under the dominion of the Dao of Time the devastated park of the Veil had remained trapped within a motionless instant where no particle continued its natural course: fragments of metal from the destroyed robots floated suspended in the air together with human remains frozen in the violence of the combat, petrified currents of energy remained halted in the sky in the middle of the attack that never came to be completed and the fractured surface of the terrain remained trapped in the exact moment in which the battle had torn the earth apart. Only two presences escaped that temporal prison: Narka, who walked within his own technique like an ancient guardian crossing a halted world, and the manifestation of the Elazria, whose translucent wings continued moving with a perfect serenity behind the spiritual pillar that rose upward like a root of energy too ancient to belong to the human world.

The white mask of the manifestation remained oriented toward the guardian while the silence extended between them with a weight that did not belong to the battlefield but to the dominion of souls. The presence that emanated from the manifestation of the Elazria did not transmit threat nor protection; it was something far more distant, an existence that did not participate in the struggles of the world but appeared when certain fractures of the spirit reached a point where the balance between souls had been irreversibly altered. Since the origin of the stories that spoke of her, the manifestation of the Elazria had never been described as a being that descended to the world to seek victims; her nature was exactly the opposite, for she never hunted nor pursued souls, but was found when an existence had crossed the limit where the damage caused to the soul of others ceased to be an isolated act and became a fracture that the very spiritual fabric of reality could no longer ignore. She did not respond to invocations nor to prayers, nor did she come to rituals that attempted to force her to manifest; souls found her when the breaking point had already been reached, and when that occurred her presence did not bring judgment nor condemnation, but an irreversible transformation in the essence of the spirit that had attracted her attention.

Narka held his gaze before the white face for a few moments before speaking, his voice calm even within the silent gravity of that encounter while the entire world remained halted around him. “What do you truly desire with Valentina?” the guardian asked without hostility nor exaggerated reverence, for he spoke with the serenity of an ancient being who understood the hierarchy of what stood before him. The response of the manifestation did not emerge from the movement of the mask nor did it cross the frozen air of the park; it appeared directly within the guardian’s consciousness with absolute clarity while the translucent wings continued moving behind the white figure. “I do not desire,” explained the presence with a serenity that contained no emotion at all, and the meaning of those words settled in Narka’s mind with the weight of a truth that had existed long before being spoken. “The fracture of a soul is what finds me; when the damage that dwells within an existence breaks the limits that protect other souls, that breaking point attracts my presence.”

The guardian remained silent while he listened, understanding that this was not a justification but a description of the very nature of the entity before him. The voice continued within his consciousness with the same absolute calm while the white mask remained motionless before his mineral face. “The soul of the girl has been broken in a way that this world cannot restore,” explained the presence with a clarity that left no room for doubt, and Narka responded with the serenity of one who has seen countless forms of spiritual power act upon the world when he asked: “Then you intend to heal her.” The answer arrived without delay and with an absolute precision that revealed the difference between both ideas: “I do not intend to heal her; I intend to restructure her.” The guardian immediately understood the weight of that word, for healing implied returning something to its previous state while restructuring meant modifying the very nature of the soul so that what had been destroyed would become the foundation of a new form of existence.

Narka held his gaze upon the white mask before formulating the next question, his voice as calm as the first time he had spoken. “For what purpose?” The response of the manifestation arrived with absolute clarity within his consciousness while the translucent wings continued moving behind her. “So that she becomes my representative in this world, so that her existence may be the vessel through which my will can act within this place,” explained the presence before adding with even greater precision the term that defined that intention: “my avatar.” The silence settled once again between them while the guardian processed the meaning of those words, and after a few moments he formulated the question that naturally arose from that revelation. “In a world that contains countless lives, do other candidates not exist?” asked Narka while his golden gaze remained fixed on the white mask.

The response of the manifestation of the Elazria was immediate and devoid of any doubt. “They exist,” explained the presence with a serenity that contained no emotion whatsoever, and then developed that statement with a clarity that revealed the scale of her perception. “Among the billions of existences that inhabit this world that lies outside the fabric of the rules of the universe, there exist innumerable souls that would surpass that girl as a vessel,” declared the manifestation while the meaning of her words settled in the mind of the guardian with a gravity greater than any previous revelation. This world did not belong to the universal flow that governed the rest of existence; it was a territory separated from the structure that regulated life, death and the passage of souls in the cosmos, a place where the laws of the universe did not fully reach and where the presence of entities such as the manifestation of the Elazria could not manifest directly without an intermediary.

The voice continued within Narka’s consciousness while it explained the reason for that necessity. “Where the rules of the universe do not fully govern, my presence cannot act directly; to intervene in a world that exists outside that fabric, my will requires a vessel that exists within that system.” There was a brief pause before the next part of the explanation revealed something unexpected to the guardian. “Even you could be that vessel,” affirmed the presence with absolute serenity while analyzing the essence of the ancient being before her, “for the antiquity of your soul, your experience and your understanding of combat make you an existence suitable for that role.” Narka did not show surprise at that affirmation, but the voice of the manifestation immediately continued with the reason why that possibility was not viable. “But your soul has already taken form; the essence that defines your existence has been shaped by centuries of decisions and experiences, and that which is already defined cannot be restructured without destroying what makes it itself.”

The meaning of those words was clear even before the presence pronounced the final conclusion of her explanation. “The girl can be restructured,” declared the manifestation with absolute certainty while she slowly turned her gaze toward the spiritual pillar that crossed the sky of the Veil. The white mask turned again toward the flow of energy where the cocoon remained suspended within the spiritual torrent, and the attention of the manifestation of the Elazria settled once more upon the small existence that had attracted her presence to that world outside the fabric of the rules of the universe.

Narka remained motionless for a few moments after the manifestation of the Elazria turned her attention once again toward the cocoon suspended within the spiritual pillar. The guardian did not speak again. He had lived too long to confuse pride with purpose, and he also knew how to recognize when a will belonged to a scale that could not be altered by force nor by obstinacy. That presence was not there to negotiate nor to accept opposition; her appearance was the result of a process that had begun long before any being present in the park of the Veil understood what was happening. Narka understood it with the clarity that only beings who have seen too many eras pass before their eyes possess, and for that reason he did not attempt to interfere again with the decision of the entity that floated before the pillar. Without saying anything more, the guardian slightly inclined his head and slowly moved away from the manifestation, leaving behind the proximity of that presence whose nature did not belong to the battlefield that had just ended.

His body descended toward the devastated ground of the park while the world remained frozen under the dominion of his technique. Around him the fragments of the halted battle continued suspended: the metal remains of the robots floated in the air mixed with pieces of human flesh frozen in the instant of their destruction, the petrified currents of energy remained motionless in the sky and the three profane beings remained trapped within the gravitational dome that rotated frozen at the same moment when the Dao of Time had halted reality. When Narka touched the fractured ground of the park, he raised his gaze toward the dome of Qi he had created during the combat and, without uttering a word, decided to release the technique that kept the world trapped in that halted instant.

The flow of the Dao of Time dissolved.

The change did not occur with a roar nor with a visible explosion; the frozen instant simply ceased to exist and time began to run again within the Veil. The particles of dust suspended in the air began to fall once more, the currents of energy petrified in the sky recovered their natural movement and the gigantic attack that the robots had released before being destroyed vanished at the same moment in which the temporal flow returned to its course. The spear of energy surrounded by the electrical tornado dissipated like an illusion that had lost its support, while the columns of energy that had held the destroyed machines were extinguished together with the remains of their propulsion system.

At the same time, Narka’s gravitational dome began to move again.

The currents of Qi that formed its surface resumed their rotation with the violence they had possessed before time had stopped. The three profane beings trapped inside the field began to spin again under the pressure of the guardian’s gravitational dominion, their bodies dragged by the invisible force that dominated the interior of the dome. Fragments of stone, remains of uprooted trees and pieces of the destroyed terrain were dragged together with them within the rotation, forming a chaotic vortex that spun around the nucleus of the gravitational field. From the sky the remains of the robots that Narka had destroyed during the halted instant began to fall: metallic plates, torn cables and human fragments descended toward the interior of the dome and were immediately trapped by the rotation of the gravity field, becoming part of the vortex of destruction that spun inside the sphere.

The guardian observed the scene without moving.

For a few seconds he allowed gravity to do its work while the remains of the battle continued being absorbed by the rotation of the dome. The three profane beings attempted to resist the pressure of the field, but the difference between their strength and Narka’s dominion had already been clear since the beginning of the combat. Their bodies continued spinning together with the rest of the fragments trapped within the gravitational field, incapable of escaping the pressure that dominated the interior of the sphere.

Then Narka slightly inclined his head.

The reaction was immediate.

The dome of Qi began to compress.

The gravitational currents that formed its surface closed toward the center with increasing speed while the sphere of energy reduced upon itself. Everything that was trapped within the field was dragged toward the nucleus of the phenomenon: stones, remains of metal, human fragments and the three profane beings were compressed within the ever smaller space that the dome allowed. The gravitational pressure increased with each instant that passed, crushing and grinding everything that remained trapped within the sphere while the volume of the field continued to reduce without stopping.

The dome continued shrinking.

The sphere of Qi that had once occupied a large part of the battlefield ended reduced until it reached the size of a ball suspended in the air before the guardian. Inside that small gravitational nucleus remained compressed everything that had been trapped by the field: the remains of the robots, the fragments of stone from the devastated park and the bodies of the three profane beings, crushed by the pressure of gravity until they became an unrecognizable mass trapped inside the sphere.

Narka slowly raised his gaze toward the sky of the Veil.

With a minimal gesture of his head he released the sphere.

The small gravitational nucleus rose toward the sky and exploded in a controlled release of energy that dispersed its contents in every direction. Fragments of metal, stone and organic remains were thrown far from the center of the park, expelled into the distance so that none of that destruction would remain near the spiritual pillar.

When the last of the fragments disappeared into the distance of the Veil, silence settled once again over the battlefield.

The devastated terrain of the park remained cleared.

Only three presences remained in the place.

Sebastián, still connected to the flow of the pillar.

The manifestation of the Elazria, observing the cocoon within the spiritual current.

And Narka, standing before the pillar of energy that crossed the sky of the Veil.

_____________________________________________

END OF Chapter 83

The path continues...

New Chapters are revealed every

Sunday, and also between Wednesday or Thursday,

when the will of the tale so decides.

Each one leaves another scar on Sebastián’s journey.

If this abyss resonated with you,

keep it in your collection

and leave a mark: a comment, a question, an echo.

Your presence keeps alive the flame that shapes this world.

Thank you for walking by my side.

If this story resonated with you, perhaps we have already crossed paths in another corner of the digital world. Over there, they know me as Goru SLG.

I want to thank from the heart all the people who are reading and supporting this work. Your time, your comments, and your support keep this world alive.

If this story resonated with you, I invite you to support me — your presence and backing make it possible for