Nyxfall 7: The Veilbreakers

For a moment, the entire cave was swallowed by a darkness deeper than any shadow. It was the kind of blackness that felt almost tangible, pressing in from all sides. Then, after a few seconds, a pale blue flame flickered to life. More torches ignited along the walls at steady intervals, their ghostly light washing over the space in an eerie, ethereal glow.

It wasn't a cave.

As the dim light revealed their surroundings, Kai took in the sight of a dark greenish stone corridor, its walls smooth yet ancient-looking. Strange symbols and indecipherable drawings covered the surface, their meaning lost to time. The architecture was unmistakably artificial—structured, deliberate—more like the entrance to a forgotten underground temple or the ruins of a lost city than a natural cave.

Beside him, Deimos was just as wide-eyed, scanning their surroundings with keen interest. But neither of them relaxed. She held her dagger stretched toward him, just as he kept his bowstring taut, an arrow aimed squarely at her head. In the suffocating darkness before the torches ignited, neither had trusted the other—not even for a second.

A window popped up. 

[Trial Of Maeka - The First Blade]

Location: Nexus Kin Village, Kalimari

Level Requirement: None

Description:

Abandoned by both the highly advanced Exodians and the deeply spiritual Stonebinders, the hybrid Nexus Kin were left to fend for themselves. Maeka—the first leader to unite the various scattered communities and bring cohesion to their chaos—was a great warrior who still seeks a worthy successor.

"Maeka? Who the hell is this now?" Deimos muttered beside him. Hearing that, an idea sparked in Kai's mind. He dismissed the dungeon window from his field of view and asked casually, "Have you played the previous games?"

"What?" She looked at him, confused. "What games?"

"The Nyxfall games. It's a pretty popular series, you know," Kai replied, acting as if he were just an average Nyxfall fan. Even if someone was eavesdropping, it would sound like nothing more than a human from Earth talking about a game.

"This is no game, insect. It's our lives." She sounded irritated, almost offended at the word game. That was interesting.

They started walking cautiously down the empty corridor. Nothing was visible ahead, and not even the usual sounds of monsters echoed from within. Still, both remained on high alert. Some dungeons had creatures that loved sneak attacks. As if assuming she was ignorant of the previous games, Kai began talking about Nyxfall parts one through five. 

He wasn't sure about part six of this timeline, so he left it out. She listened in silence, but from her occasional eyebrow raises and widened eyes, it was clear she was paying close attention—and was even surprised by some of what he revealed.

Since many species had no concept of video games, Kai had learned back on the offline Stonebinder planet that even though human players constantly discussed the Nyxfall series online, the aliens had no clue it existed. They had only been given a vague backstory before being thrown into this so-called game, armed with knowledge of its civilizations and human interactions.

"...And so the hero KnightBlue and the villain from the second game, Ashmaker, joined forces with their people and defeated the Chaos-Eater Dragon. But it turned out the dragon was just being controlled with giant slave collars by the—"

"Enough!" Deimos suddenly snapped. "I don't want to listen to your nonsense!"

Her expression twisted, something more than just annoyance flashing across her face. It wasn't just irritation—she knew something about this. But that shouldn't be possible unless she was a human, had played the previous timeline, or.. had some other connection to it.

"This is not real. This is not how it's supposed to go. I won't let it be like this..." she muttered angrily, then abruptly stopped when she noticed him staring at her.

What was she talking about? The game? The Nexus Kin village? Not supposed to be like this.. Was she really a Nexus Kin in real life? For humans like Kai, it was just another planet when they landed on the Stonebinder world. But for her..? Was this her home?

How could that be when there were no Exodians? Neither in the game nor in real life in the previous timeline when they reached the game world. Wait—those aliens that were going to attack the Stonebinder planet.. They were called the Followers of Darkness. But were they actually the Exodians? He knew he had heard that name before somewhere.

If that was true.. then what timeline were they in? After the Stonebinders were attacked? But how could someone like Deimos exist before the attack in real life? Unless.. they didn't just travel through space that day, but time as well.

A chance for survival. That's what they had been told before they were sent to fight in the offline version of the game. A chance at survival for the battle.. or for the inevitable future of the Stonebinder homeworld.

"HEYYA! CUTIES!!"

"Ahh!!" Deimos screamed, her voice shrill.

"Ah!! What the fuck!!" Kai also shouted just as loudly.

So deep in thought, they had completely missed the old lady standing beside a giant stone door, her form glowing slightly with white ethereal light. She was the one who had called out to them.

"Come, come.. I'm not that old yet to deserve such reactions! I'm barely 256! Hehehe.." The smirking old woman hunched forward, her ghostly form looking especially eerie in the dim blue glow.

The tag above her head was green. It simply read: A Ghost.

Kai looked at Deimos. She was staring at the old woman with wide, bewildered eyes. Then he turned back to the ghostly grandma and asked, "Uhm.. Who are you, Grandma?"

"Disrespectful brat! I'm barely in my fifties!" she huffed. "Kids these days have no respect for their elders.." She launched into a rant about how rude he was until Deimos interrupted, looking fed up.

"Fine, fine. Young lady, who are you, and what are you doing here?"

"Who am I?" The ghost NPC repeated, her ethereal form flickering slightly. "I am your guide here, brats! Do you want to face the trial or not?"

"Oh! Where's the trial?" Kai asked.

"Didn't I just say I'm the guide? Huh? Dumb, idiot kid? Just follow behind me silently. I have many things to do after this.. I'm a busy ghost, I tell you!" The old lady huffed, then turned and walked ahead without waiting for a response.

Kai was this close to putting an entire quiver of arrows into her back. Deimos, smirking at his frustration, was only making things worse. But in the end, he took a deep breath, calmed himself, and followed behind the hunched-back ghost lady who insisted she was in her fifties.

The massive stone door, which looked heavy enough to require a dozen men to budge, swung open with a single push from the old woman. Kai and Deimos exchanged a look, both raising their eyebrows. NPCs this powerful could be incredibly useful if one managed to befriend them or earn their favor. The data behind this character was real, meaning that whoever she was, she might not actually be a ghost in real life—but she was important enough for the game to dedicate an entire section to her.

Inside the door was a massive, empty hall. Twelve enormous stone torches lined the chamber—six on each side—filling the space with their eerie bluish glow.

The old lady spoke in a mysterious tone, "Twelve flames burn, yet only one truth may pass. Choose wisely—light the path or be consumed by the fire."

At the center of the hall stood an obsidian pedestal, its dark surface inscribed with the same cryptic riddle. The torches reacted subtly to their presence; as Kai stepped closer, he noticed their flames shifting in hue and intensity. On the pedestal, twelve levers stood in a neat row.

"Light the fire.." Kai muttered, thinking aloud as he analyzed the challenge.

Deimos glanced at the torches, then the pedestal. "We have to choose one torch among the twelve and turn off all the others."

That made sense. The phrase consumed by the fire must have something to do with how they made their choice. To confirm his hunch, Kai moved closer to one of the torches, observing its unnatural nature—the flames neither gave off heat nor wavered with the air currents.

"I think we need to burn in each one to see what their effects are," he said.

Deimos stared at him, then turned back to the torches, stepping closer to inspect them before nodding slightly. "Go ahead, then."

Kai squinted at her. "Why don't I just run toward you and stab myself on your dagger too? You'd love that, wouldn't you? You go first."

Before she could respond, one of the flames abruptly went out. The lever had been pulled. Kai turned his head sharply and caught sight of the ghostly grandma, her wrinkled face stretched into a mischievous grin.

She even let out a small, wicked chuckle. That was one evil old woman.

"We have a time limit!" Deimos said, her voice tense. Gritting her teeth, she turned to the nearest torch, took a deep breath, and slowly extended her hand into the blue flames.