Chapter 81 The Soul-forging At The Sunken Oracle

• The air in the Sunken Oracle shimmered with a profound, pervasive sadness, a spiritual chill far more piercing than any physical cold. The spectral figures, denser and more defined than the phantom warriors of the plains, surged towards them. These were not the aggressive Shade-Constructs the Veilkeepers were accustomed to fighting. Their silent cries, resounding directly within the team’s minds, conveyed not malice, but an overwhelming, unbearable sorrow and the biting sting of ancient betrayal. Their phantom hands reached out, not to attack, but to pull the living into their eternal despair, to share the crushing weight of their unacknowledged grief.
• Elara instinctively raised the Moon-Tear Shard, its pure light a defiant beacon against the encroaching tide of sorrow. But she hesitated, her Lunari senses discerning the true nature of the threat. A direct blast would scatter them, yes, but it wouldn't bring peace. It would only amplify their torment, making them re-coalesce with even greater agony. This was a wound that needed healing, not merely a foe to be vanquished.
• "They're not hostile in the way the Weaver's constructs are," Dr. Reed rasped, clutching her head as the psychic waves of grief threatened to buckle her composure. "They are echoes of profound, unresolved grief. The Weaver is amplifying their pain, twisting their desire for peace into an attempt to drag us into their suffering."