In the shadows of history, beyond the reach of mortal eyes, the Immortals have waged their secret wars, bound by the sacred code: *There can be only one*. "Eternal Duel: Untold Chronicles of the Immortals" brings to light the hitherto unseen sagas o...
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Aelia hurried through the marble halls of the Great Library, her sandaled feet echoing off the towering shelves packed with scrolls. Wisps of her dark hair escaped the tight bun at the nape of her neck. Her heart beat fast, though not from exertion - she could run for leagues without tiring. No, this was fear, an emotion she had not felt in uncounted years.
Smoke. She smelled smoke.
She burst into the main reading room and froze. Orange flames licked up the walls, devouring papyrus scrolls and cedar shelves. Flaming debris rained down from the ceiling. Researchers and scholars fled in panic, but Aelia stood paralyzed by horror.
As an Immortal, she had dedicated over six hundred years to building and maintaining this library, the greatest repository of knowledge the world had ever known. Countless irreplaceable works from across the centuries, now turning to ash before her eyes. It was an unthinkable catastrophe.
Aelia spotted a figure silhouetted against the inferno across the room, standing still as a statue amidst the chaos. A man in a dark robe with a hood drawn over his face. Though she could not see his features, she knew him at once.
"Darius," she growled. "What have you done?"
Her voice carried preternaturally across the roar of the blaze. The man turned slowly to face her. He pushed back his hood, revealing an angular face, olive skin, and cold gray eyes. A face she had not seen in over three hundred years, since the day he had walked out of her life without a word. The day her heart had turned to stone.
Darius gave a grim smile. "What I had to do. Some knowledge is too dangerous. It must burn."
"You're insane," Aelia spat. She took a step toward him, fingers curling into fists.
He raised a hand and flames leapt up in a wall between them, stopping her short. Embers stung her face. "We Immortals carry a heavy burden, Aelia. We have seen too much. So much folly and cruelty and destruction, repeating in an endless cycle as civilizations rise and fall. And in every age, it is knowledge that fuels the fires. Knowledge of war, of weaponry, of ways to unleash death. I aim to break that cycle."
Aelia shook her head in disbelief and despair. "Knowledge is neither good nor evil. It simply is. What matters is what men do with it. And there is far more here than instruments of war. Philosophy, mathematics, medicine, art, history, the wisdom of ages. It is our duty to preserve it, not destroy it!"
"Naive idealism, as always." Darius sighed. "That uncompromising belief in the sanctity of learning was one of the things I loved about you. But I know better now. I have walked this world for a thousand years and I understand the truth - some secrets are safer lost. Now step aside. Let the flames do their purifying work."
Tears blurred Aelia's vision, though whether from the smoke or her breaking heart, she could not say. "I can't let you do this."
