Kael and Lyra plummeted into the darkness, the ruins above disappearing as they fell through a vast, endless void. There was no wind, no sensation just the overwhelming feeling of something ancient watching them.
Then—impact.
Kael hit the ground hard, pain jolting through his body. He gasped for breath, forcing himself upright. The world around him had changed.
They were no longer in the ruins. No longer in the world they knew.
This place was… wrong.
Lyra groaned beside him, pushing herself up. "Where are we?"
Kael looked around. Dark, jagged spires stretched into a sky that didn't exist. The ground beneath them wasn't stone, wasn't earth it was something shifting, breathing. The air hummed with energy, thick and heavy, pressing against his skin like unseen hands.
Then came the voice.
"You have come seeking power."
Kael's breath caught. It was the same voice from before but now it surrounded them. Deep, layered with echoes, as if it came from something beyond time itself.
A shape began to form in the darkness.
A massive figure loomed ahead, half-seen through the swirling void. It wasn't made of flesh, nor shadow it was something in between. Its eyes burned with ancient knowledge, and its form twisted, shifting constantly between shapes, as if reality itself struggled to define it.
Lyra tensed. "Kael… this thing isn't a god."
Kael clenched his fists. No. It was something older.
The being laughed, a sound that rippled through existence itself.
"You seek to stand against the False Ascendant?" Its voice rumbled like a storm. "You believe you can wield power beyond the gods?"
Kael took a step forward, his heart pounding. "We don't have a choice."
The being tilted its shifting head. "No. You do not."
The abyss trembled, and suddenly, Kael felt something reach into his soul.
Pain. Blinding, suffocating pain.
A thousand memories surged through him not his own, but those of the first world, the first war, the first destruction.
His knees buckled.
Lyra grabbed his arm, panic flashing in her eyes. "Kael what's happening?!"
The entity's voice deepened. "To claim my power, you must understand it. You must endure it. You must become it."
Kael gritted his teeth. This was the cost.
And if it meant stopping Sylas he would pay it.
With a final, shuddering breath, he let the abyss consume him.