I. The Abyss Between Worlds
Kael awoke to nothingness.
He was falling—but there was no sky above, no ground below, only an endless, shifting abyss.
Fractured echoes of forgotten worlds spiraled around him—shattered cities, dead suns, twisted reflections of himself. They were trapped in the wake of the Hollow King's unmaking, tumbling through the Riftborn Expanse.
And then—
A hand grasped his wrist.
Lyra.
Her form was flickering, strands of Veil-light unraveling from her skin. Her golden eyes locked onto his, fierce despite her fading strength.
"Hold on, Kael."
The void howled.
And something reached for them from the abyss.
---
II. The Rift Leviathan
A shadow moved in the depths.
Vast. Ancient. A being born from the unraveling of the Loom itself.
It coiled around them, its body a shifting mass of cosmic scales and spectral tendrils. A Leviathan, neither living nor dead, forged from the remnants of lost timelines.
Veyra's voice crackled through Kael's comm-link. "Kael, whatever you're about to do, do it fast—that thing is waking up."
Jara, Tarek, and the others were falling too, their forms scattered across the abyss, struggling to find purchase in the nothingness.
Lyra's fingers tightened around Kael's wrist.
"Kael, listen to me. The Leviathan—it's not just part of the Rift. It is the Rift."
Kael's symbiont pulsed.
The Leviathan's golden eyes snapped open.
And the void screamed.
---
III. The Price of Passage
The Leviathan spoke without words, pressing its presence into their minds.
"Travelers. Strands of a broken pattern. You fall through the unmade. You seek the light beyond."
Kael clenched his jaw. "We need to escape this place."
The Leviathan's many eyes swirled, shifting between past and present.
"Escape? There is no escape from what has already unraveled."
A pulse of Rift-energy surged outward, striking Kael's symbiont—visions flooded his mind:
The Weavers before their fall, binding the Loom, sealing away what they could not destroy.
The Hollow King, cast into the abyss, waiting for the Loom to fail.
Lyra, standing at the Loom's heart, the final thread that kept the unraveling at bay.
And then—a final vision.
Kael, standing before a choice he did not yet understand.
Two paths.
One leading toward the Hollow King's dominion.
The other—a fate even the Leviathan refused to reveal.
The visions snapped away.
Kael exhaled sharply. "Then tell me what the hell we're supposed to do."
The Leviathan's form shuddered.
"A price must be paid. A sacrifice must be made."
Jara's voice cut through. "Don't like the sound of that."
Kael looked at Lyra.
She knew.
The Leviathan wasn't demanding blood.
It was demanding a piece of the Loom itself.
Lyra closed her eyes.
And she let go of Kael's wrist.
---
IV. The Riftborn Ascension
Lyra's body fractured into golden threads, weaving into the Leviathan's vast form.
Kael lunged to grab her—but the Leviathan's gaze held him still.
"She was always meant to be unmade."
Rage and grief burned through Kael's veins.
But Lyra… she was smiling.
"Kael, don't fight it. You have to go."
The Leviathan shifted, the abyss warping around them. A portal tore open—a gateway leading out of the Expanse.
Kael's symbiont burned, resisting.
But he couldn't let her sacrifice be in vain.
He turned away.
And he stepped through the portal.
---
V. The Return to the Shattered Expanse
The Legion crashed onto solid ground.
For a moment, silence.
Then—reality stabilized around them.
Kael forced himself upright. They were no longer in the Riftborn Expanse. Instead, they had been deposited into a wasteland of fractured Veil-energy, a place where the remnants of the old world still clung to existence.
Jara coughed, pushing herself up. "We're… alive?"
Tarek winced, his prosthetic arm sparking. "Define alive."
Kael turned his gaze skyward.
The Hollow King's influence was still growing. The Veil was still unraveling.
But Lyra was gone.
And in the depths of his mind, the Leviathan's final words echoed.
"The final choice approaches, Kael Veyra. And when it comes—you will not be ready."
The horizon burned.
And Kael clenched his fists.
He would find a way.
He had to.
---