Zero had seen many things in his life. But nothing prepared him for the silence that followed Jeffrey Goodman’s disappearance.The valley of chains, once a cacophony of screams, had fallen eerily still. The ash no longer writhed. The sky, once a writhing wound of shadows, hung heavy and motionless. It was as if the abyss itself was holding its breath, savoring what it had just consumed.Camilla stumbled forward, her legs trembling, chains clattering to dust around her. She clutched her chest, eyes wide and brimming with horror. “He’s gone…” Her voice cracked. “Zero, he’s gone.”Zero caught her by the shoulders, shaking her gently. “He’s not gone. Not completely. He’s down there” He gestured at the blackened crater where Jeffrey had stood. “The abyss took him, but that means he’s still alive. Somewhere.”Camilla’s lips quivered. “Alive? Or trapped?”Zero didn’t answer. Because he wasn’t sure. The ground beneath them shuddered again. From the pit rose a sound, low, resonant, like a drum

The ground split open beneath Camilla’s feet. A column of smoke shot skyward, hurling her and Zero backward.The roar that followed wasn’t the earth breaking, it was Jeffrey’s scream, muffled, as if dragged from the bottom of the world. Camilla clawed at the ground, blood under her fingernails. “He’s slipping away!”Zero grabbed her arm, holding tight. “If you go in there, you won’t come back. Do you understand? That pit doesn’t give second chances.”Her face was wet with tears, her chest heaving. “Then I’ll take the first chance. Let go of me, Zero!”He didn’t. Not at first. His grip was iron, the only thing tethering her to sanity. But then her voice cracked in a way that cut through even him: “I can’t lose him. Not like this. Not again.”Zero closed his eyes, jaw tightening. Then, slowly, he let go. Camilla sprinted forward, straight into the smoke. Her body screamed at her to stop, every instinct begging her not to leap. But she did. She hurled herself into the abyss.The world tu

The fire was gone. The roar of battle, the abyss’s laughter, Camilla’s screams, gone. Jeffrey opened his eyes to nothing. Not darkness. Not light. Just… emptiness.The kind that pressed against his skin and lungs, smothering sound, thought, even memory. Camilla lay limp in his arms, pale, her eyes closed.“Camilla!” Jeffrey shook her, but his voice didn’t carry. It fell flat, devoured by the void around him.His flames sparked on instinct, then sputtered, vanishing into the nothingness as if fire itself had been erased from existence.Panic clawed at him. His power was gone. His strength, stripped. He looked around, but there was no ground, no sky, no walls. Just infinite blankness that stretched forever.For the first time in years, Jeffrey Goodman felt powerless. Then he heard it. A voice. Not the abyss’s thunder, not Camilla’s cry. A whisper, curling like smoke around his ears. Why fight for what was never yours?Jeffrey spun, but there was no one there. Only the blank. Then the vo

Camilla’s gasp split the silence. Blood ran down her dress, red against pale silk, staining the marble beneath her.The spear of shadow had already dissolved, leaving a smoking wound that pulsed with abyssal corruption.“Camilla!” Jeffrey’s voice was ragged, almost unrecognizable. He dropped to his knees, catching her before she collapsed fully. Her head lolled against his arm, lips trembling as she tried to form words.His flames flickered wildly, out of control, surging higher and higher until the chandelier above melted and dripped. Jonathan’s laughter slithered through the ruined hall.“Careful, brother,” Jonathan said, his abyss-black eyes glowing. “You’re holding a dying woman. Don’t squeeze too hard, or she’ll crumble faster.”Jeffrey’s heart thundered in his chest. His fingers glowed with fire as he pressed them against Camilla’s wound, desperately trying to cauterize it, seal it, anything. She cried out weakly, her body arching in pain, but he couldn’t stop. He wouldn’t stop.

The world ended in silence. Not the silence of peace. The silence of suffocation. Jeffrey’s flames sputtered as the monster’s chest slammed shut, sealing him in its abyssal core.The air thickened, turning into sludge, burning his lungs as he tried to draw breath. Shadows slithered across his skin, sinking into his pores, whispering poison into his mind. And in his grip, Camilla.Her wrist felt fragile, almost weightless, her pulse thready under his thumb. Her body was limp, her veins glowing black as the corruption spread further.“Camilla, stay with me.” His voice cracked, but he held her tighter.The darkness responded. A thousand voices howled in unison, echoing from every direction. She is ours. She was promised. She belongs to the abyss.Jeffrey’s fire flared in defiance, erupting around him in violent bursts of white and gold. The shadows recoiled, screeching, but closed in again immediately, like waves smashing against cliffs.“You can whisper all you want,” he snarled. His vo