The ruins where Kael had claimed the Abyssal Crown still smelled of smoke and ash. The once proud fortress was now nothing more than shattered stone and blackened corridors, the aftermath of shadows unleashed. Dust drifted lazily from the cracked ceiling, floating like ghostly remnants of battles fought long before Kael was born.It should have been quiet. But it wasn’t.Kael stood at the heart of the chamber, his hand resting absently on the hilt of his blade though he hadn’t drawn it since the moment he’d bent the abyssal shades to his will. The faint pressure of the unseen crown pulsed above his head, invisible but heavy, a reminder that the abyss now obeyed him. Yet with every pulse came something else: whispers.Faint. Fragmented. Voices brushing against his mind like claws against silk.Some pleaded. Some wept. Others laughed low, broken chuckles that clawed into his spine. They weren’t his thoughts. They weren’t mortal thoughts at all.They belonged to the abyss.“Kael.”A touc

The council chamber was silent when Elias entered, the weight of tension pressing so thick it seemed to choke the air from his lungs. Every eye turned to him, not as the broken general they had once mocked, but as the bearer of the Void’s mark, the one man who had walked into the abyss and returned stronger than before. His boots struck the polished stone floor, echoing like a drumbeat of fate as he strode toward the center of the vast, circular hall.Around him, the council members whispered among themselves, fear and awe mingling in their hushed tones. Even the High Lord, who had so far managed to veil his unease behind a mask of composure, shifted in his seat. Shadows seemed to flicker at the edge of the chamber, responding to Elias’s presence, stretching unnaturally as though tethered to his will.Lyra stood at his side, her posture rigid but her eyes gleaming with defiance. She had been branded an outcast after aligning herself with him, yet here she stood unwavering, her loyalty

Silence. Not the kind of silence that came after battle, but the kind that existed before creation itself. A void. A nothingness so absolute Kael wondered if he still lived at all His body felt weightless. His limbs didn’t obey him. He floated in a sea of endless black, threads of silver light weaving around him like spiderwebs. They pulsed faintly, each beat in sync with his faltering heart [Warning Vessel collapse imminent] [Emergency Protocols activated] [Stabilization probability: 12%] The System’s voice cut through the nothingness like a blade. But even it sounded strained, distorted, as if dragged through layers of broken reality. Kael tried to speak but his throat felt sealed shut. Instead, his thoughts pushed outward, and the System answered as if reading his very soul “You’re… still here” Kael whispered in his mind [Affirmative] [But fragments are missing Host. Core processes corrupted by external interference] Kael’s gaze drifted downward or what counted

The scar pulsed as though it were alive, a vertical wound of raw void energy carved into the heart of the world. The light within it was not light at all, but a ceaseless shiver of hunger that made the air feel too thin, the ground too brittle, and every living soul too fragile. Kael stood at the center of the shattered battlefield, Aria at his side, Ryn holding his staff tightly behind them.For a moment, there was silence, the kind of silence that came just before the collapse of all things. Then, the fracture widened and the swarm poured forth.Hunters.Not one or two, not even dozens, but hundreds. Their forms twisted in shapes the human mind rejected, bodies woven of blades, shadows, and chittering limbs. Each one carried the echo of the void within it, each one radiating the promise of death. They surged out in a wave, a tide of claws and shrieks that drowned out the sky.Kael’s vision darkened at the edges as the fracture inside him reacted. His own void energy pulsed, answerin

The battlefield was still smoking when the first banners arrived.Not of Hunters, but of armies.Armored ranks crested the ridges soldiers bearing the crests of kingdoms Kael barely remembered from old maps. Standards of gold and crimson, silver and green, each one fluttering in the broken wind. They marched in lines, shields clattering, boots pounding the charred earth.At their center rode commanders, faces pale as they beheld the ruins, the smoldering corpses of Hunters, and the scar’s fading echo.Kael forced himself upright, leaning against Aria. Every muscle ached, his veins still burned, but he would not let himself be seen broken. Not now.The first commander dismounted, his silver armor gleaming even beneath ash. He looked at Kael with both awe and suspicion. “You are the one who stood against the breach?”Ryn answered before Kael could speak, his tone rough with exhaustion. “He is. Without him, the scar would still bleed. Without him, you would already be dead.”A murmur sw