The moment Selene stepped through the gate, the air changed. It was heavier, thicker, as though it pressed against her lungs and weighed down her thoughts. Light came in fragments, harsh and uneven, casting jagged shadows across the cracked ground beneath her feet.Kaelen followed closely, his presence steady beside her, a quiet anchor in the strange landscape. The glow along his veins had faded, but the faint shimmer remained, enough to mark him as something not fully mortal, not fully Reaper, something suspended between the two.Selene took a careful step forward. The ground was uneven, jagged, as though the earth itself had been broken by some violent force. In the distance, a faint mist rose from fissures, curling upward like smoke.“This place…” Selene whispered. “It’s alive.”Kaelen’s gaze swept across the horizon. “Not just alive,” he said. “It’s conscious. Everything here reacts to us. Be careful what you feel, Selene. It will find it.”She frowned, uneasy. “Find what?”“Fear.

The chamber was silent again, but the silence did not feel empty. It clung to the walls like mist, thick and heavy, still carrying the echo of the Remnant’s final whisper. The air had changed. Even the light that spilt from the high arches above seemed dimmer, touched by something unseen.Selene stood motionless in the centre of the room. Her hand was still at her side, pale against the faint shimmer of her robe. The whisper had not left her. It sat behind her ribs, repeating itself without sound, pulling at something deep inside her that she did not want to name.Kaelen had not moved either. He stood behind her, close enough to see the way her shoulders trembled, but far enough not to touch her. His eyes were on the floor where the Remnant had faded, a thin layer of black dust marking the spot. It was not supposed to end like that. Souls were meant to vanish cleanly.The whisper had broken that rule.Selene finally turned toward him. Her eyes looked darker than before, as if the word

The corridor stretched endlessly before them, darker than before. Neither spoke. Their footsteps echoed in uneven rhythm, swallowed by the stillness that followed them out of the throne hall.Kaelen’s expression stayed unreadable, but his shoulders were tense beneath his robe. The silence pressed between them, heavy enough to feel like a presence of its own.Selene walked slightly ahead, her thoughts locked in quiet disorder. The Arbiter’s voice still lingered in her mind calm, powerful, certain. Yet every word had sounded like a warning rather than wisdom.The further they went, the less the realm seemed familiar.The marble walls were darker, no longer smooth but carved with faint veins of shadow. The pale light that usually guided the path flickered like it struggled to stay alive.“Do you feel it?” Selene asked quietly.Kaelen didn’t answer at first. Then he nodded once. “It’s changing.”“What does it mean?”“That it’s listening.”The words made her stop.“Listening?” she echoed.

The air grew colder the further they went. The corridor narrowed until it no longer felt like part of the same realm. The marble turned to stone, rough and uneven under their steps. The walls gave off a faint hum, as if whispering words too old to understand. Kaelen walked ahead without looking back. His pace was steady, but his silence carried more weight than words. Selene followed close behind, her eyes scanning every flicker of light that passed across the walls. “This isn’t part of the main chambers,” she said quietly. “It was,” Kaelen replied. “A long time ago.” He stopped before a tall iron door set deep in the stone. It looked untouched for centuries, its surface marked by faint etchings that pulsed with light each time he breathed near it. Selene frowned. “You said she was erased.” “She was,” Kaelen said. “But echoes don’t fade when they die in defiance.” The door responded to his hand. A soft vibration moved through the stone, and the metal began to shift. It didn’t

The air changed the moment Selene crossed the threshold. The light from the rift thinned into a pale shimmer, stretching across jagged stone like liquid glass. Every step echoed down the corridor, too loud in the suffocating quiet. The scent of burnt metal hung in the air, sharp and clean, like lightning after a storm. Her fingers brushed the walls as she walked. The surface pulsed faintly under her touch warm, alive, almost breathing. It was no longer the ruin she had known. The place was changing with her. Behind her, the entrance to the upper chamber had vanished. The way back no longer existed. She didn’t turn around. There was something ahead. She could feel it moving beneath the surface of reality itself like a presence waiting to be acknowledged. Her voice broke the silence. “Show yourself.” Nothing answered. But the air trembled, and the faint shimmer along the wall rippled as if something had heard her. Then, a shape began to form at the far end of the corridor. Not