CHAPTER 51: SHADOW'S EDGE"Let the darkness swallow it all." The Architect stepped closer to the edge of the fractured platform."The threads are thick." Eira held her hands out over the abyss. "They fight back.""They are afraid of you." He whispered near her ear. "You are the scion. You are the heir to the void. Break them.""I will break them." "Show me.""I am pulling." Eira closed her eyes. Her fingers twitched as invisible forces resisted her command."Lysander." The Architect turned around. "Tell our queen what happens when the threads snap.""The realms collapse." Lysander spoke with a hollow voice. He stood perfectly still like a forgotten statue. "Tenebrous will fall into the abyss.""Do you want that, Eira?" The Architect asked."I want order." Eira opened her eyes. "I want an end to the pain." "Then pull." He commanded."You are bleeding out." The Woman stood over him in the dying black dirt of the Shadowfen."Leave me." Kael clutched his side."I did not wake

CHAPTER 53: THE FORBIDDEN REALM"Make the voices stop," Eira said. She dropped to her knees in the dark mud. She pressed her palms against her temples and squeezed her eyes shut."They are not screaming," the Architect said. He walked across the blackened soil of theShadowfen. "They are singing the foundation of our new world." "It burns," she gasped. She staggered sideways."You must anchor the energy," he said. "You are a Scion of the Shadowborn. You are built to contain this.""I will not be your vessel," she said."You already are," the Architect replied.Eira forced herself to look up. The crimson sky above them pulsed with a sickly light. "Why is the sky bleeding.""Because the boundary is thinning," the Architect said. "I hear them crying," she whispered."You hear the past dying," he corrected her."I will not let you do this," she said."You have no choice," the Architect said."I always have a choice," Eira said. She summoned a spark of shadow in her palm. T

CHAPTER 55: THE ECHOES OF EREBO'S PAST"Stop hiding behind these mirrors." Eira slammed her fists against the glass."I am not hiding." The Architect spoke from every reflective surface in the endless corridor. "I am simply everywhere.""You ruined my world." Eira turned in a slow circle. She saw a hundred versions of herself staring back. Her eyes looked hollow. Her skin was pale. The dark magic of the Echoing Halls pulsed beneath her feet."I perfected it." The voice was smooth and calm. "You just lack the vision to see the new dawn.""It is a dawn built on corpses.""A necessary foundation.""Show yourself." Eira demanded."Look in the mirror, Eira.""I am looking.""You only see what you want to see. Look deeper."The glass rippled. Eira gasped. The reflection changed entirely. It was not her face anymore. It was Lysander. He looked terrified. His eyes were wide and pleading."Why are you showing me this." She asked."To show you the truth of fear." The Architect repl

CHAPTER 57: BEYOND THE TARGET "Target locked. Surrender now, Subject Zero.""You have three seconds to decide," the Devouring whispered in her mind. "Let me take control, or let him put a plasma bolt through your skull.""If I let you out, you will consume this entire ship," Eira replied internally."I will consume him first. The ship is merely a bonus. Make the choice.""Hands where I can see them right now!" the Vanguard soldier shouted. His rifle whined as it charged to lethal capacity."Do it," Eira whispered out loud.Black smoke poured from her left hand. The soldier fired. The bright plasma bolt hit a wall of solid shadow and dissipated instantly."What is that?" the soldier screamed over his comms. "Requesting backup immediately! Sector four is compromised.""There is no backup," Eira said. Her voice overlapped with the ancient grating tone of the Devouring. "There is only the end."The shadow lashed out like a whip. The soldier collapsed against the steel bulkhead.

CHAPTER 59: SHE FOUGHT "You broke the world for a ghost." The voice did not belong to Eira.The Architect stepped back. His golden eyes widened. "I broke it for you. The Convergence is complete."Eira raised her hands. Her eyes glowed with violent violet light. "You misunderstood the design. I did not want to be saved. I wanted to be unleashed.""The realm of Tenebrous is yours." The Architect knelt on the cracked obsidian floor. "We will rule the ashes together.""There is no together." Eira tilted her head. "There is only the void. The Labyrinth of Shadows requires fuel.""I gave you the vessel." He pointed to her body. "I gave you the girl. I spent a thousand years preparing her bloodline for this exact moment.""She is barely a spark." Eira stepped off the stone altar. "The Great Devouring needs a sun." "Keep moving." Kael swung his energy blade through the chest of a Voidstalker.The Woman materialized beside him. "The boundaries are gone. Reality is disintegrating. You