The western wing no longer felt like part of the Veyr Manor.It felt like a prison.Guards stood outside every corridor entrance day and night while servants avoided the area completely. Even the atmosphere itself had changed after the assassin incident.Fear lingered everywhere now.Not rumors.Not whispers.Real fear.Inside his chamber, Kael sat silently beside the repaired window while pale morning light entered through the curtains. He had barely slept at all.Every time he closed his eyes—He heard the voice again.“…You are my vessel…”Kael tightened his grip around the blanket resting across his lap.Those words continued echoing endlessly inside his mind.Vessel.End.Void.None of it made sense.Knock.Knock.Kael slowly looked toward the door.“Enter.”The chamber opened carefully as Gr

Alarm bells echoed violently throughout the Veyr Manor.Guards rushed across corridors while servants panicked in every direction. The peaceful atmosphere of the clan collapsed instantly beneath chaos as explosions continued shaking parts of the castle.Inside the western wing, Magnus’ expression darkened immediately.“The archives…”Without another word, he turned toward the doorway.Golden mana surged faintly around his body as overwhelming pressure filled the chamber.“Stay here,” Magnus ordered coldly.Then he disappeared from the room in a burst of speed.Several guards followed immediately behind him while distant battle sounds continued spreading through the manor halls.Kael remained frozen beside the table.His chest tightened painfully.The forbidden archives.Those records contained information about the Void.Which meant—The intruders came becaus

The chamber fell into a suffocating silence the moment Magnus Veyr drew his sword.Golden mana streamed along the blade like living fire, illuminating the shattered walls and drifting dust. Yet even that brilliance struggled to remain stable. The air itself felt corrupted—mana twisting, collapsing, as if the world rejected its own foundation.Kael stood at the center.Barely upright.Barely conscious.And no longer fully there.Black energy curled around him in slow, rhythmic pulses, like something breathing through him instead of him breathing at all. The shadows beneath his feet stretched outward, crawling across the broken stone like ink spilling into water.“…No…”His voice was thin. Fragile.But it wasn’t entirely his anymore.The whisper inside him answered immediately.“…Yes…”Magnus took a single step forward.The floor cracked beneath his weight.“Ka

The underground was not empty.It only felt like it.Cold stone pressed in from all sides, layered with ancient mineral veins that once carried stable mana through the Veyr territory. Now, those veins were dark—hollowed out, as if something had drunk everything inside them.Kael lay motionless on the ground.His breathing was shallow.Irregular.Faint black traces still flickered across his skin, but weaker now—no longer erupting, only lingering like embers after a fire.His eyes were half open.Unfocused.“…home…”The word escaped his lips without meaning.There was no answer from the surface.Only silence.Then—A pulse.Not physical.Not sound.Something deeper.The Void inside him responded.Not as an explosion this time.But as a presence.“…You are still here…”Kael’s fingers twitch

Kael moved before anyone could descend further.Not up.But forward.Through the broken tunnel where stone had collapsed and mana had been stripped bare.The Void around him did not surge this time.It followed.Like a shadow that had learned not to drag its host, but to walk beside him.Above ground level was still distant.But Kael could feel it now.The pressure of other people.Their mana signatures.Their fear.Their expectations.“…Too many…” Kael whispered.The Void responded softly.“…You can stop them.”Kael’s steps faltered.“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”A pause.Then the whisper, quieter than before.“…Then don’t.”Kael frowned slightly.That answer again.Not command.Not hunger.Just… allowance.It unsettled him more than the violence had.