In order to conquer the emptiness, you have to overcome the storm inside.
The Last Law of the Forgotten Kings
Azeroth moved like a phantom.
One breath. One step. One swing.
Tenebrum flared in his palm, smoldering with black flames and frozen fury as he faced the horror that had been the High Chancellor now a Voidborn, his regal attire blended with twisted armor corroded by corruption. Behind him, the remnants of Etherya shone in jagged fragments, like a dream devoured.
And behind Azeroth, hidden within a ruined garden, a small girl clutched a sapphire pendant and cried.
His sister.
She was alive.
And she remembered him.
"You aren't welcome here," Azeroth answered coldly.
The Voidborn Chancellor's twisted smile broadened. His face stretched halfhuman, half-dark, his white beard now strands of smoke. A third eye blazed in his forehead, violet void-energy burning.
Oh, but I created this place," he said, voice crawling like insects.
"I am the last king of Etherya. You? You're a failed heir playing god in the gutter of galaxies.
Azeroth was still.
He permitted Tenebrum to act for him.
CLASH
Steel fought against corrupted flesh. Sparks exploded like miniature novas. The ground rent apart beneath their feet. Voidfire licked at the debris as the swords met one in skill, the other in unbridled rage.
The Chancellor battled like a tyrant who had already slain hope. His sword a hideous saber named Oathbreaker shrieked with every blow, consuming sound itself.
Azeroth, by contrast, moved with precision. Controlled. Focused. Each step deliberate, every slash a message.
"You took my mother."
"Vous détruisiez mon royaume."
You lied to the stars.
"Now fall."
But the Void Chancellor was no ordinary enemy. He was sustained by the void itself all injuries Azeroth inflicted healed instantly, with nothing but shadows left behind.
You can't win, boy!" he bellowed, spinning Oathbreaker in a wide arc that sliced the air. "Even if you slay me, the Void already has your blood. Don't you feel it?"
Azeroth did feel it.
The weight of power.
The whispers in his ear.
The desire to finish it all in one, consuming explosion.
He closed his eyes for a second.
And at that moment, he saw everything.
[Vision]
Etherya not what it once was, but what it could be.
Floating spires, refashioned in light and obsidian.
A new race not human, nor voidspawn, but something else.
His sister older and wise, in robes of stardust, beside him.
And him the Crownless King, not ruling over but with the void.
A throne made of starlight.
But empty.
Because he did not sit.
"Rule from the shadows. Lead from below. A king without a crown owes the deepest devotion."
Inscription on the Hall of Forgotten Crowns
Azeroth's eyes opened wide.
"I don't need to win," he breathed.
What?" snarled the Void Chancellor.
"Just have to remind you…"
He stabbed Tenebrum into the ground.
.that the world is not yours to keep.
Out of the blade burst a wave of sheer Voidlight not harmful, but cleansing. Shadows quivered. The wind quaked. The ruins throbbed with light unseen since the fall.
The emptiness within Azeroth responded. Not with hunger. With clarity.
Do you accept your title?" the Void whispered.
Yes, "Azeroth spoke, not in words but in will.
Then ascend. as the Sovereign of Shadows.
His armor changed.
It grew from him smooth, seamless, pulsing with ancient runes. A mantle of voidfeathers cascaded across his back. His eyes burned with twin galaxies.
And for the first time, the corrupted Chancellor stepped back.
"You. what have you done?" he spat.
"I've made a decision."
Tenebrum burst forth into Azeroth's hand, longer now, sharper, with the ring of shards that surrounded it shards that were each a recollection reshaped into power.
The following blows were not of this earth.
Azeroth rushed forward faster than time, his blow splitting the Chancellor's saber in two.
With a wave of his hand, he called forth spears of voidglass falling towards the ground like wrath. The Chancellor bellowed, attempted to teleport but the shadows betrayed him.
Azeroth had claimed dominion over them.
"You once spoke of the Void which devours all," Azeroth declared, looming over his broken enemy.
"But listen well, what you had forgotten…"
He raised Tenebrum over his head.
It remembers too.
One final strike.
Void Verdict.
An ability nurtured not of fury, but of balance.
The sword descended, shrouded in whirling light and blackness.
The Chancellor screamed.
Then silence.
But only a ripple of collapsing void was left where he stood.
No corpse.
No echo.
Only. peace.
Azeroth turned. His armor returned to silence.
His sister was hidden behind a broken statue of their mother. Her eyes were wide with fear, confusion. hope.
He knelt in front of her.
"Sylra," he exclaimed.
.Azeroth?" she asked, her voice trembling.
He deliberately smiled last following what had felt like centuries.
"You remember me?"
She leapt into his arms.
"I never forgot.".
High above them, the Etheryan sky sparkled as the fragment dimension began to collapse.
They had minutes.
Azeroth picked her up and looked back over his shoulder again. No longer the boy mourning over his past. But as a king embracing his future. He walked through the gate with his sister. And Etherya's world what was left of it turned into stardust. Somewhere else, out in the Outer Void. A throne room constructed from a thousand kings' bones shook. There was one person seated upon a throne of screaming metal.
Wearing robes which oozed cosmic blood, his face concealed behind a broken crown.
He could sense the Void Verdict resonate.
He laughed.
So. the Crownless King set his course. He stood.
At last… the actual war starts.