The figure's footsteps made no sound, yet each one rippled through the void like thunder. Starlight clung to their form, as if the cosmos themselves bowed in reverence.
The chained presence hissed, its voice losing its mocking tone for the first time.
"You… You cannot be here."
The stranger tilted their head slightly. "And yet, here I am."
With a single gesture, the shadow-chains recoiled from Lyra and dissolved into motes of light. Kaelen collapsed to his knees, gasping as the blackness bled from his eyes.
"Who… who are you?" Lyra demanded, keeping her sword ready.
The figure regarded her for a long, unsettling moment. "Names are anchors. Dangerous things in a place like this." Their voice was neither male nor female, but layered—like a chorus speaking in perfect harmony. "But you may call me… Aetherion."
The chained presence roared, lashing out with a tide of darkness that blotted out the void. Aetherion raised their hand, and the darkness shattered like glass, revealing countless stars beyond.
"Leave," Aetherion said simply.
The presence hesitated. Then it laughed—a horrible, grating sound.
"You think you can unmake what was forged before your kind learned to crawl? I am ENDLESS. I am the FIRST."
Aetherion's starlit eyes flared. "And I am what comes after."
They swept their arm, and the void convulsed. A rift opened beneath the chained presence, dragging it downward as it howled in fury.
Lyra shielded her face from the gale. "What are you doing to it?"
"Binding it. For now."
Kaelen staggered upright, still weak. "Why? Why help us?"
Aetherion finally turned to them fully. The warmth in their star-born gaze was… disconcerting. "Because the game has changed. And if you fall, the Chain will break too soon."
Before they could ask more, Aetherion raised a hand. Reality itself folded, and suddenly Lyra and Kaelen were standing on the familiar metal floor of their ship, alarms blaring.
"Aetherion!" Lyra shouted into the empty air. "Wait!"
A single whisper remained, echoing through her mind:
"Find the Key before the Whisperer does… or all will end."
Then silence.
Lyra turned to Kaelen. He was trembling—not from pain, but fear. "The Whisperer," he rasped. "They're not talking about it, are they?"
Lyra didn't answer. She already knew the truth in her gut. The chained presence wasn't their greatest enemy.
Someone—or something—else was.