The fall was endless.
Kaelen felt weightless, Lyra's hand the only anchor keeping him sane as the rift devoured them. Light collapsed into darkness, and darkness warped into visions. Shapes drifted in the void—ruins of planets, broken fleets, and shadows of battles that never were.
Then, suddenly, they landed.
The ground was black glass, stretching into infinity. Above them blazed the Black Sun, an impossible star radiating no heat yet pulling everything toward it with silent gravity. Around its circumference, structures hung suspended—citadels of voidstone, each one orbiting like a chained beast.
Rhyss cursed softly. "We're standing inside… a star."
"No," Ceyra corrected, her voice grim. "We're inside its prison. And something's still trapped here."
As if in answer, the air vibrated. From the black horizon, a procession of armored figures emerged—knights of shadow, their bodies flickering like unstable constructs. They knelt as one, heads bowed.
And then, from the Sun itself, a voice. Not a roar, but a whisper that shook the marrow of their bones:
"Welcome, Seedbearer. You have crossed the threshold. The game ends here, or it begins anew."
Lyra clutched her head, the voice piercing her skull like knives. Yet through the pain, she felt connection. The Black Sun knew her—it called to her, as though it had waited for centuries.
Kaelen stepped forward, blade drawn, glaring into the abyss. "Show yourself. No more whispers."
The Sun flared. From its core, a shape peeled free—a figure both beautiful and monstrous. Cloaked in shadowfire, crowned with rings of orbiting stars, its eyes blazed like collapsing suns.
The true Echo-Lord.
The knights pounded their weapons into the ground in unison, a sound that echoed across eternity.
"Lyra," the being intoned, "you are the vessel. Give me the Seed, and I will grant you eternity. Resist… and I will unmake you before their eyes."
Lyra's voice shook, but she stood tall. "I am not your vessel. I am myself."
The Black Sun pulsed in fury, and the citadels orbiting above began to shift, each unfolding into colossal war machines ready to strike.
Kaelen tightened his grip on her hand. "Then we fight."
And as the first of the void-knights charged, the battle for eternity began.