The heavens were dim when Kael left them.
The glow of the Eternal Star — Arhaan — had fallen to a faint, trembling ember.
Every angel's wings drooped.
Every celestial fountain ran slower.
The sky itself felt… colder.
Kael looked up one last time.
Arhaan flickered weakly, as if calling out.
> "I'll save you," Kael whispered.
"Even if I must walk into the pit of creation."
With a final breath, he stepped through the Veil Gate — forbidden since the First Era.
It slammed shut behind him.
---
I. THE FIRST FALL
The descent began instantly.
A violent pull wrenched Kael downward — a spiral of chains and dead starlight.
The air thickened.
Wings dissolved into smoke.
Only the Divine Spear in his hand refused to fade.
> "So this is the price of entering the Lower Realms…"
Kael gritted his teeth.
He fell past broken rings of forgotten worlds.
Past drifting bones the size of mountains.
Past ancient, star-eaten corpses of angels who descended long before him — and never returned.
One skeletal titan grabbed at him as he fell.
> "TURN BAAAACK…"
Kael severed its arm with a single, burning sweep of his spear.
His voice was a quiet snarl.
> "I don't turn back."
---
II. THE RUINED GATE
After what felt like hours of falling, Kael crashed onto a shattered plateau.
Black sand.
Ruined pillars.
Chains thicker than warships, half-buried in the ground.
The air pulsed with memories of screams.
Selara's voice echoed faintly through his mind:
> "Nothing that enters the Lower Realms comes out unchanged..."
Kael didn't hesitate.
He moved forward.
---
III. THE FIRST PRISON
A massive stone arch rose before him — broken at the top, dripping shadows.
Carved across it were ancient runes, older even than the angels.
Kael traced the symbols with his fingers.
> "This… this is where Arhaan was forged.
As a weapon."
The chains around the arch trembled, as if alive.
A whisper crawled out from the darkness.
> "You came… for the Star."
Kael spun, spear ready.
A figure stepped out of the gloom — wrapped in shredded wings, eyes burning like dying suns.
An angel.
A fallen one.
> "Who are you?" Kael demanded.
The creature bowed its broken head.
> "I am Eryon… Arhaan's predecessor."
Kael froze.
> "Predecessor? You mean—"
> "Yes," Eryon rasped.
"Before Arhaan, I was the Star-Weapon.
And like him… I died sealing the Abyss."
---
IV. THE TRUTH OF THE STAR-WEAPON
Kael stepped closer.
> "How do I save him?"
Eryon lifted a trembling hand, pointing into the abyssal cracks behind him.
A tear in reality pulsed with black light.
> "You cannot save him," Eryon whispered.
"Not unless you sever the chain that binds him to the Abyss…"
The ground shook violently.
The crack widened.
Kael steadied himself, voice sharp.
> "Then tell me where it is!"
Eryon's broken wings shuddered.
> "Inside the Abyss itself."
Kael's pulse stopped.
> "You want me to enter the Abyss?"
Eryon shook his head slowly.
> "No, Kael."
His voice became a whisper of pity.
"You must enter the heart of it."
---
V. THE DOOR OF TEETH
Eryon stepped aside.
Behind him, a colossal door emerged from the darkness — made of bone, chains, and black fire.
It breathed.
It wanted him.
Kael clenched his spear.
> "If this is what I must do to save him…
I'll tear the Abyss apart."
Eryon's voice trembled.
> "Then step forward, Kael.
And learn what only star-gods know."
Kael placed his hand on the living door.
It opened with a scream.
Black tendrils wrapped around him, pulling him into a darkness so total it devoured sound, memory, and even fear.
The last thing he heard before the Abyss swallowed him was Eryon's broken whisper:
> "The Abyss remembers Arhaan…
But it also remembers you."