There was no falling now.
Kael simply ceased to exist in one place
and reappeared in another —
as if the laws of motion had never been invented.
The Abyss's heart did not obey reality.
It fed on it.
Black waves rippled across an endless void-ocean, thick like living ink.
Islands of bone rose and sank without pattern.
Fragments of broken worlds drifted like dead leaves.
Kael gasped as he stepped onto a surface that felt like flesh and glass at once.
The air vibrated.
A voice whispered from everywhere:
> "Welcome… Kael."
Not the First Voice.
Something deeper.
Something the Abyss feared.
---
I. THE DROWNED LIBRARY
Shapes appeared as Kael walked.
Shelves.
Not made of wood — but of compressed memories.
Tomes bound in starlight.
Scrolls of screams.
Codices etched on angelic bones.
Each one whispered.
Kael slowly realized:
> "These are… the memories of gods."
A book fluttered open before him.
Inside, he saw Arhaan's face, younger, unscarred, smiling.
Kael reached out—
but the page broke beneath his touch, dissolving into black dust.
He stumbled back.
> "What is this place…?"
A presence answered.
> "The Abyss has consumed every truth that creation tried to erase."
"Here lies what even the heavens fear to remember."
Kael tightened his grip on the spear.
> "Show yourself."
---
II. THE THING BENEATH CREATION
The void began to vibrate.
Ripples ran across the ocean of ink.
Slowly — impossibly slowly — something rose from below.
A shape too vast to comprehend.
A mass of starless flesh, writhing tendrils, and shifting faces — thousands of faces — each one screaming silently.
Kael's breath froze.
> "What… are you?"
The thing spoke.
Not with sound.
With truth.
> "I am the REMAINDER."
"What creation cast away when the universe began."
Kael staggered.
This was older than the First Voice.
Older than the Abyss.
Older than the Star-Weapon.
The presence continued:
> "I was the darkness before dawn."
"And dawn stole my name."
Kael swallowed.
> "Why am I here?"
The Remainder's faces shifted, forming something like a smile.
> "Because the chain you seek… runs through me."
The ocean rippled.
And from its depths rose the true chain —
a single link the size of a mountain, carved with runes older than time.
The chain binding Arhaan's soul to the Abyss.
It pulsed.
Every pulse was a scream.
---
III. THE CHAIN OF DEVOURING
Kael approached the colossal link.
His spear trembled in his hands.
> "Arhaan… you've been in pain since the day you were forged."
The chain throbbed again.
A shockwave threw Kael backward.
The Remainder laughed through a thousand broken mouths.
> "You seek to break the first chain ever made."
"Do you even understand what it binds?"
Kael got up, breathing hard.
> "It binds my brother."
The Remainder's voices rose in overlapping tones.
> "No."
"It binds light to darkness."
"Creation to void."
"If it breaks… everything breaks."
The truth hit Kael like a blow.
The Abyss didn't trap Arhaan.
Arhaan trapped the Abyss.
If the chain shattered…
The Abyss would flood creation.
Stars would die.
Worlds would fall.
Heaven itself would collapse.
Kael's voice shook.
> "Then how do I save him… without destroying everything else?"
The Remainder was silent for a long, heavy moment.
Then:
> "You cannot save the Star as he is."
"But you can change what he is."
Kael frowned.
> "Change… him?"
> "Remake him.
Reforge the Star-Weapon in a different image."
Kael's heart pounded.
> "What image?"
The sea of darkness rippled.
The thousand faces formed a single one.
His.
Kael froze.
The Remainder spoke:
> "You."
"Become the vessel."
"Take the chain into yourself."
Kael stepped back.
> "You want me to replace him!?"
The Remainder whispered:
> "One must bear the chain."
"If Arhaan is freed… you must be chained in his place."
A cold wind swept through the abyss.
Kael felt his heart crack.
Arhaan could be saved.
But only if Kael sacrificed himself.
Only if he became the new prison of the Abyss.
---
IV. THE CHOICE
The chain pulsed again.
A scream tore through creation —
Arhaan's scream.
Kael collapsed to his knees.
> "Arhaan… please hold on…"
The Remainder leaned close, its massive form blotting out all reality.
> "Choose, Kael."
> "Save him…
and become the darkness's cage."
> Or let him die…
and watch creation burn."
Kael closed his eyes.
He remembered Arhaan's laugh.
His warmth.
His trust.
His sacrifices.
He remembered the moment Arhaan chose him as family.
Kael stood.
He lifted the spear.
His voice trembled, but it never broke.
> "I will save him."
> "Chain me instead."
The Abyss roared.
The chain shuddered.
And the Remainder smiled.