Chapter 97 – "Echoes of the Throne"
The Void.
A space with no beginning, no end, no light, no sound… except for that gray and black pulse beating slowly, like a sick heart forgotten by the gods.
Orvyn, Valen, Zarion, and Naël moved through this abyss of unreality, tethered by a thin thread of energy — the only barrier keeping them from dissolving into the surrounding madness.
Each step echoed like the distant memory of a vanished world.
> — "Choose…"
Valen frowned.
— I don't like places that talk to me without permission.
Miniature Elyonna, perched on his shoulder, sighed:
— It's not the place, idiot. It's the Throne itself.
— Oh. Great. Now furniture has a conscience. That's just what we needed.
Zarion, focused, scanned the surroundings.
Fragments of shattered worlds floated in the void: toppled towers, shards of dead moons, oceans suspended like liquid mirrors.
— It's like every reality the Void devoured ended up here… he murmured.
Naël clenched his fist, tense.
— And if Elyon's somewhere in there… we'll have to dig through madness itself.
Valen looked up.
— Well, madness is kind of our daily routine now, isn't it?
---
Suddenly, a light burst before them — dark and radiant at once, as if night had caught fire.
The Broken Throne appeared.
Colossal.
Forged from chains, bones, and memories.
And on that throne sat Elyon.
Eyes closed.
Tendrils of Void climbed his arms, fusing with his skin.
— Elyon! Orvyn shouted.
His voice echoed through the void like a storm.
Elyon's eyes opened — incandescent gray, reflecting two opposing realities.
— Father… you came.
— Of course, Orvyn replied. You think I'd let you fuse with a demonic chair?
Valen crossed his arms.
— Besides, it's not your style. You're more of a couch guy, not a cursed throne type.
Zarion: — Valen, seriously?
Valen: — What? I'm trying to lighten the mood!
Elyonna: — You're failing miserably.
---
Elyon rose slowly.
The ground beneath him cracked. The Throne's chains vibrated with a grim energy.
> — "He no longer needs you," whispered a voice in the Void.
— "The Son of Chaos must unite with his Source."
Orvyn clenched his fists.
— I won't let that thing consume you, Elyon.
— You don't understand… Elyon murmured. That thing is me.
A chill ran through the group.
Silhouettes emerged from the mist — reflections of Elyon, the fragments his father once scattered: child, warrior, king, monster.
Each bore a different gaze… but spoke with one voice.
> — "We are him."
— "He is us."
— "Unify… or be destroyed."
Valen drew his weapon.
— Okay, it's official: I hate multiverses.
Zarion: — Look at them — they all have his face.
Naël: — And the same arrogance.
Valen: — So it's genetic.
---
Orvyn raised his weapon.
— That throne… I reforged it into a hammer after I shattered you. Because you were the Son of Chaos. But I underestimated its will… fragments of the Throne remained here, in the Void.
He spun the hammer. The weapon pulsed with divine resonance, heavy as a thousand broken vows.
— If you truly want to unite with your Chaos, then fight, Elyon. Show me you can control it.
Elyon nodded slowly.
— Very well. But if I win, you won't stand in my way again.
Around them, the ground lit up with shifting runes.
Back at HQ, Lya watched through Liora's psychic link.
— I've got bad news, she said.
Nova: — Again?
Valor: — Let me guess…
Lya: — The two most powerful beings in the universe have decided to resolve their family issues with an apocalypse.
Nova: — Great. We'll have to rebuild HQ again.
Valor: — Not gonna lie, I'm out of motivation.
---
Orvyn leapt, swinging his hammer with a force even air refused to follow.
Elyon blocked, forming a sphere of Void in his hand.
The impact tore reality apart. Shards of universes fell like dead stars.
Zarion jumped, his ring morphing into a black blade.
He sliced through energy spheres, then glanced back proudly.
— I'm awesome, right?
Naël: — Shut up and focus!
An explosion roared. Zarion formed a Void sphere to absorb the shockwave.
Valen, floating in the void, raised a hand.
— Do we jump in or just watch the movie?
Elyonna: — Let them be. Family drama is contagious.
Zarion: — Alright, I vote passive observation.
Before them, Orvyn and Elyon clashed.
Their auras collided, fusing and unraveling in loops.
— You think you can control the Void?! Orvyn shouted.
— Maybe not… Elyon replied. But it will listen to me.
A wave of gray energy surged toward Orvyn.
He stopped it with a telekinetic gesture.
— Hey… you've grown.
Elyon smirked.
— And you're still dramatic.
— It runs in the family.
---
The Throne trembled.
Flashes of memory burst forth — Orvyn's past, king of the Ancients, sacrificing his essence to create his son.
Naël clenched his jaw.
— So that's it… Elyon isn't just his son. He's his continuation.
Zarion: — And if he fully fuses… he becomes the Throne's successor.
Valen: — So basically, he was born for this.
Elyonna: — And we're just background characters?
Valen: — Apparently.
Zarion: — Elyon was meant to inherit the Throne… then he screwed it up by giving in to Chaos.
Valen: — You're really venting out loud?
Zarion: — Yeah, but it helps.
---
Orvyn struck, unleashing the roar of a thousand worlds.
Elyon responded, channeling the Void into his palm.
The clash shook all of creation.
A scream tore through the void — the Void itself crying in pain.
Then, silence.
A white light swept across everything.
When it faded, Elyon stood tall.
The Broken Throne had reformed behind him — but it was no longer black.
It shone with a silver glow, pure, serene.
Orvyn, kneeling, set down his hammer.
— You chose… balance.
Elyon smiled.
— No, Father. I chose myself.
---
Valen let himself fall into the void.
— Wake me up when this all makes sense again.
Zarion: — Don't worry, it never will.
Naël: — But seriously… how do we get back?
Elyonna: — Excellent question.
Orvyn: — …Ah. I didn't plan that part.
Valen: — Great. Stuck in the Void. Again.
Lya, from HQ, spoke through the mental link.
— If you break another portal, I'm burying you in the next dimension.
Valen: — Promise, this time it's not my fault!
Elyonna: — It's always your fault.
The Void pulsed, gently.
The silver Throne slowly faded, like a peaceful flame.
Elyon turned to them, calm.
— Let's go home.
And for the first time since the dawn of worlds… the Void exhaled.
Chapter 98 – "The Return from the Void"
The Void was breathing.
For the first time in millennia, this breathless place felt… alive.
The darkness no longer whispered — it faded gently, like a beast finally satisfied after a long hunger.
Valen crossed his arms, eyes half-closed.
— Well, since we're stuck here, I'll get us out.
His pupils Red shone , his star-shaped irises began to spin.
— I'm opening a path with my Eye of Chaos!
Zarion grabbed his hand before he could do anything.
— Put that down. Look — Elyon's handling it.
Valen sighed.
— Tch, shame. You just robbed me of a chance to show off.
Elyon slowly raised his hand.
The energy thread linking the group vibrated, and the fabric of the Void opened before them, revealing a silver rift.
— Let's go home, he said calmly.
Valen made an exaggerated sign of the cross.
— Finally! I was two seconds away from becoming a quantum particle.
Zarion: — You were already halfway useless, wouldn't have changed much.
Valen: — Hey! Without me, you'd probably have sliced the universe in half instead of saving your neck!
Naël: — Can't you just… enjoy the silence for five seconds?
A low rumble shook the Void.
The rift widened abruptly.
Orvyn frowned.
— Is that your portal?
Elyon: — No… It's something else.
Behind them, a fragment of the Broken Throne detached, slowly spinning in the air.
Its silver surface shimmered like a living mirror.
Inside, they saw… other versions of themselves — distorted, blurry, like reflections from neighboring universes.
Valen leaned in, intrigued:
— Wow. I'm way more muscular in that one.
Elyonna: — Yeah, and you seem to have a brain too.
Valen: — …Ah, so it's fiction.
Elyon brushed the fragment's surface.
— These reflections… they're the worlds the Void couldn't consume. Echoes of what we could've been.
Zarion: — Don't lump me in. I'm one of a kind.
Orvyn raised his hand, and the fragment slowly dissolved.
— Let them go. What must exist will exist. What must vanish… will vanish.
The portal opened wide.
A golden light enveloped them.
---
**The Return**
They reappeared above HQ — literally, hundreds of meters in the air.
Valen screamed:
— I SAID A GROUND PORTAL, NOT FREEFALL!
Naël, eyes wide:
— Elyon! Tell me you've got a plan!
Elyon (calm): — I've got something better. Trust.
Valen: — Trust in what?!
Elyon: — Gravity.
The group crashed into HQ's courtyard in a burst of silver energy.
A shockwave shook the entire building.
Lya burst from the command room, furious:
— WHO BLEW UP THE MAIN COURTYARD?!
Valen, covered in dust:
— Technically, it was gravity.
Lya: — Technically, I'm going to bury you alive.
Valor (exhausted): — You couldn't just… fly?
Valen: — Elyon said to trust gravity.
Lya: — And gravity trusted you back. Bravo, Einstein.
Nova, arms crossed:
— Did you bring anything back from the Void again?
Elyonna: — No, just a throne and two traumas this time.
Valor sighed.
— I'm ordering cement.
---
At the center of the crater, the silver Throne rested, intact.
But now it radiated a calm energy — neither destructive nor corruptive.
Elyon approached, placing his hand on it.
Orvyn spoke in a quiet tone:
— It's bound to you now. Not as a weapon, but as an extension of your being.
Elyon: — I know. The Void accepted balance.
Orvyn gave a rare smile.
— You did better than I did, son.
Valen, under his breath:
— Yeah, but you're still scarier.
Zarion stretched, his sword dissolving into black particles.
— Well, we saved reality again. Anyone want coffee?
Naël: — I want a new brain. Mine melted.
Lya: — You're cleaning HQ before any coffee talk.
Orvyn shifted back into Liora, clapping her hands:
— Alright, Lya, you and the others — clean and rebuild HQ. With cement. Lots of it.
Lya (stunned): — Wait… what? YOU broke everything!
Liora (coldly): — Are you defying the commander's orders?
Valen, mocking: — Don't act smug. We fought in the Void. You held meetings.
Zarion looked at Naël:
— This is what we call…
Naël, without hesitation:
— …Abuse of authority.
---
Elyon gazed at the sky, where clouds slowly reformed.
The world seemed… finally able to breathe.
— Come on, he said simply. Time to rest a little.
The group followed him — between laughter, sighs, and threats of cleanup.
Behind them, the Throne glowed softly —
peaceful,
but not asleep.
Chapter 99 – "Silence and Restoration"
The sun rose slowly over HQ.
Its rays slid across the still-smoking ruins, brushing cracked stones and the silver gleam of the Throne.
For the first time in ages, there were no screams, no alarms, no unleashed magic.
Just… silence.
Naël, slumped on a pile of rubble, sighed:
— I think I've run out of mana, energy, and even the will to live.
Valen, trying to straighten a wall with a shovel:
— Don't worry, it'll come back. Or not.
Zarion, arms crossed:
— If you hadn't jumped into the rift with the grace of a wounded pigeon, we'd probably have less work.
Naël:
— Oh, your ego survived too. Miracle.
A little farther off, Lya surveyed the site, notebook in hand.
— We'll never finish before the end of the century.
Valor:
— Then we'd better get moving.
Lya:
— Easy to say when you didn't spend three hours scraping divine soot off the ceiling when you could've just used magic.
Valen dropped his shovel and raised his hands to the sky:
— Seriously, we faced the Void itself, and it's cleaning that's killing us.
Liora (calm but sharp):
— Keep complaining and I'll handle it myself.
Silence fell.
Then Elyonna, smirking:
— Safe to say she's kept the same energy.
Valen:
— That's the real Void. Liora's authority.
---
Elyon, a little apart from the others, stood before the Throne.
Since their return, it no longer shone with violent light, but with a soft, steady glow.
He felt peace there… and a new kind of responsibility.
Liora approached, hands clasped behind her back.
— You feel the bond, don't you?
— Yes. It no longer rejects me.
— Because you stopped trying to dominate it.
She paused, then added:
— You now carry balance, Elyon. Not as a king, but as a guardian.
He nodded silently.
A quiet smile formed at the corner of his lips.
---
Not far away, the rest of the group had improvised a makeshift table — crates, a few cups of coffee, and plenty of sarcasm.
Zarion:
— Alright, to our health.
Valen:
— To our traumas.
Naël:
— To our cement debts.
Elyonna:
— And to our favorite commander, without whom we might've had a day off.
Liora (dryly):
— Keep going and you're mopping the main hall.
Valen raised his cup:
— To benevolent tyranny, then.
---
The wind blew gently, carrying laughter and the scent of warm coffee.
HQ was still a field of ruins, but it pulsed with a new energy: the energy of return, of exhaustion… and a rare feeling.
The feeling of having survived.
Elyon looked up at the sky. The world was breathing again.
But deep down, one certainty remained:
This calm… wouldn't last forever.
Chapter 100 – "Light on the Ruins"
HQ was nearly unrecognizable.
Rebuilt walls, laughter between orders, traces of ash left untouched — perhaps out of respect, or maybe just laziness.
But amid it all, life was returning.
Morning light slipped through the cracks, as if blessing every stone.
Valen surveyed the site with a proud look:
— I'm not saying we did a great job… but it's standing, so it counts.
Zarion: — Until you sneeze.
Naël: — Or until Lya runs another magic test without warning.
Lya, rolling her eyes: — It was one explosion!
Valor: — Yes, but it erased the kitchen.
Nova: — And my lunch.
A burst of laughter rippled through the group.
Even Elyonna, leaning against a pillar, allowed herself a quiet smile.
Moments like this were rare: peaceful silence, no threats, no Void, no divine screaming.
---
Elyon stood alone on the HQ rooftop.
The wind stirred his silver hair as his gaze drifted toward the horizon.
The sky looked clearer… but something still lingered, like a whisper between worlds.
Liora climbed up behind him slowly.
— You didn't sleep, she noted.
— No need. The Void is silent… but I still feel its breath.
She stopped beside him, watching the Throne glowing in the distance.
— The power you carry is a fragile balance. You know that.
— I do. But this time, I won't run from it.
— Good, she said gently. Because one day, you'll have to choose again. And when that day comes… I hope you remain who you've become.
A faint smile touched Elyon's lips.
— I've changed, Mother. But not completely.
— Good, she whispered. Because it's that imperfection… that makes you human.
---
Below, Valen, Zarion, and Naël had staged what they called a "strategic break."
In other words: pretending to fix an antenna while drinking coffee.
Zarion: — You think we'll ever get a real day off?
Valen: — Don't worry, if Elyon messes up another portal, we'll end up on forced vacation in another dimension.
Naël: — As long as there's a bar, I'm in.
Elyonna, passing by: — Want a brain with that too?
Valen: — I… no thanks, I like my natural stupidity. It protects me from responsibility.
Lya, from a distance: — And gives me migraines!
---
At dusk, the group gathered before the silver Throne.
It glowed like a sleeping heart — peaceful, still.
Elyon placed his hand on one of its energy lines, closing his eyes.
— The Void is no longer an enemy, he murmured.
Liora: — No. It's a mirror.
Valen, half-serious: — And if that mirror breaks?
Elyon opened his eyes, a golden glint in his gaze:
— Then we'll reforge it. Like always.
The wind rose, lifting dust, light, and memories.
They were all there — tired, bruised, but standing.
And somehow, that was already a victory.
---
When night fell, Elyon looked up at the stars.
Each point of light seemed to breathe in sync with him.
He inhaled deeply.
— The world is alive.
A familiar voice whispered on the wind — perhaps Liora's, perhaps the Void itself:
— Yes. And so are you, at last.